Tag: holy roman empire

  • The Grace for which the Prophets prayed

    The Grace for which the Prophets prayed

    The Lord put this verse on my heart Monday as I prayed:

    1 Peter 1:10  Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you

    The Holy Spirit seems to lead in the themes of Monday’s prior posts. (Not being one to remember passages of scripture, I did not have any idea of the content of this verse and application.  You may want to visit my two posts from Monday.)

    1 Peter 1: {13b} rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance…

    (The link above will take you to the full context OR read all of it in your BIBLE.)

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  • EMPIRE Fallen: Church Divided – Part 3

    EMPIRE Fallen: Church Divided – Part 3

    10 August, AD 2013 – This time in history.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

    Where does the Early Church fit into this history?

    The tragic answer includes many martyrs for Christ Jesus, including one who died on this day.

    10 August, AD 258 Laurence, Deacon and Martyr, died (b. ca. 225). You can read of the atrocities and horrors of his torture and death in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

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    Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. – Galatians 1:8 NLT

    AD 570Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad – born in Mecca Arabia.  Not everyone accepted God’s message transmitted through Muhammad. Even in his own clan there were those who rejected his teachings, and many merchants actively opposed the message. 

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    The Holy Roman Empire – continued:

    10 August AD 955 The Battle of Lechfeld was a decisive victory of the forces of Otto the Great, King of the Germans, over the Magyar leaders. The Magyars retreated to the Carpathian Basin, where they settled into a more agricultural way of life and were eventually Christianized.

    Otto I is considered by many to be the founder of the Holy Roman Empire.  In order to unify and control the major territories of Germany, he established the Church-State Alliance; this strengthened his power and decreased the power of the duchies. He gave large grants of royal land to bishops and abbots, who became his royal vassals and were obligated to provide him with military and political services. It was successful for both the Church and the State because it had church officials ruling the land, but allowed Otto the power to appoint them.

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    The fall of Rome

    “Rome wasn’t built in a day and did not fall in one day.

    AD 235- AD 476 – A blow-by-blow account of the fall of the Roman Empire.

    The Empire Reorganized – The Church Prospers
    AD 257/258  Emporer Valerian issued edicts against the Christians. This series of persecution was not a general attack as had come from Decius. This was targeted at the bishops and the upper class Christians.

    In the 260’s the borders of the empire were being breached by barbarian tribes. The peace and security of the Roman Empire was threatened on every side. Emperor Gallienus sought to keep things in order – he could not protect the outer regions, so regional legions did their best. Territory was lost around the edges, but the empire was held intact.

    AD 284 – Diocletian became the emperor, and brings Maximian into his confidence. The two men rule the empire as a team, Diocletian ruling in the east and Maximian in the west. In effect, there were now 4 emperors, each waging war against the barbarian hordes in a different region.

    AD 300 – According to Eusebius, there were 40 churches in Rome. The third Christian century was coming to a good close – everything was good – the church was growing, church buildings were getting larger, and the Church was financially prosperous. The peace of Rome was good and the Christian Church was enjoying being a legitimate part of that peace.

    AD 306-324 – Civil war between the two halves of the Empire. Constantine won control of both halves and moved the capital from Rome to Byzantium, later renamed: Constantinople.

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    Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus – The first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity

    AD 325 – Constantine played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan, which decreed religious tolerance throughout the empire. He called the First Council of Nicaea in 325, at which the Nicene Creed was professed by Christians.

    AD 337-395 – Emperor Constantine planned succession of the Roman Empire to be divided between his three sons, but war between them caused permanent division in AD 395.

    9 August, AD 378 – The Visigoths defeated Eastern Roman Emperor Valens.

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    AD 383 – Augustine arrives in Milan. After his conversion takes the position as bishop of Hippo  near his native Carthage, N. Africa, in 396, a position which he held until his death in AD 430.

    AD 401-410 – Visigoths make incursions into northern Italy and sack Rome.

    AD 429-435 – Vandals in N. Africa cut-off Roman grain supplies.

    AD 440-455 – Huns threaten Rome, are paid off, and then attack; then sack Rome.

    AD 476 – Last western emperor, Romulus Augustulus, is deposed by the barbarian general Odoacer who then rules Italy.

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    As you can see, “The Roman Empire fell long before Emperors gave up their false claims of leadership of the Roman citizens.

    The Church became divided with Empire.  The Church is up against continual opposition from without and within.

    Faithfulness to God, Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit has given example to pagan Empires of a nation under God.  Yet corruption of church leadership and division of the church has also weakened Christ’s church in the same way as divided and fallen Rome.

    The Gospel has been taken into all the world and Rome had a role in God’s plan.  Christ is opposed at every front by the enemies of the love of God and grace of the risen Christ Jesus.

    Matthew 24:14And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.

  • EMPIRE Fallen: Church Divided – Part 2

    EMPIRE Fallen: Church Divided – Part 2

    9 August, AD 2013 – This time in history.

    Genesis 1:2a King James Version – And the earth was without form, and void…

    ‘without form’ – tohuw – place of chaos;

    “Most history is untold and unknown to most.

    We look at history as a timeline of what someone has suggested has relevance to our own lives.

    AD abbreviationAnno Domini (used to indicate that a date comes the specified number of years after the traditional date of Christ’s birth). Forgotten in secular timelines.

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    AD 753 – AD 1806 — The Holy Roman Empire

    By the time of its end, the Holy Roman Empire was far from holy, had nothing to do with Rome and evolved slowly from powerful Empire of Charlemagne to a powerless attempt to keep title of sovereignty from Napoleon.  The sometime anarchy from power plays of royalty and church leadership was just one facet of a complex schism of the Church with political alliances divided between Rome in the West and Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem in the East.

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    AD 1375– AD 1378 The War of the Eight Saints, carried on with spates of unprecedented cruelty to civilians…

    9 August, in the year of our Lord 1378, French bishops declared Urban VI’s election as pope invalid. This began the great schism in which two and then three popes claimed the Holy See of Rome at once. Once in office, Urban (ca. 1318–1389) had become overbearing.

    1378 A.D to 1417 A.D. – Western Schism or Papal Schism was a split within the Catholic Church.  Two men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope, driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement. The Western Schism is sometimes called the Great Schism, although this term is also applied to the East–West Schism of 1054 A.D.

    “Doubt still shrouds the validity of the three rival lines of pontiffs during the four decades subsequent to the still disputed papal election of 1378. This makes suspect the credentials of the cardinals created by the Roman, Avignon, and Pisan claimants to the Apostolic See.” [3]

    Urban was declared excommunicated by the French antipope and was called “the Antichrist“, while Catherine of Siena, defending Pope Urban, called the cardinals “devils in human form.

    On the death of Charles of Naples in 1386, Urban contrived to take advantage of the anarchy which had ensued and in August 1388 Urban moved from Perugia with thousands of troops.

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    AD 1432 – Mehmed II was born in this capital of the Ottoman Empire. Islamic education had a great impact in molding the mindset of Mehmed and reinforcing his Muslim beliefs. He began to praise and promote the application of Sharia law.

    The influence of Ak Şemseddin in Mehmed’s life became predominant from a young age, especially in the imperative of fulfilling his Islamic duty to overthrow the Byzantine empire by conquering Constantinople.[5]

    AD 1453 – The capture of Constantinople marked the end of the last remnant of the Roman Empire, an imperial state which had lasted for nearly 1,500 years.  The Christian Church had been divided by the Great Schism of 1378 for less than 80 years and the enemy of Christ extends the political and religious power of Islam.

    Edirne, in northwest Turkey located north of the Aegean Sea and south of the Black sea, was formerly known as Adrianople and borders areas of conquest between Rome and its invaders.  During the existence of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Crusaders were decisively defeated by the Bulgarian Emperor Kaloyan in the battle of Adrianople (1205).

    To be continued…

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