Counterfeit Christianity

Chapter Sixteen- Relevation 12: God's Purpose Fulfilled

        Chapter 12 of the book of Revelation is one of the most misunderstood books in the Bible. Satan is afraid of this chapter, as well he should. Revelation 12 speaks of God's true end-time church, His mighty army of God, and the martyrs of God at the end of this age.

GOD'S TRUE REMNANT CHURCH

        Since the first century, God has always had a remnant in each generation. As the antichrist spirit gained strength throughout the world and the dark ages descended upon Christianity, God's true church went underground. The history of the church became the history of the un-true church when the Roman Catholic Church came to the forefront around 325 AD.

        Much praise has been reaped on Emperor Constantine who allegedly became a Christian and opened the way for Christianity to prosper and proliferate. Some historians, however, claim that Constantine never converted to Christianity, but passed laws that legalized and supported Christianity.

        Emperor Constantine also greatly assisted in the downfall of true Christianity. More than ever before, Christianity began to deteriorate into apostasy. In a book written by Corrie Ferguson and Amy N. Grupp regarding the history of Christianity, we find the following about Constantine: 

His conversion helped Christianity in many ways. Followers were safe from persecution, and Christian leaders were given many gifts by the Emperor. Constantine's adherence to Christianity ensured exposure of all his subjects to the religion, and he had no small domain. He also made Sunday an official Roman holiday so that more people could attend church, and made churches tax-exempt. However, many of the same things that helped Christianity spread subtracted from its personal significance and promoted corruption and hypocrisy. Many people were attracted to the Church because of the money and favored positions available to them from Constantine rather than from piety. The growth of the Church and its new-found public aspect prompted the building of specialized places of worship where leaders were architecturally separated from the common attendees, which stood in sharp contrast to the earlier house churches which were small and informal.

Constantine believed that the Church and the State should be as close as possible. From 312-320 Constantine was tolerant of paganism, keeping pagan gods on coins and retaining his pagan high priest title "Pontifex Maximus" in order to maintain popularity with his subjects, possibly indicating that he never understood the theology of Christianity. From 320-330 he began to attack paganism through the government but in many cases persuaded people to follow the laws by combining pagan worship with Christianity. He made December 25th, the birthday of the pagan Unconquered Sun god, the official holiday it is now--the birthday of Jesus. It is likely that he also instituted celebrating Easter and Lent based on pagan holidays. From 330-337 Constantine stepped up his destruction of paganism, and during this time his mother, Helen, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and began excavations to recover artifacts in the city. This popularized the tradition of pilgrimages in Christianity.

Whether or not his conversion was "genuine," Constantine's reign was extremely important to the Christian church. After his vision, he immediately declared Christianity legal in the Edict of Milan. He completely abandoned paganism and put his full force of favor towards advancing the cause of the Church of Christ. He provided Christianizing legislation on such matters as the observance of Sunday, the confiscation of the temple treasures, and the exemption of some clergy from taxes. He funded Christian leaders and the construction of churches, some of which he dedicated to his mother. Most Christian leaders greatly admired Constantine for the works he did for the church and Christian cause. (http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/EastEurope/ConstantineConverts.html)

            The "favors" Emperor Constantine gave to Christians so thoroughly corrupted the body of Christ and Christianity that the church has fallen deeper and deeper into apostasy ever since. The church adopted many pagan beliefs and festivals in order to appease the heathens and make it easier for them to "convert" to Christianity. Rather than convert pagans, pagans converted Christianity. The church returned to Babylon.