Jack Chick's View on Catholicism

[SteveCaruso]

Constantine didn't teach anything and had no impact on the belief of the Church.

Aye, Constantine wasn't even a Christian until he was on his deathbed. Although he hosted councils, he wasn't a bishop and didn't get a vote. Outside of a possible grammatical assist with describing the Trinity (which most modern scholars think was not to his credit) his contributions to Christendom were not theological.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Aye, Constantine wasn't even a Christian until he was on his deathbed. Although he hosted councils, he wasn't a bishop and didn't get a vote. Outside of a possible grammatical assist with describing the Trinity (which most modern scholars think was not to his credit) his contributions to Christendom were not theological.

And, As I have to repeat from time to time, Constantine favored the Semi-Arian position as a compromise. He lost out on that. So much for Constantine 'creating' the Catholic Church, let alone 'shaping' it. All he really managed to do was make it not illegal.

 

[prodromos]

Aye, Constantine wasn't even a Christian until he was on his deathbed.

I wouldn't say he wasn't a Christian, just that as someone who was not baptised, he was not able to participate in the sacramental life of the Church. Many took living a sin free life after baptism so seriously that they put off their baptism until late in life do there would be less chance of falling into serious sin and 'soiling' their baptismal robe. It was a dangerous path to take as accidental death could prevent their entry into the Church. It may be that as emperor, Constantine knew he would be required to make choices that would impact badly on his walk with God, so he put off his baptism for that reason. It certainly wasn't something the Church encouraged.

 

[Phantasman]

The Scripture you quoted says no such thing.

My point which you've chosen to ignore is that gender in language does not determine the sex of the person or object described. The Holy Spirit has no sex, no male or female, regardless of what gender different languages assign.

Since I actually have some experience with different languages and have worked with professional linguists, I will follow the path of knowledge instead of ignorance.

Constantine didn't teach anything and had no impact on the belief of the Church.

Constantine had no effect?

Constantine the Great, who along with Licinius had decreed toleration of Christianity in the Roman Empire by what is commonly called the "Edict of Milan",[12] and was the first Roman Emperor baptized, set precedents for later policy. By Roman law the Emperor was Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs (Collegium Pontificum) of all recognized religions in ancient Rome. To put an end to the doctrinal debate initiated by Arius, Constantine called the first of what would afterwards be called the ecumenical councils[13] and then enforced orthodoxy by Imperial authority - WIKI on Heresy.

Prior to the issuance of this edict, the Church had no state-sponsored support for any particular legal mechanism to counter what it perceived as "heresy". By this edict the state's authority and that of the Church became somewhat overlapping. One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and state was the sharing of state powers of legal enforcement with church authorities. This reinforcement of the Church's authority gave church leaders the power to, in effect, pronounce the death sentence upon those whom the church considered heretical.

They used murder to project their ideology. Jesus or the Holy Spirit never taught such.

Mark:
38 ¶ t]">[t]Then John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils by thy Name, which followeth not us, and we forbade him, because he followeth us not.

39 ¶ But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man that can do a miracle by my Name, that can lightly speak evil of me.

40 For whosoever is not against us, is on our part.

41 And whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink for my Name’s sake, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.


Throughout history the Roman church has murdered and lied. Burnt any books that didn't fit their beliefs. Scorned anyone who didn't follow them. They allowed Constantine to be wealthy and murder through their own authority.

It's no longer hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The elite priests have changed that.

 

[ViaCrucis]

And, As I have to repeat from time to time, Constantine favored the Semi-Arian position as a compromise. He lost out on that. So much for Constantine 'creating' the Catholic Church, let alone 'shaping' it. All he really managed to do was make it not illegal.

Constantine didn't just favor the Semi-Arian position; he was basically pulled over to championing, or at least defending, the Arian cause due to the influence of the Arian Eusebius of Nicomedia--it was Constantine who exiled Athanasius and worked to get Arius to replace him.

Constantine was a double-edged sword for a lot of reasons. On the one hand he almost single-handedly ended the official state sponsored persecutions against Christians, and he also demonstrated favor toward Christians and Christian clergy and as part of this patronage engaged in perhaps the largest church building program in history. But on the other hand Constantine proved himself to be no friend of the orthodox cause, and the blessing that was the end of formal persecution ended up evolving, under Theodosius and other later emperors, into a marriage of Church and State that proved itself to be no friend of the Church either--the entire history of Christian wrought bloodshed--whether it be upon Jew, Pagan, Muslim, or heretic--is long and tragic. And that's not a "Catholic problem", that's a universal problem for all Christians. At the start of the 4th century Christians could say that we fought no wars and spilled no blood, that isn't something we can say today in the 21st century, and far from it. Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox alike, we all have blood on our hands.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Sammy-San]

post edited.

 

[thecolorsblend]

A lot of these remarks about Constantine really do serve to illustrate the adage that a little bit of knowledge is a very dangerous thing.