As you seen when you looked at the lost gospels, a lot was going on in the early church. The church was trying to find itself. The Roman Empire was filled with religious books about aliens but as the church formed, it did not want to call Jesus an alien. That would make Jesus and his message seem unobtainable. Over the centuries, they had to strike a balance between calling Jesus a man but also part God. First, the Emperor Constantine had a country to save. Worrying about who Jesus really was became secondary.
An Unlikely Savior Organized and Saves the Church
From 313 C.E. to appx. 430 C.E.
In 313, Emperor Constantine and his co-emperor Lucinius sent a series of rather flowery letters to their governors, in which they said it was "salutory and most proper" that "complete toleration" be given to anyone who has "given up his mind to the cult of the Christians" or any other cult which "he personally feels best for himself." The Edict of Milan, as this series of letters came to be known, had the effect of legalizing Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.
The question history has never adequately answered is why the Edict of Milan was issued in the first place, but it was probably due to the growing political power of the Christians of various stripes. Constantine's own wife was a convert (if not born into the church, we don't know for sure), and this was likely a contributing factor.
Emperor Constantine was a deeply superstitious man, but also a consumate politician. He was a practitioner of several religions, trying to keep his religious bases covered, even after his 'conversion.' He was also spectacularly arbitrary and capricious. He sent prisoners of war to the lions, committed wholesale acts of genocide in his campaigns in North Africa, and was known for his overbearing, egotistical, ruthless and self-righteous behavior. His nephew Julian said that his appearance was strange, with stiff effeminate garments of Eastern fashion, jewelry on his arms and it was all set off by a tiara perched on a dyed wig. Constantine apparently viewed Christianity as just one of the many cults of his realm, and he seemed to practice them all, apparently with roughly the same depth of commitment. He wasn't actually baptized until he was on his death bed.
Emperor Constantine, for all his strangeness, was nothing if not a good politician. He understood well the fact that the Christians were becoming so numerous as to represent a considerable political threat should they get their act together and become organized. In 312, a year before the Edict of Milan, he fought the battle of Milvan Bridge, against a rival claimant to the emperor's throne. Among his soldiers were many, if not a majority of Christians and they were already carrying on their swords and shields the Christian Chi-Rho sign.
Well, to hear the stories, the heavens opened up, and the Emperor himself had a great vision, including the famous quote from God himself, "In this sign you shall conquer." And he was granted victory in his battle, which proved pivotal in his struggle to consolidate the empire. Rather than a grand vision, it's more likely that he simply looked out on all his soldiers with the power they represented, with so many of them bearing the Chi-Rho symbol on their shields, and he saw the light.
Unfortunately, we don't know what exactly happened at Milvan Bridge, because the dear Emperor kept changing his story and telling different versions of the events to different people.
At least six different, contradictory versions have survived from different people who all claimed to have heard it first-hand from the good emperor himself. As he kept telling these conflicting stories, he still apparently remained personally converted to the Mithraic sun-cult common in the Empire at the time. Besides the somewhat dismissive wording of the letters in the Edict of Milan (see above), there is the small matter of the Milvan Arch. As a monument to his victory at Milvan Bridge, some years later, he raised a triumphal arch, which survives to this day. It still bears on it a dedication to the "Unconquered Sun" (a reference to Mithra) and referred to Jesus Christ "driving his [the sun's] chariot across the sky." He commanded the Christians to hold their services on Sun-day, and to commemorate the birth of their savior on December 25 - the birthday of Mithra.
Constantine became the sole Roman emperor in 324, amidst a period of intense squabbling by the various local bishops (not to mention pamphleteering and widespread graffiti campaigns by both sides). So intense were the feelings on both sides of the principal controversy, that civil unrest was being threatened, and Constantine wanted to put a stop to the controversies before it came to that. So he convened the First Council of Nicea the following year. His commandment to the bishops: Get your act together and quit squabbling. Come up with a consistent doctrine that would be universal, i.e.catholic - note the small "c", and could be understood and practiced by all.
Rather than risk Imperial disfavor and banishment from the Empire and almost certain death, the bishops met at Nicea, a small town in Turkey where the emperor owned a lake house on June 19th, 325 C.E. They squabbled and squabbled some more, and were able to come to almost no agreement among themselves. The most important of these controversies is called the "Arian Controversy," by historians, after Arius the Preacher, a bishop who was preaching that Jesus had been real enough, but not divine - rather, merely a great preacher and prophet. The other side of the controversy held that Jesus was the physical incarnation of God himself. This was a dispute over the doctrinal outcome resulting from the suppression of the Docetic Heresy, which gave rise to the physical Jesus myth itself. Basically, the Arian Controversy was a whole series of questions over the relationship of Jesus to God the Father. Now that we have a physical Jesus, was Jesus God? Or was he the son of God? Was he divine? Or was he merely a divine prophet?
Did he die and was he resurrected, or was he taken up into heaven? Finally, in exasperation, the emperor himself intervened, and imposed some compromises by direct imperial edict. The principal compromise was simple: Jesus and God the father were of "the same substance" - whatever that meant, but the dear emperor didn't exactly delve into what that actually entailed.
But the bishops had little choice but go along with that concept, even if the details were murky to nonexistent. The principal issue being settled, as well as several others, by imperial edict, the bishops went on to hammer out a statement of a few common doctrines (mostly with regard to the date for Easter celebrations, the creation and the nature of the universe, and the first version of the Apostolic Creed), declared themselves in agreement on it - that agreement is now known as the Nicene Creed - and departed totally unconverted to each other's views. So there you have it. Some of the most important of Catholic, even pan-Christian doctrines were the result of the edict of a politician, whose conversion and commitment to Christian ideology itself was highly questionable at best.
****
One thing that Romans where good at was organization. Emperor Constantine organized the Christians into a unified church. That was something that Jesus wanted his followers to do.
One thing that Romans where good at was organization. Emperor Constantine organized the Christians into a unified church. That was something that Jesus wanted his followers to do.
I believe that Jesus is an alien but was sent here by God to start organizing the people on this planet. (Sent his spirit but produced a body using Mary and Alien Sperm) Many Aliens are millions maybe billions of years ahead of us. They may know the secrets of dimensional travel and reincarnation (taking our spirits and placing it back into a body). The book of Revelations talks about resurrection of people on Earth when Jesus returns. I think that the resurrection puzzle is starting to come together.
The Resurrection of Jesus, Chapters 172 – 178;
http://reluctant-messenger.com/aquarian_gospel_172_178.htm
Aquarian Age Gospel of Jesus
Aquarian Age Gospel of Jesus
Why do we have so many religions in the word?
"Three primary religions teach reincarnation, they are Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism. Three primary religions teach of a resurrection, they are Judaism, Christianity and Sufism. And three more religions are a blend of one of the two mentioned. You can call them blended religions. Zen is a blend of Buddhism and Taoism, The Sihks are a blend of Hinduism and Sufism and there is one more blended religion, a blend of Judaism and Christianity called Sabbath Christians or Messianic Jews."
Conclusion
Conclusion
I think that the world must have a united church where everyone will have a chance to follow the teaching of the alien Jesus before he comes back to Earth. When we have a United Church and a human or alien running the planet claiming to be Jesus or someone like Jesus, he Jesus the alien will return.
At that time, Jesus will use the church to set up a world government, making himself the head. I think that day is still far away.
Next time, we will conclude our talk about the bible. With this background of how the bible came about, you will be able to appreciate the next blog. We will look at evidence of UFOs and aliens in the bible.
Next time, we will conclude our talk about the bible. With this background of how the bible came about, you will be able to appreciate the next blog. We will look at evidence of UFOs and aliens in the bible.
No comments:
Post a Comment