@Urfavigbo

10 months ago

Are you forever bringing up constantine? Once you bring up constantine, your points just end up losing its value. Constanstine didn’t have Christians "set Christianity." There were two prevailing thoughts among Christians at the time. Those who believed Jesus was the first and perfect creation of God even though he was still God, aka the Arians. And those that believed Jesus not to be a creation but consubstantial and coeternal with the Father. And we all know disunity even in religion has the capacity to break an empire. So constantine called the first ecumenical council. Constantine didn’t tell them what to say or what to decide on. He accepted the councils decision, and nicene Christianity won out. Constantine later got baptised by an Arian. You'd think he would stick to nicene clergy if he was somehow involved in the decision.

The official practices and beliefs were not even fully codified because there were a lot more councils to come after. Christianity does not see a reason to write down all our beliefs. We assume that everyone should believe the same reading the Bible. So when a group starts disagreeing with truth, a council needs to be set up to anathemise the belief. The truth would be affirmed. Same thing with the trinity. Many people already believed Jesus was God and the begotten son of God. It was when disagreements arose that a council was set to affirm the trinity and expand on it.

And as per your take on shifting blame, the Jews had always been blamed for the death of Christ. The epistle of barnabas, for example, a late 1st century early 2nd century writing. The author does not necessarily call the Jews Christ killers, but it's not like he has good things to say either. The Gospels represent the jewish leaders as constantly trying to have jesus killed. In the second century (so before Christianity became an official religion of the empire), the notion of Jews as Jesus killers was already brought up. Rome was blamed for other things. 1. They were still persecuting Christians, and 2. They were the ones Jesus foretold would lay Jerusalem to waste. So what happened after constantine legalised Christianity and theodosius made it the official state religion? we see a miracle like that of Paul. The same people who destroyed Jerusalem. The same people that persecuted Christians are now Christian themselves. Whereas the ones from whom Christ came up. The ones he selected his disciples from amongst did not recognise him. So we have a situation where the Romans are absolved. Now I don't think the Jews are Christ killers. The sins of humanity was the reason Jesus had to die. The council of Trent affirmed that as well. But I ask you? What did the Romans have to gain by wanting Jesus dead. He preached paying taxes. At the end of the day, it boils down to a religious issue.

1 |