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HOW “CHRISTIANITY” BECAME A STATE RELIGION

CHRISTIANITY was never meant to be a part of this world. (Matthew 24:3, 9; John 17:16) Yet, history books tell us that in the fourth century C.E., “Christianity” became the official State religion of the Roman Empire. How did this come about?

From Nero (54-68 C.E.) well into the third century C.E., all Roman emperors either actively persecuted Christians or permitted the persecution of them. Gallienus (253-268 C.E.) was the first Roman emperor to issue a declaration of tolerance for them. Even then, Christianity was a proscribed religion throughout the empire. After Gallienus, the persecution continued, and under Diocletian (284-305 C.E.) and his immediate successors, it even intensified.

The turning point came early in the fourth century with the so-called conversion to Christianity of Emperor Constantine I. Concerning this “conversion,” the French work Théo​—Nouvelle encyclopédie catholique (Théo—​New Catholic Encyclopedia) states: “Constantine claimed to be a Christian emperor. In reality, he was baptized only on his deathbed.” Nevertheless, in 313 C.E., Constantine and his coemperor, Licinius, issued an edict that granted religious freedom to Christians and pagans alike. The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “Constantine’s extension of freedom of worship to Christians, which signified that Christianity was recognized officially as a religio licita [lawful religion] beside paganism, was a revolutionary act.”

However, The New Encyclopædia Britannica declares: “He [Constantine] did not make Christianity the religion of the empire.” French historian Jean-Rémy Palanque, member of the Institute of France, writes: “The Roman State . . . remained, however, officially pagan. And Constantine, when adhering to the religion of Christ, did not put an end to that situation.” In the work The Legacy of Rome, Professor Ernest Barker stated: “[Constantine’s victory] did not result in the immediate establishment of Christianity as the religion of the State. Constantine was content to recognize Christianity as one of the public worships of the empire. For the next seventy years the old pagan rites were officially performed in Rome.”

So at this point “Christianity” was a legal religion in the Roman Empire. When did it become, in the fullest sense of the expression, the official State religion? We read in the New Catholic Encyclopedia: “[Constantine’s] policy was continued by his successors with the exception of Julian [361-363 C.E.], whose persecution of Christianity was brought to an abrupt end by his death. Finally, in the last quarter of the 4th century, Theodosius the Great [379-395 C.E.] made Christianity the official religion of the Empire and suppressed public pagan worship.”

Confirming this and revealing just what this new State religion was, Bible scholar and historian F. J. Foakes Jackson wrote: “Under Constantine Christianity and the Roman empire were allied. Under Theodosius they were united. . . . From henceforward the title of Catholic was to be reserved for those who adored the Father, Son and Holy Ghost with equal reverence. The entire religious policy of this emperor was directed to this end, and resulted in the Catholic Faith becoming the one legal religion of the Romans.”

Jean-Rémy Palanque wrote: “Theodosius, while combating paganism, also came out in favor of the orthodox [Catholic] Church; his edict of 380 C.E. ordered all his subjects to profess the faith of Pope Damasus and the [Trinitarian] bishop of Alexandria and deprived dissidents of freedom of worship. The great Council of Constantinople (381) again condemned all heresies, and the emperor saw to it that no bishop would support them. Nicene [Trinitarian] Christianity had well and truly become the State religion . . . The Church was closely united with the State and enjoyed its exclusive support.”

Thus, it was not the unadulterated Christianity of the apostles’ days that became the State religion of the Roman Empire. It was fourth-century Trinitarian Catholicism, imposed by force by Emperor Theodosius I and practiced by the Roman Catholic Church, which was then as it is now, truly a part of this world.

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Emperor Theodosius I: Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid (Foto Oronoz)

Conquered by the World

Church historian Augustus Neander showed the risks involved in this new relationship between “Christianity” and the world. If Christians sacrificed their separateness from the world, “the consequence would be a confusion of the church with the world . . . whereby the church would forfeit her purity, and, while seeming to conquer, would herself be conquered,” he wrote.​—General History of the Christian Religion and Church, Volume 2, page 161.

This is what happened. In the early fourth century, Roman emperor Constantine tried to use the “Christian” religion of his day to cement his disintegrating empire. To this end, he granted professed Christians religious freedom and transferred some of the privileges of the pagan priesthood to their clergy class. The New Encyclopædia Britannica states: “Constantine brought the church out of its withdrawal from the world to accept social responsibility and helped pagan society to be won for the church.”

State Religion

After Constantine, Emperor Julian (361-363 C.E.) made an attempt to oppose Christianity and restore paganism. But he failed, and some 20 years later, Emperor Theodosius I banned paganism and imposed Trinitarian “Christianity” as the State religion of the Roman Empire. With adroit precision, French historian Henri Marrou wrote: “By the end of the reign of Theodosius, Christianity, or to be more precise, orthodox Catholicism, became the official religion of the entire Roman world.” Orthodox Catholicism had replaced true Christianity and had become a “part of the world.” This State religion was vastly different from the religion of Jesus’ early followers, to whom he said: “You are no part of the world.”​—John 15:19.

French historian and philosopher Louis Rougier wrote: “As it spread, Christianity underwent strange mutations to the point of becoming unrecognizable. . . . The primitive church of the poor, which lived by charity, became a triumphalist church that came to terms with the powers that be when it was unable to dominate them.”

In the early fifth century C.E., Roman Catholic “Saint” Augustine wrote his major work The City of God. In it he described two cities, “that of God and that of the world.” Did this work accentuate the separation between Catholics and the world? Not really. Professor Latourette states: “Augustine frankly recognized [that] the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly, are intermingled.” Augustine taught that “the Kingdom of God has already begun in this world with the institution of the [Catholic] church.” (The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Macropædia, Volume 4, page 506) Thus, whatever Augustine’s original purpose may have been, his theories had the effect of involving the Catholic Church more deeply in the political affairs of this world.