The Rise of The Roman Catholic Church (325 AD - 590 AD)

Next section this will probably be the last one we cover. This is the Council of Nicaea to the fall of the Roman Empire so I've titled this the rise of the Roman Catholic Church or you could say the rise of the papacy and The Roman Catholic Church.

So this is from the Council of Nicaea 325 to the fall of the Roman Empire, which was in 590 so during this time period Christianity Even from the earliest days Christianity was an illegal religion, right?

You probably knew that because in the pages of Scripture remember the Apostles are getting arrested and beaten and told do not preach in the name of Jesus so it was considered illegal in Jerusalem, but it was Really a persecuted religion all throughout the Roman Empire.

But during this time period it went from illegal religion that's being persecuted to being Tolerated and then made the official religion of the Empire. So The most change probably happened during this Time period so how did Christianity become the official religion of Rome?

How did that happen? Well, there's kind of two versions Of this story You can't leave out the Emperor Constantine. Obviously, he plays a huge role in this So I think everyone knows you should know the Emperor Constantine, right?

You've heard of him at least, right? Yeah, he's he's a major figure, but there's two different versions depending who you're listening to so Constantine converted to Christianity in the year 312. Supposedly He saw a vision of the cross and in the words in this sign or under this sign conquer.

So he was a general he claims to have seen this vision. So he went into battle under The banner of the cross he came out victorious in the battle and he gave the Lord The credit or so the story goes so Constantine said from that moment on he was a Christian Even though he didn't get baptized until right before his death.

Whatever happened Constantine did play a major role in this time period of History since he was the man who convened the Council of Nicaea more on that in a moment. So people Here's what I say. There's two versions people tend to look at this in one of two ways.

Either someone will say praise God that Christianity Spread and took over the Roman Empire Praise the Lord. Well, that's one way to look at it. Another way you could see it. Is that the Roman Empire? Started to conquer or affect biblical Christianity, so Which is it?

So did the Roman Empire? Here's my question to you. I just want I guess this is your opinion I mean, I'm pretty sure which which is correct. I certainly have mine. But again, this is where you're going to get into two different The Catholic Church will have a different answer for this.

So just in full disclosure, but let me ask you this question Did the Roman Empire become Christian? During the third and fourth century or Did the Christian Church start to become Roman? Which happened, okay.

Yes. Okay. Let me repeat the question. Did the Roman Empire become Christian or did Christianity start becoming Roman? What do you think? What do you think?

Okay, this is clearly laid out way back in the Old Testament in the book of Daniel that Babylon would fall that Greece would fall and That Rome would fall.

Well Rome did end up falling and what replaced the Roman Empire. We'll get into this in the next section. But what replaced the Roman Empire? The Holy Roman Empire. So once the Roman Empire crumbles the only glue that's left to kind of hold what's what's there together is the The Catholic Church or the Roman Catholic Church as it starts to develop.

So I would be of the opinion that at this time a yes Christianity was expanding. It was growing and God was doing a work. That's that's true. But at the same time because it became the official religion of a pagan Empire the The Empire the paganism in the Empire and Christianity.

It just kind of got blended together. So you saw a lot of corruption during this time again. Christianity started off as an illegal religion in The Roman Empire former emperors saw Christianity as a threat.

Why. Because Christians pledged their highest allegiance to King Jesus and the Roman emperors didn't like that? Very much because they wanted to be worshipped as gods so at times Christians faced severe persecution some Christians were even fed to the lions at the Roman Coliseum just as a form of entertainment to To entertain the the pagans, but when Constantine claimed to be a Christian He issued what is called a decree of toleration.

So Christianity at that moment, it didn't become the official religion of the Empire, but now it had legal protection. So everything changed and I would say the handwriting was on the wall if you wanted to succeed in Roman society.

It would benefit you to be part of the same religion as the Emperor like people figured this out for themselves. Constantine converted that's what he wants. So if I become a Christian Things are gonna go well for me.

So you saw a lot of people convert to Christianity. Whether or not they truly converted. I'm sure some didn't some were false converts. But that was sort of the situation and then in the year 380 under the Emperor Theodosius.

That's when Christianity was made the official religion not under Constantine that came later. And from what I understand This is when infant baptism became a thing because Christianity, you know. What was Constantine doing whether his faith was authentic or not?

He wanted to use Christianity as a way to consolidate power to hold his empire together. So, how did you become a good citizen? Well get baptized. So when you got baptized when you baptized a baby they became a Christian and kind of an official Member of the Roman Empire and the Christian Church at the same time and by doing that to little Children that was a way to kind of make it official instead of what I would argue the New Testament.

Taught is that you should do it as an adult as your own Decision but when you start baptizing baby, there's a political element basically is what I'm saying All right. Let's just cover one more thing.

What is the Council of Nicaea? I got this from the website got questions or G says the Council of Nicaea took place in 8325 by order of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Nicaea was located in Asia Minor.

That's east of Constantinople. So he named the city after himself Constantine. If you know anything about him. The odds are he probably wasn't a true convert he had his wife and child killed and Again, he didn't get baptized until right before his death and there were political reasons why he was using Christianity to consult so Only God knows his heart obviously, but there are some real questions about his sincerity and besides The whole thing with the vision, you know under the sign of the cross conquer that's.

That's a hard sell for me. It doesn't seem consistent with what? Jesus taught but at the Council of Nicaea Emperor Constantine presided over a group of church bishops and other leaders with the purpose of defining the nature of God for all of Christianity and eliminating confusion controversy and contention within the church the Council of Nicaea overwhelmingly affirmed the deity and eternality of Jesus Christ and Defined the relationship between the Father and the Son as of one substance.

It also affirmed the Trinity the Father Son and Holy Spirit. But they were listed as three co-equal and co-eternal Persons so this was voted on and settled at the Council of Nicaea. So how do the critics use this who remembers the book the Da Vinci Code?

I? Remember was it 15 20 years ago wherever you went people were reading that book and then of course there was a movie and I'm Not against you if you read the book, okay, but what one of the things that the author was Trying to say is that you know the Catholic Church.

This was this is not what happened. But the author Dan Brown was making the argument that the Catholic Church Invented the deity of Christ the whole idea of the Trinity. This is all just made up in The third or fourth century by the Catholic Church.

Well is it wait isn't that what you just said. Isn't that what you just read. No it's not. So here's the thing did the cat did the Council of Nicaea? Vote on these matters. Yeah, they did because there was a man named Arius who was saying that Jesus wasn't God and This became known as the Arian heresy who believes in the Arian heresy today the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Because they don't believe in the deity of Christ. They say that God created Jesus first or Jesus is the first creation. So they say Jesus is not God they deny the Trinity, and they'll say see this is all just concocted at the Council of Nicaea wrong.

The church already believed in the deity of Christ the church already believed in the Trinity. They were just Settling the dispute which was really started by one guy so at the council I think the vote was something like 314 to 2 does that sound like they just made all this up and decide no the church already believed this.

But it was they're trying to just put this controversy To bed at the Council of Nicaea. So we'll stop there, and we'll we'll pick up around this On this subject next week so we ended last time talking about This priest named Arius he presented his argument that Jesus Christ was not an eternal being.

This is why the Council of Nicaea was necessary because he said that Jesus wasn't God. He said that Jesus was created at a certain point in time this became known as the Arian heresy. Which is what the Jehovah's Witnesses?

Believed today that Jesus is the firstborn creation of God, but he is not actually divine so the bishops such as Alexander and the deacon Athanasius they argued the opposite position that Jesus Christ is eternal just like the father is and Obviously, that's the position that won out in the council so Constantine.

He prodded the 300 or so bishops in the council to make a decision by majority vote. Defining who Jesus Christ is and we talked about how the final vote was. Overwhelming wasn't it? To 314 to 2 is the number that I saw so it's really not like this was in question.

There is just some fighting because of mainly this one guy in Constantine didn't want any fighting. He wanted them all to come together. Let's make it official so. The point is people who say that the deity of Christ was made up in the fourth century.

That they're just not being honest. So the statement of doctrine the council produced is known as the Nicene Creed this creed was upheld by the church and Enforced by the Emperor the bishops at Nicaea voted to make the full deity of Christ the accepted position of The church so this was a very important time for Christianity it expanded at a rapid pace.

Which is good, but a lot of false converts had been brought into the church. So that was not so good because it was expedient for them to become Christian now that the Emperor was a Christian. Up until this point becoming a Christian would not help your social standing.

It's sort of like right now. You know in the United States of America becoming a Christian 40 years ago is probably the thing to do today. Not not as much. So a lot of good things going on back then a lot of not so good things in 1331 Constantine ordered that 50 Bibles be made and distributed among the bishops.

So the canon of Scripture was officially decided upon by the end of the fourth century. And this is important to just like with the deity of Christ. It's not that the church created the Bible that they didn't create the deity of Christ.

They didn't create the Bible recognized or rather the the church councils recognized that these books were the Word of God. The councils used the term received so they received the scriptures because no vote no Council can vote this book is now the Word of God because we said so that's not the way it works.

So they they were not declaring it the Word of God. They were receiving it recognizing that it was the Word of God. The official declarations concerning the canon of Scripture were in the councils of Carthage and Hippo this was in the year 393 and 397.

So the Bible was it was made official. Yes these 66 books at the end of the fourth century. The Old Testament at this point is basically already been fixed. The Jews had agreed on what the Old Testament scriptures were there really wasn't a lot of Debating about that.

It was the debate really focused just on a handful of New Testament letters. So the book of Hebrews the book of James 2nd Peter these things were discussed. Are they in should they be in or out? But for the most part the church had already recognized the New Testament books.

So there was great change during this time period from 325 to 590 great advancements were made. But again, there were new threats and new Challenges, so the Roman Empire started to crumble there were the attacks from the outside the barbarian tribes but also moral decay and corruption from within.

Led to the Roman Empire falling and we said that the Catholic Church was really The glue it was the only thing Remaining that was able to hold the remaining parts of the Empire together. So the the church now is being called what?

I remember the term Universal but the word universal It's Catholic. So Catholic Universal. It was called the Universal Church because it was it was all over the known world. It really was Everywhere. Okay.

What's this? Section section number three. What's this titled the rise of what? All right, okay, so the rise of the Roman Catholic Church I Have to point this out the term Roman Catholic if you think about it, it's almost like a contradiction because Catholic means Universal everywhere, but Roman is a specific location.

So how can the church be both Roman? Located in Rome, but also Catholic and be everywhere. How can that be? Why is it called the Roman Catholic Church? Because the the Pope the one who ended up rising to power he is sitting in Rome so The Bishop of Rome we could also call this section the rise of the papacy because the Bishop of Rome.

So the Pope is the Bishop of Rome the Bishop of Rome is the Pope. He over time started to make claims that he had supremacy over the entire Christian Church and The headquarters of the you know, the it's the Roman Empire.

So Rome is the headquarters. So that's the way it worked out Roman Catholic here. You might find this interesting. How many of you are familiar with the term pontifics Maximus? Okay. Do you know what that was?

Originally. Originally it was used for the high priest of the Pagan Roman religion so paganism in Rome the high priest of the pagan religion was called pontifics Maximus. But because the Roman Emperors believed that they were gods and that they wanted to control everything.

Caesar Augustus, I believe was the first one to use that title for himself pontifics Maximus well as the Roman Empire fell in the Emperor. You know his power was going down and the Pope's power was rising up.

Guess who took that term pontifics Maximus the Pope. So even today sometimes the Pope is called the pontiff. Have you heard that which basically means a bridge builder that he is? The go-between between the spiritual realm and the physical or he is the bridge between Heaven and earth.

I would argue there's really only one bridge between Heaven and earth there is a man and that's the the God man Jesus Christ. But just as the Roman Emperors claimed to be divine. You can argue that some of the Popes throughout history based on some of the things that they said and the way they acted some of them acted as though they were divine.

And again, the Pope even today is called the pontiff. So that's a really interesting study pontifics Maximus if you want to look into that more. So really there was a shift from the Roman Emperors to the Pope's.

So the Pope's After this time period they were really the they were the king makers. So they were the most important and powerful men in the Holy Roman Empire. So really this was a transition period in 325.

That's not the way it was but it started to slowly evolve and grow over time. Okay, so the Roman Empire fell and what replaced it the what the Holy Roman Empire. Which some have said it really wasn't holy because of the atrocities they committed.

It really wasn't Roman since it was made up of all these different nations and cultures. And it really wasn't an empire because they didn't nearly have the power that they did Before during the actual Roman Empire, but that's what it was called the Holy Roman Empire.

So this is this saw this time period saw the rise of this man the Pope. Okay, any questions on that, you know what the term Pope means Pope. It's it means Papa. Or father, so that's really a father Papa the but so the Pope is The Holy Father, right?

This is another title for him Marcus. Well that that's when the transition was complete. I would say.

Persia and Greece and then Rome. That This was the end This was the end of a one-world government.

Well, I'm not sure about I'm not sure about that, but 590 would be the first the first Pope as as we would know the papacy today okay, so Like I said, this is a Evolution because originally the Bishop of Rome was not seen as the undisputed leader of Christianity.

He certainly wasn't seen as the leader of the Empire. So at best the Bishop of Rome Was he he was elevated to this position because of his location. That's really what it comes down to sort of like the mayor of New York City is seen as far more Important than the mayor of Northampton right for for obvious reasons.

So if you're the Bishop of Rome Naturally, you are going to be seen as more important than some of these other bishops who ruled in In lesser-known places, so that's all part of how it how it happened.

Obviously and I'll point this out again. I pointed out last time. Obviously the Roman Catholic Church would dispute this. They would say that we've had a Pope from day one. They would say that Jesus Christ was the man who started the papacy and who did they say the first Pope was?

Simon Peter, okay. Now, let's turn to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 16. We're going to look at this claim. That the Catholic Church makes they say of course they are the one true Church. They claim they are the church Established by Jesus, of course, the term Catholic is not found in Scripture.

That doesn't prove it obviously, but. But this idea that Peter was the first Pope I think you can demonstrate that that that wasn't the case. So how do they justify this biblically? Well, this is where we get to Matthew chapter 16.

They base it on Jesus's words to the Apostle Peter one thing we will say is that Peter was a leader if not the leader. But he was a leader among the Apostles. I don't think you can dispute that. But this idea that Peter was the first Pope man.

I just think this is pure fiction. First of all Popes are not allowed to get married, right? That's one thing, you know about the Pope Peter Was married in Mark chapter 1. Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law.

And I have never met anyone who has a mother-in-law and not a wife. I know what kind of deal is that? Nothing against mother-in-laws, but Obviously if he had a mother-in-law he was he was married also.

Paul makes reference to all of the Apostles being married. So Peter was married. The Pope cannot be married. Another claim for the Pope's the Pope's claim. They are infallible, right? You've heard of this.

There's a declaration. The Pope's are infallible. Well, Peter was not infallible was he. Peter is known as the Apostle with the foot-shaped mouth. He's always saying things that were wrong. Not always but Peter was rebuked by Paul.

So that would have been an uncomfortable Situation because Paul's acting more like the Pope and of course, that's not true either. But and of course if the Pope were married today He would know he wasn't infallible because his his wife would let him know that.

But all joking aside look at a Matthew 16 verse 13. Yeah, I'm sure it says when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi He asked his disciples saying who do men say that I the son of man am. So they said some say you're John the Baptist some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets but Jesus said of them, but who do you say that I am and Simon Peter answered and said You are the Christ the son of the Living God and Jesus answered and said to him Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.

But my father who is in heaven. So Peter is the first one to make this profession of faith that Jesus is the Christ the the Son of God and to say that he is the Son of God is Really the same as saying you are God in human flesh that Jesus has equality with God that Jesus is divine.

So this is the profession of faith that saves. What does the person have to believe about Jesus in order to be? Saved or to be a true Christian. They have to believe that Jesus is Divine he's God in human flesh.

Did Arius believe that no therefore Arius was Excommunicated he was seen as being outside of the Christian Church. Okay. So this is the profession of faith. Jesus is the Son of God in the Old Testament the Jews Called God what was the name for God that was used the most in the Old Testament scriptures begins with an L Lord right.

God the God the God of Israel was called the Lord. Well in the New Testament, who's the Lord? The Lord Jesus Christ. So Jesus is the God of the Old Testament incarnate made flesh so Peter point is Peter is the first one to Profess this and in response G Jesus bestows this blessing upon him.

So look at verse 18 Jesus says to Peter and I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades or the gates of hell shall not prevail against it so the Catholic Church says that right there is Jesus making Peter the first Pope.

The idea is that the church is built on Peter and maybe that maybe you think that that's what it's saying and we're going to. I'm going to explain why that's a misunderstanding. Marcus.

It's the profession that Jesus is the Christ that's what he's going to build his church on. Well, I think another thing that confused them is he changed his name from Simon every time Peter was making mistakes.

And put this foot in his mouth. He'd say Simon Simon Simon. Well, he said I'm going to change your name to see for someone to change your name this. To the rock. Yeah, so they say oh, well, that's. That's that's why yeah upon this rock, but the rock the solid rock is the profession of faith.

Okay, so you said you know what? I'm gonna say that the the rock is the profession of faith. Wrong. Maybe maybe. Okay, so verse 18, this is the claim the Catholic Church makes Jesus says to Peter You are Peter and on this rock.

I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give you verse 19 the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

That's where you get the idea that people have that St. Peter's gonna be at the pearly gates with the keys because Jesus said that well, here's the thing Jesus said. Something nearly identical to the rest of the Apostles like two chapters later.

So this isn't unique To Peter so what's happening here is Jesus really saying that the church is built on Peter. You would have to know the Greek or you'd have to at least look at the Greek to see what's happening.

There's a play on words in this passage. So Jesus gives to Simon as Marcus said he gives to Simon the name Peter which means rock. Okay, so the Greek word is Petrus and it means a small stone a rock like you would have pulled in your hand.

Okay, so that's Peter the rock and then Jesus says so you're Peter the Petrus the small rock and then Jesus said Upon this rock different Greek word upon this Petra I Will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

So the church is not built on Peter Petrus. The church is built on Petra which is a large immovable rock something like a Boulder so it doesn't work out to say that the church is built on Peter. So therefore I believe that either the profession of as Marcus said that the rock on which the church is built is either the profession of faith in Christ or the the view I'm more Prone to take would be that the the rock is Christ himself in The Old Testament how many verses are there that called the Lord the rock?

Let me just read a few first Samuel 2 2. No one is holy like the Lord for there is none beside you nor is there any rock like our God. 2nd Samuel 22 2 and he said the Lord is my rock and my Fortress and my deliverer.

And then in the New Testament 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4 the Apostle Paul talks about Christ as The rock so it's either the profession of faith in Jesus or it's Jesus himself. But it can't be Peter because Peter is not the Petra.

He's the small Petros he's the small stone Marcus.

Did this occur in Caesarea Philippi? Yes. There's. I have photos and was there and it is a very large stone face place where there's numerous carvings now and.

It's like a ledge yes, there's ledges like Okay, Peter's the small stone, but the ledges are the Petra, right? Okay. Yeah and of course First Corinthians 3 11 for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid which is Christ Jesus.

Jesus is called what the chief Cornerstone, so I would argue that the rock that the church is built on is Christ and The church grows when people make a profession of faith in Christ. But the idea that Peter's the rock and this is Jesus making Peter the first Pope again.

It's it's it's revisionist history once the Catholic Church evolved and got power and the Pope was you know now the king of Europe. Basically, they kind of went back and reinterpreted verses to make it seem like that as if they always believed it.

But look at verse 21, let's let's just say for a moment Peter is acting as the Pope now. Well, what is the first thing the new Pope does? He rebukes the Son of God. Verse 21 Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things From the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day.

So when Jesus tells Peter of what is gonna happen when he tells him the gospel basically What does Peter do. Peter took him aside verse 22 and began to rebuke him saying far be it from you Lord this Shall not happen to you.

This is where you get the idea of the the apostle with the foot shaped mouth like he's First act as Pope. He's rebuking the Lord like it's not looking good and it doesn't stop there verse 23 and Jesus turned and said to Peter get behind me Satan for you are an offense to me for you are not mindful of the things Of God, but of the things of men.

So if Rome is correct, the newly appointed Pope is Acting as the mouthpiece for the devil. So I think you get the idea Peter was not the first Pope. The first bishop of Rome to have that kind of power that the Pope's did come to possess.

The first man to have that kind of power over the Universal Church was a man who knows the name Pope Gregory the first okay. He's also known as Gregory the Great. I'm not sure if he gave himself that name but Somebody gave it to him.

There have been popes throughout history the ones that really sort of it's not it's not really funny. But they will call themselves Pope innocent or Pope innocent the second or Pope innocent the third and then you read about some of the things They did and it's like how can you?

Call yourself Pope innocent the third I think is the one who commanded that all Bibles be burned in the year 1199 I believe so. The first Pope in the modern era once the church was established and can be rightly Called Roman Catholic as Gregory the Great.

So this brings us to the end of this era. So we talked about 325 the Council of Nicaea to Pope Gregory in the year 590. Before we move on or before we end this Lesson there's another important figure of this time that Be remiss if I didn't mention This man who's heard of st. Augustine.

Okay, some if you live in Florida you call them st. Augustine, but Augustine I think is how you say it. Augustine was the Bishop of Hippo in Northern Africa. He fought so. Arius was one heretic who denied the deity of Christ.

There was another priest. Another man who is deemed a heretic. His name was Pelagius. So Augustine is known for fighting against the Pelagian heresy this dealt with the nature of mankind. The debate was is the grace of God necessary for salvation now those of us.

You know the in the 21st century. Listening to that question. We said well, of course the grace of God is necessary for salvation, but Pelagius he taught that mankind had the ability in and of himself to Fully obey God and to please God and you could be saved without God's grace so this was considered a heresy and Augustine was The one involved in that controversy.

Augustine was the one fighting for the truth. Okay, and both Catholics and Protestants today. Not all of them, but many of them still look to Augustine as a saint so he's considered a saint in both Catholic churches and Protestant churches.

Also at this time there were several other church councils that are still recognized by both Catholics and some Protestants and I'll close this segment by reading the Apostles Creed. Which was formulated some time probably in the 4th century.

We don't know the exact date the Apostles Creed contrary to its title is almost certainly not written by the Apostles. But it's supposed to capsulate the Apostles doctrine so Many Protestants and Catholics still hold to this creed and recite it today.

So I'm just going to read the Apostles Creed and we'll end with this. It says I believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Born of the Virgin Mary he suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified. Died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From there, he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit the Holy Catholic Church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

Amen.