02/06/2023
They Said Constantine Founded The Catholic Church
A Facebook follower:
"Why do people often show their shameless ignorance or wanting to turn history upside down? My dear Reverend Father, tell your readers the truth because we will all stand at the judgement seat of Christ. The Catholic Church as you know it was "decreed into existence in 75AD by Emperor Constantine after his war victory as he claimed that Jesus gave him the Victory. He made Christianity a universal religion and thereby proclaim that "we are all christians" that is were you get the word "Catholic" meaning universal. So Emperor Constantine was the founder of the Catholic Church.""
My response:
The church existed for more than 300 years before Constantine even came into the picture. The church has been called "Catholic" even before Constantine's grandfather was born.
Constantine was born around February 27, 272 AD. St Ignatius of Antioch is credited to have been the first to use the word "Catholic" far back in 110AD in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans.
The edict of Milan, an agreement between Emperor Constantine I and Emperor Licinius to give tolerance to Christians and subsequently to make Christianity a state religion was in 313AD, which means 203 years after St Ignatius of Antioch had already called it "Catholic."
Even the name "Catholic" just happened. It was not a name anyone even planned. Catholic means Universal. So in the real sense, the name came out as a way of referring to a church that everyone saw and regarded as universal.
Constantine was a convert to Catholicism. In fact, he was baptized just before his death in May 337. What that means is that he was only a Christian in 337AD because it is only baptism that makes one a Christian.
Now to the big question, how did a convert to the Catholic Church become the founder of the Catholic Church?
According to Facebook arguers, "The Catholic Church as you know it was decreed into existence in 75AD by Emperor Constantine after his war victory as he claimed that Jesus gave him the Victory."
Friends, let us keep sentiments aside, can't someone just use his phone and Google what happened in 75AD and be sure of what he is quoting? Is it too much to do in this era in which everything has become easy to access?
Was Constantine even born in 75AD? Has the bible even been compiled in 75AD? That was even the year the gospel of Luke was written. Why are we fighting one another? Why do we lose our objectivity when the issue is about Catholic Church?
So you are angry that the Catholic Church is Founded by Christ? Is it not supposed to be a thing of joy? Okay, you are excited to turn history upside down and quote that the Catholic Church was founded by Constantine simply because you want to emphasize that the church is evil or "pagan." Does that give you Joy? You forget also that as evil as you may want to paint Constantine, he was the one that rescued Christians from the persecution and mass killings of believers. If not that God touched him and he got converted, Christianity would have been a history by now.
I am Catholic, you are Methodist; I am Living Faith you are Deeper Life, does it make us enemies? You are Christian today because of that same Constantine you saw as evil but whom God used to ensure that Christianity did not die. Can't we see that no human actually set out to found the Catholic Church? You can argue about the many imperfections and some things done that looking at it now, we wish they never happened. That is a different story entirely. It does not remove the divine aspect of the church.
Friends, help me and look at the first sentence of the question, "Why do people often show their shameless ignorance or wanting to turn history upside down? My dear Reverend Father, tell your readers the truth because we will all stand at the judgement seat of Christ."
So. . .
Who is a liar between us? Who is showing shameless ignorance between us? Who is even turning history upside down between us? For even quoting 75AD and putting Constantine in the same sentence when his grandfather was not even born, shows he is not only shameless in ignorance but Malicious too.
