Was Constantine right? (moral, gospel, disciples, preach, church)

[ecook]

Do you think it was right for Constantine to further Christianity by making it law?

[Runt]

***MOD POST***

Moving this to the debate forum...

[Hirohito18200]

To state the obvious, this topic is gonna turn into religion bashing, if anyone posts here....

The answer entirely depends on your point of view. For Christians, the answer would be that it was fine, because it got the Romans out of their moral decay in paganism. For everyone else, it furthered religious persecution and helped corrupt the church. It should also be noted that his adoption of Christianity helped spur a revival in theology and philosophy, as the general populace had lost faith (for the most part) in their old religion.

Chao

[Lightkeeper]

The only thing that bothers me about this council and era was It appears that important information was left out of the Bible, i.e. the Gospel of Thomas, Dead Sea Scrolls, etc. Some believe that these documents were hidden at that time to avoid being destroyed. The law doesn't bother me, what was left out does.

[Hirohito18200]

This is getting off topic but o well....

Certain books, like the Gospel of Thomas, were left out for a reason... Some were written too late (Gospel of Mary, and others were not considered because they were considered too strange. Read some of the Gospel of Thomas for clarification. It states some very strange things. For instance, no woman can get into heaven unless she becomes a male. Teachins like this never appear in any other writings, and are discreditted. Read Lee Stobel's The Case for Christ for a more in-depth clarification.

[Lightkeeper]

Originally Posted by Hirohito18200

This is getting off topic but o well....

Certain books, like the Gospel of Thomas, were left out for a reason... Some were written too late (Gospel of Mary, and others were not considered because they were considered too strange. Read some of the Gospel of Thomas for clarification. It states some very strange things. For instance, no woman can get into heaven unless she becomes a male. Teachins like this never appear in any other writings, and are discreditted. Read Lee Stobel's The Case for Christ for a more in-depth clarification.

The Nicene council was in 325 A.D. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospel of Thomas were written well before this.

This is the quote you might be referring to and this does not say a woman has to change into a man before she can get to heaven. That is a misinterpretation.

22. Yeshúa sees little children who are being suckled. He says to his Disciples: These little children who are being suckled are like those who enter the Sovereignty. || They say to him: Shall we thus by becoming little children enter the Sovereignty? || Yeshúa says to them: When you make the two one, and you make the inside as the outside and the outside as the inside and the above as the below, and if you establish the male with the female as a single unity so that the man will not be masculine and the woman not be feminine, when you establish [an eye] in the place of an eye and a hand in the place of a hand and a foot in the place of a foot and an imageº in the place of an image— then shall you enter [the Sovereignty]. (Mt 18:3; ; =Clement of Alexandria, Stromata III.13; cp. Odes of St. Solomon 34:5, ‘The likeness of what is below, is that which is above— for everything is above; what is below is nothing but the delusion of those who are without knowledge’; also Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus, ‘Beloved Pan, and whatever other gods be present, grant me to be handsome in inward soul, and that the outside and the inside be one’; interlinear)

I think the problem was more likely that the Gospel of Thomas preached that the Divine was within us. The church can't make money that way.

[Rex]

The gospel of thomas was also considered very gnostic in nature.

Thus not cannonized.

[Hirohito18200]

I didn't say that the gospel of Thomas was written later. I said the gospel of Mary was written later, and that was just an example. Besides, the councils were probably the most anti-gnostic events ever to take place in history, and it's no wonder that Thomas never made it. However, your points may be valid, as there are many different churches that have different cannons. All we hear about is the Catholic vs. Protestant debate, however, and we remain ignorant to many of the smaller battles. The Protestant cannon is widely considered to be the most conservative of all cannons, short of discarding the entire NT altogether.

It just seems like all the groups that champion Thomas get eaten alive by mainstream theologians. Gnostics....Jesus seminar.... :roll:

[LilChrist]

You know, just for the heck of it, I'll state something on the first subject, lol. Why, I have no idea. If Christianity is forced as a law, people will hate it, never truly accepting it as their personal faith. It's like God forcing us to love Him. We wouldn't really be loving Him for who He is. We'd be loving Him for no perpose, only because He makes us. Love--or Christianity--can not truly be forced.

[LilChrist]

You know, just for the heck of it, I'll state something on the first subject, lol. Why, I have no idea. If Christianity is forced as a law, people will hate it, never truly accepting it as their personal faith. It's like God forcing us to love Him. We wouldn't really be loving Him for who He is. We'd be loving Him for no perpose, only because He makes us. Love--or Christianity--can not truly be forced.