Originally Posted by couchgrouch
Hi John, and thank you for your well thought out comment. It's a view that is widely held by learned people.

Christianity did begin with Jesus, and it had actually spread quite far before Saul of Tarsus' conversion. (Later known as Paul).

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There are many counterfeit writings from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th centuries, but they're easily identified. They don't agree with Biblical writings at all.

By the time of the Council of Nicea, Christendom barely resembled the Christianity of the Apostles.


I agree with the 1st statement. Constantine fought the battle at the Milvian Bridge to re-unite the Roman Empire. It is said that he motivated his army by promising to make Christianity the official religion of the empire if they won him possession of it. That motivator would not have been possible if the army was not already full of Christians and the population at large was not full of Christians. I read that Constantine's own mother is said to have been a believer prior to the battle.
Legend has it that Constantine also conveyed a vision of a giant cross in the sky on the eve of battle. I can't say. Wasnt there to see it.

Regarding the Council of Nicea. It was convened about 325AD. That was about 300 years after Jesus. In a time when life was completely brutal, rumors rampant and technological communications were non existent...I am not sure what can be trusted to be authentic and authenticated. In addition to that much of that history comes from historians who needed to write things favorable to the emperors. For that matter, other than biblical accounts, I think that Josephus and one other historian were the only outside-the-religion accounts of Jesus that exist. And both accounts have been characterized as incidental to various main concerns.

It is my understanding that Constantine pulled the Catolic leaders together and said..."This stuff is a fragmented mess. Boil it down to something that I can sell." (Paraphrased) Imho...Constantine may have been the single biggest spreader of the-word to have ever lived.

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