Participants:
Series Code: SEM
Program Code: SEM000002A
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00:01 male announcer: The world, forever changed.
00:04 His legacy, an empire reaching across centuries. 00:08 His name... 00:11 Constantine. 00:15 "Shadow Empire." 00:19 ♪♪♪ 00:33 Shawn Boonstra: The world knows him as Constantine, 00:35 the great conqueror who managed to unite the Roman Empire 00:39 and the man who turned the religion of Rome 00:41 completely on its head. 00:43 He propelled an obscure Jewish sect into the global religion 00:46 we know as Christianity but what most people don't know is how 00:51 this incredible man got his start, and how profoundly his 00:56 roots shaped his thinking, and how he changed 00:59 the thinking of the whole world. 01:02 He was born to a peasant girl who had to prove that her 01:04 son's father was the governor of Dalmatia, 01:07 a powerful and influential man named Flavius Constantius. 01:12 But once that happened, once she produced indisputable proof, 01:16 it started a chain of events that rocked the whole planet. 01:25 Shawn: There's a passage in the last book of the Bible that 01:28 makes reference to 10 days of fierce persecution 01:32 that the followers of Jesus would suffer. 01:34 It's found in the seven letters to the seven churches 01:37 of Asia Minor in the Book of Revelation. 01:40 They were seven letters from Jesus to a region of the earth 01:45 that eventually became the headquarters for 01:46 the whole Roman Empire. 01:49 Most people naturally think of the city of Rome as the capital 01:52 because it was known as the eternal city, 01:55 the birthplace of the empire. 01:57 It was the home of Romulus and Remus but while Rome 02:01 was always important to the Romans, over time, 02:04 the center of power actually moved to the east. 02:11 And some of the Christians moved here too, 02:13 even though their roots were in Jerusalem. 02:16 By the time John writes the Book of Revelation 02:19 toward the end of the 1st century, 02:20 he's a prisoner on the island of Patmos, 02:23 a Roman penal colony way out in the Aegean Sea, 02:26 some 40 miles off of the coast. 02:29 Tradition has it that he was actually the pastor 02:32 of the church in Ephesus, which is one of the seven cities 02:35 mentioned in the Book of Revelation. 02:42 Over the years, Bible students have found an interesting 02:45 pattern in the first three chapters of Revelation. 02:48 The seven letters were written to very real churches that 02:51 existed right here in Asia Minor back in the 1st century, 02:54 but the astonishing thing about those letters is the way 02:58 they also seemed to track the entire history of Christianity. 03:03 It's as if each letter actually predicts some phase 03:06 of the development of Christianity far in advance. 03:10 The first letter is addressed to the church in Ephesus 03:12 and it seems to clearly point to 1st century Christianity, 03:16 a time when the church was still being led by people 03:19 who knew Jesus personally. 03:22 The second letter is addressed to the people of Smyrna, 03:25 a city whose very name implies something being crushed. 03:31 Smyrna, you see, is virtually synonymous with the word "myrrh" 03:34 which you probably know as one of the gifts the wise men 03:37 brought to baby Jesus. 03:39 Remember, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 03:42 Myrrh was a sweet-smelling fragrance you obtained 03:45 by crushing the myrrh plant. 03:47 You had to brutally destroy it to bring out the nice scent. 03:52 And oddly enough, that's exactly what happened to 03:55 the Christian church as the Roman Empire became 03:57 more and more aware of its presence as they 04:01 began to consider it a threat to Roman stability. 04:05 Christians worshiped a king who said he would cleanse the earth 04:08 by fire one day and establish his own kingdom. 04:12 And, of course, that started Roman tongues wagging 04:16 and people started telling the most outrageous stories 04:19 about Christ's followers. 04:27 Shawn: It was a very unhappy time for the Christians, 04:30 to say the least, and most Bible students believed there's 04:33 a special message from Jesus to those suffering Christians, 04:37 a message encoded in the letter to Smyrna. 04:40 "Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. 04:44 Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, 04:47 that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. 04:50 Be faithful until death, and I will give you 04:53 the crown of life." 04:55 It fits perfectly. 04:57 By the end of the 1st century, the Christians started to feel 05:00 the wrath of the Roman Empire. 05:02 For the most part, the Romans were actually pretty tolerant. 05:06 They allowed you to practice any religion you wanted, 05:09 that is, until they perceived that you might be a threat 05:13 to the unity of the empire. 05:15 Roman culture loved a scapegoat. 05:17 They loved to blame someone when the favor of the Roman gods 05:20 no longer seemed to be falling on them. 05:23 By the end of the 1st century, the Christians were it. 05:26 They were the scapegoat. 05:33 At one point, there was a fire here in the city of Rome 05:36 and something like 70% of the city burned to the ground. 05:40 According to the Roman historian, Tacitus, Nero blamed 05:43 the Christians because after all, they were the ones 05:46 talking about the end of the world with fire. 05:50 This is the moment that Christians started meeting 05:52 with all those cruel and painful deaths. 05:54 This is the moment they took Paul outside the city 05:57 and beheaded him. 05:59 And it was at this time that they took Peter and locked him 06:02 up in a dark, musty cell here at the bottom of Mamertine Prison. 06:06 It was the beginning of the persecution mentioned 06:08 in the letter to Smyrna. 06:11 That persecution would come to a head. 06:13 It would reach its absolute apex for a period of 10 days, 06:17 that's what the letter said. 06:20 And this is the point where the stories of Jesus 06:23 and Constantine actually begin to merge. 06:28 ♪♪♪ 06:38 Shawn: Several centuries after its birth, 06:40 the Roman Empire 06:42 became a little unstable and out on the battlefields 06:44 of the empire, something incredible took place. 06:48 In 284 A.D., right here near the modern day city 06:51 of Ismet, Turkey, the commander of the imperial bodyguard 06:55 was suddenly declared the Roman emperor by his troops. 06:59 His name was Diocletian and his rise to power was very unusual. 07:05 One year before he came to power, the Emperor Carus 07:08 suddenly died while fighting the Persians. 07:11 We think he actually had a heart attack. 07:13 And just before his death, his two sons had been made caesars, 07:17 which was kind of like a vice emperor. 07:20 He was trying to build a family dynasty. 07:23 Now, after Carus died, one son was given control of the west, 07:27 and the other song was given control of the east. 07:30 The son who got the west, his name was Carinus and he was such 07:34 a brutal man that eventually one of his own soldiers stabbed him 07:38 in the back for raping his wife. 07:40 The other son, the one who got control of the east, his name 07:44 was Numerian and we think somebody murdered him too. 07:48 And some historians think that Diocletian 07:51 actually had him killed. 07:54 Here's what we know, they said Numerian had an eye infection 07:59 so he had to spend all day every day riding inside 08:01 a litter, a hand carried carriage. 08:04 He had to be in there to keep the dust and light 08:06 out of his eye. 08:07 But after a number of days when a slave opened the door, 08:11 there he was, the emperor's son dead as a doorpost. 08:16 Now, that was a real problem for Diocletian 08:19 because he was responsible for the emperor's safety. 08:24 So, what did he do? 08:26 He found a scapegoat, he blamed Numerian's father-in-law, 08:30 a guy by the name of Lucius Aper. 08:32 In the middle of the night, he went into Lucius' tent 08:35 and had him arrested and then he gathered his legion commanders 08:38 all around the tent and dumped the badly decomposing body 08:42 of Numerian on the ground. 08:43 "You did this," he said. 08:45 And, of course, Lucius denied it so they had a trial 08:48 just 3 miles from here. 08:51 male: In the name of Rome! 08:53 Shawn: Diocletian made a speech 08:54 in front of all the soldiers. 08:56 "For the past 4 days," he said, "legion commanders have been 08:58 asking Lucius to arrange a meeting with the emperor, 09:02 and their requests were denied. 09:04 I, the commander of the Protectores asked Lucius 09:07 about the emperor's health and I was told he was suffering 09:10 from an eye ailment. 09:12 I didn't become suspicious until a faithful soldier reported that 09:16 for days the emperor hadn't even left the litter 09:19 to relieve himself." 09:21 At the end of the speech, he pointed straight at Lucius, 09:24 "He is the murderer." 09:25 Of course, Lucius blew a gasket. 09:28 "He's the murderer, not me," he responded. 09:31 "Are you going to believe the words of a plotter, 09:33 the words of a filthy son of a slave?" 09:37 That was the last straw for Diocletian. 09:40 He pulled out a knife and stabbed Lucius on the spot. 09:43 Then his men unanimously declared him the new emperor. 09:48 [crowd cheering] 09:53 But emperor was a big job. 09:56 The Roman territories were huge and hard to control so 10:00 Diocletian did something pretty smart, he divided responsibility 10:03 amongst four men with two halves of the empire. 10:07 In the east, we would have two emperors, a senior known 10:11 as an Augustus and a junior known as a Caesar. 10:15 The same was true for the other half of the empire in the west. 10:18 So, in the east you had Diocletian himself, 10:21 the number-one emperor, and his assistant, a Caesar 10:24 by the name of Galerius. 10:26 Over in the west, Maximian was appointed Augustus, 10:30 the senior emperor, and his junior, the Caesar, was a guy by 10:34 the name of Flavius Constantius, Constantine's father. 10:40 Now, as soon as Constantine's father got the appointment, 10:43 he moved his family to the city of Arelate in modern day France. 10:48 So, what does that have to do with 10 days of persecution? 10:52 Well, follow me carefully because this is 10:54 really pretty amazing. 10:56 When Flavius Constantius became the junior emperor, 10:59 or the Caesar in the west, he suddenly divorces Helena, 11:03 the mother of Constantine because she was a commoner, 11:06 just a concubine. 11:08 And, of course, a Caesar can't have a village girl for a wife. 11:12 And besides, he now had the opportunity to marry his 11:15 senior emperor's daughter, a girl by the name of Theodora. 11:19 Now, it's at this point during the bitter disappointment 11:21 of divorce that many historians think Constantine's mother, 11:25 Helena, became a Christ follower, a Christian. 11:29 Now, think about that, Constantine's mother belongs 11:32 to one of the highest ranking families in the Roman Empire, 11:35 an empire that hates Christianity and suddenly, 11:38 she turns to Jesus. 11:41 ♪♪♪ 11:46 Shawn: But the boy Constantine, 11:47 well, he didn't turn to Christianity. 11:49 History suggests that he reacted a little differently. 11:52 He got bitter and angry. 11:54 Now, of course, we don't know that for sure 11:56 but the circumstantial evidence suggests it. 11:59 What we do know is that he's all grown up now and that he 12:02 gets sent to go work for the Emperor Diocletian. 12:04 He becomes a centurion in the Imperial Guard, 12:07 and he works with Diocletian for something like 11 years, 12:11 that's a long time. 12:12 You can't work with a guy like Diocletian for that long 12:15 and not have something rub off on you. 12:17 Historians suggest that Constantine learned much of his 12:20 own management style from one of the most notorious emperors 12:23 in all of history. 12:29 Across the ocean down in Egypt, Diocletian was suddenly faced 12:32 with a big problem, a group of Gnostics 12:35 known as the Manicheans. 12:37 Now, the Manicheans were a religious movement started by 12:40 a Persian prophet by the name of Mani and he taught that you can 12:44 find salvation through education and fasting by living 12:48 an ascetic, self-denying life. 12:51 Unfortunately for the Christians, while 12:53 Mani the prophet was not a Christian, he did borrow 12:57 some of his teachings from the Christian faith. 13:00 In fact, he declared himself to be an apostle. 13:04 Most Christians weren't too keen on that because Mani also taught 13:07 stuff that was completely at odds with Christianity 13:11 like reincarnation. 13:13 Mani was also a fan of Buddha, Zoroaster, and Krishna. 13:18 Manichaeism had some of the trappings of Christianity 13:22 but they were not Christians, but that didn't matter 13:27 to the Romans because they didn't care what you believed 13:29 as long as you weren't a threat to the empire. 13:33 By all means, go ahead, become a Manichean. 13:35 The emperor will not care unless you do what the Manicheans did. 13:41 They staged a revolt and that was a problem. 14:02 Diocletian had no choice but to take action. 14:05 He suddenly marched into Egypt to put an end to the rebellion. 14:09 He believed that the Manicheans were planted in Egypt by 14:13 the Persian king, spies sent into Roman territory 14:17 to destabilize it. 14:18 So, Diocletian brutally squashed their movement. 14:22 He literally sent the Manicheans to the salt mines and, 14:26 of course, Constantine, who is now 25 years old, 14:29 was there for the whole thing. 14:32 The Roman persecution of the Manicheans gives us 14:34 a great example of what would happen if you threaten 14:37 the stability of the empire or if you even appeared 14:40 to be a threat. 14:42 And the crushing of the Manichean revolt was 14:44 a disturbing foreshadow of what was just about to happen 14:48 to the Christians. 14:54 As far as the Romans were concerned, there 14:56 was a crucial link between the Manicheans and the Christians. 15:00 Roman religion, with all its pagan gods, really didn't offer 15:03 an after life or any kind of eternal reward. 15:06 It also didn't offer any kind of redemption from sin, 15:11 but the Prophet Mani did offer that stuff and so did Jesus. 15:16 As far as the Romans were concerned, they were both 15:18 mystery religions because both groups seemed to offer 15:21 secret knowledge, this secret path to heaven. 15:25 Now, in reality, that wasn't actually true of the Christians 15:28 but there was another group that latched on to Christian 15:31 thinking, a group known as the Gnostics and they believed that 15:36 their followers had secret sacred knowledge. 15:39 In fact, that's where they got their name. 15:41 Gnostics are named for the Greek word "gnosis" or "knowledge." 15:46 But the Christians, well, they did have a mystery, the mystery 15:50 of the gospel, as Paul put it, but they were willing to share 15:53 that mystery with anybody who was willing to listen. 16:00 Shawn: For the most part, however, Diocletian 16:02 didn't really care what the Christians believed. 16:05 He did care about the Manicheans because they were 16:08 a political threat but the Christians, well, 16:11 they actually even had a church right in Nicomedia, proof that 16:15 they were still relatively free in the early years 16:18 of Diocletian's reign. 16:20 Diocletian didn't really have a problem with these people, 16:23 but the junior emperor in the east, 16:25 Diocletian's right hand man, 16:28 the Caesar, he did have a problem with Christians. 16:35 His name was Galerius and in the year 302, 16:38 he started to complain that the Christians in Nicomedia 16:41 were offending the Romans by disregarding 16:43 the traditional Roman gods. 16:47 And I guess to some extent, that was probably true, not that 16:51 the Christians were trying to disrespect the emperor, but 16:55 as some of them started to rise up through Roman society, 16:57 they became more exposed to Rome's religion. 17:01 And the emperor was considered to be the son of a god 17:04 or even one of the gods. 17:06 And if you disrespected the gods, you were also 17:09 disrespecting the divine authority of the emperor. 17:13 Now, Galerius, the second in command, the Caesar, 17:16 he had a mother named Romula who came to this city 17:19 from modern day Bulgaria. 17:21 She was a pagan priestess who worshiped the ancient gods 17:24 of the mountains and when she discovered that Christians 17:26 were not interested in her pagan rituals, she got angry. 17:30 She hated them and, of course, her son Galerius had the ear 17:34 of the emperor Diocletian. 17:41 Shawn: Now, at about the same time, a pagan philosopher 17:46 by the name of Porphyry started writing these vitriolic hit 17:50 pieces against the Christians and his writings were 17:52 so influential that even after he died, 17:56 Christians still felt the need to answer his charges. 18:00 When you combine that with the hatred of Galerius 18:03 and his mother, you suddenly had this renewed discomfort 18:06 with the Christian religion. 18:08 They had a pretty good life for almost 50 years, 18:11 no real persecution. 18:13 But now the heat was rising again and with a junior emperor 18:18 eager to get rid of the followers of Jesus, 18:20 something had to give. 18:23 For the first 17 years of Diocletian's reign, 18:26 he was so busy securing his empire that he never 18:29 really thought about the Christians. 18:32 Of course, he knew they existed, but the only thing 18:35 he really knew about them was that Christian soldiers obeyed 18:38 his orders just like everybody else. 18:41 But after the Manichean revolt and the complaints of Galerius, 18:45 he started to suspect that maybe Christians were a problem. 18:51 ♪♪♪ 19:02 Shawn: In September of 302, Diocletian went to visit some 19:04 of his frontier garrisons in the Balkans 19:07 and because of Galerius' insistence 19:10 that the Christians were no good, he started to ask 19:12 questions and everybody he asked--commanders, 19:17 civilian administrators, the locals--they all told him 19:19 the same thing. 19:21 Christians were good citizens and faithful soldiers. 19:24 But they did have one complaint, the Christians would not 19:28 participate in public sacrifices and the army was worried that 19:33 eventually the Roman gods would get offended 19:36 and quit helping them on the battlefield. 19:44 "Their numbers are growing," someone said to the emperor. 19:47 "The army is full of these Christians 19:49 and so is the civil list. 19:51 Their first loyalty is to a crucified Jew they call 19:54 Dominus, and they claim that Jesus is Lord and Savior." 20:00 Now, that's the part that really bothered Diocletian. 20:04 Here he was doing his very best to unify a massive empire 20:09 and the Christians were loyal to someone else. 20:12 In October of 302, he called a meeting 20:15 of high-ranking officials and he got more disturbing news. 20:20 A man by the name of Heracles, the governor of Bithynia said, 20:24 "Don't you think this cult is like the cult of Mithras. 20:28 The followers of Mithras never spoke against the Roman gods, 20:31 but the Christians consider our gods to be demons, 20:35 unholy spirits, and they claim that the Hebrew rebel 20:40 they worship is the only true God." 20:45 ♪♪♪ 20:51 Shawn: That bothered Diocletian, but he was still 20:53 reluctant to use violence against the Christians because, 20:56 well, violence doesn't tend to create loyalty. 21:00 And he knew from history that if he tried to kill the Christians, 21:04 they would just voluntarily march to their deaths, 21:06 glad to be martyrs and that would only attract more people 21:11 to the movement. 21:12 So, Diocletian started with civil penalties. 21:15 He just dismissed all the Christians from the army 21:18 and he fired all the Christians in his palace. 21:21 And to make sure he was doing the right thing, 21:23 he sent a messenger to the famous oracle at Didyma 21:26 to ask Apollo what he thought and Apollo told the emperor, 21:31 through the oracle, of course, that Christians were the reason 21:34 he had no message for the king. 21:37 The presence of Christians was keeping the Roman gods 21:40 from speaking. 21:43 ♪♪♪ 21:56 Shawn: That was the last straw. 21:58 On February 23 of 303, soldiers suddenly stormed 22:01 the Christian church here in Nicomedia. 22:03 They knocked down the building with a battering ram 22:06 and they burned all the books. 22:09 Galerius actually wanted to burn the church but Diocletian said, 22:12 "No, that would endanger the whole city so we'll just use 22:16 a battering ram." 22:18 The next day, they posted a public edict against Christians. 22:22 They no longer had a right to worship and to make matters 22:25 worse, if you attacked a Christian or robbed him, 22:28 you could do it with absolute impunity because they no longer 22:32 had access to the Roman courts. 22:35 Then a few months later, the leaders of the church 22:37 were rounded up and told that if they did not offer sacrifices 22:40 to the emperor, they would be put to death. 22:46 The same day they posted the edict, a Christian by the name 22:48 of Eustathius unfortunately lost his temper and ripped it down. 22:53 He stomped on it and shouted insults against the emperor, 22:56 a direct challenge to Diocletian. 22:59 So, he was immediate arrested and taken before a judge. 23:03 In the courtroom, the guards described what he had done 23:06 and the judge asked him, "Is that true?" 23:09 "Yes, it is." 23:11 "So, you admit that you insulted the sacred person 23:13 of the Augustus?" 23:15 "For me," Eustathius said, "only the person of Christ is sacred." 23:21 Now, pay attention to what the judge said next 23:23 because it's important. 23:25 "If I condemn you, it will not be for your religion, 23:29 but for your insolent act against the emperor." 23:31 The judge was trying to defend religious liberty because, 23:35 remember, the Romans didn't actually care about your 23:38 religion, what they cared about was political stability, 23:41 that's the reason they allowed Jesus to be crucified. 23:45 They didn't care what he taught. 23:46 They didn't care what he believed. 23:48 They only cared that he was perceived as a threat 23:51 to political stability. 23:53 Eustathius answered the judge, "I insulted the emperor 23:57 only because he insulted my Lord and Savior. 24:00 If you kill me, you will not give me death, but life eternal. 24:04 I pity you." 24:06 "You are an idiot," the judge said, "but the law does not 24:09 exempt idiots from just punishment. 24:12 Take him away. 24:13 Torture him, and then burn him on the stake." 24:23 That's precisely what they did. 24:25 They hung him on an iron hook and whipped him all night long. 24:29 And when the sun rose in the morning, they tied him 24:32 to a stake and burned him to death. 24:35 Eustathius was the first victim of the Diocletian persecution. 24:39 It might have been the last except for something that 24:42 happened just a few weeks later, a fire in Diocletian's palace. 24:48 It started on the ground floor near the slave quarters 24:51 and today, some historians believe that Galerius actually 24:54 started the fire himself trying to frame the Christians. 24:59 It was the same thing Nero did almost 250 years earlier, 25:02 he burned the city of Rome and blamed the Christians. 25:08 So, how did Galerius blame the Christians? 25:12 He planned a public ceremony to thank the Roman gods for saving 25:15 the emperor's family who survived the fire 25:18 and he knew the Christians would not participate. 25:22 "Anybody who doesn't participate," he said, 25:25 "must not be glad that we survived and those people 25:28 are obviously party to this crime." 25:31 Now, Diocletian loved the plan, so he called for 25:34 the priest of Jupiter and organized a public sacrifice. 25:37 Everybody had to walk past the fire and toss in 25:41 just a pinch of incense. 25:44 Two people refused to do it, both of them lifelong 25:47 secretaries in the service of Diocletian. 25:50 They were people Diocletian loved 25:52 and he tried to save them. 25:54 "Just one little pinch," he said. 25:56 But one of those Christians answered, "Domine, I have served 26:01 you faithfully for many years. 26:03 I would give my earthly life for you, but you are asking me 26:07 to forfeit my eternal life. 26:09 This, I cannot do." 26:13 Diocletian had no choice. 26:16 He had the man tortured and beheaded. 26:18 Two weeks later, there was another fire in the palace, 26:21 one that started during a lightning storm 26:23 so there is a pretty good chance it was actually accidental 26:26 but still, the Christians got the blame. 26:30 Persecution put down deep roots 26:33 and the persecution lasted exactly 10 years. 26:37 "You will have tribulation ten days," 26:39 the Book of Revelation said, and in Bible prophesy, 26:41 a day which is often used to represent a year. 26:45 It seems that even before the Diocletian persecution began, 26:49 the Christians knew it was coming. 26:51 The God they worshiped, the humble carpenter's son 26:53 from Nazareth, was able to warn them centuries in advance that 26:57 the church would experience some incredible hardship as they took 27:01 the gospel to the world. 27:03 That message, Revelation's letter to Smyrna, was a message 27:08 from someone who knew a thing or two about death. 27:11 It's a letter from someone who identifies himself as the first 27:14 and the last, someone who was dead and came back to life. 27:19 Now, why were the early Christians 27:22 so willing to die for their faith? 27:24 It was because the God they worshiped had already conquered 27:27 the grave and shortly before the persecution started, 27:31 he had also conquered the heart of one humble woman, 27:34 a girl named Helena. 27:36 And Helena's son had a front row seat 27:39 to the Diocletian persecutions. 27:41 Constantine was also the man who finally brought that persecution 27:45 to an end exactly 10 years later. 27:50 ♪♪♪ 28:02 announcer: Order your copy of "Shadow Empire" 28:03 from the Voice of Prophecy today. 28:05 Go to ShadowEmpireDVD.com now to get your set of this exciting 28:09 4-part series on DVD or call toll free, 1-844-822-2943. 28:16 Again that's 1-844-822-2943. 28:20 We're ready to help you Monday through Thursday 28:21 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. mountain time 28:24 or you can order anytime at ShadowEmpireDVD.com. 28:29 announcer: If you've enjoyed "Shadow Empire," 28:31 join the Voice of Prophecy for the sequel, 28:33 "A Pale Horse Rides." 28:35 We'll focus on a remarkable untold story that set the stage 28:38 for the appearance of Martin Luther. 28:40 Travel with us beyond the fringes of the Roman Empire 28:43 revealing the amazing tale of a biblical Christianity that 28:46 somehow survived the darkest hours of the Dark Ages. 28:51 ♪♪♪ 28:56 announcer: Join other churches in hosting something big. 28:58 Visit our website now. |
Revised 2017-09-19