Participants: Pr Shawn Boonstra
Series Code: SEM
Program Code: SEM000002S
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00:00 [dramatic music]
00:04 - [Narrator] The world forever changed. 00:08 His legacy, an empire reaching across centuries. 00:11 His name, 00:15 Constantine 00:19 "Shadow Empire." 00:21 [dramatic music] 00:30 [dramatic music] 00:37 - The world knows him as Constantine, 00:39 the great conqueror who managed to unite the Roman Empire 00:43 and the man who turned the religion of Rome 00:45 completely on its head. 00:47 He propelled an obscure Jewish sect 00:49 into the global religion we know as Christianity. 00:53 But what most people don't know is how this incredible man 00:56 got his star. 00:59 and how profoundly his roots shaped his thinking 01:01 and how he changed the thinking of the whole world. 01:05 He was born to a peasant girl 01:07 who had to prove that her son's father 01:09 was the governor of Dalmatia, 01:11 a powerful and influential man named Flavius Constantius. 01:16 But once that happened, 01:17 once she produced indisputable proof, 01:20 it started a chain of events that rocked the whole planet. 01:25 [dramatic music] [fire crackling] 01:29 There's a passage in the last book of the Bible 01:32 that makes reference to 10 days of fierce persecution 01:35 that the followers of Jesus would suffer. 01:38 It's found in the seven letters 01:40 to the seven churches of Asia Minor 01:42 in the Book of Revelation. 01:44 They were seven letters from Jesus to a region of the earth 01:48 that eventually became the headquarters 01:50 for the whole Roman Empire. 01:53 Most people naturally think of the city of Rome 01:55 as the capital because it was known as the Eternal City, 01:58 the birthplace of the empire. 02:01 It was the home of Romulus and Remus. 02:04 But while Rome was always important to the Romans, 02:07 over time, the center of power actually moved to the east. 02:11 [dramatic music] 02:14 And some of the Christians moved here too, 02:17 even though their roots were in Jerusalem. 02:20 By the time John writes the Book of Revelation 02:22 toward the end of the first century, 02:24 he's a prisoner on the island of Patmos, 02:27 a Roman penal colony way out in the Aegean Sea, 02:30 some 40 miles off of the coast. 02:33 Tradition has it that he was actually the pastor 02:35 of the church in Ephesus, which is one of the seven cities 02:38 mentioned in the Book of Revelation. 02:46 Over the years, 02:47 Bible students have found an interesting pattern 02:49 in the first three chapters of Revelation. 02:52 The seven letters were written to very real churches 02:54 that existed right here in Asia Minor 02:56 back in the first century. 02:59 But the astonishing thing about those letters 03:01 is the way they also seem to track 03:04 the entire history of Christianity. 03:06 It's as if each letter actually predicts some phase 03:09 of the development of Christianity far in advance. 03:13 The first letter is addressed to the church in Ephesus, 03:16 and it seems to clearly point to first century Christianity, 03:20 a time when the church was still being led by people 03:23 who knew Jesus personally. 03:25 The second letter is addressed to the people of Smyrna, 03:29 a city whose very name implies something being crushed. 03:35 Smyrna, you see, is virtually synonymous 03:36 with the word myrrh, 03:38 which you probably know is one of the gifts 03:40 the wise men brought to baby Jesus. 03:42 Remember, gold, frankincense and myrrh. 03:46 Myrrh was a sweet-smelling fragrance 03:48 you obtain by crushing the myrrh plant. 03:51 You had to brutally destroy it to bring out the nice scent. 03:56 And oddly enough, 03:58 that's exactly what happened to the Christian Church 04:00 as the Roman Empire became more and more aware 04:03 of its presence, 04:05 as they began to consider it a threat to Roman's stability. 04:09 Christians worshiped a king who said 04:11 He would cleanse the earth by fire one day 04:14 and establish His own kingdom. 04:16 And of course, that started Roman tongues wagging 04:20 and people started telling the most outrageous stories 04:23 about Christ's followers. 04:31 It was a very unhappy time 04:33 for the Christians to say the least. 04:35 And most Bible students believe there's a special message 04:38 from Jesus to those suffering Christians, 04:41 a message encoded in the Letter to Smyrna. 04:44 "Do not fear any of those things 04:46 which you are about to suffer. 04:48 Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, 04:50 that you may be tested, 04:52 and you will have tribulation ten days. 04:54 Be faithful until death, 04:56 and I will give you the crown of life." 04:58 [gentle music] 04:59 It fits perfectly. 05:01 By the end of the first century, 05:03 the Christians started to feel 05:04 the wrath of the Roman Empire. 05:06 For the most part, the Romans were actually pretty tolerant. 05:10 They allowed you to practice any religion you wanted, 05:12 that is until they perceived 05:15 that you might be a threat to the unity of the empire. 05:18 Roman culture loved a scapegoat. 05:21 They loved to blame someone when the favor of the Roman gods 05:24 no longer seemed to be falling on them. 05:27 And by the end of the first century, the Christians were it. 05:30 They were the scapegoat. 05:34 [fire crackling] 05:37 At one point, there was a fire here in the city of Rome 05:40 and something like 70% of the city burned to the ground. 05:44 According to the Roman historian, Tacitus 05:46 Nero blamed the Christians because after all, 05:49 they were the ones 05:51 talking about the end of the world with fire. 05:53 This is the moment that Christians started meeting 05:55 with all those cruel and painful deaths. 05:58 This is the moment they took Paul outside the city 06:01 and beheaded him. 06:03 And it was at this time that they took Peter 06:05 and locked him up in a dark musty cell 06:07 here at the bottom of Mamertine Prison. 06:10 It was the beginning of the persecution 06:12 mentioned in the Letter to Smyrna. 06:14 That persecution would come to a head. 06:17 It would reach its absolute apex for a period of 10 days. 06:21 That's what the letter said. 06:24 And this is the point 06:25 where the stories of Jesus and Constantine 06:28 actually begin to merge. 06:30 [gentle music] 06:42 Several centuries after its birth, 06:44 the Roman Empire became a little unstable, 06:47 and out on the battlefields of the empire, 06:49 something incredible took place. 06:52 In 284 AD, 06:53 right here near the modern day city of Izmit Turkey, 06:57 the commander of the imperial bodyguard 06:59 was suddenly declared the Roman emperor by his troops. 07:03 His name was Diocletian. 07:06 His rise to power was very unusual. 07:09 One year before he came to power, 07:11 the emperor Carus suddenly died while fighting the Persians, 07:15 we think he actually had a heart attack. 07:17 And just before his death, 07:19 his two sons had been made caesars, 07:21 which was kind of like a vice emperor. 07:24 He was trying to build a family dynasty. 07:27 Now, after Carus died, 07:29 one son was given control of the west 07:31 and the other son was given control of the east. 07:34 The son who got the west, his name was Carinus, 07:37 and he was such a brutal man 07:39 that eventually one of his own soldiers 07:41 stabbed him in the back for raping his wife. 07:44 The other son, the one who got control of the east, 07:47 his name was Numerian, 07:49 and we think somebody murdered him too. 07:52 And some historians think 07:54 that Diocletian actually had him killed. 07:58 Here's what we know. 08:00 They said Numerian had an eye infection, 08:02 so he had to spend all day, every day 08:04 riding inside a litter, a hand-carried carriage. 08:08 He had to be in there to keep the dust and light 08:10 out of his eye. 08:11 But after a number of days when a slave opened the door, 08:14 there he was, the emperor's son, dead as a doorpost. 08:20 Now, that was a real problem for Diocletian 08:23 because he was responsible for the emperor's safety. 08:28 So what did he do? 08:29 He found a scapegoat. 08:31 He blamed Numerian's father-in-law, 08:33 a guy by the name of Lucius Aper. 08:36 In the middle of the night, 08:37 he went into Lucius's tent and had him arrested, 08:40 and then he gathered his legion commanders 08:42 all around the tent 08:43 and dumped the badly decomposing body of Numerian 08:46 on the ground. 08:47 "You did this," he said. 08:49 And of course, Lucius denied it, 08:51 so they had a trial just three miles from here. 08:54 - In the name of Rome- - Diocletian made a speech 08:58 in front of all the soldiers. 09:00 "For the past four days," he said, 09:01 "legion commanders have been asking Lucius 09:04 to arrange a meeting with the emperor 09:06 and the requests were denied. 09:08 I, the commander of the Protectorate, 09:10 asked Lucius about the emperor's health 09:12 and I was told he was suffering from an eye ailment. 09:16 I didn't become suspicious until a faithful soldier reported 09:19 that for days the emperor hadn't even left the litter 09:23 to relieve himself." 09:25 At the end of the speech, he pointed straight at Lucius, 09:27 "He is the murderer." 09:30 Of course, Lucius blew a gasket. 09:32 "He's the murderer, not me!" He responded. 09:34 "Are you going to believe the words of a plotter? 09:37 The words of a filthy son of a slave?" 09:41 That was the last straw for Diocletian. 09:43 He pulled out a knife and stabbed Lucius on the spot. 09:48 Then, his men unanimously declared him the new emperor. 09:51 [dramatic music] [people chanting] 09:57 But emperor was a big job. 10:00 The Roman territories were huge and hard to control, 10:03 so Diocletian did something pretty smart. 10:06 He divided responsibility amongst four men 10:09 with two halves of the empire. 10:11 In the east, he would have two emperors, 10:13 a senior known as an Augustus, 10:16 and a junior known as a Caesar. 10:18 The same was true for the other half of the empire 10:21 in the west. 10:22 So in the east, you had Diocletian himself, 10:25 the number one emperor, and his assistant, 10:27 a Caesar by the name of Galerius. 10:30 Over in the west, Maximian was appointed Augustus, 10:33 the senior emperor, and his junior, the Caesar 10:37 was a guy by the name of Flavius Constantius, 10:41 Constantine's father. 10:44 Now, as soon as Constantine's father got the appointment, 10:47 he moved his family to the city of Arelate 10:50 in modern-day France. 10:53 So what does that have to do with 10 days of persecution? 10:56 Well, follow me carefully 10:58 because this is really pretty amazing. 11:00 When Flavius Constantius became the junior emperor 11:03 or the Caesar in the west, he suddenly divorces Helena, 11:07 the mother of Constantine because she was a commoner, 11:10 just a concubine. 11:11 And of course, a Caesar 11:13 can't have a village girl for a wife. 11:16 And besides, he now had the opportunity 11:18 to marry his senior emperor's daughter, 11:20 a girl by the name of Theodora. 11:23 Now, it's at this point 11:24 during the bitter disappointment of divorce 11:27 that many historians think Constantine's mother Helena 11:30 became a Christ follower, a Christian. 11:33 Now, think about that. 11:34 Constantine's mother 11:36 belongs to one of the highest-ranking families 11:37 in the Roman Empire, an empire that hates Christianity, 11:41 and suddenly, she turns to Jesus. 11:44 [gentle music] 11:49 But the boy, Constantine, 11:51 well, he didn't turn to Christianity. 11:53 History suggests that he reacted a little differently. 11:56 He got bitter and angry. 11:58 Now of course, we don't know that for sure, 12:00 but the circumstantial evidence suggests it. 12:03 What we do know is that he's all grown up now 12:05 and he gets sent to go work for the Emperor Diocletian. 12:08 He becomes a centurion in the Imperial Guard, 12:10 and he works with Diocletian for something like 11 years. 12:15 That's a long time. 12:16 You can't work with a guy like Diocletian for that long 12:19 and not have something rub off on you. 12:21 Historians suggest that Constantine 12:23 learned much of his own management style 12:25 from one of the most notorious emperors in all of history. 12:29 [waves crashing] 12:33 Across the ocean, down in Egypt, 12:35 Diocletian was suddenly faced with a big problem, 12:38 a group of Gnostics known as the Manicheans. 12:42 Now, the Manicheans were a religious movement 12:44 started by a Persian prophet by the name of Mani, 12:47 and he taught that you can find salvation through education 12:51 and fasting by living an aesthetic, self-denying life. 12:55 Unfortunately, for the Christians, 12:57 while Mani the prophet was not a Christian, 12:59 he did borrow some of his teachings 13:02 from the Christian faith. 13:04 In fact, he declared himself to be an apostle. 13:08 Most Christians weren't too keen on that 13:10 because Mani also taught stuff 13:12 that was completely at odds with Christianity, 13:15 like reincarnation. 13:17 Mani was also a fan of Buddha, Zoroaster and Krishna. 13:22 Manichaeism had some of the trappings of Christianity, 13:26 but they were not Christians. 13:29 But that didn't matter to the Romans 13:31 because they didn't care what you believe, 13:33 as long as you weren't a threat to the empire. 13:36 By all means, go ahead, become a Manichean, 13:39 the emperor will not care, 13:42 unless you do what the Manicheans did. 13:45 They staged a revolt, and that was a problem. 13:59 [ethereal music] 14:05 Diocletian had no choice but to take action. 14:08 He suddenly marched into Egypt 14:10 to put an end to the rebellion. 14:13 He believed that the Manicheans were planted in Egypt 14:16 by the Persian king, 14:18 spies sent into Roman territory to destabilize it, 14:22 so Diocletian brutally squashed their movement. 14:26 He literally sent the Manicheans to the salt mines. 14:29 And of course, Constantine, who was now 25 years old, 14:33 was there for the whole thing. 14:35 The Roman persecution of the Manicheans 14:37 gives us a great example of what would happen 14:40 if you threaten the stability of the empire, 14:43 or if you even appeared to be a threat, 14:46 and the crushing of the Manicheans revolt 14:48 was a disturbing foreshadow 14:50 of what was just about to happen to the Christians. 14:57 As far as the Romans were concerned, 14:59 there was a crucial link between the Manicheans 15:02 and the Christians. 15:04 Roman religion with all its pagan gods 15:06 really didn't offer an afterlife 15:08 or any kind of eternal reward. 15:10 It also didn't offer any kind of redemption from sin. 15:15 But the prophet Mani did offer that stuff, 15:18 and so did Jesus. 15:20 As far as the Romans were concerned, 15:21 they were both mystery religions 15:23 because both groups seemed to offer secret knowledge, 15:26 this secret path to heaven. 15:29 Now, in reality, 15:30 that wasn't actually true of the Christians, 15:33 but there was another group 15:34 that latched onto Christian thinking, 15:36 a group known as the Gnostics, 15:38 and they believed that their followers 15:40 had secret sacred knowledge. 15:43 In fact, that's where they got their name. 15:45 Gnostics are named for the Greek word gnosis or knowledge. 15:51 But the Christians, well, they did have a mystery, 15:53 the mystery of the Gospel, as Paul put it. 15:56 But they were willing to share that mystery 15:58 with anybody who was willing to listen. 16:00 [gentle music] 16:04 For the most part, however, 16:05 Diocletian didn't really care what the Christians believed. 16:09 He did care about the Manicheans 16:11 because they were a political threat. 16:13 But the Christians, well, they actually even had a church 16:16 right in Nicomedia, 16:18 proof that they were still relatively free 16:20 in the early years of Diocletian's reign. 16:23 Diocletian didn't really have a problem with these people, 16:27 but the junior emperor in the east, 16:29 Diocletian's right hand man, the Caesar, 16:33 he did have a problem with Christians. 16:35 [gentle music] 16:39 His name was Galerius, and in the year 302, 16:42 he started to complain that the Christians in Nicomedia 16:45 were offending the Romans 16:46 by disregarding the traditional Roman gods. 16:51 And I guess to some extent, that was probably true. 16:55 Not that the Christians were trying 16:57 to disrespect the emperor, 16:58 but as some of them started to rise up 17:00 through Roman society, 17:01 they became more exposed to Rome's religion, 17:04 and the emperor was considered to be the son of a god, 17:07 or even one of the gods, and if you disrespected the gods, 17:12 you were also disrespecting 17:13 the divine authority of the emperor. 17:16 Now, Galerius, the second in command, the Caesar, 17:19 he had a mother named Romula 17:21 who came to this city from modern-day Bulgaria. 17:24 She was a pagan priestess 17:26 who worshiped the ancient gods of the mountains. 17:29 And when she discovered that Christians were not interested 17:31 in her pagan rituals, she got angry, she hated them. 17:35 And of course, her son Galerius 17:37 had the ear of the emperor Diocletian. 17:40 [waves crashing] 17:46 Now, at about the same time, 17:48 a pagan philosopher by the name of Porphyry 17:51 started writing these vitriolic hit pieces 17:54 against the Christians. 17:55 And his writings were so influential 17:58 that even after he died, 18:00 Christians still felt the need to answer his charges. 18:04 When you combine that 18:05 with the hatred of Galerius and his mother, 18:08 you suddenly had this renewed discomfort 18:10 with the Christian religion. 18:12 They had a pretty good life for almost 50 years, 18:15 no real persecution. 18:17 But now the heat was rising again, 18:20 and with a junior emperor 18:22 eager to get rid of the followers of Jesus, 18:24 something had to give. 18:26 For the first 17 years of Diocletian's reign, 18:30 he was so busy securing his empire 18:33 that he never really thought about the Christians. 18:35 Of course, he knew they existed, 18:38 but the only thing he really knew about them 18:39 was that Christian soldiers obeyed his orders, 18:42 just like everybody else. 18:45 But after the Manichean revolt 18:47 and the complaints of Galerius, 18:49 he started to suspect that maybe Christians were a problem. 18:55 [suspenseful music] 19:06 In September of 302, Diocletian went to visit 19:09 some of his frontier garrisons in the Balkans. 19:12 And because of Galerius's insistence 19:15 that the Christians were no good, 19:16 he started to ask questions. 19:18 And everybody he asked, commanders, civilian administrators, 19:22 the locals, they all told them the same thing. 19:25 Christians were good citizens and faithful soldiers. 19:29 But they did have one complaint. 19:32 The Christians would not participate in public sacrifices, 19:36 and the army was worried that eventually, 19:38 the Roman gods would get offended 19:40 and quit helping them on the battlefield. 19:43 [suspenseful music] 19:48 "Their numbers are growing," someone said to the emperor. 19:52 The army is full of these Christians, 19:54 and so is the civil list. 19:56 Their first loyalty is to a crucified Jew they call Dominus, 20:01 and they claim that Jesus is Lord and Savior. 20:05 Now, that's the part that really bothered Diocletian. 20:08 Here he was, doing his very best to unify a massive empire, 20:14 and the Christians were loyal to someone else. 20:17 In October of 302, 20:19 he called a meeting of high-ranking officials 20:22 and he got more disturbing news. 20:24 A man by the name of Hierocles, 20:26 the governor of Bithynia, said, 20:29 "Don't you think this cult is like the cult of Mithras. 20:32 The followers of Mithras never spoke against the Roman gods, 20:37 but the Christians consider our gods to be demons, 20:41 unholy spirits, and they claim 20:44 that the Hebrew rebel they worship is the only true God." 20:49 [suspenseful music] 20:56 That bothered Diocletian, 20:58 but he was still reluctant to use violence 21:00 against the Christians because, well, 21:02 violence doesn't tend to create loyalty. 21:05 And he knew from history 21:06 that if he tried to kill the Christians, 21:09 they would just voluntarily march to their deaths, 21:11 glad to be martyrs, 21:13 and that would only attract more people to the movement, 21:17 so Diocletian started with civil penalties. 21:20 He just dismissed all the Christians from the army 21:22 and he fired all the Christians in his palace. 21:25 And to make sure he was doing the right thing, 21:28 he sent a messenger to the famous oracle at Didyma 21:31 to ask Apollo what he thought. 21:33 And Apollo told the emperor through the oracle, of course, 21:37 that Christians were the reason 21:39 he had no message for the king. 21:41 The presence of Christians 21:43 was keeping the Roman gods from speaking. 21:47 [suspenseful music] 21:54 [dramatic music] 22:00 That was the last straw. 22:02 On February 23 of 303, soldiers suddenly stormed 22:06 the Christian Church here in Nicomedia,. 22:08 They knocked down the building with a battering ram 22:11 and they burned all the books. 22:13 [bang echoes] 22:14 Galerius actually wanted to burn the church, 22:16 but Diocletian said no, that would endanger the whole city, 22:19 so we'll just use a battering ram. 22:23 The next day, they posted a public edict against Christians. 22:27 They no longer had a right to worship. 22:29 And to make matters worse, 22:30 if you attacked a Christian or robbed him, 22:33 you could do it with absolute impunity 22:36 because they no longer had access to the Roman courts. 22:39 Then a few months later, 22:41 the leaders of the church were rounded up 22:43 and told that if they did not offer sacrifices 22:45 to the emperor, they would be put to death. 22:50 The same day they posted the edict, 22:52 a Christian by the name of Eleutherius 22:54 unfortunately lost his temper and ripped it down. 22:58 He stomped on it and shouted insults against the emperor, 23:01 a direct challenge to Diocletian. 23:03 So he was immediately arrested and taken before a judge. 23:07 In the courtroom, the guards described what he had done 23:10 and the judge asked him, "Is that true?" 23:14 "Yes, it is." 23:15 "So you admit that you insulted 23:17 the sacred person of the Augustus?" 23:20 "For me," Eleutherius said, 23:22 "only the Person of Christ is sacred." 23:25 Now, pay attention to what the judge said next, 23:28 because it's important. 23:30 "If I condemn you, it will not be for your religion, 23:33 but for your insolent act against the emperor." 23:36 The judge was trying to defend religious liberty 23:40 because remember, 23:41 the Romans didn't actually care about your religion. 23:43 What they cared about was political stability. 23:46 That's the reason they allowed Jesus to be crucified. 23:49 They didn't care what He taught. 23:51 They didn't care what He believed. 23:52 They only cared that He was perceived as a threat 23:56 to political stability. 23:58 Eleutherius answered the judge, 24:00 "I insulted the emperor 24:01 only because he insulted my Lord and Savior. 24:04 If you kill me, you will not give me death 24:08 but life eternal. 24:09 I pity you." 24:11 "You are an idiot," the judge said, 24:13 "but the law does not exempt idiots from just punishment. 24:17 Take him away. 24:18 Torture him, and then burn him on the stake." 24:21 [dramatic music] 24:27 That's precisely what they did. 24:30 They hung him on an iron hook 24:31 and whipped him all night long. 24:34 And when the sun rose in the morning, 24:36 they tied him to a stake and burned him to death. 24:40 Eleutherius was the first victim 24:41 of the Diocletian persecution. 24:44 He might have been the last, 24:46 except for something that happened just a few weeks later, 24:50 a fire in Diocletian's Palace. 24:52 It started on the ground floor near the slave quarters, 24:56 and today, some historians believe 24:58 that Galerius actually started the fire himself 25:01 trying to frame the Christians. 25:03 It was the same thing Nero did almost 250 years earlier, 25:07 he burned the city of Rome and blamed the Christians. 25:11 [fire crackling] 25:13 So, how did Galerius blame the Christians? 25:17 He planned a public ceremony to thank the Roman gods 25:20 for saving the emperor's family who survived the fire, 25:24 and he knew the Christians would not participate. 25:27 "Anybody who doesn't participate," he said, 25:29 "must not be glad that we survived, 25:32 and those people are obviously party to this crime." 25:36 Now, Diocletian loved the plan, 25:38 so he called for the priests of Jupiter 25:40 and organized a public sacrifice. 25:43 Everybody had to walk past the fire 25:45 and toss in just a pinch of incense. 25:49 Two people refused to do it, 25:51 both of them lifelong secretaries 25:52 in the service of Diocletian. 25:55 They were people Diocletian loved, 25:57 and he tried to save them. 25:58 "Just one little pinch," he said. 26:01 But one of those Christians answered, 26:04 "Domine, I have served you faithfully for many years. 26:08 I would give my earthly life for you, 26:11 but you are asking me to forfeit my eternal life. 26:14 This, I cannot do." 26:18 Diocletian had no choice. 26:20 He had the man tortured and beheaded. 26:23 Two weeks later, there was another fire in the palace, 26:26 one that started during a lightning storm, 26:28 so there is a pretty good chance it was actually accidental, 26:32 but still, the Christians got the blame. 26:35 Persecution put down deep roots, 26:37 and the persecution lasted exactly 10 years. 26:42 "You will have tribulation 10 days," 26:44 the Book of Revelation said, and in Bible prophecy, 26:46 a day is often used to represent a year. 26:50 It seems that even before the Diocletian persecution began, 26:53 the Christians knew it was coming. 26:56 The God they worshiped, 26:57 the humble carpenter's son from Nazareth, 26:59 was able to warn them centuries in advance 27:02 that the church would experience some incredible hardship 27:05 as they took the Gospel to the world. 27:08 That message, Revelations Letter to Smyrna, was a message 27:12 from someone who knew a thing or two about death. 27:15 It's a letter from someone 27:17 who identifies himself as the first and the last, 27:20 someone who was dead and came back to life. 27:25 Now, why were the early Christians 27:27 so willing to die for their faith? 27:29 It was because the God they worshiped 27:31 had already conquered the grave, 27:33 and shortly before the persecution started, 27:36 he had also conquered the heart of one humble woman, 27:38 a girl named Helena. 27:41 And Helena's son had a front row seat 27:43 to the Diocletian persecutions. 27:46 Constantine was also the man 27:48 who finally brought that persecution to an end 27:51 exactly 10 years later. 27:53 [dramatic music] 28:08 - [Announcer] This has been a broadcast 28:09 of the "Voice of Prophecy." 28:11 To learn more about how you can get a DVD copy 28:14 of "Shadow Empire" for yourself, 28:16 please visit shadowempiredvd.com 28:20 or call toll-free 844-822-2943. |
Revised 2023-08-24