BRIAN BREAKS THE CODE

After reading, The Da Vinci Code, I saw the source of all the controversy over Dan Brown's assertion in his novel about the roots and foundation of Christianity. I am going to post a few times about the book and hold the claims of the book against our own history. Entire books have been written about the subjects I will cover so this is in no way an exhaustive look at these figures and important moments in Christian History.


DA VINCI:
"Who chose which gospels to include?" Sophie asked.

"Aha!" Teabing burst in with enthusiasm. "The fundamental irony of Christianity! The Bible, as we know it, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.' (chapter 55)

CHURCH HISTORY: There are many quotes from this chapter I want to dissect but the claim that Constantine canonized the Bible is not substantiated in any accepted historical accounts. Constantine ruled the Roman Empire from 306 until his death in 337. He is best known in church history as the emperor who stopped the persecution of Christians. Until the rule of Constantine there was widespread persecution of Christians and the Edict of Milan in 313 declared that there would no longer be government persecution of Christians, all property taken from Christians should be restored, and it disestablished paganism as the official religion of the Empire. The rule of Constantine changed the face of the church forever and many great church historians disagree on that effect. Some believe we owe an incredible deal of gratitude to Constantine for stopping the persecution and in those circles he is revered. Others believe that Christianity was hijacked by a ruler that needed to unify his people so he could overthrow Licinius in the Western part of the Empire and become the ruler over all of the Roman Empire (which he eventually did). This view of Constantine sees how Christianity became the popular religion to connect yourself with and lost much of the passion and commitment that existed during the time of persecution...

Read the rest of Brian's post at ikonblog.