Establishing the RCC …….(and Review point)
We have seen the false Gods of the 4 major dynasties of the biblical epicenter, the Meso-Sumerian, the Egyptian, Greek and Roman. Also covering the Apostolic fathers, their ISM’s and their influence upon the construction of the scriptures into the Bible we hold today.
It is here that we begin to “draw a line in the sand” and unravel the contents of the world’s foremost organized religion and the intentions of its founding. The Roman Catholic Church and its influence on the estimated 2.2 billion Christians in the world.
Constantine the Great was a Roman Emperor from 306 to 337 AD. Constantine was the son of Flavius Valerius Constantius, a Roman Army officer, and his consort Helena. After his father’s death in 306 AD, Constantine emerged victorious in a series of civil wars against the emperors Maxentius and Licinius to become sole ruler of both west and east by 324 AD.
As emperor, Constantine enacted many administrative, financial, social, and military reforms to strengthen the empire. Constantine played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which decreed tolerance for Christianity in the empire and he called the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Constantine was drawing from his ancestral roots in assimilating conquered religions in the Roman pantheon.
He built a new imperial residence at Byzantium and renamed the city Constantinople after himself, this along with the Arch of Triumph, define the self-promotion and self-deification Constantine sought to achieve. Constantine did not patronize Christianity alone at the time of the arch’s dedication, sacrifices to gods like Apollo, Diana, and Hercules were made. Absent from the Arch are any depictions of Christian symbolism, yet, it is replete with Constantine’s own likeness.
Any notion a person has to the intentions of Constantine and his genuine conversion to the Lordship of Yeshua the Messiah must be met with sincere critic, on simply need look at his self-imposed title: Constantine the Great, when translated means Equal-to-the-Apostles. Evident in his Arch dedication and his military service is the undeniable belief in polytheism and more specifically the Mithraic Mysteries, a secret society cult.
The First Council of Nicaea constructed by Constantine and administered by the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, the episcopal see of the Pope, and an independent sovereign entity. The Pope governs the Catholic Church through the Roman Curia. The Roman Curia consists of a complex of offices that administer church affairs at the highest level, including the Secretariat of State, nine Congregations, three Tribunals, eleven Pontifical Councils, and seven Pontifical Commissions.
Constantine had invited all 1,800 bishops of the Catholic church within the Roman Empire (about 1,000 in the east and 800 in the west), but a smaller and unknown number attended. Eusebius of Caesarea counted more for than 250 of the attendees, Dionysius brought 318, while the Church of Alexandria (Eusebius doctrine) composed another 318. This means nearly half of the attendees were from the persuasions of Origen.
Their first order of agenda was the Arian concept of Christ is that the Son of God did not always exist but was created by God the Father. This is the foundation of the Nicaean or Apostles Creed. There should be no controversy on this issue as the scriptures are very clear.
John 1:1-2 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 14:9 “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?”
Hebrew 1:3 “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person”
The second “milestone” of this collaboration is the concept of Easter. Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts which do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars which follow only the cycle of the sun; rather, its date is determined on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the council.
The council stated: “We also send you the good news of the settlement concerning the holy pasch, namely that in answer to your prayers this question also has been resolved. All the brethren in the East who have hitherto followed the Jewish practice will henceforth observe the custom of the Romans and of yourselves and of all of us who from ancient times have kept Easter together with you.”
We can draw from our study on the Egyptian goddess Heket the tradition of eggs in the celebration. The most widely accepted origin of the term “Easter” is that it is derived from the name of a goddess, Ēostre, in whose honor feasts were celebrated in the month of April. Ēostre is known as the ‘goddess of the dawn’ and is given additional linguistic support in that she is designated the ‘daughter of heaven’. Thus continues the Roman Catholic theme of ritualistic necromancy as religious liturgy.
The origin of the goddess Ēostre is found in the Akkadian goddess Ishtar. Ishtar was the goddess of love, war, fertility, and sexuality. Like Ishtar, the Greek Aphrodite and the Aramean Northwestern Semitic Astarte, likewise Inaana, Lillith, and Ashtaroth all were love goddesses and the pagan counterpart to Nimrod.
The goddess Ashtaroth is specifically denounced as evil by God in Judges 2:11-13 “And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.”
The council promulgated twenty new church laws, called canons, (though the exact number is subject to debate), that is, unchanging rules of discipline. The next topic, establishment of a minimum term for catechumens (persons studying for baptism). I will not profess complete genius in my own intellect, yet, I cannot derive a reason I would need to study at length the baptism. It is apparent from the scriptures and from history this was a common practice among many faiths for thousands of years prior to Nicea.
Matthew 3:5-6 “Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”
Matthew 3:13 “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.”
We can see from this example that baptism is not a complicated action when we consider the Creator of the Universe allowed a human being, even one that at locust and wore animal skins, baptize.
The establishment of hierarchy and man-made rules and traditions was the real order of business for this council. They would establish the “exceptional authority acknowledged for the patriarchs of Alexandria (pope), Antioch, and Rome (the Pope), for their respective regions.” Additionally they regulated the prohibition of the removal of priests, prohibition of usury among the clergy, precedence of bishops and presbyters before deacons in receiving the Eucharist (Holy Communion)
Roman Catholics assert that the idea of Christ’s deity was ultimately confirmed by the Bishop of Rome, and that it was this confirmation that gave the council its influence and authority. In support of this, they cite the position of early fathers and their expression of the need for all churches to agree with Rome.
Berean Breadcrumbs 
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