The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. Interpretation Revolutionized by Church’s Establishment

The Constantinian triumph radically changed the course of prophetic interpretation regarding the second advent and related beliefs. The church at large came eventually to look at her present temporal establishment as the actual fulfillment of the prophesied kingdom of God, and consequently ceased to look for Christ’s return, except as a far-off, rather shadowy event. ⁷¹ She first disparaged, then perverted, and finally disowned the belief in a future literal kingdom of God, ushered in by the literal first resurrection and the visible coming of Christ in glory. And by the close of this fateful period she had herself claimed to be the heavenly kingdom on earth, and had turned her feet irremediably from the lighted pathway of the earlier gospel church to the shadowy bypaths of worldliness, error, and developing apostasy. Thus, the dominant church erelong cast away not only the two prevalent extremes mentioned but the very truth of the kingdom itself—deceived by a carnal caricature of the millennial kingdom fulfilled in an all too earthly church sunken in materialism and idolatry. PFF1 394.2

1. TRAGIC GENERAL ABATEMENT OF ADVENT HOPE

For the first three hundred years of the Christian Era, the advent hope had been the sustaining strength of the martyr church. It was profound belief in her Lord’s return, assured by His own promise and by the outline prophecies, that nerved her to face the fierce persecutions of a hostile pagan state. It was this impelling conviction that sustained her through fire and sword, as she went forth “conquering, and to conquer,” despite her shortcomings, through sheer moral power. PFF1 394.3

In the fourth century, when persecution was replaced by imperial favor, intoxicated by her temporal advancement and splendor, the Christian church found her desire for the future world chilled by a growing satisfaction over present successes and possessions. Already in the middle of the third century the hope of the speedy return of Christ had receded in the great centers of thought under the impact of philosophical allegorism, though it still continued sturdily in certain of the outlying districts of the East, but particularly in the West. ⁷² There was, in the Nicene and post-Nicene period, an entire abatement of advent longing, except in the hearts of a diminishing few; and this was paralleled by selfish contentment with this new and enticing state of governmental patronage. PFF1 394.4

2. POST-CONSTANTINIAN PERIOD REVERSES MILLENNIAL INTERPRETATION

A century after Constantine a new theory of the millennium was to blossom out into the “City of God” concept of Augustine-the earthly rule of the church, the millennium as a present fact, without the antecedent advent of Christ and the concurrent resurrection of the saints. Those portions of Daniel’s and John’s visions, applied before, to the second advent, now began to be applied to the first advent. The Old Testament prophecies regarding spiritual Israel were claimed for the established church, and the New Jerusalem was believed to have come, at least in shadow. But the spread of Arianism, ⁷³ and other troubles, made this new application of the prophecies most difficult, and there had already come a decided change of attitude toward the Apocalypse, leading to its virtual rejection for a time. Daniel, as well, came under hostile fire. PFF1 395.1

3. REVERSAL OF EARLIER POSITION

The recorded spokes men of the martyr church of the second and third centuries were, until Origen, united on a literal resurrection of the dead at the second, personal, premillennial advent to destroy the Antichrist, who was to appear after the breakup of Rome into ten kingdoms. But now the church, in the first flush o£ her worldly power, seemed not to see that this very transition in her midst was accelerating the “falling away” from the early faith, predicted by Paul, and preparing the way for that anti-christian ecclesiastical empire. The complete reversal of the primitive position and the utter and final rejection of the prophetic involvements of the true advent hope came under Augustine. ⁷⁴ PFF1 395.2

4. UTTER MISCONCEPTION OF THE KINGDOM

The complete change in conception, in both church and state, of the nature of the prophesied kingdom of God-the time, manner, and character of its establishment and continuance—constitutes a key that unlocks Christendom’s otherwise incomprehensible conduct through the centuries that followed. This helps to explain the strange expectations, actions, and struggles that mark the passing years. Here is the secret of the tragic misunderstandings and the woe, the vaunting ecclesiastical ambitions and base intrigues, the plays and counterplays for strategic position and power, the battles and the bloodshed, the persecutions and the plots in the name of Christianity, that have marred and scarred the centuries. PFF1 396.1

5. ROME STRUGGLES SUCCESSFULLY FOR SUPREMACY

Changes took place in church polity, with enlargement of the episcopal system into the metropolitan and patriarchal concepts. There were four leading aspirants—the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria—with Rome and Constantinople emerging as the predominant rivals, and Rome struggling determinedly for first place. PFF1 396.2

The advent hope disappeared, furthermore, just in proportion as this struggle for primacy advanced, for the “mystery of iniquity” of hierarchal self-exaltation in the church was taking on definite form. The transfer of the seat of government to Constantinople, in 330, was a contributing factor to the primacy of the bishop of Rome, for it left him as the leading figure of the metropolis of the West. PFF1 396.3

“The removal of the capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330, left the Western Church, practically free from imperial power, to develop its own form of organization. The Bishop of Rome, in the seat of the Caesars, was now the greatest man in the West and was soon [when the barbarians overran the empire] forced to become the political as well as the spiritual head.” ⁷⁵ PFF1 397.1

Another factor was the barbarians. The imperial theocracy of the West, as inaugurated by Constantine and established by Theodosius II, came to grief when it fell a prey to the “heretical” barbarians, for the Goths, Vandals, and Heruli were largely Arian. When the Western empire fell, the bishop of Rome became the political subject of Arian kings, who even decided, in the case of Theodoric the Ostrogoth, between rival claimants for the papal chair. ⁷⁶ But the conversion of the Salian Franks, the first among the Teutonic tribes to embrace Western orthodox Catholicism, prepared the way for the downfall of Arianism among the other Germanic nations, and the ultimate triumph of the Papacy in the German Empire under Charlemagne. When Clovis was baptized, the bishop exclaimed, “Behold the new Constantine!” as he became the patron and protector of the Papacy. PFF1 397.2

“The barbarian invasions on the whole strengthened both the spiritual and temporal supremacy of the Holy See. They gave the death blow to paganism in Rome. Once converted to Roman Christianity, the Germans became the staunch supporters of the papal hierarchy and enabled the Pope to enforce his prerogatives in the West. Backed by these sturdy Teutons, the Pope became the most powerful individual in Christendom.” ⁷⁷ PFF1 397.3

Thus the divided empire was to make way for the new papal theocracy, which would dominate Europe for more than a thousand years. Among these barbarian kingdoms of divided Rome the new order would arise, centering in Rome, a new ecclesiastical empire—a union of the Catholic Christian Church and the civil government of Rome. And, as Flick says, “out of the ruins of political Rome, arose the great moral Empire in the ‘giant form’ of the Roman Church.” ⁷⁸ PFF1 397.4

6. THE CHURCH BECOMES AN EMPIRE

The recognition of Christianity in the Roman Empire by Constantine had added a new sanction to the existence of the empire and the position of the emperor. Already unified as a political society, the empire was welded together still more firmly by the new bond of Christianity. It became united with the church, so that if it perished as an empire, it would still persist as a church. On the other hand, the church, by the same union, made certain that it would not perish for centuries to come. PFF1 398.1

“No, the Church will not descend into the tomb. It will survive the Empire.... At length a second empire will arise, and of this empire the Pope will be the master—more than this, he will be the master of Europe. He will dictate his orders to kings who will obey them.” ⁷⁹ PFF1 398.2

So the Roman church pushed its way into the place of the Roman Empire, and the pope, the Pontifex Maximus, became Caesar’s successor. ⁸⁰ PFF1 398.3

One church in one state was the new concept, which the church fostered by stabilizing its own power and organization. It had taken over old pagan ceremonies, so it took over many features of the state’s secular pattern of organization. The pope later took the title of Pontifex Maximus, which had been discarded by the emperor Gratian, and through the centuries made himself the imperator of the church. The offices and territorial divisions of the church were patterned after those of the empire, the very terminology of the hierarchal organization, such as vicar and diocese, being the heritage of ancient Rome. PFF1 398.4

The later Donation of Constantine, while a gross forgery in that it represents Constantine as giving to Pope Sylvester the imperial palace and insignia, and to the clergy the ornaments of the imperial army, nevertheless expresses a historical actuality in the transfer of power. ⁸¹ The reign of Constantine was truly the turning point, when organized Christianity abandoned the character of “pilgrim and stranger,” and became established among the mightiest of earth. And it was to the supposed Donation that the later medieval dissenters, like the Albigenses and Waldenses, pointed when they charged that the apostatizing church ceased to be a chaste “bride” awaiting her Lord’s return, but finally became spiritually a “harlot,” according to the Apocalypse, reveling in her illicit union with the kings of the earth. PFF1 399.1

Roman imperial Christianity prevailed from the period following shortly upon the so-called conversion of Constantine, its influence extending increasingly throughout the apostatizing Christian empire. Later legally established by the Justinian imperial edict, which was implemented by the expulsion of the Goths from Rome, Romanized Catholicism finally won recognition of her claims to dominance, and climbed gradually to supremacy during the period of the Middle Ages. PFF1 399.2

Picture 3: PROPHETIC EXPOSITORS ON FRIGE OF EMPIRE
Commentary on Daniel by aphrahat the Persian sage, written in syriac, with title page trans-lated in inset (upper); similar comments on Daniel in Sargis D’Alberga, with french translation note: date not clear.
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