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The Fourth Century
The last Persecution. In the early part of
the fourth century the persecutions of the church
by the Romans continued, but they would shortly
come to an end.
In the last great persecution, Emperor
Diocletian ordered church buildings destroyed in
AD 303– yes, there were church buildings by this
time. The sacred writings, which were copies of
the Bible, were collected and burned. Church
meetings were outlawed. Pastors and bishops of
the churches were arrested. But so many
Christians were arrested that there were not
enough prisons to put them in. So the emperor’s
order was stopped. Some bishops and pastors had
been executed. In some cases the eyes of
Christians had been put out or an arm or leg
injured so that they would be lame. But by 310 the
persecutions ended.
Growth of the Church. The spread of the
church did not continue in the 4th century as
rapidly as it had earlier. By this time there were
Christians throughout the Roman Empire (and in
the East), but reaching beyond the empire was
difficult because there was political and military
opposition to Rome from the north. It was
unfriendly territory. Numbers of Christians
continued to grow, however. By the AD 400 almost
20% of the people in the Roman world were
Christians.
Politics. At the beginning of the 4th century
(AD 300) the rule of the empire had been divided
between several emperors, one in the east and the
other in the west. But
following Diocletian a new
emperor, Constantine,
brought the empire together
again. In one of the battles
to bring together the
warring groups in the
western empire, Constantine
saw a cross in the heavens.
He knew enough about Christians to think that this
was a sign that God was giving him victory. And he
did gain victory. He then became a Christian.
When Constantine became the sole ruler in
the western Empire in 313, he proclaimed freedom
of religion and made Christianity one of the
approved religions of the empire. Later in AD 381
under another emperor that Christianity became
the official religion of the empire.
In AD 324 Constantine moved the capital of
the Roman Empire to Constantinople. He did that
to make it easier to govern the large empire. But
the move left the city of Rome without the
leadership it once had under the emperor. So the
church began to fill that leadership gap. This was
the beginning of the political church.
Church Divided. During this century a
number of differences arose between Christians.
Many of these differences were about who Jesus
really was. Was he God? Was he man? Was he
both? One of the issues was raised by a man
named Arius who believed that Jesus was not God,
but was something less. That caused great conflict
between Christians. In order to settle the conflict
and have peace in the church Constantine called
for a council of the churches. It met in Nicaea in
Turkey in 325. The bishops voted on the issue, and
it was agreed by most that Jesus was both God and
man.