"Finally, the scheme
of history that Eusebius [historian and contemporary of Constantine] developed
led him to set aside or at least to postpone a fundamental theme of early
Christian preaching: the expectation of
the full Reign of God.
Although Eusebius
does not go as far as to say so explicitly, in reading his works one receives
the impression that now, with Constantine and his successors, the plan of God
has been fulfilled. No longer will Christians
have to decide between serving the coming reign and serving the present
one--which has become a representative and agent of the Reign of God.
Beyond the present political order, all that
Christians are to hope for is their own personal transference into the heavenly
kingdom. Christian hope came to be
relegated to the future life or to the distant future, and seemed to have
little to do with the present world.
Religion tended to become a way to gain access to heaven, rather than to
serve God in this life and the next.
The
earlier notion, that in the resurrection of Christ the new age has dawned, and
that by baptism and the Eucharist Christians become participants in it, was now
abandoned, and Christian hope was now limited to the individual's life after
death."
In one swift action, the Church relinquished any say about God's Kingdom on earth in exchange for absolute power over life after death. We have suffered ever since.
To be relevant in the 21st century, we must repudiate this deal the church made with the devil and proclaim that the Christian faith has almost nothing to say about life beyond the grave. The Christian Faith frees us to love and serve God - especially the poor and oppressed.
In one swift action, the Church relinquished any say about God's Kingdom on earth in exchange for absolute power over life after death. We have suffered ever since.
To be relevant in the 21st century, we must repudiate this deal the church made with the devil and proclaim that the Christian faith has almost nothing to say about life beyond the grave. The Christian Faith frees us to love and serve God - especially the poor and oppressed.
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