Post by Josh on Nov 8, 2009 17:53:07 GMT -8
I'm not sure Matt 10:23 can be interpreted to mean that God wants believers to avoid martyrdom. There were times that he did protect His remnant like in AD 70 and there were times believers were brutalized for the faith. I kind of compare it to how Christians sometimes are healed and sometimes not.
Let me restate my position with different words. God does sometimes call his children to martyrdom... and uses martyrdom for his purposes. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church" Tertullian once said.
However, in the Matt. passage I believe Jesus is saying that if we can escape martyrdom without compromising our faith, we should do so.
As to Matt. 16:14, you agree that "taking up our cross" doesn't primarily refer to martyrdom but to "dying daily to the flesh" though, right?
As far as Constantine is concerned, even after he became emperor, he allowed the old pagan institutions to remain as they were. He never abandoned sun worship. In AD 321, Constantine decreed that Sunday would be a day of rest- a legal holiday to honor the god Mithra. He restored Christian and pagan temples. Almost to his dying day, Constantine "still functioned as the high priest of paganism". Historians continue to debate whether Constantine was a genuine Christian.
Constantine was a complex character no doubt. I don't even want to attempt to determine his sincerity. However, I actually think it was smarter for him to allow freedom of religion as opposed to what the later Christian emperors did, which was outlawing and persecuting pagans.
If anything, the Church should have followed his example of freedom of religion and not gotten into the business of prosecuting heretics and pagans.