Public Theology 101.2
Session Two: Church and State from Constantine to the Constitution
First Bible Church |Steve Bateman | January 31, 2024
1. Constantine’s Conversion (312): The Roman Emperor “converts” to Christianity in 312.
1.1 Edict of Milan (313) ends three centuries of persecution of the church
1.2 Made Sundays a day of rest (321), Christian symbols on coins, state financially supports church, Christians get highest offices in government, unconverted taxed for church building projects, viewed as arbiter of religious disputes.
1.3 Convenes Council of Nicaea (325), yielding the Nicene Creed.
1.4 Co-opts Christianity to unite the empire; replaces Roman gods as official state religion.
1.5 Executed wife and son (326), baptized in Jordan immediately before death (337).
1.6 Church and state cooperate to use the sword to enforce the First Table.
1.7 Note: When church and state are united, heresy (idolatry, blasphemy) is treason, crimes against the state punishable by banishment, confiscation of property, or death.
1.8 Note: Nominalism rises in proportion to state-sponsored promotion of Christianity.
2. Augustine’s Two Cities: The Bishop of Hippo (Egypt) writes “The City of God” in response to the Visigoths sacking Rome in 410. There are two cities and thus, two peoples:
2.1 Citizens of the City of Man: Unbelievers presently living in the world love themselves and are destined for destruction.
2.2 Citizens of the City of God: Pilgrims in the world who love God and are destined for eternal life.
2.3 For now, these two peoples are intermingled. Both the church and state are mixed societies of believers and unbelievers.
2.4 Augustine’s Just War Theory, later revised by Aquinas: War can only be waged by the state if: 1) last resort; 2) legitimate authority; 3) just cause: defend innocent; 4) probability of success; 5) right intention: desire for peace; 6) proportionality: use only the force necessary; 6) avoid non-combatant casualties.
2.5 No prohibition for Christian to serve the state in a just war.
2.6 Considers corporal punishment to compel heretics to repent because this is loving.
3. Pope Gelasius’s Two Powers: (c.492): The pope holds spiritual authority (church) and the emperor holds temporal authority (state). A.k.a: Two Swords.
3.1 While Augustine proposed two peoples with two loves who co-mingled in this world, Gelasius proposed two powers (jurisdictions) that exercise authority in this world.
3.2 While Constantine viewed emperors as having authority over both spheres (church and state), Gelasius viewed emperors as under the authority of the pope in spiritual matters (church).
3.3 Church and state still cooperate to advance Christ’s kingdom (Christendom).
3.4 Church bears a sword to enforce the first table, state bears a sword to enforce second table.
4. Emperor Justinian’s Symphony of Church and State (527–568).
4.1 Defends and promotes Christian orthodoxy (Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed).
4.2 Uses state wealth to build churches and promote Christianity.
4.3 Commands certain orthodox hymns to be sung in churches to fight heresy.
4.4 Expands Christendom by military conquest, closing pagan schools, and baptizing masses.
4.5 Justinian Codex synthesizes the laws of the state and assumes authority to govern which “churches” can exist, what can be taught in them, and who can lead them.
4.6 Conditions conducive for greed, dependence, bribery, nepotism, hypocrisy, and corruption.
4.7 This sets the stage for 1000 years of uniting church and state, enforcing both tables of the Ten Commandments by the power of the sword, including: The Inquisition, the Crusades, the persecutions or executions of John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, William Tyndale, Thomas Cranmer, Martin Luther.
5. Luther’s and Calvin’s Two Kingdoms (1517-1789): God rules over the whole world but in two ways. The spiritual kingdom rules over Christians as the Spirit produces Christ-like people. The secular kingdom rules over non-Christians and enforces external peace.
5.1 Christ rules the spiritual kingdom as Redeemer and the secular kingdom as Creator.
5.2 The authority to excommunicate belongs to the church alone, not the state.
5.3 Church government belongs to the church alone, not the state.
5.4 Yet, the church is “established” by the state. Protected, promoted, and funded by the state which makes it the official religion of the nation.
5.5 Only Reformed Christians are qualified to serve in the state as a magistrate.
5.6 Calvin justifies the use of coercion to enforce first table by appealing to the Old Testament kings who are under the Mosaic Covenant.
5.7 This absence of religious liberty (freedom of conscience) sets the stage for over 200 years of the state cooperating with the church to enforce the first table, resulting in, among other things:
1. The execution of Michael Servetus by Calvin’s Geneva.
2. The executions or imprisonment of Hugh Latimer, John Bunyan, John Flavel, the Pilgrims, and the Baptists by the Church of England.
3. The Salem Witch Trials by Puritans in Massachusetts.
4. The persecution of Catholics, Quakers, and Baptists by Puritans and Anglicans. Therefore, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.
6. Isaac Backus and the Baptists (1789-present): The Separation of Church and State
6.1 Roger Williams established Rhode Island as a refuge for religious freedom and establishes First Baptist Church in America.
6.2 Patrick Henry defends Baptists in the Parson’s Cause who don’t want to pay taxes to support Anglican priests.
6.3 Baptist Pastor, Isaac Backus, writes “An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty:”
“God has appointed two kinds of government in the world, which are distinct in their nature, and ought never to be confounded together; one of which is called civil, the other ecclesiastical government…Violences may bring the erroneous to be hypocrites, but they will never bring them to be believers; no, they naturally prejudice men’s minds against the cause, which is therein pretended for, as being a weak, a wrong, an evil cause.”
6.4 Constitution ratified, guaranteeing religious liberty in the First Amendment.
6.5 Founders recognize need for a free and flourishing church to produce virtuous self-governed citizens who fill government offices, influence laws, and establish public order.
6.6 Danbury Baptists seek relief from President Thomas Jefferson who writes his “wall of separation” letter (1802).
6.7 Summary of the Baptist argument for religious liberty (VanDrunen, 196-197):
1. To coerce a conscience creates hypocrites and false professions of faith.
2. “Established church” theology ignores discontinuity between Old Testament church (Israel) and the New Testament church (i.e., between Mosaic and New Covenants).
3. For 300 years before Constantine, the NT church repudiated compulsion of conscience.
4. Civil magistrates lack biblical authority to compel in any spiritual matter.
5. Wise rule doesn’t require expertise in religion and nations without a church can flourish.
6. Heresy often thrives when you turn heretics into martyrs.
7. There will be constant fighting about whose Christianity is the real Christianity.