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After the Constantine's death in 337 A.D. , the next Emperor, Constantius , also accepted the faith of Arius, and belief in the Divine Unity continued to be the officially accepted as the orthodox Christianity. A conference held in Antioch in 341 A.D. accepted monotheism as the true basis of Christianity. This ruling was confirmed by another Council that was held in Sirmium in 351 A.D. , again with the concurrence of the Emperor then in power. This , the teaching Arius had held to was accepted by an overwhelming majority of Christians. St. Jerome wrote in 359 A.D. that "the whole world groaned and marvelled to find itself Arian" ( A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, A.C.MacGiffert ).In the year that followed , the Trinitarians grew in number, but , in 381 A.D., the official religion of the Emperor in Constantinople was declared to be that of Arius. However, the doctrine of Trinity gradually came to be the accepted basis of Christianity in the West. The phenomenon of "council" meeting and passing "official" resolution demonstrates how far even the orthodox Christianity in Europe had departed from the Jesus had taught. He himself had never restored to this kind of organisation, which was usually to be found within the courts of the rulers.
In 387 A.D., Jerome completed his famous Vulgate Bible. This was the first Latin translation of some of the Scriptures which had been translated into Greek from Hebrew texts. It included what is known today as the Old Testament. It was this Bible which became the basis of all other Bibles translated into other languages, and which was adopted by the Roman Catholic , and later the Protestant , churches as their official book. Once it had become established , all other Gospels and Scriptures not included in Jerome's selection were almost completely destroyed by these two churches at one stage of another . Thus , all contact with the real Jesus continued to be gradually lost.
The next important figure is that of Pope Honorius. A contemporary of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), he saw the rising tide of Islam, whose tenets very much resembled those of Arius. The mutual killing of Christians by each other was still fresh in his memory, and perhaps he thought that what he had heard of Islam might be applied in healing the differences between the Christians. In his letters, he began to support the doctrine of "one mind" within the doctrine of Trinity. He argued that if God had three independent minds, the result would be chaos. The logical conclusion pointed to the belief in the existence of One God .
The Council of Chalcedon , in 451 A.D. had ruled that Christ's natures were indivisible. This influenced Honorius in concluding that there was a single will in Christ. He therefore argued that Christ took to himself a human nature free from the curse of original sin. According to this view, Christ had human will. Thus, belief in One God was indirectly affirmed within Pauline Christianity. That this kind of controversy had arisen at all is an indication of the degree of which Paul's innovations had taken hold of and confused people's minds. Pope Honorius died in October 638 A.D. In the same year, Emperor Heraclius officially accepted the doctrine of Honorius and issued an order that "All the Emperor's subjects are to confess the one will of Jesus" (The Condemnation of Pope Honorius ,John Chapman) The Synod of Constantinople which also took place in 638 A.D. supported the doctrine as "truly agreeing with Apostolic preaching" (The Condemnation of Pope Honorius ,John Chapman). The doctrine of Honorius was not officially challenged for about half a century. In 680 A.D. , forty two years after his death, a council was held in Constantinople and Pope Honorius was anathematised, since he "did not extinguish the flame of heretical teaching in its first beginning but fostered it by negligence" and therefore , "allowed the immaculate faith to be stained" (The Condemnation of Pope Honorius ,John Chapman). This decision, whereby a Pope was denounced by his successor with the support of the Church, is unique in the history of the Papacy.
The Pauline Church, or rather, the Roman Catholic Church, as it came to be known, grew in size and power. This was largely due to its associations with the Roman Emperors. The more it compromised itself with those in authority , the more identified it became with them. During the eight centuries which followed the Council of Nicea, the Roman Catholic church became firmly established with the her headquarters not in Jerusalem, but in Rome. She acquired vast amount of land and property in and around this city. They were known as the "Gifts of Constantine" . It became very dangerous for anyone to differ from the Roman Catholic Church, which came to have the support of the imperial army, as well as its own power. After 325 A.D. ,over a million Christians were killed for not subscribing to the doctrine of the Catholic church. These were indeed Dark Ages, and few people in Europe dared to openly affirm the Unity of God.
While the Catholic Church was busy eliminating these dissenters who who were branded as "heretics" . the Muslims began to make themselves known on the periphery of the Christian world. Nearly all the followers of Jesus in North Africa recognised Islam a further message from their Lord, which directly followed and superceded the guidance by which they had been living. They became Muslims. Only the "Christianity" of Europe remained.
The leaders at the Vatican must have seen the marked similarity between Islam and the Unitarianism preached by Arius. Both believed in One God. Both accepted Jesus as a prophet, who ,nevertheless ,was still a man . Both believed in the Virgin Mary and in the immaculate conception of Jesus. Both accepted the Holy spirit. Both rejected the divinity which had been attribute to Jesus. So the hatred for the Arians was turned against the Muslims. Looking with this perspective, the Crusades cease to be an isolation phenomenon of Church history , but become an extension of the massacre of the Arians by the Pauline Church.
During this period, the church did not ignore any opposition from within itself. a body known as the Inquisition was organised to investigate and eliminate any traces of "deviation" from the established doctrine of the Church. The exact record of how many people were murdered by this group is not known, but certainly a great number suffered and perished at their hands
With the event of the Reformation, and the subsequent establishment of Protestant Churches, which also became very powerful , the doctrine of Trinity became even more firmly established, even though the Protestants and the Roman Catholics bitterly opposed each other over other issues such as the validity of the document which authorised the "Gift of Constantine". Some scholars took a closer look at the deed and discovered that it was a forgery. Since then, the Vatican has ceased to boast of it. The famous Thirty Years War between Protestants and the Catholics was yet another indication that these Churches' battles were not fought with the intention of establishing the true guidance of Jesus in the land. Like the Pauline Churches aggression towards the followers of Arius and later the Muslims , this war clearly, demonstrated that what the Church wanted was power. in all these three events, the Church was fighting in order to establish its own existence as an institution, and not in order to spread what Jesus had taught.
As Islam continued to expand, a grand strategy was formulated to attack the Muslims both from the East and the West. It was hoped to join forces with a legendary Indian Christian King and, with his aid , conqueror the whole world. In his efforts to reach India , Columbus discovered America, and Vasco de Gama discovered a new route to India. Both these discoveries turned out to be very profitable ventures financially. The Christians did not discover their legendary King nor did they eliminate Islam, but they colonised much of the world, and their leaders and traders became very wealthy as a result.
Despite the tremendous power of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches, they could not stamp out belief in the Divine Unity. Whether it became known as Arianism or Socianism or Unitarianism, it has survived within the Christian movement right up to the present day , as the short biography of its most outspoken adherents demonstrate.
Please see Vatican money goes to America
Please do see How many people have been killed by Christians since Biblical times
Please also see More Victims of the Church
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