The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

. . We understand that God does exercise a supervisory oversight in respect to them--not
that He has authorized them to represent Him, or that He is responsible for their deeds
and acts, but that He is so controlling matters as to cause them to outwork His own
arrangements."
It is in this sense that Constantine's throne was God's throne. "For there is no power but of
God: the powers that be are ordained of God." (Rom. 13:1.) "The Most High ruleth in the
kingdom of men." (Dan. 4:25.) Constantine and his successors on the throne represent the
"man child."
Desiring doubtless to promote what he understood was the cause of Christianity, shortly
after his accession to the throne Constantine issued a decree declaring the Christian
religion the religion of the empire. By his orders the pagan temples were either destroyed
or converted into houses of worship for the Christians. Thus Christianity became popular,
and large numbers joined the nationalized churches. Constantine himself assumed
authority in the temporal matters of the Church. Concerning this we quote Mr. Lord:
"He [Constantine] became in that station a usurper of the rights of God, by assuming an
absolute authority over the religion of his Christian subjects. In prescribing their faith and
worship, he treated their religious obligations as under his jurisdiction, and thence the
rights and legislation of the Most High as subordinate to his, and dependent on his for
their efficiency. . . .
"He summoned the council of Arles in 314 to re-judge the cause of the Dona- tists. The
following is a part of a letter addressed by him on that occasion to the bishop of Syracuse:
'We have ordered a great body of bishops from different and almost numberless places to
assemble at the city of Arles, by the first of August, and write to direct you to take public
vehicle, with two of the second order whom you may choose, and three youths, who may
serve you on the way, and present yourself at the aforementioned place on that day, that
by your gravity, and the judgment of others who are to assemble, this disgraceful contest,
which has so long continued, may be terminated in harmony.'"
Eusebius further wrote:
"'The decrees which the bishops had enacted in the councils, he [Constantine] ratified, so
that it was not lawful for the prefects of the provinces to rescind their canons.'"
Constantine sought by force to impose the creed of this council on all his subjects, to
prohibit all assemblies of dissentients from the Catholic (universal) Church, to confiscate
their property and suppress their books. Eusebius cites a letter of Constantine addressed to
these dissenters which we quote in part:
"'Know by this law, ye Novatians, Valentinians, Marcionites, Paulists, Cataphrygians, and
all who form sects by private assemblies, your folly is involved in so many falsehoods and
your doctrine imbued with such poisonous drugs, that the healthy are led by you to
disease, and the living to eternal death. . . . Wherefore as the plague of your errors can no