Church History 16 – Talked Down to like a 'Galilean' underneath the Old Pines

East Carrollton, GA Field #4

When the Emperor Constantine died, all of his close relatives were killed except for his three sons and two cousins.  Many assumed that the strong son Constantius ordered his family members massacred to ensure the throne would stay in the hands of one of brothers.  No one knows why but two cousins were also spared; one named Gallus and the other Julian.   

In 350AD Constantius had consolidated power from his brothers and became the sole Emperor of the Roman Empire.  He ran into trouble in 351AD and appointed his cousin Gallus caesar to run part of the empire that needed looking after.

Gonzalez:  ‘But Gallus did not turn out to be an able ruler, and there were rumors that he was conspiring against his cousin.   A few years after having made his caesar, Constantius had him arrested and beheaded.’

Julian who grew up as a Christian was in Athens getting a classical education. 

Gonzalez:  ‘It was also there that he became interested in the ancient mystery religions.  He had definitively abandoned Christianity, and sought after truth and beauty in the literature and religion of classical Greece.’

The next time Constantius was in trouble he had little choice but to call on Julian because everyone else in the family was dead.  He appointed Julian caesar in Gaul.

Julian, unlike Gallus, proved to be an able administrator and effective battlefield tactician.  Julian once thwarted an attack by the barbarians and became very popular with members of the Roman army.

Constantius didn’t like the attention Julian was getting.  This reminds me of how King Saul reacted when young David came back from battle with the Philistine giant:

‘And the women sang to one another as they made merry,

‘Saul has killed his thousands,
   and David his tens of thousands.’

Saul was very angry, for this saying displeased him. He said, ‘They have ascribed to David tens of thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands; what more can he have but the kingdom?’ So Saul eyed David from that day on’. 1 Samuel 18 :7-9

(Remember Saul is the one who was told by the prophet Samuel to wait seven days so that a proper kingship ritual could be performed.  Saul didn’t feel he needed to wait.  He did it on his own.  David on the other hand, always seemed to have his eye on God.) 

I am reminded of the transforming power of the bible.  When one reads the passage above, it is like looking into the mirror of one’s own soul.  We learn what we human beings are capable of thinking about one another.  In the bible and in our history, we can see the need for a Savior.  At odd times in my life, I have clearly seen the need for Jesus to die for all the sins of humanity. 

I saw it yesterday.  I was arriving at a soccer field in Carrollton, Ga to watch my daughter play her second game of the day.  One set of players and parents were already in place on the field as the second set of parents and players arrived.  I pulled up my chair back in the shade of the old pines to wait for the game in progress to conclude.  When the game was over and most of the finishing players had gathered their balls and bags, a coach of one team was hunting a lost soccer ball.  He wandered over near me and made a comment about never having lost a game ball.  He asked if I saw it.  I said no.  He made several more comments insinuating that one of the ‘next’ game players or parents had taken his kids ball.  About that time, his daughter came back to the field telling her father that she had her ball after all.  The accusing coached laughed and announced for all to hear ‘thinking the worst…we got it.’

Jesus died for this in all of us.

Back to our history, we learn that like Saul who began to hunt David like an animal, in 361AD, Constantius was preparing battle plans to invade Gaul and kill Julian.  While doing so, Constantius suddenly died.   This made Julian top dog of the Roman Empire.

Gonzalez:  ‘Julian was an able ruler, who managed to set order in the chaotic administration of his vast domains.  Yet it is not for such actions that he is most remembered, but rather for his religious policy, which earned him the title by which history knows him:  ‘the Apostate.’  (Apostasy we remember is abandoning one’s faith.)

Julian took the 100 year old playbook of Emperor Decius who ‘was simply a Roman of the old style, whose main goal was to restore Rome to her ancient glory.’  That was rebuilding the temples and getting the pagan priests back in vogue.

Showing he had learned a thing or two while in college, Julian sought to use the organization of the Christian church help renew paganism.

Gonzalez:  ‘Following the example of the Christian church, he organized the pagan priesthood into a hierarchy similar to which the church used at the time…While rejecting Christianity, Julian actually learned a great deal from it.’

Julian’s old time religious awakening included not only offering sacrifices to the gods, rebuilding the pagan shrines and recovering many of the old relics; it also included a program to discredit Christianity.

Gonzalez:  ‘Rather than persecuting Christians, Julian followed a two-pronged policy of hindering their progress and ridiculing them. On the first score, he passed laws forbidding Christians to teach classical literature. ‘

Secondly, Julian wrote a book called ‘Galileans’ that mocked the bible and teachings of Jesus.  He then developed a plan to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem so as to discredit the claim that the destruction of the Temple had been a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.  (Reading this part was quite amazing to me; the lengths to which Julian planned to go in his zeal against Christians). 

But history took an unexpected turn.  As we are getting used to by now, without good hospitals and medicine, people died young and suddenly.  Julian was injured by a spear in battle and that was the end of him.

Source:

Justo L. Gonzalez from ‘The Story of Christianity, Volume 1, the Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation’