Just prior to the time of Christ the ancient nation of Israel expected God to send a deliverer to establish the Jewish nation as God's kingdom on earth. Israel at that time was a vassal kingdom to the empire of Rome. It is believed by most Christian denominations that Jesus fulfilled the prophesies in the Old Testament of a coming savior; yet, it is believed that the Jewish people did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah because of their apostasy. For this reason, God purportedly turned His dealings from that of the Jewish nation to any who would call upon the name of Jesus.

Paul the Apostle took the message of salvation though Jesus Christ to nations the Jews considered pagan. The first Christians were Jews; therefore, many of the early Christians kept Jewish traditions. This became a topic of controversy in the early church. As non-Jewish people began to join the Christian cause the issue of circumcision raised much debate. Peter was scorned for eating with the "uncircumcised" (Acts 11:3); Paul dealt with the issue of circumcision (Rom. 2:25-29 et. al.).

Many other divisions would arise due to different outlooks and views. Paul rebuked these divisions at one point when he scorned the Corinthians by telling them they should be of the same mind and not tolerate divisions (I Cor. 1:10). 

In 311 AD Constantine became the Roman Emperor. Prior to his reign Christians were persecuted for their faith; they were tortured and put to death. One common sport was to put them in arenas and turn lions loose to feed upon them. This persecution was due to the fact that Roman emperors considered themselves gods and required Roman citizens to offer incense on altars to the emperor; since Christians could only worship what they considered the one true God they were persecuted.

As time went on, Christians began forming isolated communities for their own survival. This brought an unbalance to the empire of Rome.

Constantine converted to Christianity. He was a former worshiper of the Iranian sun god. The legend goes that Constantine was told that his father was victorious in battle after praying to the God of the Christians. Constantine was to go up against his rival to the throne, Maxentius. Constantine told God that if He would give him the victory he would convert to Christianity. Constantine purportedly looked to the sun and saw next to it a cross of light bearing the inscription, "in hoc signo vinces", (in this thou shalt conquer). Constantine had his men paint crosses on their shields and the next day Constantine defeated Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge. He then became the emperor of Rome. Constantine, true to his word, made the conversion; he legalized Christianity and began promoting Christians to high office. From his vision, the Christian community adopted the Christian flag, a white flag with a blue square in the upper corner, the square bearing a red cross.

As a result, Constantine, in order to win both the pagans and the Christian sympathies, began to take pagan ideas and equating them with Christian teachings. One such example of the is the Christmas holiday celebrated on December 25th. No one knows the exact date of Christ's birth, but Constantine related the three days Jesus spent in the grave with the Iranian holiday which worshipped the sun. The Iranians had a three day holiday commemorating the period in which the sun crosses the equinox. This he declared was the official time worship the birth of Christ. Constantine also did this similar practice with other holidays and customs.  The order of the nuns, for example, derived from the Vestal Virgins. These were an order of women who, in ancient Rome, tended the heard, a sacred fire in the center of the city. It was the job of the Vestal Virgins to insure that the fire never went out, but burned continuosly.

Constantine became disgusted with the paganism in Rome so he moves the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium and changed the name of the city to Constantinople after himself (about 330 CE). The hierarchy at Rome despised this move and began contending with him for religious domination.

Constantine was succeeded by Julian the Apostate, who practiced A Neo-platonic and mystical form of paganism. He sought to reinstitute paganism as a state religion. His reign was short, however, and his successor, Theodosius I, closed pagan temples, forbade pagan worship, and made Christianity the exclusive official state religion.(1)

As Christianity emerged there arose five centers of leadership in the realm of the Christian world. These five centers of leadership were Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria in Egypt, and Constantinople. The leaders of these five centers each held equal sway over their regions. The Muslims eventually conquered Palestine and Egypt and Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria fell under Muslim domination. This left Rome and Constantinople as the two centers of Christian leadership. Disputes arose as the leaders of these two religious capitals vied for supreme power bringing a division between the east and the west.

If you study the history of the Christianity you will find that many conflicting religious outlooks  arose; a few of these conflicting ideas include Montanism, Sabellianism, and Gnosticism.

MONTANISM

Montanism was a religious movement of the mid-2^nd century CE. It was name after its founder Montanus; and has been compared with Pentecostalism (sometimes known as Neo-Montanis). Tertullian was a famous Latin Christian writer who converted to the Mantanism movement. Two women who greatly supported Montanus were Prisca (aka Priscilla) and Maximilla. Together the trio purported to be the embodiments of the Holy Spirit that moved and inspired them. Montanus claimed to be the advocate referred to in John 14:16. This trio were often referred to as “the Three”, were known to speak ecstatically claiming to be entranced with visions. They taught their disciples to fast and pray that they might also experience these revelations. The teachings of Montanus spread from Phrygia, throughout Asia and Europe, to Africa and Gaul.

Montanism became popular largely due to its claim to prophecy. People of this age were eager to listen to what was considered divine revelations from God. Prisca claimed that Christ had appeared to her in female form. When the orthodox church had her excommunicated, she exclaimed, “I am driven away like the wolf from the sheep. I am no wolf: I am word and spirit and power.”

The belief that the prophecies of the Montanists superseded and fulfilled the doctrines proclaimed by the Apostles contrasted that of orthodox Christianity. Other ways in which Montanism differed from orthodox Christianity include, the encouragement of ecstatic prophesying as opposed to the theological approach; Montanists believed that Christians who fell from grace could not be redeemed, while the orthodox opinion held contrition could lead a sinner to restoration; Montanists did no speak in the name of the Lord (i.e. “Thus saith the Lord), but rather professed to be possessed of the Lord himself; Montanists held stricter view in the avoidance of sin and forbade remarriage.

It was believed of Montanists that if one were to die a martyr, their sins would automatically be forgiven and would go directly into paradise. This, however, led many followers to turn to debauchery and sexual flagrance, for they believed that they would die as martyrs and receive absolution. Marcus Aurelius writes of Montanists who threw themselves in gladiatorial arenas voluntarily, exclaiming "Kill me, for I am a Christian!" This led to the popular perception of many in the Roman Empire that Christian were deranged and disturbers of the peace, although Montanism and its eccentric practices only composed a small minority of the Christian population in the empire (Lecture Notes, Dr. John F. Hall. (2)

SABELLIANISM

A belief known as Sabellianism (or Modalism) considers that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son, and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God (for us only), rather than  three distinct persons (in Himself). That is to say that God is working in different "modes" of the Heavenly Father, the Resurrected Son, and the Holy Spirit. This doctrine was ascribed to Sabellius, who taught a form of this doctrine in Rome in the third century.

The question is: "is God's threeness a matter of our falsely seeing it to be so (Sabellianism), or a matter of God's own essence revealed as three-in-one (orthodox trinitarianism)?"

The chief proponent of Sabellianism was Tertullian, who labeled the movement "Patripassianism", from the Latin words patris for "father", and passus for "to suffer" because it implied that the Father suffered on the Cross. It was coined by Tertullian in his work Adversus Praxeas, Chapter II, "By this Praxeas did a twofold service for the devil at Rome: he drove away prophecy, and he brought in heresy; he put to flight the Paraclete, and he crucified the Father."(3)

GNOSTICISM

Gnosticism was closer related to paganism than what modern Christians would consider Christianity. In Gnosticism, the Monad (the One, the Absolute, and the beginning) represented the source of the lesser divinities. The Demiurge (a word meaning creator or craftsman) created the physical world. The Demiurge was the "creator god" that stood between the human race and a transcendent God that could only be reached through gnosis (spiritual knowledge more commonly understood as enlightenment).

The Monad was associated with light. The Pleroma is a term used to express the totality of God's powers and is often referred to as The Light. The Pleroma is occupied by spiritual beings known as aeons (eternal beings) which self-emanated form the Pleroma. Jesus is interpreted as an intermediary aeon who was sent, along with his counterpart Sophia, from the Pleroma, with whose aid humanity can recover the lost knowledge of the divine origins of humanity and in so doing be brought back into unity with the Pleroma.

The physical world was believed to be controlled by Archons (a type of spiritual rulers). In the early literary period of ancient Greece the chief magistrates of various Greek city states were called Archons. (4)

THE EASTER CONFLICT

Another division arose in early Christianity over the topic of Easter: the first conflict between what would become the Eastern Orthodox and the Church of Rome in the West occurred during the pontificate of Anicetus (155-166 Vatican's official list).  The church at Rome considered every Sunday as the celebration of the Resurrection; whereas, the church in the east considered the fourteenth of the Jewish month of Nisan (the day of Passover); regardless of the day of the week on which it fell.  This became a big controversy, the fate of which was determined at the council of Nicaea (325 CE).

To settle such disputes, bishops began looking to Rome for guidance. Rome played an important part in settling these disputes. This led to the gradual rise of the superiority of the church at Rome. The monoepiscopal structure (monarchial episcopate) did not come to Rome until the middle of the second century with the pontificate of St. Pius (ca.142-155)(5); pope Leo the Great (440-61) was the first pope to exercise universal papal jurisdiction(6); and the college of Cardinals did not begin until 1059(7). But it wasn't until the Second Ecumenical Council of Lyons in 1274 that the church at Rome claimed "the supreme and full primacy and authority of the universal Catholic Church (8)."

The first three ecumenical councils were: the council of Nicaea (325 CE), of which Sylvester I (324-335 CE) was pope; the council of Constantinople (381 CE), of which Damasus I (366-84 CE) was pope; and the council of Ephesus (431 CE), of which Celestine I was pope. None of these three popes even attended the council of their day.  Furthermore, it was the Emperor, not the pope who called the fourth ecumenical council at Chalcedon (451 CE) (9).

Alexander I (109-116 CE or 105 to 115 CE, whichever authority you wish to follow) is attributed with the insertion of the Eucharist and believed to have instigated blessing houses with holy water and salt (a custom "stemmed from a pagan practice")(10).

These controversies all stem from men who claim to "hear from God." True, if you lead a diligent prayer life, you will feel convictions of the Holy Spirit, but men who claim to have a divine guidance should be avoided. God gives his Spirit to all who call on His name and no one single individual has a monopoly on the Spirit of God.

Through out the ages men have fought over church doctrine bringing about divisions. Many different Christian churches exist because men dispute church doctrine. It is my belief that if a person repents of their sin God will forgive them. God will the send His Holy Spirit to dwell within the heart of that person regardless of what doctrine he or she has been led to believe. True salvation is a relationship with our creator, not a set of rules and regulations to govern our life. I believe James said it best when he wrote, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27)"