Part 1: The Birth of Two Empires – Constantine The Great - GameChanger series

[Music] [Applause] constantine the great emperor of rome caesar augustus he built a new rome and a new religion he merged them into an empire that lasted for centuries and changed the world this forever authority and influence shift our world this is his story a story of romance intrigue power and conquest constantine the great game changer this is the town of nish right in the heart of serbia and it's a very old town in ancient times the romans called it nicest and it was right here some 1700 years ago that a baby was born under a cloud of illegitimacy to a very humble and insignificant village girl and that baby would grow up to rule an empire and completely transform the world and this is the ancient land of israel two thousand five hundred kilometers away where another even better known baby was born some two thousand years ago to another humble village girl and that baby also grew up to completely change the planet undeniably to an extent unmatched by any other child in history in this series we'll be looking at these two incredible men men in whose shadow we still live today their fingerprints are all over the world in fact they've shaped the way we live the way we think and the way we believe this is their story it's a story of how their lives were destined to cross and come together in an explosive clash of empires empires that span the ages and know no boundaries this clash of empires still reverberates around our world today [Music] let's start with the first of these powerful men you may have heard his name though you might not know much about why he matters his name was constantine constantine the great in the year a.d 271 a tied roman military tribune flavius constantius led his men back from fighting against the summations a large confederation of ancient persians that had been slowly making their way westward for centuries eventually with the help of germanic tribes like the goths they started pushing into roman territory something the roman empire couldn't allow constantius was a great roman commander and he had defeated the enemy decisively and on his way back he traveled the road that brought him through nicest present-day niche one of the oldest cities in the balkans it's often called the gate of east and west because it's located at the crossing of important roads that connect europe with the middle east and asia it was a crossroads between the east and the west and was an ideal place to rest at least for a night and back then when constantia stopped for the night it was already a thriving centre with numerous houses buildings and crucially an inn and this inn becomes very important to our story you see rank and file soldiers probably spent the night in a field next to the village but not an important officer like constantius oh no he secured lodgings at that local inn probably the best one in town there he could get a meal a good night's sleep and something else that soldiers sometimes look for when they're in town a little company for the evening according to the story constantius asked the local innkeeper to find him a female companion for the night now that might not have been an unusual request but how the innkeeper responded was highly unusual the innkeeper must certainly have been extremely impressed by tribune flavius constantius because he did the unthinkable he sent for his 16 year old virgin daughter her name was helena while he was sleeping later that night constantius experienced a guilty conscience about what he had done his bad dreams that night made him fear that he'd offended the gods because of what he'd done with young helena and so early the next morning he quickly packed up and wasted no time in leaving town and returning to his men but just before he left as if to make amends he gave the innkeeper his purple officers cape which had a buckle with his initials on it and he told him to keep his daughter safe and that if she bore a child to protect that child as the apple of his eye and then constantius turned and left probably thinking that he would never see the young woman again but what constantius didn't know was that sixteen-year-old helena was in fact pregnant in due course she gave birth to a son whom she named constantine which means little constantius however his father had no idea little constantine existed and we don't know whether the boy knew who his father was either while constantine the peasant boy was growing up in sleepy nicest his father's life was taking a turn for the better constantius now 33 years old was summoned by the roman emperor karus and told that he was to be appointed the governor of dalmatia a region located in modern-day croatia this was a huge promotion for constantius because dalmatia was a key roman territory through it the empire controlled the flow of trade between east and west to be governor was an appointment where you could easily get rich it meant that constantius was on the way up and going places this could have been it for helena and constantine a peasant mother and her child people like them had no way of contacting the elite of roman society like constantius there was a vast social gulf between them that couldn't be bridged but when constantine was nine years old something happened that changed the course of history it was chance or maybe it wasn't a group of roman cavalry stopped to spend the night at that same village inn at nicest and in the morning when they came out to the barn they found young constantine teasing their horses they were so angry at this audacious peasant boy that they started to beat him his mother now in her mid-20s heard the commotion and came rushing out of the house and into the barn yelling at the soldiers stop it don't you know who this is he's the son of the governor the soldiers looked at her stun and then started laughing how could this peasant woman's son belong to the roman governor do you take us for fools they said she replied with i swear by the gods that i'm telling the truth and then she told them the story when she'd finished to prove it she ran back to the house and brought back the officer's cape that constantius had given her all those years ago imagine the panic those men must have felt when they saw the governor's initials on the buckle they had indeed been beating the governor's son however instead of keeping quiet about it the soldiers did the right thing they went and told the governor that he had a son in the village of nicest and they told him that the boy was the spitting image of his father well the governor could have been annoyed or he could have been delighted in fact he was delighted and he sent for helena and for his son helena was now 26 years old and she and the boy were welcomed into the home of the governor with open arms this must have been a huge culture shock for this woman and son from the small village they only knew the small world and hard life of nicest and now they were in a palace with marble columns gardens and luxurious baths they had landed in the highest circles of roman society flavius constantius even found helena attractive enough to consider marrying her however roman law didn't allow constantius to marry a peasant woman as his full wife the social divide was simply too great but the law allowed for a lesser form of marriage called matrimoniam concubinatum this kind of marriage also gave his son the full legal rights jewish son particularly the rights of inheritance so that's what constantius did constantius also decided that his new family needed to come up to standard in certain areas like education they were illiterate and could only speak the local language and no latin or greek so constantius quickly appointed tutors to start the work of teaching them both to read and write they both progressed in their studies the boy constantine in particular took quickly to education and well he might because he grew up to become emperor and received the name constantine the great whose ideas and bold decisions shaped and transformed the world forever making him a true game changer although the duties and responsibilities as emperor took him away constantine never forgot his hometown during his reign nicest developed into a major cultural economic and military centre based around a luxurious roman palace decorated with magnificent mosaics and monuments he often resided here and attended two state affairs including the passing of several important laws the imperial residence was also used by constantine and six later roman emperors as a place of rest on their long journeys across the empire and also as a place of solitude during preparations for war today it's called mediana and is one of the most important archaeological sites in the region it's covered by a great awning to help preserve and protect it archaeologists continue to meticulously uncover its treasures and bring it to life once again remember i said we were going to talk about two of the most important men in all of history well i'd like to consider now the other one who was to become even more important in shaping our civilization than constantine himself i'd like to start in the very center of imperial power rome itself this is ponte fabrizio it's a bridge that connects two parts of the city of rome over the tiber river it's probably the oldest structure in the neighborhood because it was built some 60 years before the birth of jesus christ the fascinating thing about this bridge is that it's been in continuous use since it was built until this very day it's a remarkable example of roman engineering you see the romans were builders they built an entire international infrastructure of roads bridges aqueducts and so on and all of this helped to weld together the massive empire that they had built this empire consisted of hundreds of different cultures and nationalities there were jews to the east barbarians to the north and the ancient civilizations of greece persia and north africa all in one empire that was remarkably stable and peaceful outside of the roman empire there was always the threat of some invader or another but within the boundaries of the empire it was generally safe and a pretty good place to live that's if you put aside the brutality of the romans and the slavery and all that but that's the price you paid for the pax romana the roman peace in return from northern europe to north africa and from spain to the far reaches of the middle east people could count on roman water roman roads and roman law and compared to most of the societies of the time rome was remarkably tolerant in matters of religion people had almost total freedom as to what god they worshipped and how one of the reasons why this vast amalgam of cultures worked well for so long was that the romans had a larger than life person at the top and that was the emperor as long as you respected him all would be well in fact you could worship whatever god you pleased as long as you also respected the deity of the emperor now of course people knew that the emperor wasn't really a god but that wasn't the point the point was that he represented the authority of rome it wasn't really a big deal for the people of that time usually all they had to do was offer a tiny pinch of incense to the emperor once in a while on special days like his birthday and then you could go back to your normal life but the jews were an exception they refused to offer the emperor their worship because their holy book forbade idolatry and they were the only people in the whole empire who were actually exempt from offering incense to the emperor that's because the jews had been very helpful to julius caesar in the past and in return he passed laws that excused them from sacrificing to the emperor forever as long as they did one thing and that was to pray for the emperor but then there was another group of people the christians at first glance the christians and the jews didn't seem that different in fact for a while people saw christianity as just one of the various sects of judaism but the romans soon found out that with the christians they were dealing with a whole new kettle of fish and it was one that they couldn't get their heads around at all you see you have to try to understand christianity from the romans point of view the romans had no problem with all the different religions of the empire to them it was all very logical to understand each race or country had their own religion the romans had their own national religion and so did the egyptians and the greeks and so on so they could understand that the jews had their own religion these were all legitimate religions because they were all ancient beliefs that belonged to a specific culture it was all neat and easy to understand the word the romans gave to these legitimate religions was religio now the word sounds familiar because that's where we get the english word religion from but christianity was very different it had just burst on the scene seemingly out of nowhere early in the first century it was a faith that didn't belong to any specific country or race people everywhere embraced it it knew no boundaries and the romans were deeply suspicious of anything that wasn't part of the established order like that and because it wasn't rooted in ancient traditions and practices it was filled with what the romans considered were foolish ideas its leader had been executed and the romans thought that anyone who made a hero out of a man who had been crucified by roman law let alone call him god had to be both a lunatic and a traitor but the christians didn't stop there they went on to say that their leader had risen from the dead now the romans believed that death was the end no one ever came back from death it was as we might say it scientifically impossible to them the idea was pure nonsense it wasn't even in their roman myths and what made it even worse was that these christians said that this crucified criminal was coming back from heaven to put an end to the whole roman empire and establish his own eternal kingdom that's what this sacred book the bible predicted in its prophecies it predicted the rise and fall of many empires including rome here's how the prophet daniel described it in daniel chapter 7 and verse 14. then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed and then of course there was the lord's prayer that the christians were taught to pray regularly here's what it says in matthew chapter 6 verses 9 to 13. our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen to the roman mind these kinds of ideas were seen as highly treasonous in the extreme against the empire after all the roman empire was intended to last forever and then to make matters worse all sorts of false rumors swirled around regarding what christians believed and how they lived they were accused of the most violent evil practices so this was another problem the romans had a word for this kind of non-traditional and non-racial religion they called it superstitio and if that sounds familiar to you it's because it's where we get our english word superstition to the romans christianity wasn't worthy to be classed as a proper religion it was just a lot of crazy superstitions after all the word was that this new faith had been started by some uncivilized and uneducated jewish teacher from the backwater of palestine to the romans that was laughable in itself so the romans considered christianity to be seditious treasonous against the empire and positively harmful to the moral fabric of society this was a clash of empires a clash between rome and christianity [Music] all of which brings us to the other baby who changed the world he too was born under the shadow of the roman empire he too was born of humble peasant stock in a small village no one had ever heard of he too was born under a cloud of illegitimacy his real father was also far more powerful than anyone could have imagined he too was an unlikely king who changed the world forever his name of course is jesus jesus of nazareth the very one whom the christians worshiped as god now the christians despite all the false rumors about their beliefs were actually good citizens in every sense except for just one thing for them emperor worship was out of the question their worship was reserved for jesus alone and when it came down to it to refuse to worship the emperor was to reject the authority of the empire itself and that made them traitors and as we know the romans didn't take kindly to traitors it all came to a head in 1864 when a great fire broke out in rome the roman population blamed their mad emperor nero and nero blamed the christians as a convenient scapegoat it's really amazing that this happened only around 33 years or so after the crucifixion of jesus and already christianity had spread from judea all the way to rome in just a few years it had reached the very heart of the empire the new religion centered in jesus christ was capturing the hearts and minds of its citizens and its beliefs values and principles clash with those of rome so it's no wonder that the romans considered christianity a serious threat to their empire it was feared and hated and its followers were persecuted but the problem was the more christians were persecuted the faster it grew this truly was a clash of empires the battle lines are set we have the births of two babies with amazing similarities we have two men who are going to rule two great empires and in due time their paths are destined to cross and when these two empires collide the results are going to be incredible they will impact in ways that will determine the very shape of our civilization and how we act and think we'll continue with the next dramatic chapter in this story in our next program however you can see the battle line shaping up which side which empire will prove triumphant the roman empire or christianity the empire of this world or the kingdom of god the answer may surprise you because there's a strange twist to this clash of empires there's more than meets the eye here's what the bible says in ephesians chapter 6 verses 12 and 13. our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms therefore put on the full armor of god so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand if you've enjoyed today's program on constantine the great and would like to dig deeper then i'd like to recommend the special gift we have for all our viewers today it's the booklet a clash of empires this booklet will share with you the greatest clash of empires the world has ever seen this booklet is our gift to you i guarantee there are no costs or obligations whatsoever so make the most of this wonderful opportunity to receive the free gift we have for you today here's the information you need phone or text us at 0436 triple three triple five in australia or 020 402 2042 in new zealand or visit our website tij.tv to request today's free offer and we'll send it to you totally free of charge and with no obligation write to us at gpo box 274 sydney new south wales 2001 australia or po box 70673 manukau auckland 2241 new zealand don't delay call or text us now [Music] if you've enjoyed today's journey to nish in serbia following the footsteps of constantine the great and our reflections on the clash between the roman empire and christianity then be sure to join us again next week when we will share another of life's journeys together let's pray dear heavenly father we thank you because although life is full of difficult choices you are the one who shines the light where there is darkness help us to choose jesus and his rule in our lives help us to study your word so that we may be strengthened and encouraged for our journey through this life we ask this in jesus name amen [Music]

Channel: The Incredible Journey

Views: 56,172

Keywords: shadow empire, Gary Kent, The Incredible Journey, apocalypse, bible, bible prophecy, bible truth, end of the world, end times, heaven, jesus, jesus christ, jesus returns, judgment, last days, prophecy, rapture, resurrection, return of jesus, revelation, sabbath, sabbath truth, second coming, signs of the times, Pope, Roman Empire, Roman Catholic History, Constantine, Constantine the Great, Paganism Explained, TIJTV, 10 commandments, Christianity, History of Israel, julius caesar, Rome

Id: aqeBHDSdHVg

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021