Revelation: The Bride, the Beast & Babylon Page #4

went underground.

This labyrinth

of tunnels and chambers

Beneath the roman cities

Became known

as "the catacombs."

Now, the catacombs

are important to understand.

First, many people imagine

That there are caves

naturally under Rome

And the Christians

simply went into them.

The catacombs,

almost without exception,

Are not natural caves.

They were excavated

by the Christians.

And so the Christians made

a whole labyrinth underground.

Sometimes services

would be held there

In the very tombs

of the martyrs.

The second point is the very act

of burying your dead

Is hugely significant.

Christians believe

in a resurrection of the body.

Of course, that belief

has shifted and changed

Over the centuries,

but from all we understand,

Early Christians believed

that they would be resurrected

In that actual

bodily form, and therefore,

They chose to bury their dead,

not to cremate them.

Therefore, if you are seen

to be burying your dead,

Especially at times

When there are intense

waves of persecution,

You're more or less

saying to the police,

"Come and investigate me.

I may well be a Christian."

In ad 306, a new roman emperor

came into power

And things

began to rapidly change.

Constantine the great

was a capable military leader

And a shrewd politician.

So Constantine had to fight

a series of civil wars

In order to achieve

His political aim

of becoming emperor

And that's his own

personal and political aim

That's got nothing

to do with Christianity.

He goes down from Gaul-

Modern day France-

Where his power base was,

To confront

his rival Maxentius, in Italy.

Constantine moves down

from the north -

And you think of Italy,

there's this long stretch -

And he wins one battle

after another.

As he was marching with his army

He had a dream one night

where god came to him

And told him

"you will become a Christian

And put this sign on your shield

and you will conquer."

Shortly after that

he actually had a vision,

Which history tells us

was seen by his army

As well as

by Constantine, himself.

He looked up to the sun

and he saw a cross of light above it

And the Greek works

"en toutu nika":
By this, conquer.

The story

that he had had this dream

Does appear

at a relatively early stage.

It's described by Eusebius.

There are different sources.

There are different versions,

But it does seem

that Constantine does say,

"I've had this divine encounter

"And an angel has told me

That in the sign of the cross

I will conquer."

Constantine commanded his troops

To adorn their shields

with the Christian symbol.

His opponent then

moves out of the city

To face the oncoming

Constantine with his army,

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