Rome Versus Constantinople
It happened about 1,000 years ago!
While Christianity — as we know it today — was developing in the early centuries after the death of Christ and His Apostles — many controversies and schisms sprang up. Professing Christians in the larger cities and their lesser sister cities were ruled simply by Bishops (overseers).
In the early centuries of "Christianity," the chief Bishops presided over the large churches in five great centers: Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Constantinople! The bishops of these five great cities finally came to be called "Patriarchs" — meaning "father rulers." At that time they were all of equal authority — each having absolute authority in his own province.
After the historic division of the Roman Empire in 395 A.D., a struggle developed between the Patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople. The struggle concerned which of these two great cities (and their respective Patriarchs) would be chief.
After this division, the Patriarchs of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria gradually began to acknowledge the leadership of the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Remember that in the time of Constantine — 300 years after Christ's personal ministry — "Christianity" was virtually made the state religion of the Roman Empire — dominated, of course, by the Emperor Constantine. It was he who got all of the leaders of the Church together and decided to make Sunday the official Roman day of worship. This he did at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.
But during the following centuries the Roman Empire in the West (at Rome) had weak rulers. The Western Church acquired a much freer hand to do as it pleased. But at the same time the Churches of the East were torn asunder by controversies and were dominated and weakened by the Emperors in the East.
The Patriarch at Rome, under these circumstances, became the strongest man in the West and became known as the Pope. Pope Leo I (440-461 A.D.) was regarded by some as the first Pope. He claimed that he was divinely appointed as "Primate of all Bishops." And he successfully won recognition for this claim from Emperor Valentinian III in 445 A.D. Leo proclaimed himself Lord of the Whole Church. He advocated exclusive universal papacy.
Pope Leo I persuaded the greatly feared, barbaric Attila the Hun to spare the city of Rome in 452 A.D. In 455 he was also successful in inducing the Vandal, Genseric, to have mercy on Rome. These successes with powerful secular rulers greatly enhanced the powers of the Roman Pope in the eyes of others.
But in spite of the Emperor's act of recognizing the Pope as Primate of all Bishops, the Council of Chalcedon (the 4th Ecumenical Council, 451 A.D.) accorded the Patriarch of Constantinople equal prerogatives with the Bishop of Rome.
Then, the Roman Empire in the West came to its untimely end in 476 A.D. This left the Popes of Rome completely free from any civil authority. Thereafter they increased in power in the West.
Pope Gregory 1 (590-604 A.D.) is generally regarded as the first Pope in the real sense of the word. (Roman Catholics, of course, claim a Peter as their first Pope)
Pope Gregory exercised great influence over the Eastern part of the Empire, but he did not claim jurisdiction over the Eastern Church. At that time the Bishop (or Patriarch) of Constantinople called himself "Universal Bishop." Pope Gregory was greatly irritated by this and rejected the title as a "vicious and haughty word" and even refused to allow it to be applied to himself!
Pope Nicolas I (858-867 A.D.) decided it was time to take a strong hand in the affairs of the Eastern Church to prove that he was, after all, the Universal Bishop of the Catholic Church.
Pope Excommunicates Patriarch
Nicolas, therefore, proceeded to excommunicate Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, in 863 A.D. But Photius merely returned the insult by excommunicating Pope Nicolas. Thereafter the division within the Christian Church continued to widen until 1054 A.D. when the Eastern Greek Orthodox Church broke completely with Rome once and for all.
Those excommunications lasted eleven centuries, until Pope Paul VI visited the Patriarch Athenagoras. In a service at St. Esprit they returned to each other the excommunication papers which their predecessors had issued to each other in 863 and 867 A.D.
It is interesting to note that for the first six centuries of Christendom, the East had represented the most important part of the Church, and had claimed the allegiance of the majority of Christians.
During this period, all Ecumenical Councils had been held either in or near CONSTANTINOPLE, and all proceedings were in the Greek language!
When the Popes at Rome began asserting that they should be looked to and implicitly obeyed by all Christians, this proved too much for the Eastern Church to accept. So, the Council of Constantinople (869 A.D.) was the last real Ecumenical Council to be held for many, many centuries. From that time forward the Eastern Greek Orthodox Church held its own Councils, and the Roman Catholic Church did the same. The rift continued to widen.
Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303 A.D.) issued his famous Papal Bull, "Unam Sanctam." "We declare, affirm, define, and pronounce that it is altogether necessary for Salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff."
Pope Pius IX (1846-1878 A.D.) was the Pope who finally declared that the Popes are infallible when speaking officially on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. According to this decree, it was "divinely revealed" that when the Pope speaks "ex cathedra" (from the chair), he is "possessed of infallibility in defining doctrines of faith and morals."
The Greek Orthodox Church considers (or at least used to consider) the Pope's decree regarding Papal infallibility as the Papacy's crowning blasphemy!
But this is not the only hindrance to Church unity. There are many others.
Long-Standing Differences
The Greek Orthodox Church cannot believe in Papal Infallibility and Papal Supremacy. They do not believe in Purgatory or Indulgences. Neither do they believe in the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Orthodox Church does not really believe Peter was ever a Bishop of Rome (they acknowledge he was a Bishop of Antioch). Neither do they believe that only the clergy should drink wine in taking communion.
There is much still dividing the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics. But Pope Paul VI hopes that it will be possible to heal the 1,000-year old wounds of division separating the Orthodox and Catholic Churches; then he hopes to begin in earnest to woo Protestants to the Catholic fold.
But Church unity was a major problem, even in apostolic days.
Jude, the brother of Jesus, warned true believers to "earnestly contend for the faith" of the original apostles of Christ (verse 3). "For there are certain men crept in unawares . . . ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness [license, liberty to do evil]" (verse 4).
False teachers or ministers had multiplied rapidly even in the days of the original Apostles of Jesus Christ. "Even now are there many antichrists," lamented the aged Apostle John (I John 2:18)! "Many false prophets are gone out into the world" (I John 4:1).
Yes, even in the first century, many false teachers began to appropriate and USE the name of Jesus Christ, but they would not obey Him — would not preach His true Gospel, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God soon to be set up, literally, upon this earth. These false ministers would not preach real repentance — turning away from sin, from breaking the commandments of Almighty God. They taught a system of humanly devised rituals and works derived from pagan custom and tradition — and they labeled it, falsely, "Christian."
Few to Be Saved — Now!
Jesus Christ made it very plain that during this age His true followers (the true Christians) would be few and far between. For this reason, Jesus Christ commanded: "Enter ye in at the strait [difficult] gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matt. 7:13, 14).
Yes, Jesus Christ made it very clear that, during this age — when Satan has deceived "the whole world" (Rev. 12:9) — it would be the "many" who would follow, blindly, the broad, popular way — to destruction.
He said that it would be only the "few" who would find and follow the way to "life" — during this age (verses 13, 14).
Did Jesus Christ know what He was talking about? Did He tell the truth? Are His prophecies still being fulfilled yet today? Certainly!
What has happened to bring about such a Babylon of confusion in this world's "Christianity" as we know it today? "Is Christ divided?" (I Cor. 1:13) ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Christ Established One Church
The Word of God proclaims that "God is not the author of CONFUSION, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints" (I Cor. 14:33).
Who, then, is the author of the hundreds of divided, Christian-professing churches? Why do we have over 400 Protestant churches, plus various churches claiming to be Catholic? Why this division, this confusion, this multiplicity of churches?
Didn't Jesus Christ say: "I will build my Church"? (Matt. 16:18)
Didn't the Founder of the true Church of Jesus Christ pray that the Father would keep that Church united as "one" Church? (John 17:11, 21-23) Did the Father hear and answer that prayer? Absolutely!
How has it come about that professing Christians have — during the last two World Wars, as in many previous wars — fought against each other — shot at each other, bombed the cities of fellow Christians — on the opposite side, of course? Does this make sense? Should a true Christian fight against a fellow Christian? Did the early New Testament Christians fight against each other in this world's armies?
Is it just possible that Satan is, after all, the author of confusion? Is not he the father of strife and division?
The Pope and Patriarch have given each other the "kiss of peace"! They now appear ready to settle their differences! But the fact remains that there are still many doctrinal problems to iron out before there can ever be any real unity between the Orthodox and Roman Catholics!
The Pope's pilgrimage to Turkey is just one more step in an endless search for Christian unity!
Christian Unity in Millennium
Can any man really unite all Catholics and Protestants?
Will Protestants ever look to Rome for complete guidance in all spiritual matters?
Hardly.
But Bible prophecy does reveal that CHRIST, at His second coming, will bring unity, peace and harmony. There will be one religion — God's truth! It will take the divine power of Jesus Christ to straighten out this deceived world and to unlearn the pagan superstitions that today masquerade as "Christian." (See Micah 4; Isaiah 2, 9, 11; Zechariah 14 and Rev. 12)
God speed that day!