The Christian hierarchy, knowing that it would be a potent means of
confirming the faith of the laity in the Gospel story as a literal
history to have a tomb of the Saviour to which pilgrimages could be
made, and appealing to Constantine to provide one, he sent his mother,
Helena, to Judea to find the place and, of course, discovering what she
went to look for, he had erected, under her supervision, over the
designated spot, that splendid edifice which, known as the church of
the Holy Sepulchre, remains to this day. Helena, good at finding lost
things, also claimed to have discovered the veritable cross upon which
the Saviour had been crucified; and her son, worthy of such a mother,
claimed, as recorded by Eusebius, that he had seen with his own eyes
the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, bearing
the inscription: "In Hoc Signo Vinces," signifying "Under this sign,
conquer." Those were times of remarkable and supernatural occurrences.
At the time Constantine became the patron of Christianity the bishops
and presbyters of the several churches, seemingly ignorant of the
teachings of the Esoteric philosophy relative to the origin of the
Trinity, were divided into two factions in discussing the relation
between the Father and the Son. One party, headed by Athanasius, a
presbyter of Alexandria, and afterwards bishop of that see, advocated
the ancient belief that the three persons in the godhead of Father, Son
and Holy Ghost is but one God, that Christ is consubstantial or
co-eternal with the Father, and that he became man to perform his
mission of redemption. Such, in brief, is what is known as the
Athanasian or Trinitarian Creed. The other party, headed, by Arius,
another presbyter of Alexandria, advocated the belief in one God alone
and that Christ, having no existence until begotten of the Father, is
not consubstantial or co-eternal with him. Such, in substance,
constitutes what is known to the Trinitarian or Orthodox Christians as
the Arian or Unitarian heresy. Could stronger evidence be adduced that
this controversy was the result of ignorantly making a distinction
where there is no difference, for whether Trinitarian or Unitarian the
mythical genius of the sun is the God to whom they all paid supreme
adoration, although the Christians of to-day would deny it most
emphatically.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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