And the Vision that was planted in my brain, still remains…

#52: “And the Vision that was planted in my brain, still remains…” by Brendon Wahlberg
It is said that a historian can never judge for sure whether an event like the resurrection actually occurred. The same would be true for judging whether someone really had a vision from God. Long ago, a man named Saul and a man named Constantine each had his own vision of Jesus; these visions changed their lives and altered the history of Christianity. It is commonly believed that (1) these visions really happened, and that (2) they were from God, who was acting in history to bring about his will. Was this true? A historian cannot ever say for sure, but hey, I’m not a historian, so I am free to ask the question. But how can we judge? I suggest that if the vision was real, then it should have really changed the man who saw it. And, if the vision really was from God, acting to affect history, then the result should have been a positive change for Christians in the world.
Let’s consider Saul first, but only briefly. People are already familiar with Saul, and I want to devote more time to Constantine. The book of Acts tells us that Saul was on his way to continue persecuting the followers of Jesus, when suddenly he had a vision. “Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:1-5)
The historian cannot decide, either way, whether Saul’s vision was real, or if he made it up. But the person of faith can ask whether Saul was truly changed by the experience. The Christian experience is often a transformative one. As we know from reading the New Testament, Saul was absolutely and utterly changed. He made a complete turnaround. He stopped persecuting Jesus’ followers and became one himself. He devoted the rest of his life to travelling around the Mediterranean world, starting new Churches and making new converts. He suffered for his mission. He was beaten and imprisoned, and in the end, he was beheaded for his faith.
The person of faith can also ask whether Saul’s vision was really from God. If it was, then what was God’s plan, his reason for sending the vision? And, did Christians as a whole benefit from that plan? Was there a positive change in Christian history because of Saul’s vision? Actually, although Jesus did not explain his plan directly to Paul in the passage above, he did explain it to a man named Ananias, who explained it to Saul. “[…] for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’” (Acts 9:15-16)
Knowing this, we can ask whether Saul did indeed bring the Lord’s name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel. And of course, the answer is yes. Because of his vision, Saul acted according to God’s plan. If Christianity had remained solely a Jewish movement in Jerusalem as it was in the beginning, then it probably would have been wiped out when that community and that city was destroyed in the war against Rome. Saul helped to spread Christianity to the Gentiles, avoiding that outcome and changing Christian history in a positive way. Saul also wrote his famous letters which make up a large part of our New Testament two thousand years later. The ideas in those letters have shaped the entire history of Christianity. A person of faith may well conclude that the vision sent to Saul was really from God. It would be hard to argue otherwise.
With the example of Saul’s vision in mind, let’s turn our attention to the Roman Emperor Constantine. Like Saul, Constantine also had a vision of Jesus, a vision that changed Christian history forever. Was this vision real? Was this vision really from God, working in history to fulfill his plan? Again, I suggest we judge by asking whether the vision changed the man himself, and whether the vision brought about a positive change for Christians as a whole.
Constantine was born in the year 272CE, in a time when the Roman Empire was fractured into eastern and western parts, and ruled by two or even three Emperors at once. In 312CE, when he was forty years old, Constantine was a General at the head of an army, fighting his rivals for control of the Empire. That year, at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, he had his vision. The contemporary historian Eusebius wrote about it in detail. Constantine was preparing for battle by praying for help, not to the multitude of pagan gods, but to the Christian God his mother Helena worshipped.
Eusebius wrote, “[…] about noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription, CONQUER BY THIS. At this sight he himself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which followed him on this expedition, and witnessed the miracle. He said, moreover, that he doubted within himself what the import of this apparition could be. And while he continued to ponder and reason on its meaning, night suddenly came on; then in his sleep the Christ of God appeared to him with the same sign which he had seen in the heavens, and commanded him to make a likeness of that sign which he had seen in the heavens, and to use it as a safeguard in all engagements with his enemies.” Eusebius wrote that the sign was “the symbol of the Savior's name, two letters indicating the name of Christ by means of its initial characters, the letter P being intersected by X in its center […] The emperor constantly made use of this sign of salvation as a safeguard against every adverse and hostile power, and commanded that others similar to it should be carried at the head of all his armies.” (Life of Constantine Book 1, excerpts from Chapters 28-31)
With God’s sign protecting him, Constantine went on to win his battles; eventually, he became the sole ruler of the entire Roman Empire, east and west. But was the new Emperor’s vision real? Did it transform him as a person, like Saul was transformed? The reason one might doubt whether the vision was real is that Constantine was a politician seeking ultimate power. To unify a divided Empire, he needed religious unity, and maybe the growing popularity of Christianity inspired him to make up a vision and use the Christian religion as a tool for his own ends. On the other hand, ancient sources say that after his vision, Constantine began to believe personally as a Christian. Was his conversion sincere, and how did it change him?
The answers to these questions are ultimately ambiguous. Unlike Saul, who was transformed immediately and totally, Constantine seems to have changed very gradually over time. After his vision, he lived another twenty-five years, and it is fair to say that it took him that whole time to fully convert to Christianity and fully reject paganism. Of course, he was in a rather unusual position. The Roman Emperor was the “Pontifex Maximus”, the high priest of the pantheon of Roman gods. A lot of citizens were still pagan. But here was Constantine, having newly become a Christian who worshipped an exclusive God who would have no other gods before him. At first, pagan gods were still allowed on coins and Constantine kept his Pontifex title. The Emperor was still worshipped as a supernatural being. Early monuments to the Emperor did not mention Christianity. But slowly, he began to verbally attack paganism, calling it untrue, misguided, and outmoded. He stopped participating in pagan sacrifices. Pagan worship was not outlawed, but it was discouraged. Some pagan temples were closed. There were no pagan martyrs, but eventually, some of the people still refusing Christianity were denied positions of power. Later on, some pagan holidays were combined with Christian holidays (like Saturnalia and the birthday of Jesus, which gave us Christmas). The Emperor grew progressively more Christian over his lifetime. He read the inspired writings. He resolved to worship only the God who had appeared to him. But he was only baptized in the year of his death at age sixty-five.
Was Constantine’s vision real? I lean towards saying yes, because it did transform him, even if it was a slow process. Was his vision really from God? To answer this question, we need to take a quick look at the state of Christianity in the Roman Empire before Constantine’s vision in 312CE. It was actually a very bad time for Christians. The Great Persecution under Emperor Diocletian went from 303-311CE. During this time, the Christian religion was outlawed. Christians were stripped of legal rights and commanded to sacrifice to the Roman gods. Christian buildings and homes were destroyed. Christian books were seized and burned. Christians were arrested, tortured, and put to death in gladiatorial games. The prayers of suffering Christians must have risen up to God to bring about a change.
When change came, Roman Christians believed that Constantine’s vision was really from God. If it was, then what was God’s plan, his reason for sending the vision? And, did Christians benefit from that plan? After Constantine’s vision, what changed for Christians as a whole? In fact, an enormous change occurred. A year after the vision, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan (the Edict of Toleration). It said that all citizens could observe the religion that they preferred. It specifically said that Christians had the undeniable right to practice their religion openly and freely, and without molestation. What a change from the previous few years!
Here is a quick rundown of some other changes that occurred after the vision. The Emperor became a generous financial patron of the Christian religion. He paid for building large churches and pilgrimage sites. He rebuilt Jerusalem and built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher there. He made a new capitol city called Constantinople, which had mostly Christian churches and architecture. He made churches tax exempt. Sunday was made an official day of worship and rest. Complete bibles were commissioned and produced. There were Christian advisors in the Emperor’s court.
Christianity had been an endangered, persecuted religion, and it had become an Imperial religion. Was that according to God’s plan? Well, as much as we can ask such questions, we should consider the flip side of all this change. There were some less-than-Godly results as well, namely corruption and hypocrisy. There was the problem that some people who took positions of leadership in the church really wanted them for the power and the money. Furthermore, Constantine wanted political and religious unity in his Empire. So, although he was a patron of Christianity, he was a patron of only one branch of Christianity. Remember, in those times, there were some very different versions of Christianity floating around. There were those, for example, who rejected the entire Old Testament. There were the Gnostics who believed in secret knowledge as a way to salvation. Under Constantine, those different branches of Christianity were ruthlessly squashed as heresy.
The Council of Nicaea was one example of how the Emperor made sure that all his Christian subjects believed the same thing. A disagreement arose over whether Jesus and God the Father were exactly the same or merely similar. Constantine called a huge gathering of Bishops to resolve the question once and for all. Those who still disagreed were punished. The Emperor didn’t create official doctrine, but he did enforce it. Orthodoxy meant unity to him. This was sadly ironic, and a kind of hypocrisy, because before the Emperor’s vision, there was persecution of all Christians, but after the vision, some Christians were persecuted in the name of rooting out heresy. So ask yourself, if Jesus sent the vision in the first place, would Jesus have approved of all these results? In other words, did the same Jesus who told Saul merely to spread the Lord’s name, even if it meant suffering, also tell General Constantine to conquer an Empire in the Lord’s name, while ruling in splendor? It is not an easy question to answer.
It is interesting to consider the nature of the two visions and how both men responded to them. Both visions, you must admit, were rather brief and cryptic. Saul saw only a quick glimpse of Jesus asking: why do you persecute me? Did Saul respond by simply stopping the persecution and minding his own business after that? No, he devoted the rest of his life to spreading the message he had tried to squash. Constantine saw only a quick glimpse of Jesus telling him to use a symbol and win a battle. Did Constantine respond by simply winning his battle, saying thanks God, and never giving Christianity another thought once he was in power? No, he devoted the rest of his life to growing as a Christian and advancing the religion as an official Roman faith. It would seem that a little Jesus goes a long way. A brief and cryptic vision can have a broad and far reaching effect. This implies that a lot of what happens in such cases is that God has a plan, but God only gives a small shove towards that plan. The rest is up to us. Hopefully God chooses his tools well; even very unlikely people like Saul (who arrested Christians) and Constantine (who was a pagan military leader) can indeed change the world for Christians in a positive way. The end result of each vision was that the number of Christians in the world grew. Surely that was part of God’s plan – the growth of the Kingdom of God here on Earth.