00:00I am a marriage not made in heaven.
00:05When Constantine laid down his sword and lifted the cross, the world rejoiced.
00:12Many believers thought the long nightmare was ending.
00:16No more arenas.
00:18No more torturers.
00:20No more ashes of martyrs.
00:22At last, the church could breathe, but they did not yet realize what kind of peace had come.
00:27Not the peace of the Messiah, born of humility and sacrifice, but the peace of an emperor, born of calculation and command.
00:39Rome had stopped persecuting the church, because Rome had decided to possess her.
00:46The empire no longer hunted the followers of the way it married them.
00:50And in that union, the bride began to look less like the Messiah, and more like the man on the throne.
01:01I, from catacombs to marble halls before Constantine, believers worshipped in caves, houses, and hidden places.
01:09After Constantine, they worshipped in basilicus, built near palaces, at imperial expense.
01:16Before Constantine, bishops walked barefoot among the poor.
01:21After Constantine, they rode in carriages, sat beside governors, and dined in courts of power.
01:28Before Constantine, to follow the Messiah was to risk one's life.
01:32After Constantine, it became a path to influence, privilege, and political favor.
01:39The transformation was swift.
01:41The church rose like incense from the ruins of persecution.
01:45But the smoke had a different scent.
01:48The faith that once overturned empires, began to imitate them.
01:54As Constantine sought to unify his realm, he discovered a truth.
02:02The church was more organized than the empire itself.
02:05It had networks of bishops, e-community leadership, moral authority, financial resources, loyalty across borders.
02:14What general would not covet such structure?
02:17What emperor would not seek to harness it?
02:20So Constantine did what emperors do.
02:22He bound bishops to the imperial court.
02:25He made them judges in local disputes.
02:28He granted them tax exemptions.
02:30He gave them palaces and lands.
02:32He involved them in politics.
02:34He summoned them to councils with imperial guards at the doors.
02:38Rome had not joined the church.
02:40The church had joined Rome.
02:42And with each new privilege, the bishops gained comfort and lost independence.
02:47Ivy bride adorned in gold, not in holiness.
02:54As wealth poured into the church, a new type of conflict emerged.
02:59Not wolves from without, but corruption from within.
03:03Suddenly, church offices became desirable.
03:07People sought bishoprics for influence.
03:10Regional rivalries grew into theological wars.
03:14Councils settled political scores.
03:17Imperial favor replaced spiritual discernment.
03:20Doctrine became a tool of state unity.
03:23Enforcement of orthodoxy came with soldiers, not shepherds.
03:27Where once faith was a fire in the desert, now it was a jewel in the emperor's crown.
03:32The bride of Christ was clothed in gold, but strangled by it.
03:39V. The heresy of power.
03:42The Messiah had warned his followers, my kingdom is not of this world.
03:47But under Constantine, a new idea took root.
03:50A Roman idea.
03:52The empire.
03:53This belief, the fusion of throne and altar, became the first great heresy of power.
04:03It whispered.
04:04If the empire is lost, he lose by the time right.
04:09If the empire supports the faith, the faith must support the empire.
04:14If the empire supports the faith, the faith must support the empire.
04:21If the church be grown, then one of us be Christian.
04:27If Rome fights, God must be on Rome's side.
04:31This was not persecution.
04:33This was seduction.
04:36And seduction is far more dangerous.
04:39The voice of Rome, echoed louder than the voice of heaven.
04:48Over time, the church learned to speak with Rome's accent.
04:53Decisions once made by prayer were now made by councils.
04:57Councils once guided by elders were now guided by emperors.
05:02Scripture was still sacred.
05:05But state-sponsored theology became the lens through which scripture was read.
05:10Faith became a law.
05:12Unity became enforced.
05:14Dissent became rebellion.
05:16Conscience became treason.
05:18Rome had finally achieved what the Anunnaki's ancient schemes had failed to produce.
05:25A religion that thought it was serving God while unknowingly serving empire.
05:31The eye, the bride, remembers her first love.
05:42Yet not all bowed to the new order.
05:45Some fled to deserts, the first monastics who refused the luxury of the imperial church.
05:51Some clung to the old simplicity, living as the Messiah lived, loving as he loved, seeking no throne but heaven in hidden valleys.
06:01Far from marble basilicus, they whispered a truth.
06:05Rome could not silence.
06:06The kingdom of God belongs to the humble.
06:10These small sparks would one day ignite movements of renewal, echoing across ages when power tried to smother truth.
06:19For the true bride of Christ never belonged to emperors.
06:23She belonged only to the one who died for her.
06:28Eat what the children of light must learn in every age.
06:34Rome appears again, sometimes as an empire, sometimes as a system, sometimes as a mindset, always offering the same temptation.
06:45Trade your faith for influence.
06:48Trade your conviction for stability.
06:50Trade your identity for power.
06:52Constantine began the pattern, but history continued it, and still the Messiah whispers to all who follow him.
07:01Do not be unequally yoked.
07:04Choose this day whom you will serve, for the bride must decide in every generation whether she is married to the Lamb or to the emperors of this world.
07:22And still the capital is sticking with me.
07:45Venezuela feels like a baby.
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