The gospel of John was the last to be written about 110-130 A.D. By then the church had established a hierarchy of elders, deacons, and bishops. It was a powerful body with a doctrine and authority of its own. No church dignitary would willingly give up his position and power.

No longer was the Messiah to rescue the Jewish nation from their enemies and all those who hated them. Paul had changed the purpose of the Hebrew Messiah to a spiritual Messiah. John tells us that Jesus is the saviour of all those who believe in him, both Jews and Gentiles. No need for repentance or the keeping of the laws of Moses, just believe. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." John, 3:16.

No longer is Jesus the Son of Man he is now co-equal with God the creator of the world. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God ....... He was in the world and the world came into being through him ....... And the Word became flesh and lived among us." John 1:1-14. Here we see the influence of Paul. The gospel of John is full of Paul's teaching and new ideas. Gone are all the Mosaic rituals and ordinances which Jesus observed and promoted. The 'gospel' of Paul has taken over completely. In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus repeatedly calls himself the Son of Man and never claims divinity. Yet in John's gospel there are twenty three references to Jesus as the Son of God.

Jesus has been promoted to the Godhead, a person to be worshipped directly. "The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father." John 5:22. No longer is this the teaching of Jesus the Christ. The writer of John's Gospel is not a follower of Jesus or Judaism. John's gospel is pure Paulism mixed up with symbolic paganism. We will look at paganism later.

According to both Mark and Matthew the last words of Jesus on the cross were "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!" Luke tells us the last words of Jesus were "Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing." John's story is different, he tells us Jesus said "It is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." They cannot all be right. I regard Luke and John's stories on this occasion as fanciful and unreal. But this shows us how unreliable sacred texts can be.

The 'Just believe' doctrine was heading for trouble. The question is, what is the correct belief. Which will ensure the favour of God. Should it be righteous living and loving one's neighbour as oneself as taught by Jesus or faith alone as taught by Paul?

From the time of his ascension to full power the Roman emperor Constantine was friendly and established a positive relationship with the Catholic Church. He ended the persecution of Christians, and restored their property to them. Later he made Christianity one of the state religions, thus placing it under state control. Having lost the need to unite against their former persecutors, the Christians soon became deeply divided on matters of doctrine. Was Jesus a human person in touch with God as were the prophets or was he divine in his own right, equal with God as suggested by Paul and the Gospel of John? The Arians thought ''the Son, however exalted he may be, is not equal to the immutable Father, beyond pain and death." The other side thought that "the Son is of one substance with the Father," and therefore is divine.

To deal with the so-called heresies and maintain peace in the empire, Constantine called 220 bishops together to resolve their differences. He convened and chaired the council at Nicaea. At this gathering the doctrine of the trinity was established as official church dogma. Jesus was part of the Godhead. This doctrine became part of the "Nicene Creed."

Constantine was determined to assert his authority in all things and exercised supreme control of religion throughout his empire. Like preceding emperors Constantine also remained the Pontifex Maximus, head of the twelve-man college of pagan priests. Soon after settling the Council at Nicaea Constantine had his oldest son Crispus and his second wife Fausta murdered. Was his Christian belief real or was his main object absolute power? It was only on his deathbed years later that he was baptised a Christian by a pro-Arian bishop.

Except for nineteen months when Julian was Emperor, the church stayed under state control until 787 A.D. The emperor of the day or his lay deputies presided over each Church Council. Soon Emperors in their capacity as heads of the church began to issue edicts dealing with theology on their own authority. One wonders how much the emperors contributed to the dark ages which started during their reign.