Church History - Silvanus - (Constantine)

In writing about Silvanus, I want to mention first that his original name was Constantine, but so you don’t in any way confuse him with the pagan emperor Constantine, I will call him only by the name he adopted after going through a strong experience from God.

What began his life’s work was a providential meeting that was set up by God. A man journeying on his way back home was entertained by Silvanus and taken in to his home. The traveler had with him the four gospels and the letters of Paul. They began reading and sharing them together. As a result when the guest left, he gave them to Silvanus.

The continuing seeking and entering into these scriptures brought around a dramatic transformation within him.

It was at this point that he changed his name and began to share with others the tremendous things that were happening to him. He and others began to reject the worship and superstitious adoration of icons and images. This brought about a strong response from the religious authorities.

The great contribution that Silvanus gave us was the passion to go back and see how the early church lived out their lives in Christ and then he would take those things and impart that to others.  

Another terrific part of what Christ was doing in him was the desire to return to the simplicity that is in Christ. The religious behemoth had become so worldly that it was incapable of imparting any type of life to others in any way. The politics of religious power and devious stratagems permeated the institutional religious organization.

This simplicity in Christ and passion for doing things as Christ would have them started to spread everywhere.

One of the other great insights that Silvanus entered into in practice was the work of planting churches like the original apostles did. This was a tremendous, powerful concept that shook the world of that time.

In a tremendous display of spontaneous life from Christ and reaching out to the spiritually starving, one of the great moments in Christian history began to unfold.
The powers that be couldn’t allow this to go unchallenged, so they eventually got hold of Silvanus and made him stand in front of some his fellow believers and they were ordered to stone him. They were offered pardon by the authorities if they would do it. Only one complied, and unfortunately this killed him.

Yet, as always, the testimony goes on. There were those who the Lord raised up afterward and continued on in the purpose of God.

Silvanus is one of the great men of Christian history. Far before most believers saw the need for change, God raised up a man who few have compared with since. His insights were so far ahead of his time that most even today have a hard time grasping and moving into this way of Christ.

We need and must take heed to what these godly pioneers of the faith partook in. We not only need to enter into all of these ways, but then we must go beyond further up into the ways of God that we may pass the testimony to those who will passionately follow.