Elaine Pagels writes in her book, “Revelations,” that original readers of the Revelation of John of Patmos saw the evil one, the whore of Babylon, as Rome. There were periodic eras over the first three centuries of the Christian church where the Romans specifically persecuted Christians. Each time followers pulled out that book to gain solace about the eventual victory of Christ over Rome.
Then in the early 4th Century (early 300s), Constantine took the image of Christ the conqueror from the book and made it his standard behind which to battle his rivals for the throne of Rome. Pagels does not mention the influence of his mother, who had converted to Christianity some years earlier.
When Constantine won, he made Christianity the official religion of the Empire and gave special status to local leaders called bishops. Then the battle for possession of that office began in earnest. As did the battle for an official interpretation of what it meant to be a Christian. She maintains that leaders of that era, especially Athanasius, re-interpreted the good vs. evil depiction in Revelation as the battle between different adherents within the movement. Official vs. heretic, if you will.
But the idea I’ve been pondering for several days, now, concerns what it means to be Christian. Constantine recognized that if he was to establish a “universal” Church for the empire, that is, “catholic” Church, there needed to be a definition. He convened a council at Nicaea which developed the Nicene Creed still used by churches.
She then paints the development of the church as the victory of those who believed that Christians were ones who accepted the Creed (essentially followers of the Gospel of John and the Revelation of John) over those who believed that Christians should be doers of the Word (essentially those who favored the other Gospels and Paul).
Pagels might be a little simplistic in the analysis, but still today we have many Christians who believe that adherence to dogma takes precedence over experiencing Jesus and doing the Word.
Me, whenever I’m presented with an either/or situation, I ask why not both..or neither. In this case, I’m a proponent of both. The Nicene Creed and Apostle’s Creed help to keep faith grounded. It prevents going down dead-end rabbit holes of false faith–perhaps like trying to blend New Age philosophies into Christianity. But the subsequent 1800 years of history has shown that blind adherence to a dogma leads to war, strife, inhumanity.
I like the quote I used as a title–“Be Ye doers of the Word, not hearers only.” Our challenge is to walk with Jesus as we live a life pleasing to God.
Faith Venture 
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