Earth:Theatre of God's Universe - Section 11
GOD’S NEW PLAN FOR HIS WORK
From the beginning, the new church that Jesus set up had a struggle. The Gospel was a revolution to the Jews and in the Roman Empire.
God poured out His Holy Spirit in a wonderful way with "tongues of fire" on the "Day of Pentecost". Jesus workers were given an explosion of power to witness about Jesus. This burst of God’s power led to miracles and healing. When needed, the workers were miraculously given new languages to share their faith. [Acts 2:1-4] Preaching had the power of the Holy Spirit behind it. But, the Jewish leaders tried to stop the work. Many Christians were put in prison. Later, some like Stephen, were killed.
The Early Christian Church had much of God’s power. Christians went as far as England and Scotland in the North. History says that Thomas went as far as India. Later some Christians went to China. Chinese writing today still shows the influence of the early church beliefs.
Of course Satan did his best to stop the work. If killing Christians would not stop the work, Satan would find other ways. Some false teachers came in that tried to make Christians compromise with Jewish legalism. "Legalists" felt people should earn their way to Heaven by their works. But Paul warned the churches strongly about these problems in his books of Romans, Ephesians and Galatians.
Jesus closest friend, John, wrote a book called "Revelation". Revelation was a book of comfort and warning given by Jesus to John for the church. [Revelation 1:1-3]. Revelation outlines the story of church history from the time of the Disciples all the way through to the Second Coming of Jesus. Revelation ends with the story of the end of sin in the final "lake of fire" and the creation of the New Earth. Studying this book today shows many details of the struggle through the ages between Christ and Satan -- between truth and error. Studying this book builds faith, and warns against Satan’s plans of deception today.
Go to the Next Section: A Time of Compromise and Persecution to see what happened.
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This site is maintained by John and Alberta Blake, of Clive, Alberta, Canada. The Blakes have four grown children, two of whom are deaf. Mrs. Blake trained as a teacher of the deaf and taught in Nova Scotia and British Columbia, Canada. Mrs. Blake also taught in the USA at the Christian Deaf Center in Arkansas. John is a semi-retired Pastor, and is currently a Church Coordinator of Deaf Ministry. The Blakes are now working in the development of Deaf Ministries in different countries. In March 2006, John also became the Regional Deaf Ministry Director for Gospel Outreach and is head of a new department for expanding the Deaf Ministry through Gospel Outreach.