Church History, Volume 1 (of 3)Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Religion
Church History, Volume 1 (of 3)
Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Church history
Set apart to the work by the church by prayer and laying on of hands,
Paul and Barnabas started from Antioch on their =first= missionary
journey to Asia Minor, A.D. 48-50. Notwithstanding much opposition
and actual persecution on the part of the enraged Jews, he founded
mixed churches, composed principally of Gentile Christians, comprising
congregations at Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. When
Paul undertook his =second= missionary journey, A.D. 52-55, Barnabas
separated himself from him because of his refusal to accept the company
of his nephew John Mark, who had deserted them during their first
journey, and along with Mark embarked upon an independent mission,
beginning with his native country Cyprus; of the success of this mission
nothing is known. Paul, on the other hand, accompanied by Silas and
Luke, with whom at a later period Timothy also was associated, passed
through Asia Minor, and would thereafter have returned to Antioch had
not a vision by night at Troas led him to take ship for Europe. There he
founded churches at Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth,
and then returned through Asia Minor to Syria. Without any lengthened
interval he entered upon his =third= missionary journey, A.D. 55-58,
accompanied by Luke, Titus, and Timothy. The centre of his ministerial
activity during this period was Ephesus, where he founded a church with
a large membership. His success was extraordinary, so that the very
existence of heathenism in Asia Minor was seriously imperilled. Driven
away by the uprising of a heathen mob, he travelled through Macedonia,
pressed on to Illyricum, visited the churches of Greece, and then went
to Jerusalem, for the performance of a vow. Here his life, threatened
by the excited Jews, was saved by his being put in prison by the Roman
captain, and then sent down to Cæsarea, A.D. 58. An appeal to Cæsar, to
which as a Roman citizen he was entitled, resulted in his being sent to
Rome, where he, beginning with the spring of A.D. 61, lived and preached
for several years, enduring a mild form of imprisonment. The further
course of his life and ministry remains singularly uncertain. Of the
later labours and fortunes of Paul’s fellow-workers we know absolutely
nothing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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