EXPANSION OF THE CHURCH
a) Geography of the Roman Empire
b) Church of Jerusalem
c) Journeys of Saint Paul
d) Apostles Churches
e) Apocalypse of Saint John
f) Church of Rome
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a) Geography of the Roman Empire
b) Church of Jerusalem
As soon as he received the Holy Spirit, Peter took the word and went out to announce the good news. It was the day of the Jewish feast of Pentecost, and on that same day, more than three thousand believers joined him. This is how the primitive community of the apostles was born, the community of the church of Jerusalem.
This primitive Church of
Jerusalem grew and grew in both fervor and number of believers. They had the same feeling and shared everything.After the Church of Jerusalem had gone strong, Peter went out to build new churches throughout Israel, taking the Gospel for the first time to a non-Christian called Cornelius, a person from Caesar’s Roman Court.
Finally, Peter visited all of the principal headquarters of Christianity, and the capital of the holy church in
Rome, where his life would come to an end, giving it up for Christ.c) Journeys of Saint Paul
In the city of
Antioch the Church would have the greatest number of Jesus’ followers; so many that they began calling themselves Christians. It was also in Antioch where Saul’s vocation was manifested. Saul was a brave convert who formerly had been a persecutor of believers.Saul, later baptized with the name of Paul, was chosen by God to take the Gospel throughout the heathen world. So Saint Paul took three great
missionary journeys where he spread Christianity to:1st Asia
Minor: Cyprus, Antioch, Tarsus, Laodicea, Galatia, Ephesus, and Troas;
2nd Greece: Philippi, Thessalonica, Colossae, Athens, Achaia, and
Corinth;
3rd Extreme West: Malta, Italy, Rome and possibly Spain.
Saint Paul also wrote very important letters to all of the churches that he founded: 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Philippians, Colossians, Galatians, Hebrews, Romans. He also wrote to his faithful collaborators Titus, Timothy, and Philemon, the slave.
d) Apostle’s Churches
Saint John. He set off towards the city of Ephesus with the Virgin Mary. He founded there an illustrious generation of bishops and doctors, and introduced them in all Asia Minor. Along the Domitian’ persecution (94-98), John was exiled to Patmos Island, and there, he wrote the Revelation in 7 letters sent to the 7 Asian Churches.Saint James the Minor. He was designated to remain and govern Jerusalem’s Church. He studied there difficult questions, like circumcision and other matters from the Old Testament.
Saint James the Major was designed to lead the gospel to Finisterre (Spain), but Herod’s persecution in Jerusalem on 0043 delayed his plans.
Andrew preached in Cappadocia. There he was crucified.
Bartholomew made Ethiopia a Christian nation, and led Matthew’s gospel to Arabia.
Matthew wrote the first gospel in Hebrew and addressed it to Jews-Christians and some parts of Persia.
Thomas preached to the part’s people, and was martyred in India, the place where his relics are forever resting.
Judas preached in Syria, and he explained the battle in Heaven, between Lucifer and Michael. After that, he died in Edessa.
Phillip accompanied Saint John to Ephesus. From there, he preached in all Phrygia.
Simon led the Christianity to Mesopotamia, and Mark, who was St. Paul’s helper in the beginning, became the founder of the Church of Alexandria.
e) Apocalypse of Saint John
This was the revelation that Jesus Christ showed to his beloved disciple in the year 98 A.D., when John was exiled to the island of Patmos. He revealed the Apocalypse which will occur at the end of times and everything that is going to come up until then.
The book of Revelation has three parts:
1st Letters to the 7 churches of Asia (1-4): Ephesus, Smyrna, Sardis, Laodicea, Pergamum, Philadelphia, Thyatira…They received the same words of Christ (he who wins will receive the crown of life).
2nd The Fight between Good and Evil (5-20): The seven seals, the four riders, the dragon and the two beasts, the woman whose dress is the sun…it tells the tale of the final battle on this world and its intermittent state.
3rd The New Jerusalem (21-22): The new heaven and the new earth, the second coming of the son of man, and the "maran atha" (come, Lord Jesus)…They close the biblical revelation of Jesus Christ in history.
f) Church of Rome
Although Christianity was now growing throughout the world, (thanks to the apostles’ efforts), it was in the Roman Empire Capital, in the great Rome, where the gospel took its greatest force.
In Rome, Christians were not tolerated by the immoral emperor, so they had to meet secretly, and sometimes they were thrown to the lions in the Coliseum.
Thousand of believers became martyrs, who through their own blood, helped found this great Church of Rome. Some of the most famous were Peter and Paul, who went there to help them and fell to the same martyrdom.
Time passed and the Church of Rome became the centre of the universal Church, called by the rest the "first in charity".
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