Please note that the following is taken from a book published in 1840 which was written from a Presbyterian perspective. Therefore some of this might be outdated but nevertheless I hope this is of some benefit to Christians.
Excerpted from Chapter 1 of James Wharey Church History (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board Of Publication, 1840).
3. Extraordinary success of the Gospel
Only a few days after his ascension, according to his promise, the Spirit was poured out on the disciples, on the day of Pentecost, and three thousand converts were added to the church. From this time the word of the Lord began to take root and spread. At this feast of Pentecost there were great numbers of Jews and Jewish proselytes present, from almost all the surrounding countries; and many of them were probably converted on that occasion; and when they returned home, carried the gospel with them. These would be pioneers to the apostles in their future travels through those countries, and greatly assist them in establishing churches. Paul was raised up by the providence of God, and called in a most extraordinary manner, from being a most virulent persecutor, to be the great apostle of the gentiles. By his abundant labours, assisted by various companions, the gospel was spread in a short time, throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and the islands of the Archipelago; and churches established in all their principal cities.
To what extent the gospel was preached by the apostles themselves, except so far as indicated in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, is involved in great obscurity. From the most ancient traditions, which have reached us, (more to be relied on than those of later date, and yet not greatly to be trusted,) it appears more or less probable, that Peter extended his labours beyond Judea and Syria, to Babylon, and to parts of Asia Minor; hat Matthew, Jude, and Thomas, penetrated still farther eastward, to Persia, Parthia, and India; that Andrew and Philip spent some portion of their time, the latter in Phrygia, and the former along the shores of the Black sea; that James, the son of Alpheus, remained at Jerusalem, till his martyrdom, shortly before the destruction of that city; and that Bartholomew went to Arabia, and John to Ephesus, after the death of Mary, the mother of Jesus, where he lived to an advanced age. But although we are left to glean only a few uncertain and unsatisfactory statements respecting the apostles, beyond what the New Testament records of them; it is, nevertheless, certain, that in the first century, and even during the lives of the apostles themselves, Christianity obtained a considerable prevalence throughout a great part of the then known world.
The spread of the Christian religion in the first century, is truly wonderful; and can be accounted for only on the supposition, that it was the Lord's doing. “The cause must have been divine that enabled men, destitute of all human aid, poor, friendless, neither eloquent nor learned, fishermen, publicans, and moreover Jews, that is, persons odious to all other nations, in so short a time, to persuade so great a part of mankind to abandon the religions of their fathers, and to embrace a new religion, which is opposed to the natural dispositions of men.” In the hands of these weak, but heaven-commissioned, and heaven-directed instruments, the gospel was the “power of God, and the wisdom of God unto salvation.” They were no doubt much aided in exciting an interest, and making an impression upon the minds of men, and in stopping the mouths of gainsayers, by the miraculous powers with which they were endowed. Their general want of human learning was no doubt more than compensated by the extraordinary influences of the Holy Spirit which were afforded to them, and the gift of tongues by which they were enabled to speak languages which they had never learned. Their humble, devoted, blameless lives too, would gain them credit and influence. But nothing will account for the extraordinary spread of the gospel, opposing as it did, the passions, prejudices, and worldly interests of all men, but the supposition that it was accompanied by the mighty power of God. It was “mighty through, God, to the pulling down of strongholds.”
(To be continued)
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