A Moment through Missions
I recently sat in a meeting on a presentation about the ever changing world of missions. The speaker pulled up a carefully designed presentation and began with the movement of Jesus’s disciples in the Book of Acts, referencing this as the first time the Church sent out missionaries. After the church was formed and the disciples were martyred, the speaker talked about how missions suddenly stopped. Then in the 1500s the first English Bible was translated by William Tyndale and John Wycliffe. This sparked the curiosity about global missions but missions didn’t start again until the 1700s when William Carrey moved to India….
This is where the speaker lost me even though most of the pieces of what the speaker shared were accurate. How can we go 1400+ years with no gospel being preached, no people groups being reached, no zeal for the Lord to tell all those we encounter but instead cheapen grace and keep it to ourselves? How could Christianity survive in an isolated area or at all for that matter?
I left after the meeting feeling confused and convicted to dig deeper. My hope is to bring some education into the history of the Christian church and its role in sending out missionaries into the world to preach the Gospel of Jesus in both word and deed. So please grab your cozy slippers, wrap yourself in your favorite blanket, and make sure your tea is close by because we are going to take a minute to walk through missions.
After the Apostle John passed away in 98 AD, the Christian church obtained its final God-inspired letter of the will of God written by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John. The God-inspired writings were now completed and distributed to the churches. Everything should be sunshine and roses with “Good Day” by Forrest Frank playing in the background. But, that’s not the case for the early Church. The Church at this time was mostly under Roman control and the Romans did not have a particular liking for Christians. They saw Christians as more of a threat because of how rapid the church was growing. For insight, read the book of Acts and see just how fast the church was growing by the day, week, month…the Holy Spirit was on the move! So Rome thought best to deal with this threat before it grew and overtook them. They did this in the only way they knew how. Martyrdom.
The first Roman persecutions began under Nero in 64 AD and continued with Domitian, Pliny, Marcos Areilus, Septimius Severus, Maximus, Decius Trajan, Valerian, Dioclection, and ended with Licinius in AD 315. It was then that Constantine conquered the Roman Empire and put an end to the Roman persecution of the Christians. During these persecutions some of the professing Christians were fed to wild animals, crucified, beheaded, or set on fire to provide light for the night. Second century apologist and church leader Tertullian wrote his often repeated quote “The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the church” and this is just what we see. For example, Acts 8 describes Stephen’s death and Saul pursuing the arrests of those following “the way,” leading to the start of the church’s dispersement into other areas. This happened the same way for the Christian church under Roman persecutions. Men, women, and families were leaving Rome and establishing themselves in other areas of the world where the gospel was unknown.
Celtic churches had formed in England in 110 AD, Romania in 120 AD, and by 130 AD Moldavia had its first Christian communities. We also have accounts of the first Christians in Morocco and Portugal during this time period. In 140 AD, Christianity moved into Wales and by 150 AD we began to see the movement into Southern Germany. In 180 AD, Christian churches formed in Scotland; and, in 190 AD, we have accounts of Christianity spreading across the northern Africa and reports of believers in Kurdistan, Hindu Kush, and Northward around the Caspian Sea. By 250 AD, Christianity moved into Ireland. By the beginning of the third century, we saw Spain, tribes of Gaetuli, Mauri tribes, Gaul tribes, and sections of Britain come to Christianity. We also saw the Sarmatae, Daci, Germans, Scythians, and many remote peoples, provinces, and islands gain Christian influence. This information reveals that during this time of great persecution, Christianity spread out in every direction geographically. It is apparent that Christians were committed to spreading the gospel to all peoples of their day and often with great personal sacrifices.
John Foxe described their zeal in The Book of Martyrs saying “That in that age every Christian was a missionary. The soldier tried to win recruits…; the prisoner sought to bring his jailer to Christ; the slave girl whispered the gospel in the ears of her mistress; the young wife begged her husband to be baptized….; everyone who had the joys of believing tried to bring others to the faith.” (Foxe, nd, p. 39-40)
I hope you enjoyed this brief history of the expansion of the Christian church. In part 2, I hope to discuss the growth of the church from the 3rd century to the 6th century. Stay tuned.
This is where the speaker lost me even though most of the pieces of what the speaker shared were accurate. How can we go 1400+ years with no gospel being preached, no people groups being reached, no zeal for the Lord to tell all those we encounter but instead cheapen grace and keep it to ourselves? How could Christianity survive in an isolated area or at all for that matter?
I left after the meeting feeling confused and convicted to dig deeper. My hope is to bring some education into the history of the Christian church and its role in sending out missionaries into the world to preach the Gospel of Jesus in both word and deed. So please grab your cozy slippers, wrap yourself in your favorite blanket, and make sure your tea is close by because we are going to take a minute to walk through missions.
After the Apostle John passed away in 98 AD, the Christian church obtained its final God-inspired letter of the will of God written by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John. The God-inspired writings were now completed and distributed to the churches. Everything should be sunshine and roses with “Good Day” by Forrest Frank playing in the background. But, that’s not the case for the early Church. The Church at this time was mostly under Roman control and the Romans did not have a particular liking for Christians. They saw Christians as more of a threat because of how rapid the church was growing. For insight, read the book of Acts and see just how fast the church was growing by the day, week, month…the Holy Spirit was on the move! So Rome thought best to deal with this threat before it grew and overtook them. They did this in the only way they knew how. Martyrdom.
The first Roman persecutions began under Nero in 64 AD and continued with Domitian, Pliny, Marcos Areilus, Septimius Severus, Maximus, Decius Trajan, Valerian, Dioclection, and ended with Licinius in AD 315. It was then that Constantine conquered the Roman Empire and put an end to the Roman persecution of the Christians. During these persecutions some of the professing Christians were fed to wild animals, crucified, beheaded, or set on fire to provide light for the night. Second century apologist and church leader Tertullian wrote his often repeated quote “The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the church” and this is just what we see. For example, Acts 8 describes Stephen’s death and Saul pursuing the arrests of those following “the way,” leading to the start of the church’s dispersement into other areas. This happened the same way for the Christian church under Roman persecutions. Men, women, and families were leaving Rome and establishing themselves in other areas of the world where the gospel was unknown.
Celtic churches had formed in England in 110 AD, Romania in 120 AD, and by 130 AD Moldavia had its first Christian communities. We also have accounts of the first Christians in Morocco and Portugal during this time period. In 140 AD, Christianity moved into Wales and by 150 AD we began to see the movement into Southern Germany. In 180 AD, Christian churches formed in Scotland; and, in 190 AD, we have accounts of Christianity spreading across the northern Africa and reports of believers in Kurdistan, Hindu Kush, and Northward around the Caspian Sea. By 250 AD, Christianity moved into Ireland. By the beginning of the third century, we saw Spain, tribes of Gaetuli, Mauri tribes, Gaul tribes, and sections of Britain come to Christianity. We also saw the Sarmatae, Daci, Germans, Scythians, and many remote peoples, provinces, and islands gain Christian influence. This information reveals that during this time of great persecution, Christianity spread out in every direction geographically. It is apparent that Christians were committed to spreading the gospel to all peoples of their day and often with great personal sacrifices.
John Foxe described their zeal in The Book of Martyrs saying “That in that age every Christian was a missionary. The soldier tried to win recruits…; the prisoner sought to bring his jailer to Christ; the slave girl whispered the gospel in the ears of her mistress; the young wife begged her husband to be baptized….; everyone who had the joys of believing tried to bring others to the faith.” (Foxe, nd, p. 39-40)
I hope you enjoyed this brief history of the expansion of the Christian church. In part 2, I hope to discuss the growth of the church from the 3rd century to the 6th century. Stay tuned.
Recent
Archive
2025
2024
December
Categories
no categories