Mission to the Gentiles (Part 2)

The History of Christianity #17 

Our Scripture verse today is Job 19:25 which reads: "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." 

Our quote today is from Philip Graham Ryken. He said, "Authentic, biblical Christianity has always been an exclusive religion. This became apparent during the Roman Empire. When the Emperor Alexander Severus heard about Christianity, he placed an image of Christ beside the other gods in his private chapel, just to be safe. The Romans were happy to welcome Jesus into their pantheon. What the Romans couldn’t understand was why Christians refused to reciprocate. If the emperor was willing to worship Christ, why weren’t Christians willing to worship the emperor? Yet the early Christians insisted that in order to worship Christ at all, they had to worship Christ alone. They were even willing to stand up for this conviction by playing “Christians and lions” at the Colosseum." 

Today, we are discussing "Mission to the Gentiles" (Part 2) from Justo L. Gonzalez's fine book, The Story of Christianity (Volume 1). 

Let's look at Paul's Work: 

It is not necessary to retell here all of Paul's travels, to which the book of Acts devotes several characters. It should suffice to say that, for some unknown reason, Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Paul, and together they spent a year in Antioch, where the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians." Then during a number of voyages, first with Barnabas and then with others, Paul took the gospel to the island of Cyprus, to several cities of Asia Minor, to Greece, to Rome, and perhaps - according to a tradition that cannot be confirmed - to Spain. 

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