BLESSINGS TO THE NATIONS.

 MARTIN LUTHER ONCE WROTE ABOUT THE PROMISE MADE IN GENESIS 12:1-3, "INDEED THE WHOLE BIBLE DEPENDS ON THIS OATH OF GOD. AND WHATEVER WILL BE ACHIEVED IN THE CHURCH UNTIL THE END OF TIME AND WHAT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED IN IT UNTIL NOW HAS BEEN ACHIEVED AND WILL BE ACHIEVED BY THE VIRTUE OF THIS PROMISE, WHICH ENDURES AND IS IN FORCE TO THIS DAY.
 GENESIS 12: 1-3,7 LIST THREE THINGS THAT GOD PROMISES TO DO FOR, AND THROUGH ABRAHAM.  FIRSTLY, HE PROMISES TO GIVE THE LAND OF CANAAN TO ABRAHAM AND HIS DESCENDANTS-SWEET THOUGHT INDEED TO A WANDERING NOMAD! SECONDLY, HE , PROMISED HIM OFFSPRING, OR PROGENY. THIRDLY, HE DECLARES THAT HE PLANS TO WORK THROUGH ABRAHAM AND HIS DESCENDANTS TO BRING BLESSINGS TO ALL FAMILIES AND NATIONS. LOOKING AT THE EARLY CHURCH THROUGH THE EYES OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES IS A CONTINUATION OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE BY THE SAME AUTHOR. IT IS THE CHIEF SOURCE FOR OUR KNOWLEDGE OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY. THROUGH ITS VIVID NARRATIVE WE ARE ENABLED TO FOLLOW THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY  FROM JUDEA THROUGH ASIA MINOR AND GREECE AND FINALLY TO ROME-INVADED. AND MOST OF THEM CONQUERED BY DAUNTLESS CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES, THE READER WILL NOTE HOW THE STORY STARTED BY ABRAHAM NOW REACHES AND GAINS CREDIBILITY WHEN IT REACHES EVENTS WITH WHICH LUKE WAS PERSONALLY FAMILIAR. THOUGH NO MORE SKEPTICAL OF MARVELOUS HAPPENINGS THAN WERE OTHERS OF HIS GENERATION, HE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN SCRUPULOUSLY ACCURATE WITHIN THE LIMITS OF HIS OWN KNOWLEDGE. THROUGH THE GREAT FIGURE OF PAUL, THROUGH WHOM CHRISTIANITY BECAME A WORLD RELIGION. THROUGH THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, BY LOOKING AT THE "ASCENSION."
 THE FORMER TREATISE HAVE I MADE, O THEOPHILUS, OF ALL JESUS BEGAN BOTH TO DO AND TEACH, UNTIL THE DAY IN WHICH HE WAS TAKEN UP, AFTER THAT HE THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST HAD GIVEN COMMANDMENTS UNTO THE  APOSTLES WHOM HE HAD CHOSEN. : TO WHOM ALSO HE SHOWED HIMSELF ALIVE AFTER HIS PASSION BY MANY INFALLIBLE PROOFS, BEING SEEN OF THEM FORTY DAYS, AND SPEAKING OF THE THINGS PERTAINING TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD; AND BEING ASSEMBLED TOGETHER WITH THEM, COMMANDED THEM THAT THEY SHOULD NOT DEPART FROM JERUSALEM, BUT WAIT FOR THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER WHICH, SAITH HE, "YE HAVE HEARD OF ME. FOR JOHN TRULY BAPTIZED WITH WATER; BUT YE SHALL BE BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY GHOST NOT MANY DAYS HENCE.
      WHEN THEY THEREFORE WERE COME TOGETHER, THEY ASKED OF HIM, SAYING"LORD, WILT THOU AT THIS TIME RESTORE AGAIN THE KINGDOM TO ISRAEL?"  AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, " IT IS NOT FOR YOU TO KNOW THE TIMES OR SEASONS, WHICH THE FATHER HAS PUT IN HIS OWN POWER. BUT YE SHALL RECEIVE
POWER , AFTER THE HOLY GHOST IS COME UPON YOU: YE SHALL BE WITNESSES  UNTO ME  BOTH IN JERUSALEM, AND IN ALL JUDEA, AND IN SAMARIA, AND UNTO THE UTTERMOST PART OF THE EARTH.
AND WHEN HE HAD SPOKEN THESE THINGS, WHILE THEY BEHELD, HE WAS TAKEN UP;  AND A CLOUD RECEIVED HIM OUT OF THEIR SIGHT. AND WHILE THEY LOOKED STEADFASTLY TOWARD HEAVEN AS HE WENT UP, BEHOLD, TWO MEN STOOD BY THEM IN WHITE APPAREL; WHICH ALSO SAID, " YE MEN OF GALILEE, WHY STAND YE GAZING UP INTO HEAVEN? THIS SAME JESUS, WHICH IS TAKEN UP FROM YOU INTO HEAVEN, SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER AS YE HAVE SEEN HIM GO INTO HEAVEN."
THEN  RETURNED THEY UNTO JERUSALEM FROM THE MOUNT CALLED OLIVET, WHICH IS FROM JERUSALEM A SABBATH DAY'S JOURNEY.
AND WHEN THEY WERE COME IN, THEY WENT UP INTO AN UPPER ROOM, WHERE ABODE BOTH PETER, AND JAMES, AND JOHN, AND ANDREW, PHILIP, AND THOMAS, BARTHOLOMEW, AND MATTHEW, JAMES THE SON OF ALPHAEUS, AND SIMON  ZELOTES, AND JUDAS THE BROTHER OF JAMES. THESE ALL CONTINUED WITH ONE ACCORD IN PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION, WITH THE WOMEN, AND MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS, WITH ALL HIS BRETHREN.
 AND IN THOSE DAYS PETER STOOD UP IN THE MIDST OF THE DISCIPLES AND SAID- THE NUMBER OF NAMES TOGETHER WERE ABOUT A HUNDRED AND TWENTY-- "MEN AND BRETHREN, THIS SCRIPTURE MUST NEEDS HAVE BEEN FULFILLED, WHICH THE HOLY GHOST BY THE MOUTH OF DAVID SPOKE BEFORE CONCERNING JUDAS, WHICH WAS GUIDE TO THEM THAT TOOK JESUS..  FOR HE WAS NUMBERED WITH US, AND HAD OBTAINED PART OF THIS MINISTRY."( NOW THIS MAN PURCHASED A FIELD WITH THE REWARD  OF INIQUITY; AND FALLING HEADLONG, HE BURST ASUNDER IN THE MIDST, AND ALL HIS BOWELS GUSHED OUT. AND IT WAS KNOWN UNTO ALL DWELLERS AT JERUSALEM; IN SO MUCH AS THAT FIELD IN THEIR PROPER TONGUE
 "ACELDAMA", THAT IS TO SAY. THE FIELD OF BLOOD.) "FOR IT IS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS,

                                        'LET HIS HABITATION BE DESOLATE,
                                           AND LET NO MAN DWELL THEREIN"
and                               
                                            "HIS BISHOPRIC LET ANOTHER TAKE."

" WHEREFORE OF THESE MEN WHICH HAVE COMPANIED WITH US ALL THE TIME THAT THE LORD JESUS WENT IN AND OUT AMONG US, BEGINNING FROM THE BAPTISM OF JOHN, UNTO THAT SAME DAY THAT HE WAS TAKEN UP FROM US, MUST ONE BE ORDAINED TO BE A WITNESS WITH US OF HIS RESURRECTION.
AND THEY APPOINTED TWO, JOSEPH CALLED BARSABAS, WHO WERE SURNAMED JUSTUS, AND MATTHIAS. AND THEY PRAYED, AND SAID.
 "THOU, LORD, WHICH KNOWEST THE HEARTS OF ALL MEN, SHOW WHETHER THESE TWO THOU HAST CHOSEN, THAT HE MAY TAKE PART OF THIS MINISTRY AND APOSTLESHIP, FROM WHICH JUDAS BY TRANSGRESSION FELL, THAT HE MIGHT GO
 TO HIS OWN PLACE" AND THEIR GAVE FORTH THEIR LOTS; AND THE LOT FELL UPON MATTIAS; AND HE WAS NUMBERED WITH THE ELEVEN APOSTLES.