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Chapter 5: The Expansion of the Church
A.D. 29. After the day of Pentecost the disciples went everywhere gladly preaching the word, while great success attended their ministry. In a very short time a second church was planted at Samaria, and soon another at Antioch. Persecutions were now inflicted upon the Christians everywhere, and Saul was on his way to Damascus, with authority to arrest men and…
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Chapter 6: Heresies and Persecutions (A.D. 34-426)
Heresies and corruptions begun to creep into the churches very early in their history. Even during the time of the apostles there was a strong tendency to introduce Jewish rites into the Christian churches, and if the apostles had not learned that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," they did learn that the most untiring vigilance was necessary to…
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Chapter 7: Waldensean Period (1260 Years)
"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days. And to the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and…
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Chapter 8: Waldensean Period (Continued)
A.D. 500 ANABAPTISTS.—In the year A. D. 500, we find Anabaptists existing in France and Spain. ''In the language of councils at this period, Christians are denominated, either from their opinions, heretics, or with a view to their discipline, schismatics; but there was one article of discipline in which they were all agreed, and from which they were frequently named,…
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Chapter 9: Waldensean Period (Continued)
A.D. 1019. ALBIGENSES.—In the year 1019, we find the Catholics inflicting their accustomed persecutions upon the Albigenses in France. The Catholic idea of salvation by works, was so completely rooted and grounded in the people of that faith that no effort was made to propagate their doctrines except by compulsion. The idea had become universal, among them, that out of…
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Chapter 10: Waldensean Period (Continued)
A.D. 1110. Petrobrusians. About the year 1110, in the South of France, in the provinces of Languedoc and Provence, Peter de Bruys appeared, preaching the gospel with great power, and inveighing against the ritualistic forms of worship as practiced by Catholics. Great numbers were said to have been converted to his doctrines, which he continued to preach for twenty years,…
