Apostolic Missionary Work
Missionary activity in the apostolic age never has been equaled in any subsequent period. The missionary spirit is one of the great tests of faith, for it is the result of a spirit of obedience to the commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." At Thessalonica the Jews raised the cry against Paul and his companions, "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also." Dr. Cowan, professor of church history at the University of Aberdeen, says: "Within apostolic times Christianity had been diffused from Babylon to Rome, and also, according to ante-Nicene traditions, in Scythia, Persia, and India; while a statement by Clement that Paul 'reached the farthest bounds of the West,' gives countenance to the early belief that the apostle accomplished his purpose to make a journey into Spain. See Rom. 15:24, 25. Records of sub-apostolic missions are scanty; but Pliny, governor of Bithynia, reported to Trajan in A. D. 112 that, even through the villages and rural districts the Christian contagion had spread;' and Justin testifies, rhetorically, yet significantly, that 'there is no single race of men among whom prayers are not offered up in the name of Jesus.'"