Читать книгу Mennonites in the World War - Jonas Smucker Hartzler - Страница 6

Jesus Christ built His Church upon the Rock. Notwithstanding waves of persecution, infidelity, and indifference which have swept over it, it is still there, and we have the assurance that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The Church grew rapidly from the beginning, with Jerusalem as a center around which the believers nocked until persecution began to rage, when "They that were scat tered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word." With all that the followers of Christ became very numerous in some places and passed through ten general persecutions before the time of Constantine, neither sacred nor profane history shows that they avenged wrongs or tried to protect themselves or their government with carnal weapons. On the contrary they professed to be "strangers and pilgrims," and their lives corresponded with their profession. Matt. 5:21-26,38-48; Luke 6:27-29; John 18:36 and kindred Scriptures were the basis of one of the tenets of their creed.