Growing Under Pressure--by Linden Malki

We are fortunate that we not only have Paul's Letters to the  churches, but background on Paul himself and also the men and women who were part of the team that changed the world. Paul, after his encounter with Jesus spent some time in Damascus, but then after a short time in Jerusalem, where he spent time with Peter and James (the brother of Jesus, who had assumed leadership of the Jerusalem church,) and then disappeared for several years.  James himself was martyred in Jerusalem in 62, shortly before the Roman conquest. He was thrown off of a parapet of the Temple wall and clubbed to death at the bottom.  The church there took the warnings of Jesus in Matthew 24 seriously and fled to Pella, across the Jordan River .

When a church began to grow in Antioch, Barnabas knew that Paul was the man that was needed, and where to find him.  Over the next few years, Paul was on the road (or boat) in Asia Minor, and then  Greece, and then Italy.  The first journey was with Barnabas and his nephew John Mark; and then they were recalled to Jerusalem.  There, the church was in a major discussion about the question of the relationship between the traditional Jewish law and the call to faith in Jesus and His salvation through faith. Peter was there as well, and he had had his own vision from God about the issue of the food laws and God's acceptance of faith without requiring the traditional Jewish law—but Paul later called Peter out for being intimidated by Jews who claimed to follow Jesus but insisted on requiring following the old law as well.

Over the years, Paul travelled  not only with Barnabas and Mark, who later were founders of churches in Cyprus., but also with Silas, who as with Paul when they wound up in prison in Philippi. Silas wound up assisting Peter, was possibly in Rome when Peter and Paul were martyred under Nero. Timothy was sent to Ephesus, where he was eventually martyred.  Luke joined Paul in Troas, and travelled with him back to Jerusalem and then Rome.  He is said to have lived to be 84, and is said to have been buried in Thebes, Egypt.

Paul was blessed with other associates as well, who worked with him, travelled with him, wound up in leadership of churches all over the eastern Mediterranean, and many were themselves martyred.  Churches were pressured, but most survived. And Jerusalem itself was conquered and destroyed, and Rome itself was eventually sacked as well. The stories of the early churches were chronicled and kept, and it has been said that there are records still available to us with enough references and quotations to reconstruct virtually the entire New Testament, in the same words that we have in our hands.