A new religion preching Jesus(Church of God World mission society)

A new religion preaching Jesus

The Bible says that Christ will appear a second time to those who are waiting for Him (Heb 9:28). All the 66 books of the Bible testify to Christ's second coming. However the religious leaders, who have already obtained ecclesiastical authority, would not receive Christ. So concerning those people, Jesus said, ‘You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. You make them twice as much a son of hell as you are.' There arose lots of arguments between gospel preachers and existing religious leaders.

Ac 5:26-28 『At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them. Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood."』

The apostles proclaimed, "Jesus is God," and the gospel was regarded as a new religion which the Jews had never heard before. This caused a great argument among them. To the people who detested the corruption of the religious leaders in those days, the gospel of Christ was a refreshing rain and the water of life appeasing their thirst. The number of believers grew to about three thousand or five thousand a day.

Ac 4:2-21 『They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand. … "What are we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name." Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, …』

In a day, about five thousand men repented and received Jesus as the Savior. When the religious leaders saw such a great thing happen, they were greatly astonished. They were afraid of losing their authority over religion; it was of secondary importance to them whether they had a sincere faith in God or not. They made all efforts to stop the apostles; they arrested and threatened and warned them, having them flogged and putting them in the public jail. Despite all that, the number of believers increased all the more. The apostles had longed for the truth and waited for the kingdom of God; they were not dispirited at all, even though many falsely incriminated them, spreading vicious rumors. The gospel spread to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The world couldn't stop the work of God. (contiuation)