Even more important than the Roman persecution of A. D. 64 was the destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70. At the outbreak of the war which culminated in that catastrophe, the Jerusalem Christians took refuge in Pella, east of the Jordan; Jerusalem ceased to be the center of the Christian Church. After the war, the Jerusalem church never regained its old position of leadership; and specifically Jewish Christianity, suffering by the destruction of the national Jewish life, ceased to be influential in Christian history.
4. THE PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL
From the years between the destruction of Jerusalem and the closing years of the century, scarcely any definite incidents can be enumerated. Undoubtedly the missionary activity of the Church was continuing; the gospel was making rapid progress in its conquest of the empire. In this missionary activity probably many of the twelve apostles were engaged; but details of their work are narrated for the most part only in late tradition.
5. JOHN AT EPHESUS
At some time—whether before or after A. D. 70 is uncertain—the apostle John went to Ephesus, and there became the leader of the Asian church. Detailed information about his position and the churches under his care is provided not only in trustworthy tradition—especially that which comes through Irenæus from Polycarp, the hearer of John—but also in the writings of John himself. The two shorter epistles of John, though each embraces only a small page, are extraordinarily rich in information about congregational matters, and even more instructive are the seven messages of the Apocalypse. By means of the latter the moral condition of the church in Asia Minor is characterized with a vividness that is scarcely to be paralleled for any other period of the apostolic age.
6. THE PERSECUTION UNDER DOMITIAN
During the latter part of the residence of John in Asia Minor there was an important event in the history of the Church. This was the outbreak of the persecution under Domitian—a persecution which apparently exceeded in extent, if not in severity, every persecution that had preceded it. Under Domitian the Roman authorities became definitely hostile; apostasy from Christ was apparently demanded systematically of the Christians—apostasy from Christ and adhesion to the imperial cult. The latter, in the Apocalypse, is represented as an example of the mark of "the beast"; the Roman Empire, as would have been unnatural in the days of Paul, appears in that book as an incorporation of Satanic power. The long conflict between the Church and the empire had at last begun. Which side would be victorious? In the Apocalypse the answer is plain. The Lord himself was fighting for his Church!
7. THE NEW TESTAMENT GOSPEL
Our knowledge of the apostolic age, though fragmentary, is sufficient—sufficient not indeed for a complete history, but for the requirements of Christian faith. The information provided in the New Testament makes up in quality for what it lacks in quantity. Its extraordinary vividness and concreteness possesses a self-evidencing value. The life of the apostle Paul—revealed with unmistakable fidelity—is itself a sufficient bulwark against historical skepticism; it involves inevitably the supernatural Christ. The gospel is no aspiration in the hearts of dreamers; it is a real entrance of divine power into the troubled battle field of human history. God was working in the apostolic Church, God is speaking in the New Testament—there is the summation of our study.