IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH.
3) The Word of God (The Logos).
-j) The History of the Church of Jesus Christ.
So the people called out of the world by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, are given the Holy Spirit, as down payment (earnest) for the full reward to come in the fulfilment of the Kingdom of Heaven. His disciples have been called to be persecuted by a hardened world, to suffer and shed blood, just as the Lord suffered and poured out his life on our behalf (securing our place in the kingdom). The certainty of future hope has enabled men and women to steadfastly cleave to the Lord, generation after generation, witnessing to his authority and love.
In the early centuries the fathers (popes) of the church were established in Constantinople (Asia Minor /Greek church), Alexandria and Antioch (Coptic/Syriac church), Jerusalem (Hebrew church), and Rome (Latin/Western church). But later the rise of Islam had led to the demise of all but the position in Rome, leading to the age of the domination of the Roman Catholic Church. Consequently there was widespread persecution of Bible believing Christians throughout christianised Europe, until the seeds of the Reformation were sown by special individuals across the centuries, including Alfred the Great in the first millenium, and later Peter Lombard (author of the famous "Sentences"), Robert Grosteste (Bishop of Lincoln), Giovanni di Fidanza (Bonaventura), and, into the 14th century, John Wyclif.
The resultant challenge to Rome's grip allowed the multiplication of a diversity of congregations, increased Bible study and translation, and the development of missionary societies to send the gospel to every continent. Yet recent centuries have also seen the growth of a variety of christian groups worldwide many of whom have followed their own traditions and philosophies rather than the doctrine of the Bible, leaving true discipleship very difficult to find again amidst a sea of religions and none.
The revelation in scripture describes how the future will unfold, with good and evil growing up together, until their ultimate separation in the final judgement of this world and all its inhabitants, at the return of the King of Creation. We are exhorted to seek patiently for this day and the completion of the Lord's work of salvation, when we shall leave this corrupted life forever and be welcomed in new bodies into the perfected Creation of love for all time without end.
4) The Unchanging Gospel of God.