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In the synagogue of Antioch the early missionaries had found eager listeners-- Jews yearning for a Messiah, Gentiles weary of earthly pagan Gods. Fertile ground, but they would have to till carefully, for the cries of Stephen still rang in their ears. To Jews of Jerusalem Stephen had preached the fall of the Temple, the changing of the Law, the second coming of the carpenter they had sent to the cross a few years before. Enraged by such blasphemy, a mob dragged Stephen to the city wall and opened the age of martyrs in a shower of stones. Persecution followed, and many of the faithful fled. (311:1) The event changed history. What had been a small sect scattered from Jerusalem to seed the Roman world with churches of the Jewish Christ. Swelled by Gentile converts, Antioch's church soon outshone Jerusalem's. It was Antioch that sent Paul on his great missionary journeys.
(311:2)
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