RE: John the Apostle
Well, According to Tertullian (in The Prescription of Heretics) John was banished (presumably to Patmos) after being plunged into boiling oil in Rome and suffering nothing from it. It is said that all in the entire Colosseum audience were converted to Christianity upon witnessing this miracle. This event would have occurred during the reign of Domitian, a Roman emperor who was known for his persecution of Christians in the late 1st century.
No kidding! See that’s the stuff I love, the little details that complete the story.
What the series showed of the early church was good, too bad they didn’t show more. There was a movie years ago (I believe called Peter and Paul—I believe it had Anthony Hopkins in it) that did a nice job of showing the lives of these two early brethren. Their testimony, the testimony of the early believers was critical to the Lord’s work in redeeming for Himself a people.
The “radical” change that took place in the “Spirit-filled” early church was direct evidence in support of the bodily resurrection of the Lord. That these 11 who were cowering one minute and out in the streets preaching openly the next, “turned the world upside down” and you read in Acts that “the Lord added daily to the church those that were being saved.”
Christians today (and I count myself among them) would do well to pray that the Lord restore the joy of His salvation within us, that we might grow in faith, so that His Gospel would have the same kind of impact on our times.