[Hila]

Stephen was not a Christian, he was following Messiah, who did not ever declared that His followers would be called Christians.

[Jorge]

Stephen was not a Christian, he was following Messiah, who did not ever declared that His followers would be called Christians.

So you actually think Christ would object to His followers being called Christians?

Give me a break. It is perfectly accurate to call Stephen a Christian.

[RaceBannon]

Technical point, but those who believed as Stephen did were later called Christians.

However, that is a great point!

Since Jesus was THE MESSIAH, To the Jew First, THEN the gentiles, How the name changed, that is strange.

That and the form of Worship, the first believers were Jews, when they worshipped it should have been according to what they saw in the Temple, only with a different interpretation of many verses, but the liturgy, songs, order of events in worship, should have all been identical to standard Jewish Worship!

There are a lot of things that could be discussed from that point! I attended a Messianic Service once, I wanted to know what was different between orthodox a messianic practice was, they assured me that what they did was identical to the standard Orthodox worship service, only when appropiate, Jesus being the Messiah was mentioned in the subject being taught at that moment.

Almost all people there had only recently left the Orthodox services and started attending the Messianic Service.

[Ann Archy]

Stephen is consideredthe First/Martyr Saint of our Church. After that, I believe ALL or all but one of the Apostles were martyred....drawn and quartered...beheaded....fire.....all because they had FAITH in Jesus. Pretty heady stuff...pretty stiff hurdle for believing, but believe in the Messiah they did......thank GOD.