The
Alberta Church

The Acts of the Apostles are the most wonderful chapter in church history. Inspired by the great commission, as flaming heralds, the apostles bore the glad tidings to all nations; Bartholomew, east to India; Thomas, north to Parthia; Paul, west to Italy and Spain; while the rest laboured within this wide circumference, Peter in Babylon, Philip in Phrygia, and Mark the Evangelist at Alexandria. Before the first generation had passed away, Asia, Africa, and Europe had heard the word; and churches were established in the chief provinces and cities of the Roman Empire. These fulfilled the demands of the great commission, even as the Bible records (Col 1.5-6). It is sickening to witness supposed men of God devouring widows’ houses using the "great commission" as the means of their extortion, and then they take their gospel which is absent of the truth of the grace of God!

Opposition to the new and aggressive religion furthered by these early disciples was met with inappeasable rage, opening the dungeon, lighting the fagot, inventing the horrors of the Inquisition, enlisting armies to ravage the lands of the faithful, to burn down their dwellings, and drive them from their homes. Persecution followed persecution with increasing severity, and it seemed as though the new faith would be exterminated. Diocletian boasted that it was, and recorded his boast on a tablet of brass.

But it was explicitly promised that the church should not be destroyed. She did not perish. During this long period her history is obscured, her character defamed, and her identity denied. The envious followed her with vulgar hate, as it followed Christ. They crucified the Just One. The Papacy hurled anathemas against her as against states and empires, schools of science and philosophy, and the champions of the rights and liberties of men. Chroniclers, reflecting popular prejudice, overawed by the prestige of the hierarchy, and misled by the decisions of its courts, have totally misrepresented her.

A century later there was converted at Rome a distinguished pagan philosopher named Novatian. He renewed the moral protest of Montanus; and in response to his call, congregations of the faithful, called Novatians, sprang up in every province of the Roman Empire.

Fifty years later, at the opening of the 4th century, there appeared in northern Africa a man of great integrity and firmness of purpose, whom his devoted followers called Donatus the Great. Such was the inspiration of his leadership, that, though he died in exile, his disciples set up pulpit against pulpit in every city until Augustine complained that the Catholic churches were deserted and no candidates for the ministry could be found. Though this band of believers came under the ban of the Emperors and the anathema of the Popes, they continued to spread. Neither land nor sea deterred their missionaries. They survived the invasion of the Barbarian Vandals, for Gregory the Great renewed the conflict with them, and they are not lost to history until the Moorish conquest.

About the time of this conquest we read of the conversion of Constantine who would later be called Sylvanus. His love for the writings of Paul brought about their being called Paulicians. Constantine was so much revered for his talents and piety, that it was extremely difficult to obtain any one to execute the death sentence upon him; and the Imperial officer so much affected, that he himself was converted, and, like Paul, became the leader of those he persecuted, and in five years followed the old preacher in a martyr’s death. The Paulicians survived the death of their leaders, and covered Asia Minor. It is estimated that one hundred thousand of their number were slain in the Crusades raised against them. Some of them fled to the Saracens for safety, and received cities to dwell in. A remnant was transported in 970 A.D., to Thrace. Hence they carried missionary operations into Bulgaria. There they maintained their existence at least until the 15th century. At home they were known as the Bogomiles; but when they emigrated in the 11th century to Italy and France, they passed by the name of their home, and were called Bulgarians.

They were identified by the land, not Protestant denominationalism, the master plan of Satan!