Catholic Radio Dramas

The Preaching of the Apostles

From the treatise On the Prescription of Heretics by Tertullian, priest (c. 160 – d. 259)

The preaching of the apostles

Narrated by Fr. Frank Dugan

Our Lord Jesus Christ himself declared what he was, what he had been, how he was carrying out his Father’s will, what obligations he demanded of men. This he did during his earthly life, either publicly to the crowds or private to his disciples. Twelve of these he picked out to be his special companions, appointed to teach the nations.

One of them fell from his place. The remaining eleven were commanded by Christ, as he was leaving the earth to return to the Father after his resurrection, to go and teach the nations and to baptize them into the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The apostles cast lots and added Matthias to their number, in place of Judas, as the twelfth apostle. The authority for this action is to be found in a prophetic psalm of David. After receiving the power of the Holy Spirit which had been promised to them, so that they could work miracles and proclaim the truth, they first bore witness to their faith in Jesus Christ and established churches throughout Judea. They then went out into the whole world and proclaimed tothe nations the same doctrinal faith.

They set up churches in every city. Other churches received from them a living transplant of faith and the seed of doctrine, and through this daily process of transplanting they became churches. They therefore qualify as apostolic churches by being the offspring of churches that are apostolic.

Every family has to be traced back to its origins. That is why we can say that all these great churches constitute that one original Church of the apostles; for it is from them that they all come. They are all primitive, all apostolic, because they are all one. They bear witness to this unity by the peace in which they all live, the brotherhood which is their name, the fellowship to which they are pledged. The principle on which these associations are based is common tradition by which they share the same sacramental bond.

The only way in which we can prove what the apostles taught – that is to say, what Christ revealed to them – is through those same churches. They were founded by the apostles themselves, who first preached to them by what is called the living voice and later by means of letters.

The Lord had said clearly in former times: I have many more things to tell you, but you cannot endure them now. But he went on to say: When the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you into the whole truth. Thus Christ shows us that the apostles had full knowledge of the truth, for he had promised that they would receive the whole truth through the Spirit of truth. His promise was certainly fulfilled, since the Acts of the Apostles prove that the Holy Spirit came down on them.

Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings

Tertullian (c. 160 – d. 259) was born the son of a Roman centurion probably in Carthage around the year 160. He was well educated and familiar with Roman law. Well versed in both in Latin and Greek, was trained in oratory skills, philosophy, logic and rhetoric. He was quick with wit and delivered his arguments , and was . He became a Christian convert around the age of 37 and became a priest in the Church at Carthage. Adopting certain ideals of the Montanists, he separated from the Church and formed his own sect, which was later reconciled to the Church by St. Augustine. St. Jerome writes that he lived to a very old age. Tertullian wrote an address “To the Martyrs” in 197 and a number of highly acclaimed apologetic works including “Ad nationes,” a refutation of the calumnies against and the unreasonable hatred of Christians by the pagans and levied a stinging attack against the gods of the pagans.

Later, he developed his riveting “Apologeticus”, addressed to the rulers of the empire and to the administrators of justice. “Ad nationes” attacked the popular prejudices against Christians while “Apologeticus” worked to persuade the rulers to administer justice to Christians in imitation of the Greek practice of fairness in the administration of the law. He appeals to reason demonstrating that the ancient “sacred books” of Christians, offer proof of their authenticity and divine source by the fulfillment of the prophecies they contain. To the rulers he explained that Christ is truly God, and he recounts Christ being born of a virgin, his two comings, his miracles, his death and resurrection, and the forty days thereafter spent with his disciples and the spread of the message of the gospels throughout the world.

The eloquence, compelling logic, wit and pungency of Tertullian’s delivery flows in torrents and is renewed in devastating showers throughout his works: “We call ourselves brethren; you also are our brethren by nature, but bad brethren. We are accused of every calamity. Yet we live with you; we avoid no profession, but those of assassins, sorcerers, and such like. You spare the philosophers, though their conduct is less admirable than ours. They confess that our teaching is older than theirs, for nothing is older than truth. The resurrection at which you jeer has many parallels in nature. You think us fools; and we rejoice to suffer for this. We conquer by our death. Inquire into the cause of our constancy. We believe this martyrdom to be the remission of all offences, and that he who is condemned before your tribunal is absolved before God.”

About the year 200, Tertullian assaulted heresy in a brilliant treaties for all time called “Liber de praescriptione haereticorum”, translated as “On the Prescription of Heretics.” The above is an excerpt from that work.