PREFACE

The object of this treatise is not so much to give the history of the great national religious sects as it is to give a history of the true religion, tracing it down through the ages, century after century by its doctrine as practiced and taught in the Old Testament, by Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others, and then extended with minor changes down through the New Testament to the present time, as set forth by Christ, (Hebrew-Yahshua) and His apostles, all of whom were Jews.

Jesus (Yahshua) said "the gates of hell would not prevail against it." Therefore that same religion established at Pentecost, (Acts 2nd chapter), that three thousand Jews embraced, was never stamped out, but continued amidst the most severe persecution from Rome, and is spreading over the entire world today.

There has been but little interest manifest in the history of religion of the past because, most historians leave the history of the true faith with the death of the apostles, and then trace what they call Christianity down through the "Dark Ages" as it emanated from Rome after being polluted with the teaching and practice of "Sun worshipers" of the East, through the historical "Council of Nice," 321 A.D., presided over by King Constantine of Rome.

Nineteen hundred years have passed since the days of Christ, and the world still awaits a record of the Church of the wilderness, Revelation, twelfth chapter. Hundreds of histories have been palmed off on the people as narratives of the true people, but with few exceptions the writers leave the true church entering into the wilderness at the beginning of the Dark Ages, and for this same period of time minutely sketch the sects of the great apostasy.

It must be admitted that something is wrong, when out of nineteen centuries of church history, thirteen of them are given to the history of these apostate bodies.

This present writing is not a work to cater to any one, but is a history of the assemblies of God down through the ages, through over twelve hundred years of persecutions and bloodshed, even unto the present time. It narrates from histories and ancient records the course of these certain people of God, who, down through the course of time, have upheld the doctrine of the Scriptures, and kept the light of divine truth burning when all the world around them was in gross darkness known, and mentioned repeatedly by historians as "The Dark Ages."

It must be conceded that a history of the true religion must contain authentic quotations from noted historians of the past concerning these people who were found upholding the scriptural truth and teaching the same doctrine taught in the holy Bible, and carried to much of the known world following the crucifixion and ascension of our beloved Messiah, who is soon to return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Revelation 11:15.

Any people deviating from the teaching of the scriptures, be they ever so sincere, cannot be the people of the true religion composing the "Assemblies of Elohim," mentioned repeatedly in the New Testament as "The Church of God," and in the Old Testament as "The daughter of Jerusalem" and "The daughter of Zion."

This is the people who through trials and severe persecution have brought the Holy Bible and its precious truths down through the "Dark Ages" pure and unadulterated placing them now within our reach in this enlightened twentieth century.

We cannot help from praising our wonderful Creator for such men and women as this history reveals unto us who lived in the age when it required the lives of the faithful to be true to our Heavenly Father. We cannot be thankful enough for those who were true in the face of death, and rather than deny the faith, died as true martyrs. How firm we should be to dig deep and get the hidden truths long cherished by these faithful martyrs, who lived and died that we might have the unadulterated gospel truth as a guide for our souls.

With the above explanation of our motive, we now present unto the reader the history of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus (Yahshua), trusting that what little we may say will be the means of leading him deeper into the truth for which the saints have died.

-- The Authors

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