“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

(Romans 1:16 KJV)

Irenaeus (born around 120-140 AD) was the disciple of Polycarp, who was the disciple of the Apostle John. 

He became a pastor in what is now southern France, and wrote some of the earliest Christian writings we have outside the Bible. Some people have claimed that the earliest Christians didn’t believe that Jesus was really God, and that this doctrine was invented or added by later Christians. 

But Irenaeus’ writings are a very early witness to the Gospel as it was understood by the earliest Christian apostles and their disciples. This is taken from his writing “On the Apostolic Preaching.”

The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith:

She believes in One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; 
and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; 
and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, 
and the advents, 
and the birth from a virgin, 
and the passion, 
and the resurrection from the dead, 
and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, 
and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father “to gather all things in one,” 
and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess” to Him, 
and that He should execute just judgment towards all; 
that He may send “spiritual wickednesses,” and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly… into everlasting fire; 
but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love…
and may surround them with everlasting glory.

Isn’t that amazing? Our faith hasn’t changed in 2,000 years. Let’s keep following Jesus!

Darrell Stetler II is a pastor at a church for over 20 years, and creator of a discipleship curriculum for churches.