Christian History Project

The Veil Is Torn begins with a dramatic retelling of the Pentecost experience. From there, and central to these early years, is the story of Saul—the most vehement anti-Christian and a vicious persecutor of those who followed "The Way"—who converted to Christianity and became Paul, the greatest proponent for the faith. The events as described in the Acts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are brought to life in great detail.

The volume ends with the shocking siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70.

Foreword to The Veil Is Torn

The most dangerous people, said the twentieth-century Christian essayist G.K. Chesterton, are those who have been cut off from their cultural roots. Had he lived long enough, he would have seen his observation hideously fulfilled. At the time of his death in 1936, Germany, one of the greatest of the Christian nations, had been amputated from its Christian origins and was embracing instead wild doctrines founded on sheer nonsense. Thus deluded, they set off the world’s worst-ever war. People who don’t believe in something, Chesterton also said, can be persuaded to believe in anything. How right he was.

Today, we are just such a people. That America, indeed the whole western world, is being wrenched away from its cultural origins has become a self-evident fact. For half a century, our literature, our popular music and drama, the visual arts, Hollywood and much of the film industry have been disseminating a genre of nihilism which debases almost every form of human virtue and exalts sensual gratification beyond anything the senses could possibly fulfill. Meanwhile, the liberal arts faculties of our universities work zealously to cut off the branch they are sitting on, diligently destroying the very foundations upon which the whole concept of higher education rests. The result of all this is a culturally dispossessed people, the very situation in which Chesterton saw such mortal danger.… (mehr)

A Pinch of Incense: AD 70 to 250 from the Fall of Jerusalem to the Decian Persecution, the second volume of The Christians, is comprised of ten chapters, beginning with the ministry of John and the writing of the Fourth Gospel. The increasing persecution of Christians, aided by the fervor of Roman bureaucrats like Pliny the Younger and by decrees that made the faith illegal, is the focus of much of this volume.

The title of the book comes from one of the “tests” to which people suspected of being Christian were subjected: To refuse to burn a pinch of incense as an offering to Caesar as god would cause a Christian to be sentenced to death.

The stories of early Christian leaders and martyrs include:
• Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch
• Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna
• Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in Gaul
• Justin, a convert who became the first great defender of the faith
• Origen, who became a renowned Christian leader after his father was martyred
• Perpetua, a loving daughter and new mother, who converted and became a confident martyr.

The growth of the Roman Empire is detailed in this volume, as is the growth of Christian conversions within the army and, secretly, among the Roman ruling elite.… (mehr)