User:Valponcho

                                                              ===Lost Church Tradition: The Acts of John===

Before Jesus ascended, he charged John with watching over the newly established Church and he was a pillar at the Church of Jerusalem. He wanted John to take care of Mary His mother because he knew that some of the family would perish. Jesus told his disciples how they would meet their end with the exception of John and this irked Peter. So Jesus left John the Beloved who was his cousin to take care of her. He also left his closest friend Mary Magdalene with him to care for and she would care for John. He promised that one day she would be His betrothed on the great wedding day in heaven representing his Church. Mary Magdalene has always been a figurehead of the Church for it was Jesus who casted out seven demons out of her. Mary Magdalene represented the establishment of the seven churches in Asia Minor. Also she was known as the disciple of the disciples. It was after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost where they were gathered in one place. That John spent much of his time in Judea preaching the gospel there and in the surrounding lands, he accompanied Peter through the temple one day and they healed a lame beggar. The people in the temple were amazed and Peter testified to them and then again to the Jewish Council. And they were later freed. In that day, Herod the king committed violence against some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John the Beloved with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. He was layer freed by an angel of God. In 54 AD, Mary the mother of Jesus died and was buried, it was said that when they opened the tomb her body was gone. Therefore her body was taken away least it become an idol. John and Mary Magdalene went north and visited the churches that were established along the way. They travel as far as Asia Minor and settle in Ephesus. One night, while they slept a thief broke into their home and John confronted him and converted him to the faith and told him turn from doing evil. The thief’s name was Cleophus whose name means "vision of glory". This story was shared among the Church and it became used as another example to describe the second coming of Christ as “thief in the night”. John, one day, was going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, he then rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, "Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the Truth, is within.” He wrote three epistles while living in Ephesus, and he also completed the Gospel of John during this period. John was taken away in the persecution of Roman emperors in Ephesus, leaving Mary Magdalene in the care of Cleophus. Mary Magdalene lived out her days and disappeared from the pages of history. During the reign of Roman emperor Domitian after having spent time imprisoned in Rome, John was sentenced to be boiled in the Coliseum. So he was boiled in the oil but endured no harm or suffering. It is said that all in the entire Coliseum audience was converted to Christianity upon witnessing this miracle John was allegedly banished by the Roman authorities to the Greek island of Patmos, where some believe that he wrote the Book of Revelation. When John was aged, he trained Polycarp who later became Bishop of Smyrna. This was important because Polycarp was able to carry John's message to future generations. Polycarp taught Irenaeus, and passed on to him stories about John. He testified that somehow Lord God has kept himself for himself and his service. He then proceeded to lie down at the spot he wanted to die and preached to them. Surrounded by his closest friends, he closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep and died of age 94 in 100 AD.

                                                           ==My Goals in Editting On Religious people==

My goals are simple. To make people seem more alive and human, not this glorified and larger than life saint/patriach worship. In presenting them being more human, show they were prone to error but their spirituality and desire to follow God is what separated them from others. I also what to elimate a lot of the confusion about them and historical inaccuracies.