Chapter 2: The Ancient Churches (A.D. 100-325)

"Through all of this period there were doubtless many churches that remained true to the New Testament ideals. The more earnestly they adhered to the Scriptural principles the less likely was mention made of them. It was unusual and the heretical that attracted attention and was recorded in the histories of the times." (J. T. Christian)

"For the first three centuries the Lord placed Christianity in the most unfavorable circumstances that is might display its moral power, and gain its victory over the world by spiritual weapons alone. Until the reign of Constantine it had not even a legal existence in the Roman empire, but was first ignored as a Jewish sect, then slandered, proscribed, persecuted, as a treasonable innovation, and the adoption of it made punishable with confiscation and death..." (Schaff, History of the Christian Church, I. 148) [ibid, pg. 26]