Acts 11:25-26
First to be Called Christians
25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
The first group to be called Christians were in Antioch...St. Paul and St. Barnabas were in Antioch, at that time, spreading the good news of Jesus...While St. Paul, and Barnabas were teaching about Jesus outside of Jerusalem and Israel, Jesus' brother St. James and the other disciples were spreading the gospel of Christ in Israel and the city of Jerusalem...And while people throughout the near east and mid-east, were learning about Christianity, the good news would spread later throughout the whole Roman Empire...
The name of Christians would stay, and the believers of Christ would take on that name...But even though all this spreading of the good news was going on by these early apostles, there are non-believers and atheists, who do not believe that Jesus was a historical or actual figure, and that He never resurrected...The non-believer dismisses the evidence, that Jesus existed and that there would be a group, a first group called Christians, somewhere it time...For believers and Christians, this has to be true, because the label of Christian had to start somewhere...St. Luke tells us that the name of Christians started in Antioch...
If St. Barnabas and St. Paul were not teaching in Antioch, why did St. Luke write this, and just what were Paul and Barnabas doing in Antioch...Were they talking about a myth of a Man named Jesus, who had only died a few years earlier?...It would be hard for Jesus the Legend and Myth, to start so soon after His death...But Christianity flourished soon after His death...If He is only a legend and myth how did Christianity survive?...Why did many Christians die for a myth, in the early persecutions, by the Romans?...
When we step back and look at how Jesus, a poor carpenter, started His ministry...He chose Twelve men , mostly of fishermen, tax collectors, and those of unassuming backgrounds...This most unassuming and average group were chosen by Jesus to spread His teachings...How would the spreading of His teachings work (after His death), with this group?...It works because it is the truth...It works because, Jesus was resurrected, and that His resurrection, is true...It works because when you study it, what else can anyone give for the movement of Christianity spreading and overwhelming the entire Roman Empire, and the world...It works because it is backed by Truth, and the most important historical fact of the human race, Jesus' resurrection...