Re: The Early Christians: In Their Own Words

The apostles’ task was to reveal God’s truth directly through the Spirit. 
So it became the foundation of the whole vision of faith for the church.
It 
was the apostles who supervised the church and exercised discipline. For 
that reason, therefore, their task meant unity and freedom for the church 
communities. Because it was a mandate given by God, apostolic power was 
revealed in miraculous deeds like those of Christ: the lame walked, the 
blind saw, the deaf heard, the sick became well, the dead rose, evil 
spirits were driven out. All this proved that Jesus was there personally
in 
the apostles, through the immediacy of his spirit working in them. Actual 
healing from sin and feebleness took place, demonstrating that the 
apostolic news was God’s medicine, God’s restoration to health and a new 
life in him. The apostles did not heal with herbs or drugs, or magic, but 
only through faith in God. With the laying on of hands, the apostle 
proclaimed the healing Christ. And this made all the difference. The 
fighting nature of the apostles’ task often let illnesses reach a
dangerous 
climax. When the demonic character underlying the illness had broken out
in 
the most frightful way, the power of healing was all the more dramatic.