Frank Viola - The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: An Extraordinary Guide to Understanding the New Testament

Copyright 2004 Frank Viola

All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard version of the Bible paraphrased by author. Please note that Destiny Images publishing style capitalizes certain pronouns in Scripture that refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and may differ from some Bible publishers styles.

Take note that the name satan and related names are not capitalized.
We choose not to acknowledge him, even to the point of violating grammatical rules.

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Speaking to the Purposes of God for This Generation and for the Generations to Come

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With deepest love and appreciation,
to an angel who lives on earth,
my motherJeanette.

Many of us have been challenged by Franks previous books examining New Testament church life and practice. Now with this story, focused on helping us see the church in its New Testament context, but in appropriate chronological order, we are greatly helped to understand the various letters of the New Testament. When you see the writings of Peter and Paul and John and the context into which they wrote, it helps make the why of their letters as clear as the what! Read this book at one sitting and you will marvel as the story of the early church unfolds before your very eyes.

Tony Dale, editor
House 2 House magazine

This volume has provided much needed information that is now in one place for the first time! Read it as I did with a highlighter pen in hand! Thanks, Frank, for the way you let the Lord use you in preparing this for the rest of us!

Ralph W. Neighbour, Jr., author
Where Shall We Go From Here?

Frank Viola has produced a useful and engaging account of the New Testament Church, helpfully setting people and events within their first-century cultural context. While not everyone will agree with every detail of the authors reconstruction or theological interpretation, for any such retelling unavoidably involves some interpretation, still this account helps contemporary believers more fully appreciate the remarkable dynamism of our earliest Christian forebears.

Howard A. Snyder, author
The Community of the King
Liberating the Laity
A Kingdom Manifesto
Decoding the Church

Frank Viola has given us a different kind of church history, a history not of the institution but of the Body. It focuses on the people of God and their struggles; on Paul and his converts, enemies, disciples, and friends; on Peter and John and the churches they birthed and raised. Franks book emphasizes what went forward among the saints to create eternal value rather than what happened politically to create the church of subsequent centuries. Although most history is written by the winners to justify their victory, The Untold Story gives us a history of the early churches as Gods own people, whether they were ultimately victorious or troubled.

Hal Miller, author
Christian Community: Biblical or Optional?

Frank Viola has done it again! This time he weaves the New Testament together in a single, chronological story. I love it! We will be promoting this book and I will be giving it to friends this year as gifts.

Nate Krupp, author
Gods Simple Plan for His Church

F rank Viola has done the world a huge favor. He has straightened out the NT (New Testament) for us! The Bible we have today is fully inspired, yes. But the order of the NT epistles iswella complete jumble. Instead of being arranged by date, they are arranged by size!

I have a scholarly friend who owns over a thousand books. He went on vacation once, leaving his home in the care of a brand-new but eager housekeeper. When he returned home, she had lovingly arranged all of his books by size. He was not pleased.

Yet that is exactly what you and I face every time we open our NTs. It is a bit of a Chinese puzzle. In actual fact, Galatians was the first letter that Paul wrote. But someone in the second century threw together todays NT by putting the four Gospels and Acts at the beginning, then arranging Pauls letters by putting his longest letter first (Romans) and his shortest letter last (Philemon). Then he tacked on all the other letters of the NT. That was not an inspired process! And no scholar claims it was.

But even if someone today were to arrange the NT in order, with the earliest books first, you would still have a lifetime chore on your hands. You would still have to figure out why each book was writtenjust who all those strange-named people were who the NT authors wrote toand how those letters were used to accomplish Gods eternal purpose all over the Roman Empire! In short, you would still not be able to see the magnificent forest of the early church for all the trees (the blizzard of names, cities, voyages, and letters). But all these things will come alive for you as Frank unfolds the NT story year after year.

Even more important, you will for the first time see and feel the epic drama of the Eternal God unfolding His master plan for the ages. Before your very eyes, the chaotic swirl of first-century people and events will fall into place, and you will be greatly encouraged. Why? Because the drama is not yet over, friend. Today, you and I are once again being called to complete what our brothers and sisters began in Century One: to show forth and express Jesus Christ in open, saving, healing communities that are building the Kingdom of God.

It is our high privilege today to complete the victory in the battle they began. The drama goes on, with the initiative in your hands and mine.

Yet we cannot truly appreciate the immensity of the work we are engaged in unless we pick up the story line at its start. So let us go back with Frank to the earliest beginnings, in the time before time, when the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.

James H. Rutz, author
The New Christianity
Colorado Springs, Colorado

. James Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999), p. 11.

T he following pages present the unfolding drama of the NT church in chronological order. A large portion of this drama is based on the narrative of Luke. Luke authored a two-volume work known as Luke-Acts. The first volume, the Gospel of Luke, narrates the story of Jesus in the days of His flesh from Galilee to Jerusalem. The second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, narrates the story of Jesusnow in the Spirit working through His Bodyfrom Jerusalem to Rome.