Are we aware of what's happening?

A little more than 2,000 years ago, a young Jewish man – born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth – began the life of an itinerant preacher. He chose 12 men to assist him in this work and many others chose to follow him. He preached repentance for sin and claimed to be the Son of God who had come to call sinners into a renewed unity with their Creator.

During his lifetime and in the years following his death, his followers preached his message in the then-known parts of the world, which we now call the Middle East. They went from Jerusalem where their leader had been crucified and buried, to A...