The Exciting History of British Christianity
It was Christ's apostles themselves who brought Christianity to England. Below are just some of the many, many proofs.
First, Jesus commanded His apostles to take His Gospel to every nation. “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19; see also Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-8; Acts 1:8).
The British Isles were not least among the nations to whom the apostles sought to take the Gospel. In fact they were among the very first to be taken this great News. And there was good reason for that. They were part of the lost sheep of Israel, as we will learn later.
Eusebius is one of many ancient historians showing that the apostles were true to the command of their Master, and went to Britain. “The apostles passed beyond the ocean to the isles called the British Isles.” (Note the plural form of "apostles.")
Sir Henry Spelman, a respected British scholar, writing in Concilia, "We have abundant evidence that this Britain of ours received the Faith, and that from the disciples of Christ Himself soon after the Crucifixion." (emphasis added).
Polydore Vergil, a Roman Catholic scholar, agreed. "Britain was of all kingdoms the first that received the Gospel."
There are many other scholars and historians who support such statements as historical fact. (1)
A British historian, Gildas, told when the gospel came. "We certainly know that Christ, the True Sun, afforded his light, the knowledge of His precepts, to our Island in the last year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar, A.D. 37." Others agree with this dating.
Unfortunately, we have very little record of this great early labor of missionary work.
Which apostles went to Britain? A stone called the "Peter Stone" was found at Whithorn with an ancient Latin carving, saying, "The place of St. Peter the Apostle."
Records also support Peter's presence there. One ancient authority explained Paul didn't address Peter when he wrote to the Romans (See Romans 1:7), though that was the custom, because Peter had been banished with other Jews from Rome by Claudius and was in Britain. (Cornelius a Lapide, in Argum epist. St. Paul ad Romanos, Chap. XVI.)
There are also claims that Peter refers to a vision he received while in Britain in 2 Peter 1:14. "Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as the Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me." Where this vision occurred is now called the Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster, though the abbey replaced a church previously there. (Dean Stanley, Memorials of Westminster Abbey, Chapter I. p. 18).
Other historians give evidence that Paul also spent time in the British Isles. And in Scotland, the ancient tradition is that the apostle Andrew brought the gospel to them.
Freculphus claims that in addition to apostles, other Christians came to the British Isles who were seeking refuge from the persecution by the Romans. He gave the date of their arrival as A.D. 37. John was likely speaking of this flight for refuge when he wrote Revelation 12:13-17 showing the Saints fleeing into the wilderness to escape the wrath of the serpent.
One King, Arviragus, gave these early Christian refugees in Britain a gift of land (designated as "twelve hides") upon which to build a church. The Domesday Survey of 1088 A.D. confirms this gift. "The Domus Dei, in the great monastery in Glastingbury, This Glastingbury Church possesses in its own villa XII hides of land which have never paid tax."
A column of this church held a brass engraving plate. It states, "The first ground of God, the first ground of the Saints in Britain, the rise and foundation of all religion in Britain, the burial place of the Saints." (Spelman's Concilia, Vol I, page 9).
William of Malmesbury studed what he felt was a "mass of evidence" confirming the antiquity of a very early Christian church in Glastonbury. He said its antiquity was shown by its reference as 'Ealde Chirche.'"' It was originally made of wattlework. Malmesbury, after surveying the evidence says, "This Church, then is certainly the oldest I am acquained with in England, .... Moreover there are documents of no small credit, which have been discovered in certain places, to the following effect: No other hands than those of the disciples of Christ erected the Church at Glastonbury..." (emphasis added).
There exists other archaeological proof for very early Christianity in the British Isles. An ancient excavated brass tablet says another Christian chapel was built in the British Isles in 170 A.D. by “Lucius, the first Christian King of this land, then called Britains.” Note that by then Christianity was so widespread in Britain it was a part of royalty.
The brief summary given here is only part of many significant evidences to these truths.
So why are these amazing truths not generally known?
First, unfortunately, because the New Testament does not contain the records of the preaching of the apostles to all the nations. We do have some legends regarding some of them, i.e., that Thomas took the gospel to India in A.D. 52. But for the most part, except in regard to Paul, records of the gospel's being preached in distant lands were lost. This is partly because of the destruction of records by many different groups.
The Romans carried out destruction of Christian records under various Roman dictators. Just one of them was Diocletian in 290 A.D., who sent out an order that Christian scriptures, called "books of magic," were to be destroyed.
After Constantine finally established Christianity in Rome by edict, records which pertained to their area of knowledge were safe --- for a time. But in the Fifth century, Huns,Vandals, Goths and Visgoths moved into the Roman Empire and they destroyed records too.
Scholars from the Continent fled to Ireland, as far as they could go, from such barbaric destructions, taking some manuscripts to safety. Later, however, Ireland lost many of these "libraries and with them almost all the historical sources for [their] earlier period and its spiritual culture."(2) Norwegian Vikings and then Danes were the guilty record-destroyers this time.
The Dark Ages got their name because of the great scarcity of written records of the first 500 years of European history. We must recognize the cause was destruction of records, not their lack of being written.
But some records escaped destruction, and have have gradually seeped to light showing that Christianity was taken to the British Isles early by the apostles themselves and was accepted rapidly.
The British Isle Druids, who have been greatly misrepresented, were a very advanced culture, and were ready recipients for Christianity. While it is beyond this article to fully develop, below is some evidence that the Druids were actually part of the scattered Israelites.(3)
Archaeological Evidence
Many archaeologiests who have studied both the Druid and Semitic religious worship sites find powerful similarities. Among them:
Edward Davies. "...I have not been the first in representing the Druidical as having had some connection with the patriarchal religion." (Mythology and Rites of the British Druids, Pref., p. 7)
William Stukely. "I plainly discerned the religion professed by the ancient Britons was the simple patriarchal religion." (Abury, Pref. p.1)
Sir Norman Lockyer. "I confess I am amazed at the similarities we have come across [between the Druid and the Semitic]." (Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments, p. 252).
Historical Evidences
In addition, many histories show that the Druids found in Christianity a truth which built beautifully upon their basic concepts. For example, in Britain the Druids worshipped a being called Yesu. When they came to know of Jesus, they felt He was the fulfillment of that personage. And to this day they continue to call Jesus Christ, Yesu.
In Cornish folk-lore there were lengthy phrases which were memorized, though through time their meanings had been lost. When these came to be translated, they were found to be Hebrew. Three of the lines, translated into English, are: 'Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in;' 'Who is this King of Glory?' 'The Lord Yesu, He is the King of Glory.' (Rev. Dr. Margoliouth, Jews in Britain, Vol. I, p. 23; Vol. III, 198.)
Among prime beliefs of the Druids were the immortality of the soul and the principle of tithing.
An Independent but United British Isle Christianity
Undoubtedly, because of this heritage, Chistianity was accepted early in the British Isles on a wide-spread basis, while in Rome, the few Christians there were still being persecuted. After Rome finally accepted Christianity, through a mandate by the Emperor Constantine, Chrisitanity in the British Isles remained independent for centuries. Both forms of Christianity existed side by side, one north, one south. Niether was dominant over the other.
Furthermore, in the British Isles, the same Christianity, having spread among the Druids, existed in both Ireland and Britain. There was no distinction and no religious conflict. And both Islands, without conflict, sent out missionaries to bring Christianity to the Continent, to places such as Gaul (France) and Switzerland.
However, much later, these missionaries from the British Isles began to come in contact with missionaries from Roman Christianity on the Continent. British Isle and Roman missionaries found themselves seeking converts in the same areas.
At that point, the Romans felt they needed to bring the Christians of the British Isles under their control. Pope Gregory I sent forty monks, with a leader named Augustine, to Britain in 596 A.D.
Prior to this event, ( 446-501 A.D.) the Saxons had invaded the Isles, and many of the earlier Christians and their leaders had fled to the West and to the North. King Ethelbert, a Saxon King, whose wife had connections with some in Rome, welcomed the monks, who had brought them impressive gifts. The monks gained enough influence to establish a presence in Southern England, at Canterbury.
The Romans began to baptize many Saxons and to rebaptize some of the British Isle Christians, sending word back that they were all "heathen." Persistently, the Roman monks tried to persuade British Isle priests to adopt the same teachings and worship as Rome's. They always refused.
The historian, Bede, though personally influenced by Roman Christianity, nevertheless felt their attitude to the British/Irish Church was "arrogant and ill-tempered."
Both religious factions continued to gather worshippers in England. While Southern Saxon England came more and more under the sway of Rome, the North still favored earlier British Isle Christianity.
There were many differences between Roman and British Isle Christianity. The British Isle priests felt that the Roman Church had changed many things concerning Christianity. And they felt it was their responsibility to preserve the true forms. The British Isle Christians had maintined a simpler form of worship as established by the apostles themselves. They were not pleased with the ornate ritualism developed in Roman Christianity.
But one major issue the Romans brought to the forefront was the date that Easter was celebrated. The British Isles Christians celebrated it closer to the Spring Equinox. The Romans celebrated it a Sunday later. (Note the reference in Daniel to the great power that would "change times and laws." Dan. 7:25).
This issue was finally taken before a King in the North.
Outwitted by a clever priest, who insisted that Peter himself had determined the date for Easter, the King decided in favor of the Roman monks. Because of the mandate of this King, Roman Christianity was given royal favor in all of the British Isles. However, the struggle for complete dominance continued for centuries, with Irish Christianity being the last to become Romanized, and not until the eleventh century A.D.
The Romans, who had destroyed the early records of Christianity in the British Isles, rewrote the history. At first, Roman war records, like most war records, portrayed their British enemy as ignorant and barbaric. The roads which the British had built were portrayed as being built by the Romans. The Druids were portrayed as cults of pagans and magicians, who offered human sacrifice.
And in particular, the bringing of Christianity to Britian was taught as the act of the fourteen Roman monks. Its earlier establishment by the apostles themselves was lost or ignored. In Ireland it was taught that St. Patrick brought Christianity. The doctoring of the records has been actually admitted. "To manipulate ancient writings, to edit history in one's own favour, did not appear criminal --- in the ages of faith--- if the end in view were otherwise just and good." (Dr. Barry, an historian of the Latin Church). Others make similar statements.
However, it must be pointed out that some Roman Church historians and clergymen have written the correct history. They have written that British Isle Christianity was developed first, and how it was truly developed. And they are some of the sources for this correct information.
But the earlier inaccurate versions of British Isle Christianity have for centuries seeped deeply into the minds of those in the British Isles and the world itself, and few have any interest in searching for and learning the truth.
However, there are even some scriptural evidences to the real truths. When the Apostle James wrote his epistle, "To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting," to whom was he writing? Was he really writing an epistle with no hope of finding listening ears?
Since the apostles, as we have seen, took the gospel to the British Isles, and since the evidence shows that their receptivity was due to their ancestral faith, it is most likely James and the other apostles knew those there were of the lost House of Israel.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should remember the Savior's statement to those in the Americas that there were still "other sheep” whom He must visit (3 Nephi 15:17). That statement may have broader meaning than we know. Thus there is a definite possibility that not only apostles and refuge-seeking Christians, but the resurrected Savior Himself could have visited the British Isles. For truly it appears these were "His sheep!"
There are legends that Jesus did visit England, at various times, but this is a subject which needs further exploration.
Because the records of the early ages in Britain were destroyed, or hidden, such a truth could have happened, and remain lost. Indeed there are promises that in the last days groups of once lost Israelites will come forward and bring their records. "And the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel." (2 Nephi 29:14). We shall await with eagerness such records!
Eventually, as we have seen, British Isle Christianity came completely under the power of the Gentiles. The deaths of the apostles, with none newly sustained, meant automatically a death to priesthood authority and to the guidance of divine revelation. And apostasy overcame all of Christianity.
There would then be, as prophesied, a "Time of the Gentiles", which would last until the Time for the Restoration of Latter-day Israel as prophesied by all the prophets.
1. Many evidences are given in George F. Jowett's, The Drama of the Lost Disciples (Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham: Covenant Publishing, 1961) and Isabel Hill Elder's, Celt, Druid and Culdee (Great Britain: Covenant Publishing, 1973). Other sources are Jakob Streit's, Sun and Cross (Great Britain:The Bath Press, 1977); Vaughn E. Hansen, Whence Came They (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 1993); and William Walker, In the Isles of the Sea (Great Britain: Legacy Publishers, 1996).
2. Jakob Streit, Sun and Cross (Great Britain: The Bath Press, 1977), p. 219.
3. There are many studies of this, including Isabel Hill Elder's Celt, Druid and Culdee.
First, Jesus commanded His apostles to take His Gospel to every nation. “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19; see also Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-8; Acts 1:8).
The British Isles were not least among the nations to whom the apostles sought to take the Gospel. In fact they were among the very first to be taken this great News. And there was good reason for that. They were part of the lost sheep of Israel, as we will learn later.
Eusebius is one of many ancient historians showing that the apostles were true to the command of their Master, and went to Britain. “The apostles passed beyond the ocean to the isles called the British Isles.” (Note the plural form of "apostles.")
Sir Henry Spelman, a respected British scholar, writing in Concilia, "We have abundant evidence that this Britain of ours received the Faith, and that from the disciples of Christ Himself soon after the Crucifixion." (emphasis added).
Polydore Vergil, a Roman Catholic scholar, agreed. "Britain was of all kingdoms the first that received the Gospel."
There are many other scholars and historians who support such statements as historical fact. (1)
A British historian, Gildas, told when the gospel came. "We certainly know that Christ, the True Sun, afforded his light, the knowledge of His precepts, to our Island in the last year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar, A.D. 37." Others agree with this dating.
Unfortunately, we have very little record of this great early labor of missionary work.
Which apostles went to Britain? A stone called the "Peter Stone" was found at Whithorn with an ancient Latin carving, saying, "The place of St. Peter the Apostle."
Records also support Peter's presence there. One ancient authority explained Paul didn't address Peter when he wrote to the Romans (See Romans 1:7), though that was the custom, because Peter had been banished with other Jews from Rome by Claudius and was in Britain. (Cornelius a Lapide, in Argum epist. St. Paul ad Romanos, Chap. XVI.)
There are also claims that Peter refers to a vision he received while in Britain in 2 Peter 1:14. "Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as the Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me." Where this vision occurred is now called the Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster, though the abbey replaced a church previously there. (Dean Stanley, Memorials of Westminster Abbey, Chapter I. p. 18).
Other historians give evidence that Paul also spent time in the British Isles. And in Scotland, the ancient tradition is that the apostle Andrew brought the gospel to them.
Freculphus claims that in addition to apostles, other Christians came to the British Isles who were seeking refuge from the persecution by the Romans. He gave the date of their arrival as A.D. 37. John was likely speaking of this flight for refuge when he wrote Revelation 12:13-17 showing the Saints fleeing into the wilderness to escape the wrath of the serpent.
One King, Arviragus, gave these early Christian refugees in Britain a gift of land (designated as "twelve hides") upon which to build a church. The Domesday Survey of 1088 A.D. confirms this gift. "The Domus Dei, in the great monastery in Glastingbury, This Glastingbury Church possesses in its own villa XII hides of land which have never paid tax."
A column of this church held a brass engraving plate. It states, "The first ground of God, the first ground of the Saints in Britain, the rise and foundation of all religion in Britain, the burial place of the Saints." (Spelman's Concilia, Vol I, page 9).
William of Malmesbury studed what he felt was a "mass of evidence" confirming the antiquity of a very early Christian church in Glastonbury. He said its antiquity was shown by its reference as 'Ealde Chirche.'"' It was originally made of wattlework. Malmesbury, after surveying the evidence says, "This Church, then is certainly the oldest I am acquained with in England, .... Moreover there are documents of no small credit, which have been discovered in certain places, to the following effect: No other hands than those of the disciples of Christ erected the Church at Glastonbury..." (emphasis added).
There exists other archaeological proof for very early Christianity in the British Isles. An ancient excavated brass tablet says another Christian chapel was built in the British Isles in 170 A.D. by “Lucius, the first Christian King of this land, then called Britains.” Note that by then Christianity was so widespread in Britain it was a part of royalty.
The brief summary given here is only part of many significant evidences to these truths.
So why are these amazing truths not generally known?
First, unfortunately, because the New Testament does not contain the records of the preaching of the apostles to all the nations. We do have some legends regarding some of them, i.e., that Thomas took the gospel to India in A.D. 52. But for the most part, except in regard to Paul, records of the gospel's being preached in distant lands were lost. This is partly because of the destruction of records by many different groups.
The Romans carried out destruction of Christian records under various Roman dictators. Just one of them was Diocletian in 290 A.D., who sent out an order that Christian scriptures, called "books of magic," were to be destroyed.
After Constantine finally established Christianity in Rome by edict, records which pertained to their area of knowledge were safe --- for a time. But in the Fifth century, Huns,Vandals, Goths and Visgoths moved into the Roman Empire and they destroyed records too.
Scholars from the Continent fled to Ireland, as far as they could go, from such barbaric destructions, taking some manuscripts to safety. Later, however, Ireland lost many of these "libraries and with them almost all the historical sources for [their] earlier period and its spiritual culture."(2) Norwegian Vikings and then Danes were the guilty record-destroyers this time.
The Dark Ages got their name because of the great scarcity of written records of the first 500 years of European history. We must recognize the cause was destruction of records, not their lack of being written.
But some records escaped destruction, and have have gradually seeped to light showing that Christianity was taken to the British Isles early by the apostles themselves and was accepted rapidly.
The British Isle Druids, who have been greatly misrepresented, were a very advanced culture, and were ready recipients for Christianity. While it is beyond this article to fully develop, below is some evidence that the Druids were actually part of the scattered Israelites.(3)
Archaeological Evidence
Many archaeologiests who have studied both the Druid and Semitic religious worship sites find powerful similarities. Among them:
Edward Davies. "...I have not been the first in representing the Druidical as having had some connection with the patriarchal religion." (Mythology and Rites of the British Druids, Pref., p. 7)
William Stukely. "I plainly discerned the religion professed by the ancient Britons was the simple patriarchal religion." (Abury, Pref. p.1)
Sir Norman Lockyer. "I confess I am amazed at the similarities we have come across [between the Druid and the Semitic]." (Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments, p. 252).
Historical Evidences
In addition, many histories show that the Druids found in Christianity a truth which built beautifully upon their basic concepts. For example, in Britain the Druids worshipped a being called Yesu. When they came to know of Jesus, they felt He was the fulfillment of that personage. And to this day they continue to call Jesus Christ, Yesu.
In Cornish folk-lore there were lengthy phrases which were memorized, though through time their meanings had been lost. When these came to be translated, they were found to be Hebrew. Three of the lines, translated into English, are: 'Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in;' 'Who is this King of Glory?' 'The Lord Yesu, He is the King of Glory.' (Rev. Dr. Margoliouth, Jews in Britain, Vol. I, p. 23; Vol. III, 198.)
Among prime beliefs of the Druids were the immortality of the soul and the principle of tithing.
An Independent but United British Isle Christianity
Undoubtedly, because of this heritage, Chistianity was accepted early in the British Isles on a wide-spread basis, while in Rome, the few Christians there were still being persecuted. After Rome finally accepted Christianity, through a mandate by the Emperor Constantine, Chrisitanity in the British Isles remained independent for centuries. Both forms of Christianity existed side by side, one north, one south. Niether was dominant over the other.
Furthermore, in the British Isles, the same Christianity, having spread among the Druids, existed in both Ireland and Britain. There was no distinction and no religious conflict. And both Islands, without conflict, sent out missionaries to bring Christianity to the Continent, to places such as Gaul (France) and Switzerland.
However, much later, these missionaries from the British Isles began to come in contact with missionaries from Roman Christianity on the Continent. British Isle and Roman missionaries found themselves seeking converts in the same areas.
At that point, the Romans felt they needed to bring the Christians of the British Isles under their control. Pope Gregory I sent forty monks, with a leader named Augustine, to Britain in 596 A.D.
Prior to this event, ( 446-501 A.D.) the Saxons had invaded the Isles, and many of the earlier Christians and their leaders had fled to the West and to the North. King Ethelbert, a Saxon King, whose wife had connections with some in Rome, welcomed the monks, who had brought them impressive gifts. The monks gained enough influence to establish a presence in Southern England, at Canterbury.
The Romans began to baptize many Saxons and to rebaptize some of the British Isle Christians, sending word back that they were all "heathen." Persistently, the Roman monks tried to persuade British Isle priests to adopt the same teachings and worship as Rome's. They always refused.
The historian, Bede, though personally influenced by Roman Christianity, nevertheless felt their attitude to the British/Irish Church was "arrogant and ill-tempered."
Both religious factions continued to gather worshippers in England. While Southern Saxon England came more and more under the sway of Rome, the North still favored earlier British Isle Christianity.
There were many differences between Roman and British Isle Christianity. The British Isle priests felt that the Roman Church had changed many things concerning Christianity. And they felt it was their responsibility to preserve the true forms. The British Isle Christians had maintined a simpler form of worship as established by the apostles themselves. They were not pleased with the ornate ritualism developed in Roman Christianity.
But one major issue the Romans brought to the forefront was the date that Easter was celebrated. The British Isles Christians celebrated it closer to the Spring Equinox. The Romans celebrated it a Sunday later. (Note the reference in Daniel to the great power that would "change times and laws." Dan. 7:25).
This issue was finally taken before a King in the North.
Outwitted by a clever priest, who insisted that Peter himself had determined the date for Easter, the King decided in favor of the Roman monks. Because of the mandate of this King, Roman Christianity was given royal favor in all of the British Isles. However, the struggle for complete dominance continued for centuries, with Irish Christianity being the last to become Romanized, and not until the eleventh century A.D.
The Romans, who had destroyed the early records of Christianity in the British Isles, rewrote the history. At first, Roman war records, like most war records, portrayed their British enemy as ignorant and barbaric. The roads which the British had built were portrayed as being built by the Romans. The Druids were portrayed as cults of pagans and magicians, who offered human sacrifice.
And in particular, the bringing of Christianity to Britian was taught as the act of the fourteen Roman monks. Its earlier establishment by the apostles themselves was lost or ignored. In Ireland it was taught that St. Patrick brought Christianity. The doctoring of the records has been actually admitted. "To manipulate ancient writings, to edit history in one's own favour, did not appear criminal --- in the ages of faith--- if the end in view were otherwise just and good." (Dr. Barry, an historian of the Latin Church). Others make similar statements.
However, it must be pointed out that some Roman Church historians and clergymen have written the correct history. They have written that British Isle Christianity was developed first, and how it was truly developed. And they are some of the sources for this correct information.
But the earlier inaccurate versions of British Isle Christianity have for centuries seeped deeply into the minds of those in the British Isles and the world itself, and few have any interest in searching for and learning the truth.
However, there are even some scriptural evidences to the real truths. When the Apostle James wrote his epistle, "To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting," to whom was he writing? Was he really writing an epistle with no hope of finding listening ears?
Since the apostles, as we have seen, took the gospel to the British Isles, and since the evidence shows that their receptivity was due to their ancestral faith, it is most likely James and the other apostles knew those there were of the lost House of Israel.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should remember the Savior's statement to those in the Americas that there were still "other sheep” whom He must visit (3 Nephi 15:17). That statement may have broader meaning than we know. Thus there is a definite possibility that not only apostles and refuge-seeking Christians, but the resurrected Savior Himself could have visited the British Isles. For truly it appears these were "His sheep!"
There are legends that Jesus did visit England, at various times, but this is a subject which needs further exploration.
Because the records of the early ages in Britain were destroyed, or hidden, such a truth could have happened, and remain lost. Indeed there are promises that in the last days groups of once lost Israelites will come forward and bring their records. "And the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel." (2 Nephi 29:14). We shall await with eagerness such records!
Eventually, as we have seen, British Isle Christianity came completely under the power of the Gentiles. The deaths of the apostles, with none newly sustained, meant automatically a death to priesthood authority and to the guidance of divine revelation. And apostasy overcame all of Christianity.
There would then be, as prophesied, a "Time of the Gentiles", which would last until the Time for the Restoration of Latter-day Israel as prophesied by all the prophets.
1. Many evidences are given in George F. Jowett's, The Drama of the Lost Disciples (Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham: Covenant Publishing, 1961) and Isabel Hill Elder's, Celt, Druid and Culdee (Great Britain: Covenant Publishing, 1973). Other sources are Jakob Streit's, Sun and Cross (Great Britain:The Bath Press, 1977); Vaughn E. Hansen, Whence Came They (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 1993); and William Walker, In the Isles of the Sea (Great Britain: Legacy Publishers, 1996).
2. Jakob Streit, Sun and Cross (Great Britain: The Bath Press, 1977), p. 219.
3. There are many studies of this, including Isabel Hill Elder's Celt, Druid and Culdee.