As the book of Acts shows, the apostles testified intensely and freely in the first decades of church history of the mighty works of Jesus Christ. Though they experienced some opposition to their work, that opposition shrivelled in the face of their witness (e.g., Acts 5:17–42; Philippians 1:12–14). Centuries later, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and so many other Reformers again witnesses boldly and freely of the gospel—and efforts to silence them backfired wonderfully. The church’s witness to the world through men as these was indefatigable as these witnesses shared with countless others the wonders of God’s mercy.
6 They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.