Ambassadors: Studies on the 13 Apostles

Our Saviour Chose Twelve Men to Be His Ambassadors to this Lost Planet These were to be representatives of His followers throughout the centuries until His Second Coming.Their natural characters form a microcosm of humanity, and the changes which His Spirit wrought in them display the power and the purpose and the possibilities of the plan of salvation. Every soul saved through the ministry of the Spirit can find a counterpart in one of the twelve apostles. They are an exhibition of what God can do for sinners. Their eventual success is the guarantee of the salvation possible to each of us. With their help Jesus planned to establish His kingdom, and through their transformed characters he wished to display the power of His grace to the universe. When His purposes reach their consummation, He designs to inscribe their names in the twelve foundation strata of His celestial capital city. He had in mind the precise rocks upon which they were to be emblazoned, and the exact order in which they were to be arranged. Even these stones and their various colours are revelations of His plans.The purpose of this book is to study the character transformations displayed by the thirteen men who formed the apostolate, and the twelve precious stones which are the foundations of the Golden City. Their inter-relationships are considered, and the revelation of the power of the grace of God to take common men and to change their characters so as to enable them to “sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” is weighed. The foundational environment on which this growth to maturity takes place is part of the City “whose Builder and Maker is God.” “Dr. Leslie Hardinge may rightly be remembered as the “ultimate Bible student.” He seemed to take uncommon delight in solving the most perplexing segments of the Word of God. As a former student of his at Union College, I have long admired the intensity of his love of Scripture and its gracious Saviour. “Generations of editors have reveled in the soundness of his scholarship as well as in his sublime expositions and art of Gospel writing.“This book may well be his finest work. It is the publisher’s prayer that many readers will find it to be inspiring, even life changing.”-Kenneth Holland, retired editor, Signs of the Times.