The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James

Author of the "Prophets" series, Dr. Bill Hamon brings the same anointed instruction in this new series on apostles! Learn about the apostolic age and how apostles and prophets work together. Find out God's end-time plans for the Church!

Apart from a few famous stories, like Peter walking on water, most readers of the Bible have only a vague notion of who Jesus’ apostles were and what exactly they did. Yet, without knowing their adventurous lives, the full story of the Apostolic Age fades into a Sunday school cliché. Even the most popular books on the subject fail to fit all the puzzle pieces together. This book, gleaned from over a decade of teaching and study, takes you alongside the apostles, reveals the world through their eyes, and accurately retraces every known step of their lives. Imprisoned in Nero’s Rome, Paul wrote, “I am an ambassador in chains.” “Apostle” means ambassador, and these long-suffering ambassadors of Christ bore the gospel over tens of thousands of miles from Jerusalem to Africa, Europe, and Asia. They planted churches, had heavenly encounters, worked miracles, wrote all-time best-sellers, were shipwrecked, flogged, imprisoned, and martyred, and yet they turned empires and kingdoms upside down. Open this book and begin a journey of discovery, back to the first century, experiencing how, against all odds, these embattled and triumphant ambassadors in chains so perfectly fulfilled Jesus’ Great Commission.

This book represents an almost fifty-year period of both study and practical training in Christian ministry. For the author, Dr. Howard W. Durfee, it has been his life’s work. Howard’s quest for Christian truth began shortly after he was saved by the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. During his study at three of the leading seminaries of the world—Harvard Divinity School, The University of Edinburgh, and Fuller Theological Seminary—Howard was taught that the gifts and ministries of the New Testament had for the most part passed away after the New Testament era. There seemed to be a general confusion about why they had passed away. Regardless of all the theories, the important thing to Howard was that he could find no one in theological schools able to operate in the apostolic or prophetic ministries as described in the New Testament. The biggest shock to Howard was when he found less educated, nonseminary-trained ministers who claimed to be apostles and prophets. The problem was that these less scholarly ministers appeared to have both the gifts and ministries operating with the power of the Holy Spirit. In a search for truth, Howard determined to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that there could be no modern apostles or prophets. The only problem was that Howard could not disprove the existence of modern apostles or prophets based on the New Testament or on church history. What follows in this book is the result of a lifetime of study on the apostolic ministry. After an introduction by Dr. Chuck Flynn, Howard defends the necessity of modern apostles. He then defines and describes what a New Testament apostle is. Next, Howard describes apostles as leaders to the church. Finally, Howard describes the three major historical functions of the apostolic ministry—to found churches, to govern churches, and to train the other New Testament ministries.