By L.G. Sleiman, Church Militant - The 12 Apostles were empowered to teach the gospel, govern the Church, sanctify souls for Heaven, and to pass on their mission in an unbroken succession of shepherds until the end of the world... The Apostles launched their evangelical mission with little more than the rigorous training, the spiritual gifts, and the divine authority which Christ had bestowed upon them. The Church they helped to establish (Ephesians 2:20) had, within three centuries, transformed virtually the entire world.