His name and authority penetrate to all the ends of the world. "Everywhere they believe in Him," says Tertullian further, "everywhere He reigns... There is no barbarian who has not been received from Him with joy. There is no rank or fortune that can enjoy a special advantage here. He is the same for everyone, he rules over everyone equally." It should be noted that this was written in an era of cruel persecution, when Christians were outwardly oppressed.

The realization that Christ had reigned and that He was and would be among His faithful, did not leave the first Christians amidst the cruel torments with which the ancient world tried to tear Christians away from their King and God. In the face of the Roman judge, when such testimony was tantamount to a death sentence or was a continuation of tortures that exceeded human strength, they invariably and firmly testified to Christ as their King and God, and that it was He, Christ, who gave them "the strength to endure fire" and all other torments with which they were experienced. They testified to this (as, for example, Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna) "with firmness and great joy," and "Divine grace shone" at the same time "in his face"[12]. It is clear that such a death, such blood, the shedding of which, in the words of the sentence against St. Cyprian of Carthage, was supposed to "establish discipline" (that is, paganism), which was supposed to strangle and intimidate Christians, served as "the seed of Christianity." It is known how many conversions to Christ were the result of such victorious sufferings and such a joyful death. "It was," says Tertullian, "regal eloquence." In their love that conquers death (Ignatius the God-bearer), in their sufferings, these martyrs – men, women, and Christian children – were more and more united with Christ, finding the greatest joy in their very sufferings. So the peculiarity of the Christian martyrs was love and precisely the special grace-filled joy that shone in their podvig. Suffering and death were not simply endured by them as a grave and inevitable evil, but were trampled upon regally by love and grace. "The martyrs went merry to their podvig," testifies, for example, the description of the death of the Martyrs of Lyons (177), "in their faces a combination of dignity and pleasantness was expressed" (Acts of the Martyrs of Lyons according to Eusebius, V. 1)[13].

"Was it possible to be a witness to the firmness of a martyr and not be amazed and not seek to solve the riddle that he had before him?!" exclaims Tertullian[14].

From whom was the answer to be sought, if not from the sufferers themselves, who invariably and firmly testified that it was Christ, who reigned and dwelt invisibly among them, in response to their faith and love, giving them patience, strength, and joy when their own strength was exhausted. That is why, where paganism thought to see defeat, Christians felt victory—the victory of Christ over suffering and death. That is why the Acts of Martyrdom, along with the year of this world, the reign of such and such an emperor, or such and such a consulship, were used to designate the time of the martyr's death: "He suffered in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts of Polycarp, Pionius, Acacius); for the martyrs and those around them, through suffering and death, felt that this reign had already come.

What the martyrs bore witness to primarily by their sufferings and death, the Holy Fathers of all subsequent centuries revealed in their descriptions and testified to with their entire lives.

Their writings, their life and work were aimed both at partaking of the Divine life brought to earth by Christ, and at leading others into the Kingdom of God, which with the coming of Christ "reached" the earth (Matt. 12:28).

For the "cherubim" have already "departed from the tree of life" and "partake of the food of paradise" (sticheron for Christmas).

Each of the Holy Fathers, depending on the need and to the extent of the gift he received, either showed the way to the Kingdom of God (like Clement of Rome or John Chrysostom), or revealed the very properties of this Kingdom (like Hermas or Macarius of Egypt), or taught to fight against its enemies (like St. Anthony the Great or John Climacus).

Others protected the sons of the Kingdom from false teachings and paths leading away from God to the extent accessible to man (St. Ignatius the God-Bearer or Athanasius the Great), gave a glimpse of this Kingdom in thoughts and symbols—in icons, prayers, hymns (John of Damascus or Theodore the Studite).

The construction of the Kingdom of God was revealed to St. Hermas (II century) in the form of the construction of a single and integral tower, in which the stones include those sealed by Christ (the book "The Shepherd")[15]. But the tower has already been founded and exists, you only need to be worthy, or at least not quite worthless, to be accepted into it until the construction is finished.

This "economy" runs like a golden chain through all the ages[16]. Christ the Savior gathers into His Kingdom the elect and worthy of it from generation to generation.

But He not only gathers His elect into His future Kingdom of Glory after their death or the end of the world, but now He gathers them into the Kingdom that already exists, into which one can and must enter here on earth. Only spiritual immaturity, sinfulness, incompleteness of faith and love prevent many people from seeing the Kingdom of God on earth and entering it. "For the fullness of the times of adoption has come," says St. Irenaeus of Lyons, "and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and dwells in believers."

"For this reason even at the present time," according to Blessed Augustine, "the saints (while still here on earth) reign with Him (with Christ), although in a different way than they will reign then (that is, in the future, life beyond the grave)." What's the difference? This is explained by St. Macarius of Egypt: "Jesus Christ now mysteriously illumines the soul and reigns in the souls of the saints; but, remaining hidden from human eyes, with one spiritual eye we truly see Christ until the day of the Resurrection, when the body itself will be covered and glorified by the light of the Lord which is still in the human soul, so that then the body itself may reign together with the soul, which still now receives the Kingdom of Christ..."[17]

These holy souls (true, living members of the Church), united and led by Christ, form His Body, His Kingdom, the Church of grace.