Thursday, December 1, 2011

Christian Martyrs

Tom Little is one of the latest in a long and noble line of Christians who were killed because they were faithfully living out a call to serve their Lord. It all started with Jesus, who invited His disciples to follow His example and pick up their cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23-24). It is the same Jesus who warned His disciples the danger of saving their life at the expense of their souls. (Matt. 10:38-39) This is the same Jesus, who faced persecution in His life and who predicted that this would be the same fate if anyone would follow after Him (John 15:20). That same Jesus, who said that in His kingdom, persecuted believers would be blessed Matthew 5: 10-12).  The same Jesus who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross despising its shame (Hebrews 12:2): Leaving for us an example to walk in His steps (I Peter 2:21).
After reading through the Gospels, and moving on to the book of Acts, we meet Stephen who stands out as the first Christian martyr. Church tradition has the apostles experienced martyrdom save John who suffered exile.

Stephen -First Christian martyr

As we study church history, the growth and expansion of the church and the Gospel has always been accompanied by the sacrifice, suffering and death of Christians. In fact martyrdom is often the cause of the growth. Tertullian, a third-century church leader wrote to his persecutors, “As often as you mow us down, the more numerous we become. The blood of the Christian is seed.” Tertullian went on to explain, “For who, when he sees our obstinacy is not stirred up to find its cause? Who, when he has inquired, does not join our Faith? And who when he has joined us, does not desire to suffer, that he may gain the whole grace of God?”

Tertullian
Our English word “martyr” entered into the language from the Greek word martus,which originally conveyed a meaning of “witness”. The word’s meaning shifts over time to mean someone who willingly suffers death rather than renounce his/her religion, or suffers in the service of a cause. Church history is primarily responsible for this shift in meaning. The early church was under constant threat of persecution. Yet their willingness to suffer persecution was a powerful witness. A willingness to die for one’s faith is the supreme witnessing act.

This witness works in several ways. The Bible talks of unbelievers living in darkness. It says that unbelievers love their darkness.  When a missionary comes preaching the Gospel, the message challenges their deeply held beliefs. The Gospel message tells them their faith and beliefs are wrong.  So it is easy to understand that missionaries are often met with hostility and violence. But if the believer speaks the truth with love, forgives those who persecute them, meets death with joy, then, the eyes of the unbelievers may open. They may be enabled to see the truth of the Gospel, leading them to believe.

Also a willingness to suffer for Christ glorifies God. Josef Tson wrote, ”In Christ’s voluntary suffering for the salvation of mankind, the true nature of God was revealed. His essence was shown to be perfect love, utterly and unconditionally giving itself to others, even enduring pain and death for them The glory of God shines through the beauty and splendor of self-sacrifice as nowhere else, and most importantly, this glory of God, the glory of His self-sacrificing love, shines out in each martyrdom… Martyrdom has the power of revealing the love of God to those in darkness. Herein lies its power to convince and persuade: people see the love of God in the death of the martyr and are compelled to believe in God’s love and sacrifice for them.”


Martyrs of the Early Church
Martyrdom is a powerful witness to believers as well. It models for us the life of faith. It challenges our complacency. It exposes those things that we have made idols that make it difficult to be whole hearted in our pursuit of God’s will for our lives. It inspires by convincing us that a life of radical obedience is possible and worth it.

So martyrs like Polycarp, Perpetua, Justin Martyr, and Boniface boldly proclaimed the gospel and paid a price for it: For each major advance of the Gospel faced opposition. The list of those martyred as they boldly proclaimed the Gospel is long. In our day it includes the five “Auca” martyrs, Chet Bitterman, and countless unknown individuals who chose faith in God at the cost of their lives.

Auca Martyrs
This phenomenon is not something occurring in the past. Researchers have estimated that 400 Christians are killed because of their faith each day: approximately one every 4-5 minutes. Many anticipate that the numbers will increase as governments become more oppressive and opposing religions become more militant.

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