100 Sermon Illustrations on Martyrdom

The forty wrestlers were Christian soldiers in one of the legions of the Roman army. The army was on a campaign in the high mountains of Armenia in Asia Minor, and it was bitter winter. The emperor had issued a decree to the generals of all his armies that on a given day the soldiers must march past the statue of the emperor, do obeisance, pour out a libation of wine, and drop incense on the fire. At the appointed time, the trumpets blew and the army marched past the emperor's statue, where all bowed and poured out the wine and offered the incense as if to a god. But the forty wrestlers, these Christian soldiers, refused to pay the emperors statue divine honors. They were renowned, for both their prowess on the field of battle, and for their athletic triumphs in the amphitheater.

Their general, who thought highly of them, besought them for his sake, and their love for him, to obey the decree. For a moment they hesitated, as they thought of the sweetness of life and of their families at home, but it was only for a moment. Then they answered their general and said: "For Rome we will fight on any field and under any sky. In the service of the emperor, if necessary, we will die. But we worship no one save our Master, Jesus Christ." Then, with great sorrow and reluctance, the general pronounced the sentence of punishment decreed for those who refused to worship the image of the emperor. The forty soldiers were stripped of their armor, which they had honored so in many a hard-fought campaign. Their helmets and breastplates, and shields and spears and swords were taken from them. Then, they were divested of their under garments and their sandals, and stark naked were driven out into the sub zero weather upon the frozen lake.

The night had come down, and as the soldiers of the legion sat about the campfires in their bivouacs they could hear the voices of the forty wrestlers as they sang: "Forty wrestlers, wrestling for thee, O Christ, claim for thee the victory and from thee the crown." As the night passed, their song grew fainter and fainter as man after man succumbed to the cold and fell lifeless on the ice. At length, only one survivor was left. Naked, and trembling and shivering, he appeared before the tent of the general and said to the sentinel, "I will drop the incense and pour the wine."

But the sentinel who, although a pagan, had been moved by the heroic faith of the forty wrestlers answered, "Since thou hast proved a coward, I will take your place." With that, he stripped off his armor and his clothing and went out in the night upon the ice to take his stand among the thirty-nine who had fallen. For a time, the soldiers about the campfire heard his voice singing as he caught up the chant of those who had fallen: "Forty wrestlers, wrestling for thee, O Christ, claim for thee the victory and from thee the crown." At length, he too fell dead upon the ice. When the morning sun rose over the bleak Armenian mountains, that was what it looked down upon --the forty wrestlers who had died for Christ, and from whom they had received the crown. --McCartney

I do not have the proof that this story is authentic. It sounds like it could be fictional--an ancient Christian tale, designed perhaps to inspire Christian courage in the hearts of those who heard or read it. Such Christian fiction is produced in our day for Sunday School papers, etc.. Still, lacking proof of this also, I think that it is possible that the story is entirely true. I will leave it up to those who read it from this source to discover, or to decide, for themselves concerning its authenticity.

--Duane V. Maxey

On the 28th of March, 1849, fourteen Christians were condemned to death on account of their faith. The place at which they suffered was a precipitous rock on the west side of Antanarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The precipice overlooked a drop of at least 150 feet to the rocks below. On arriving at the edge of the rock, a rope was firmly tied round the body of each, and one by one they were lowered a little way over the precipice. While in this position and when it was hoped by their persecutors that their courage would fail, the executioner, holding a knife in his hand, stood waiting for the command of the officer to cut the rope. Then, for the last time, the question was addressed to them: “Will you cease to pray?” But the only answer returned was an emphatic “No.” Upon this, the signal was given, the rope was cut, and in another moment their mangled and bleeding bodies lay upon the rocks below.

-- Dictionary Of Illustrations

Every night, as he was being handcuffed to a tree deep in the Philippine jungle, Martin Burnham would look his armed captors in the eye and say, "Thank you very much."

Then the missionary would wish them good night.

He did this, his wife told friends, because he was determined to stay joyous during the most trying time of his life.

So friends and relatives of the slain native of Rose Hill, Kan., followed Martin Burnham's lead June 14, staying joyous through the tears of a two-hour memorial service that drew an estimated 2,600 people.

Martin Burnham died June 7 during a shoot-out between Filipino troops and his guerrilla kidnappers, who held him and wife Gracia captive for more than a year.

"Why did this happen this way?" asked Clay Bowlin, a college friend of Martin Burnham and a Kansas City pastor. "I gotta tell you, I don't know.

"God knows what he is doing. All we can do is trust him."

Friends and family began lining up outside Central Christian Church before 8:30 a.m. -- at least an hour and a half before the service began.

About 30 employees from Wal-Mart gathered on 29th Street North across from the church. They stood silently, with small flags in hand, holding giant sympathy cards.

As the service began, mourners -- including Philippines Ambassador Albert del Rosario, Sen. Sam Brownback, Rep. Todd Tiahrt and former Sen. Bob Dole -- stood as Martin's widow, Gracia Burnham, and family entered the sanctuary.

In a wheelchair, Gracia Burnham sat in the front row, just feet from her husband's casket.

The service began with a slide show flashing images from Martin Burnham's 42 years of life.

Set to the music of "Amazing Grace," Martin Burnham grew from small smiling child in a bow tie to high school wrestler, and eventually into a pilot, husband and father of three.

One of the last slides showed a healthy man in a blue-green plaid shirt, looking much different from the thin, bearded man he became during more than a year of captivity.

Some of the speakers and music had been chosen by Martin Burnham, who expressed his wishes to his wife in the weeks before he died. He sensed he may not make it out alive.

An uncle, Galen Hinshaw, read letters to Martin Burnham written by his family.

Martin Burnham's oldest son, Jeff, wrote about the dirt bike he and his father shared in the Philippines. And how his dad was going to teach him to fly when he turned 15. Jeff turned 15 while his parents were in captivity.

His 12-year-old daughter, Mindy, recalled her father inserting her name in songs and singing them to her when he returned home from work.

Felicia Reschke, Martin's youngest sister, wrote about wrestling Martin on the living room floor and how he always let her win. He nicknamed her "Pickles" because of the funny faces she made when she ate one.

Another sister, Cheryl Spicer, remembered a time in college when Martin offered to start turning down her unwanted dates for her.

"He took care of me," she wrote.

His mother, Oreta Burnham, remembered her son ending a November interview in the jungle with the words: "Goodbye, Mom. I love you, and I hope to see you soon."

Bowlin, who knew Martin Burnham at Calvary Bible College in Kansas City, Mo., in the early 1980s, said he and Martin were like brothers.

His voice cracked often as he recalled their long talks over cups of coffee and his teasing Martin over his courtship of Gracia.

As their college years ended, most of Bowlin's friends were getting married, including Martin, so he didn't see them much.

Martin, seeing that Bowlin was lonely, approached him one day in the student lounge and promised to ask Gracia if he could start spending some Saturday nights with Bowlin.

Smiling down at Gracia, Bowlin told her he decided not to steal time with her husband but how much he appreciated the offer.

Bowlin described how a hungry Martin and Gracia shared their food during captivity with younger members of Abu Sayyaf -- some of whom were kids with guns, he said -- because they were hungry too.

In recent weeks, he said, Gracia escaped the jungle on a medical helicopter. Martin escaped on the wings of an angel.

Bowlin thanked the city of Rose Hill for lining the streets as buses brought Gracia home.

"There is a golden street in heaven where a couple of weeks ago there was another parade like that," he said.

Mourners once again stood as Martin's casket was carried from the sanctuary, Gracia Burnham following close behind.

The family's poise impressed all those who have tried to imagine themselves in the family's place.

"The family is amazing," Dole said as he left the memorial. "The things that Martin and Gracia went through, you almost wouldn't believe it if you were reading them in a book."

Family members laid Martin Burnham to rest at a private burial at Rose Hill Friends Cemetery. Then hundreds of friends met them for a luncheon at a Rose Hill school.

Gracia Burnham took a break from visiting with friends and family to share a quick story with the media.

Above the roar of a passing train, she spoke of one night in the jungle when her kidnappers allowed her and Martin to listen to a short-wave radio.

Curled up together in a hammock, they tuned into an English station and heard someone saying a prayer for everyone in troubled places, such as Afghanistan or the West Bank.

She and Martin included themselves in that prayer and were comforted, she said.

The funeral service was wonderful, she said. Martin would have loved it.

She wanted everyone to know she's doing well, as is her family and Martin's.

Then she smiled and said: "I asked my kids how I should end my little speech to the press. They said to say: 'God Bless America.'"

--30--

Used by permission of The Wichita Eagle. (BP)

A Columbine killer pointed his gun at Cassie Bernall and asked her the life-or-death question: "Do you believe in God?"

She paused. The gun was still there. "Yes, I believe in God," she said.

That was the last thing this 17-year-old Christian would ever say.

The gunman asked her "Why?" She had no time to answer before she was shot to death.

Bernall entered the Columbine High School library to study during lunch. She left a martyr.

Though lots of fellow Columbine students already were strong, vocal Christians, Bernall's confession in the face of death has inspired them to keep the faith no matter how bad it gets.

By Carla Crowder Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

April 1999

This is a brief except that appeared in the Jounal Sentenial - a very liberal newspaper in our area.

COLORADO SHOOTING VICTIM'S LEGACY WILL BE HIS STEADFAST BELIEF IN GOD.

“Maybe John Tomlin's death will save a soul, and maybe more than one.

The stirring spirit of John's life, so brutally punctuated by his death at Columbine High School, led his friend Brandon Sokol to announce Friday his conversion to Christ. Brandon spoke through tears at john's memorial service, the first for the victims of Tuesday's maassacre.

More conversions may follow, said Tomlin's girlfriend, Michelle Oetter, a 17-year-old who seems guided through this tragedy by uncommon grace and perception.

'I don't know why (John died) and I whish he was still here with me, but God knows what he is doing,' Oetter said. 'If this many people are going to find out what kind of person John was and the faith he had -- it changed Brandon's life -- I don't have to ask why.'“

What is a martyr? Are Christians called to suffer or does the Christian faith exempt one from suffering?

Seminary students sought to answer these questions during a class/conference held at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., earlier this summer. The class, “A Missiology of Suffering, Witness, and Church Planting in the Midst of Persecution,” examined the questions in detail. The answers they found differed from some popular notions regarding both issues.

As one of their tasks, students tried to define the term “martyr.”

“There are several sensational books about martyrs out there that say things such as, 'There have been more martyrs in the 20th century than in any other in history,'” said David Sills, associate professor of Christian missions and cultural anthropology at Southern Seminary. “However, those statements include many groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses that we would not consider Christians. We took a much more narrow definition of who is a Christian and who is a martyr.”

Some missions groups define a martyr as anyone who suffers in any way or dies by any means while on the mission field, Sills said. For example, some groups might count as a martyr a missionary who dies in an automobile crash while serving on the field.

Other groups that tally martyrs define a Christian as anyone who claims the title, ranging from Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons to nominal Roman Catholics and Protestants. Some would say that 97 percent of Latin America is Christian because many in the country subscribe to some form of Roman Catholicism, he said.

This inclusive definition of Christianity, coupled with a broad definition of a martyr, leads to grossly inflated statistics regarding the number of Christians who annually suffer for the faith, Sills said.

Worse, it causes millions of persons to be counted as having heard the Gospel when the authentic Christian message has never reached their ears, he said.

“The major problem with this is that some groups will say that such-and-such a country has already been reached with the Gospel because of this broad definition of 'Christian,'“ Sills said. “It also exaggerates the number of martyrs. If Latin America were to be wiped out by a communist country, for example, because of these broad definitions of 'martyr' and 'Christian' [some groups] would say that there were a large number of martyrs among those killed.”

Because of these inclusive definitions, some groups estimate that between 150,000 and 170,000 Christians are martyred for their faith each year. Sills said the class agreed with the IMB's definition of a martyr, which is much more narrow. This definition says a person is not a martyr until he or she is killed because of their Christian faith.

Augustine, the fourth- and fifth-century church father, wrote that “the cause [the Christian faith] and not the suffering makes a genuine martyr.” Sills said the class more or less agreed that Augustine's understanding of martyrdom, like that of the IMB, is the most balanced definition. By this understanding, there are between 500 and 5,000 who are martyred each year, he said.

Sills said that perhaps another category should exist for those who die while on mission but are not killed expressly for their Christian belief. Sills and the class suggested the category of “hero of the faith” for these persons.

“There is no way you can come up with a definition that encompasses all the reasons a Christian might die while witnessing,” Sills said. “If a person is not a martyr according to this definition, that does not take away from their death or their service in any way.”

The class examined a “theology of suffering” -- the biblical teaching that Christians are called to suffer. The New Testament -- particularly in the words of Christ and the Apostles -- is replete with evidence that Christians will suffer for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, he said.

Quoting the second- and third-century church father Tertullian, Sills said that it is the blood of the martyrs that has provided the seed for the growth of the church through the ages -- a biblical teaching Christians need to recover.

“This was the basic theology of the (17th-century) Puritans,” Sills said. “That is, we need to kiss the rod that afflicts us and not try to escape so we can live a life of ease. We need to embrace it when it comes.

“The Lord never gave us the option to avoid persecution but it is a mindset out there, even among some Christians. Evangelizing in some areas will cause people to die if the church grows. Knowing this is essential for a balanced ministry.”

*

This is the prison diary of a young woman martyred in Carthage in A.D. 202 or 203. The beginning and ending are related by an editor/narrator; the central text contains the words of Perpetua herself. It is a very moving account of persecution in the early church, and rare in that it is contemporary.

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THE MARTYRDOM OF SAINTS PERPETUA AND FELICITAS

A number of young catechumens were arrested, Revocatus and his fellow slave Felicitas, Saturninus and Secundulus, and with them Vibia Perpetua, a newly married woman of good family and upbringing. Her mother and father were still alive and one of her two brothers was a catechumen like herself. She was about twenty-two years old and had an infant son at the breast. (Now from this point on the entire account of her ordeal is her own, according to her own ideas and in the way that she herself wrote it down.)

While we were still under arrest (she said) my father out of love for me was trying to persuade me and shake my resolution. 'Father,' said I, 'do you see this vase here, for example, or waterpot or whatever?'

'Yes, I do', said he.

And I told him: 'Could it be called by any other name than what it is?'

And he said: 'No.'

'Well, so too I cannot be called anything other than what I am, a Christian.'

At this my father was so angered by the word 'Christian' that he moved towards me as though he would pluck my eyes out. But he left it at that and departed, vanquished along with his diabolical arguments.

For a few days afterwards I gave thanks to the Lord that I was separated from my father, and I was comforted by his absence. During these few days I was baptized, and I was inspired by the Spirit not to ask for any other favour after the water but simply the perseverance of the flesh. A few days later we were lodged in the prison; and I was terrified, as I had never before been in such a dark hole. What a difficult time it was! With the crowd the heat was stifling; then there was the extortion of the soldiers; and to crown all, I was tortured with worry for my baby there.

Then Tertius and Pomponius, those blessed deacons who tried to take care of us, bribed the soldiers to allow us to go to a better part of the prison to refresh ourselves for a few hours. Everyone then left that dungeon and shifted for himself. I nursed my baby, who was faint from hunger. In my anxiety I spoke to my mother about the child, I tried to comfort my brother, and I gave the child in their charge. I was in pain because I saw them suffering out of pity for me. These were the trials I had to endure for many days. Then I got permission for my baby to stay with me in prison. At once I recovered my health, relieved as I was of my worry and anxiety over the child. My prison had suddenly become a palace, so that I wanted to be there rather than anywhere else.

Then my brother said to me: 'Dear sister, you are greatly privileged; surely you might ask for a vision to discover whether you are to be condemned or freed.'

Faithfully I promised that I would, for I knew that I could speak with the Lord, whose great blessings I had come to experience. And so I said: 'I shall tell you tomorrow.’ Then I made my request and this was the vision I had.

I saw a ladder of tremendous height made of bronze, reaching all the way to the heavens, but it was so narrow that only one person could climb up at a time. To the sides of the ladder were attached all sorts of metal weapons: there were swords, spears, hooks, daggers, and spikes; so that if anyone tried to climb up carelessly or without paying attention, he would be mangled and his flesh would adhere to the weapons.

At the foot of the ladder lay a dragon of enormous size, and it would attack those who tried to climb up and try to terrify them from doing so. And Saturus was the first to go up, he who was later to give himself up of his own accord. He had been the builder of our strength, although he was not present when we were arrested. And he arrived at the top of the staircase and he looked back and said to me: 'Perpetua, I am waiting for you. But take care; do not let the dragon bite you.'

'He will not harm me,' I said, 'in the name of Christ Jesus.'

Slowly, as though he were afraid of me, the dragon stuck his head out from underneath the ladder. Then, using it as my first step, I trod on his head and went up.

Then I saw an immense garden, and in it a gray-haired man sat in shepherd's garb; tall he was, and milking sheep. And standing around him were many thousands of people clad in white garments. He raised his head, looked at me, and said: 'I am glad you have come, my child.'

He called me over to him and gave me, as it were, a mouthful Of the milk he was drawing; and I took it into my cupped hands and consumed it. And all those who stood around said: 'Amen!’ At the sound of this word I came to, with the taste of something sweet still in my mouth. I at once told this to my brother, and we realized that we would have to suffer, and that from now on we would no longer have any hope in this life.

A few days later there was a rumour that we were going to be given a hearing. My father also arrived from the city, worn with worry, and he came to see me with the idea of persuading me.

'Daughter,' he said, 'have pity on my grey head -- have pity on me your father, if I deserve to be called your father, if I have favoured you above all your brothers, if I have raised you to reach this prime of your life. Do not abandon me to be the reproach of men. Think of your brothers, think of your mother and your aunt, think of your child, who will not be able to live once you are gone. Give up your pride! You will destroy all of us! None of us will ever be able to speak freely again if anything happens to you.'

This was the way my father spoke out of love for me, kissing my hands and throwing himself down before me. With tears in his eyes he no longer addressed me as his daughter but as a woman. I was sorry for my father's sake, because he alone of all my kin would be unhappy to see me suffer.

I tried to comfort him saying: 'It will all happen in the prisoner's dock as God wills; for you may be sure that we are not left to ourselves but are all in his power.'

And he left me in great sorrow.

One day while we were eating breakfast we were suddenly hurried off for a hearing. We arrived at the forum, and straight away the story went about the neighbourhood near the forum and a huge crowd gathered. We walked up to the prisoner's dock. All the others when questioned admitted their guilt. Then, when it came my turn, my father appeared with my son, dragged me from the step, and said: 'Perform the sacrifice -- have pity on your baby!'

Hilarianus the governor, who had received his judicial powers as the successor of the late proconsul Minucius Timinianus, said to me: 'Have pity on your father's grey head; have pity on your infant son. Offer the sacrifice for the welfare of the emperors.'

'I will not', I retorted.

'Are you a Christian?’ said Hilarianus.

And I said: 'Yes, I am.'

When my father persisted in trying to dissuade me, Hilarianus ordered him to be thrown to the ground and beaten with a rod. I felt sorry for father, just as if I myself had been beaten. I felt sorry for his pathetic old age.

Then Hilarianus passed sentence on all of us: we were condemned to the beasts, and we returned to prison in high spirits. But my baby had got used to being nursed at the breast and to staying with me in prison. So I sent the deacon Pomponius straight away to my father to ask for the baby. But father refused to give him over. But as God willed, the baby had no further desire for the breast, nor did I suffer any inflammation; and so I was relieved of any anxiety for my child and of any discomfort in my breasts....

Some days later, an adjutant named Pudens, who was in charge of the prison, began to show us great honour, realizing that we possessed some great power within us. And he began to allow many visitors to see us for our mutual comfort.

Now the day of the contest was approaching, and my father came to see me overwhelmed with sorrow. He started tearing the hairs from his beard and threw them on the ground; he then threw himself on the ground and began to curse his old age and to say such words as would move all creation. I felt sorry for his unhappy old age.

The day before we were to fight with the beasts I saw the following vision. Pomponius the deacon came to the prison gates and began to knock violently. I went out and opened the gate for him. He was dressed in an unbelted white tunic, wearing elaborate sandals. And he said to me: 'Perpetua, come; we are waiting for you.'

Then he took my hand and we began to walk through rough and broken country. At last we came to the amphitheatre out of breath, and he led me into the centre of the arena.

Then he told me: 'Do not be afraid. I am here, struggling with you.’ Then he left.

I looked at the enormous crowd who watched in astonishment. I was surprised that no beasts were let loose on me; for I knew that I was condemned to die by the beasts. Then out came an Egyptian against me, of vicious appearance, together with his seconds, to fight with me. There also came up to me some handsome young men to be my seconds and assistants.

My clothes were stripped off, and suddenly I was a man. My seconds began to rub me down with oil (as they are wont to do before a contest). Then I saw the Egyptian on the other side rolling in the dust. Next there came forth a man of marvelous stature, such that he rose above the top of the amphitheatre. He was clad in a beltless purple tunic with two stripes (one on either side) running down the middle of his chest. He wore sandals that were wondrously made of gold and silver, and he carried a wand like an athletic trainer and a green branch on which there were golden apples.

And he asked for silence and said: 'If this Egyptian defeats her he will slay her with the sword. But if she defeats him, she will receive this branch.’ Then he withdrew.

We drew close to one another and began to let our fists fly. My opponent tried to get hold of my feet, but I kept striking him in the face with the heels of my feet. Then I was raised up into the air and I began to pummel him without as it were touching the ground. Then when I noticed there was a lull, I put my two hands together linking the fingers of one hand with those of the other and thus I got hold of his head. He fell flat on his face and I stepped on his head.

The crowd began to shout and my assistants started to sing psalms. Then I walked up to the trainer and took the branch. He kissed me and said to me: 'Peace be with you, my daughter!’ I began to walk in triumph towards the Gate of Life. Then I awoke. I realized that it was not with wild animals that I would fight but with the Devil, but I knew that I would win the victory. So much for what I did up until the eve of the contest. About what happened at the contest itself, let him write of it who will.

[Here Saturus tells the story of a vision he had of Perpetua and himself, after they were killed, being carried by four angels into heaven where they were reunited with other martyrs killed in the same persecution.]

[Here the editor/narrator begins to relate the story]:

Such were the remarkable visions of these martyrs, Saturus and Perpetua, written by themselves. As for Secundulus, God called him from this world earlier than the others while he was still in prison, by a special grace that he might not have to face the animals. Yet his flesh, if not his spirit, knew the sword.

As for Felicitas, she too enjoyed the Lord's favour in this wise. She had been pregnant when she was arrested, and was now in her eighth month. As the day of the spectacle drew near she was very distressed that her martyrdom would be postponed because of her pregnancy; for it is against the law for women with child to be executed. Thus she might have to shed her holy, innocent blood afterwards along with others who were common criminals. Her comrades in martyrdom were also saddened; for they were afraid that they would have to leave behind so fine a companion to travel alone on the same road to hope. And so, two days before the contest, they poured forth a prayer to the Lord in one torrent of common grief. And immediately after their prayer the birth pains came upon her. She suffered a good deal in her labour because of the natural difficulty of an eight months' delivery.

Hence one of the assistants of the prison guards said to her: 'You suffer so much now -- what will you do when you are tossed to the beasts? Little did you think of them when you refused to sacrifice.'

'What I am suffering now', she replied, 'I suffer by myself. But then another will be inside me who will suffer for me, just as I shall be suffering for him.'

And she gave birth to a girl; and one of the sisters brought her up as her own daughter.

Therefore, since the Holy Spirit has permitted the story of this contest to be written down and by so permitting has willed it, we shall carry out the command or, indeed, the commission of the most saintly Perpetua, however unworthy I might be to add anything to this glorious story. At the same time I shall add one example of her perseverance and nobility of soul.

The military tribune had treated them with extraordinary severity because on the information of certain very foolish people he became afraid that they would be spirited out of the prison by magical spells.

Perpetua spoke to him directly. 'Why can you not even allow us to refresh ourselves properly? For we are the most distinguished of the condemned prisoners, seeing that we belong to the emperor; we are to fight on his very birthday. Would it not be to your credit if we were brought forth on the day in a healthier condition?'

The officer became disturbed and grew red. So it was that he gave the order that they were to be more humanely treated; and he allowed her brothers and other persons to visit, so that the prisoners could dine in their company. By this time the adjutant who was head of the gaol was himself a Christian.

On the day before, when they had their last meal, which is called the free banquet, they celebrated not a banquet but rather a love feast. They spoke to the mob with the same steadfastness, warned them of God's judgement, stressing the joy they would have in their suffering, and ridiculing the curiosity of those that came to see them. Saturus said: 'Will not tomorrow be enough for you? Why are you so eager to see something that you dislike? Our friends today will be our enemies on the morrow. But take careful note of what we look like so that you will recognize us on the day.’ Thus everyone would depart from the prison in amazement, and many of them began to believe.

The day of their victory dawned, and they marched from the prison to the amphitheatre joyfully as though they were going to heaven, with calm faces, trembling, if at all, with joy rather than fear. Perpetua went along with shining countenance and calm step, as the beloved of God, as a wife of Christ, putting down everyone's stare by her own intense gaze. With them also was Felicitas, glad that she had safely given birth so that now she could fight the beasts, going from one blood bath to another, from the midwife to the gladiator, ready to wash after childbirth in a second baptism.

They were then led up to the gates and the men were forced to put on the robes of priests of Saturn, the women the dress of the priestesses of Ceres. But the noble Perpetua strenuously resisted this to the end.

'We came to this of our own free will, that our freedom should not be violated. We agreed to pledge our lives provided that we would do no such thing. You agreed with us to do this.'

Even injustice recognized justice. The military tribune agreed. They were to be brought into the arena just as they were. Perpetua then began to sing a psalm: she was already treading on the head of the Egyptian. Revocatus, Saturninus, and Saturus began to warn the on looking mob. Then when they came within sight of Hilarianus, they suggested by their motions and gestures: 'You have condemned us, but God will condemn you' was what they were saying.

At this the crowds became enraged and demanded that they be scourged before a line of gladiators. And they rejoiced at this that they had obtained a share in the Lord's sufferings.

But he who said, Ask and you shall receive, answered their prayer by giving each one the death he had asked for. For whenever they would discuss among themselves their desire for martyrdom, Saturninus indeed insisted that he wanted to be exposed to all the different beasts, that his crown might be all the more glorious. And so at the outset of the contest he and Revocatus were matched with a leopard, and then while in the stocks they were attacked by a bear. As for Saturus, he dreaded nothing more than a bear, and he counted on being killed by one bite of a leopard. Then he was matched with a wild boar; but the gladiator who had tied him to the animal was gored by the boar and died a few days after the contest, whereas Saturus was only dragged along. Then when he was bound in the stocks awaiting the bear, the animal refused to come out of the cages, so that Saturus was called back once more unhurt.

For the young women, however, the Devil had prepared a mad heifer. This was an unusual animal, but it was chosen that their sex might be matched with that of the beast. So they were stripped naked, placed in nets and thus brought out into the arena. Even the crowd was horrified when they saw that one was a delicate young girl and the other was a woman fresh from childbirth with the milk still dripping from her breasts. And so they were brought back again and dressed in unbelted tunics.

First the heifer tossed Perpetua and she fell on her back. Then sitting up she pulled down the tunic that was ripped along the side so that it covered her thighs, thinking more of her modesty than of her pain. Next she asked for a pin to fasten her untidy hair: for it was not right that a martyr should die with her hair in disorder, lest she might seem to be mourning in her hour of triumph.

Then she got up. And seeing that Felicitas had been crushed to the ground, she went over to her, gave her hand, and lifted her up. Then the two stood side by side. But the cruelty of the mob was by now appeased, and so they were called back through the Gate of Life.

There Perpetua was held up by a man named Rusticus who was at the time a catechumen and kept close to her. She awoke from a kind of sleep (so absorbed had she been in ecstasy in the Spirit) and she began to look about her. Then to the amazement of all she said: 'When are we going to be thrown to that heifer or whatever it is?'

When told that this had already happened, she refused to believe it until she noticed the marks of her rough experience on her person and her dress. Then she called for her brother and spoke to him together with the catechumens and said: 'You must all stand fast in the faith and love one another, and do not be weakened by what we have gone through.'

At another gate Saturus was earnestly addressing the soldier Pudens. 'It is exactly', he said, 'as I foretold and predicted. So far not one animal has touched me. So now you may believe me with all your heart: I am going in there and I shall be finished off with one bite of the leopard.’ And immediately as the contest was coming to a close a leopard was let loose, and after one bite Saturus was so drenched with blood that as he came away the mob roared in witness to his second baptism: 'Well washed! Well washed!’ For well washed indeed was one who had been bathed in this manner.

Then he said to the soldier Pudens: 'Good-bye. Remember me, and remember the faith. These things should not disturb you but rather strengthen you.'

And with this he asked Pudens for a ring from his finger, and dipping it into his wound he gave it back to him again as a pledge and as a record of his bloodshed.

Shortly after he was thrown unconscious with the rest in the usual spot to have his throat cut. But the mob asked that their bodies be brought out into the open that their eyes might be the guilty witnesses of the sword that pierced their flesh. And so the martyrs got up and went to the spot of their own accord as the people wanted them to, and kissing one another they sealed their martyrdom with the ritual kiss of peace. The others took the sword in silence and without moving, especially Saturus, who being the first to climb the stairway was the first to die. For once again he was waiting for Perpetual Perpetua, however, had yet to taste more pain. She screamed as she was struck on the bone; then she took the trembling hand of the young gladiator and guided it to her throat. It was as though so great a woman, feared as she was by the unclean spirit, could not be dispatched unless she herself were willing.

Ah, most valiant and blessed martyrs! Truly are you called and chosen for the glory of Christ Jesus our Lord! And any man who exalts, honours, and worships his glory should read for the consolation of the Church these new deeds of heroism which are no less significant than the tales of old. For these new manifestations of virtue will bear witness to one and the same Spirit who still operates, and to God the Father almighty, to his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom is splendour and immeasurable power for all the ages. Amen.

________

From "The Acts of the Christian Marytrs"

texts and translation by Herbert Musurillo

(c) Oxford University Press, 1972

[see also #26683]

*

Acts 7:30–60 — Stephen’s Defence, Part II (outline by F. F. Bruce, NICNT) « Leader information shown in this fashion »

{A.} The Birth of the Church (1:1–5:42)

{B.} Persecution and Expansion (6:1–9:31)

{1.} Stephen (6:1–8:1a)

A. The Appointing of the Seven (6:1–6)

B. Progress Report (6:7)

C. Stephen’s Activity Raises Opposition (6:8–10)

D. Stephen Accused before the Sanhedrin (6:11–15)

E. The High Priest’s Question (7:1)

F. Stephen’s Reply (7:2–53)

1. The Patriarchal Age (7:2–8)

2. Israel to Egypt (7:9–19)

3. Moses’ Early Days (7:20-29)

Review: what is implied by what Stephen has already said:

(A) Abraham did not need Moses, the law, the temple for his having a relationship with God

(B) Patriarchs rebelled against God’s plan disclosed by Joseph

(C) God effected His plan despite them and through them

(D) There were 2 unrecognized deliverers: Joseph and Moses

4. The Call of Moses — 7:30–34 (NKJV): 30 And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. 31 When Moses saw it, he marvelled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, 32 saying, “I am the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses trembled and dared not look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.”

a. What makes a place holy (cf. Acts 6:13, Exodus 3:2)? « — the presence of God Himself; note this was Gentile territory »

b. Was this limited to the temple: Exodus 20:24, Numbers 6:27? « — no; God intends it be wherever His people should be »

c. What does removal of shoes mark? « — in visiting it showed respect to the host »

d. What did God’s message to Moses convey about Himself? « — omniscient, merciful, compassionate, wise, faithful, powerful »

5. Wilderness Wanderings — 7:35–43 (NKJV): 35 This Moses whom they rejected, saying, “Who made you a ruler and a judge?” is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years. 37 This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.” 38 This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us, 39 whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, “Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 41 And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 42 Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: “Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43 You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of your god Remphan, Images which you made to worship; And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.” (Amos 5:25-27)

a. What marks of Israel’s rebellion are found in these verses?

(A) v. 35 « — repudiation of Moses »

(B) v. 39 « — disobedience to Moses »

(C) v. 39 « — rejection of Moses »

(D) v. 39 « — refusal of salvation coming through Moses — (hearts still looking to Egypt) »

(E) v40, 42–43 « — idolatry »

(F) v. 41 « — pride »

b. How did God use Moses despite Israel’s rejecting him?

(A) through Moses He S_________ … « (saved them) »

(B) through Moses He D____ … « (did wonders, miracles) »

(C) through Moses He F___________… « (foretold The Prophet) »

(D) He acclaimed Moses before the people at Sinai by His thundering voice and by giving living oracles to Moses

c. How did God respond to Israel

(A) Cf. Romans 1:24, 26, 28 « — abandoning them to idolatry »

(B) sending « them into captivity »

d. What parallels are found in Jesus Christ & His treatment

(A) wonders and signs « gave him only grudging acceptance which was quickly deserted »

(B) the living oracles « of Jesus’ teaching were soon ignored »

6. Tabernacle and Temple — 7:44–50 (NKJV): 44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, 45 which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, 46 who found favour before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. 47 But Solomon built Him a house. 48 However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: 49 “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me?” says the Lord, “Or what is the place of My rest? 50 Has My hand not made all these things?”

a. how was the tabernacle constructed

(A) verse 44 « — according to a God-given pattern »

(B) Heb 8:1–2 « — by men representing a spiritual reality »

b. What God answer David’s proposal to build Him a house?

(A) 2 Samuel 7:7 « — “I have never asked for a house” »

(B) 2 Samuel 7:11-12, 17 « — the true house as Christ (Heb 3:1ff) »

c. Was Solomon’s temple the real house of God?

(A) vv 48-50 (also I Kings 8:27, Isaiah 66:1-2) « — no, it was not adequate for the majestic, omnipresent God »

(B) Mark 11:17 « — earthly temple defective in use and scope »

(C) Isaiah 57:15, Ephesians 2:19-22 « — God’s people a temple »

7. Personal Application — 7:51–53 (NKJV): 51 You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.

a. Exodus 33:5, Leviticus 26:41; Whose words did Stephen use? « — both are quotes of how God described Israel; there are many similar statements; eg., Deuteronomy 10:16 »

b. Matthew 23:29-37; What is Jesus’ judgement? « — the rulers were of the same character as their forefathers »

c. 1 Thessalonians 2:14b–16; What is Paul’s judgement? « — this people is still the same »

«

d. The final judgement: they had not kept the law as shown by their actions to the prophets and their actions to the Christ. Contrast our reading with G. B. Shaw in the preface to the play, “Androcles and the Lion” »

G. Stoning of Stephen, 7:54–1:8a

1. Stephen’s Final Witness — 7:54–56 (NKJV): 54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

a. Did Stephen’s audience understand “his drift”?

b. See Mark 14:62; what supposed crime did Jesus & Stephen both commit? « — exalting Jesus to enthronement with God (term “Son of man” from Daniel 7:13–14; also, Psalm 110:1) »

2. Death of Stephen — 7:57–60 (NKJV): 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

a. Stephen was treated as a blasphemer even though he had not pronounced the Name, At this date, the Jews allowed only the High Priest to say yearly, using Numbers 6:24-26

b. the presence of the witnesses at the stoning marks it as being an judicial execution; see Deuteronomy 17:7, Leviticus 24:14; why need they be there? « — their actions to back up words »

c. The only possible way this could have been justified under Roman occupation was considering it a temple desecration.

3. Saul’s Agreement — 8:1a (NKJV): Now Saul was consenting to his death. …

This Sunday, November 13, 2005, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Besides encouraging prayer for our persecuted brethren, its goals include “increasing awareness of the persecuted Church worldwide.” For American Christians, at least, that increased awareness is as close as our newspapers.

Recently, media outlets told the gruesome story of what happened to four teenage girls in Indonesia. The girls were on their way to their Christian school when they were attacked. Their machete-wielding assailants beheaded three of them and left the fourth seriously wounded.

If this seems horribly familiar, it should. Central Sulawesi, where the murders took place, has become the site of what the media calls a “bloody sectarian war” between Christians and Muslims.

Calling it a “bloody sectarian war,” however, obscures the fact that all of the recent violence has been perpetrated against Christians. In May, a bomb in a Christian town killed twenty-two people; then, a Christian was shot in the head; and a few weeks later, a bomb exploded outside a church.

The chief suspects in this violence are the Islamic group Laskar Jihad, which is believed to have ties to both al-Qaeda and Indonesian military officers.

In addition to the violence, Christian leaders cite the forced closure of churches and other harassment of Christians as evidence of the Indonesian government's disregard of religious freedom. The JAKARTA POST agrees, citing “signs of uneasiness among non-Muslims because of the government's seemingly constant failure to protect them.”

Indonesia is neither the only nor the worst offender. A few months ago, Chuck told “BreakPoint” listeners about Vietnam's treatment of Hmong Christians. Since then things have only gotten worse.

According to Freedom House, the Vietnamese government's “violent campaign to force minority Christians to renounce their faith” continues unabated. Hmong Christians have testified about the measures employed in this campaign: severe beatings and torture with electric batons being only two of the weapons in Hanoi's arsenal of persecution.

The list of countries where Christians are suffering for their faith only starts with Indonesia and Vietnam. It includes North Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, and Egypt. That's why this Sunday increased awareness of persecution and promoting “ongoing and appropriate action on behalf of the persecuted Church” are the goals of the International Day of Prayer.

As Christians actively seek to promote human rights, we are not only doing God's work, we are profoundly affecting the skeptical secular media at the same time. Just last Sunday, for example, Nicholas Kristof in a NEW YORK TIMES editorial wrote this: “Look, I think Christian leaders on the right like Senator Brownback, Frank Wolf in the House, and Chuck Colson are utterly wrong on many issues. I probably wouldn't vote for them for political office. But I admire them immensely for their humanitarian efforts, and I might vote for them for sainthood.”

So that's why we must be engaged: It's right - the public-at-large knows it - and it helps the persecuted Church, our brothers and sisters around the globe.

________

Copyright (c) 2005 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

*

In the days when East Germany lived under an oppressive regime, a young man deeply involved in the life of a church community was seized by the Communist authorities, and never returned.

Sometime later, another young man, well known as a hardened leader in the Communist-organized youth movement, began attending youth meetings and worship services at the same church. The congregation's suspicions were aroused, and the pastor took the fellow aside and asked why he was coming.

The young man replied by asking, “You know the fellow from your church who was seized and taken away?”

“Of course,” responded the pastor. “I knew him well, but we have not heard from him since.”

“Well,” said the visitor, “I saw him when he was being harassed and tortured. Not only did he refuse to betray his friends, but through it all he never showed any bitterness toward his tormentors. Even in the hour of death, there was no anger towards those who were about to kill him. Instead, he spoke of Jesus Christ, forgiveness, and God's love.” The young man concluded, “And when I saw him die, I knew I must come, in spite of what it will cost me, to learn of his Christ and the love for our enemies that strengthened him in his last hours.”

________

United Methodist pastor Donald Shelby, in BOLD EXPECTATIONS of the Gospel, quoted by Joel D. Kline in WHO'S HOLDING ON TO WHOM?; tertiary source http://www.cybersaltlists.org

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #29567]

The Lord who created you says: “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you.” (Isaiah 43:1-2, NLT)

Margaret MacLachlan and Margaret Wilson, Covenanters [conservative Presbyterians] in Wigtown, Scotland, were tried for their faith on April 13, 1685, for refusing to take the Oath of Abjuration, which stated that the Church of God is a department of the State. Found guilty of rebellion, attending field meetings, and worshiping in places other than a church, they were ordered to receive their sentences on their knees. When they refused to bow before anyone but God, they were forced down to their knees and then were sentenced to death by drowning.

On May 11, 1685, the two faithful Margarets were tied to posts and staked in the sea as the tide was rising. The older Margaret (MacLachlan) was farther out. They were given many chances to recant their beliefs, but they stood firm and resolute.

Margaret MacLachlan remained silent, her eyes closed throughout the ordeal, communing with Christ until death. As the tide rose eighteen-year-old Margaret Wilson began to sing a Covenanter rendition of Psalm 25:7. Then, she recited from Romans 8: “We are more than conquerors through him that loves us....”

After the waves washed over her head, the soldiers pulled her out, pleading with her one last time to “pray for the king!” She prayed, but her prayer was, “Lord, give him repentance, forgiveness, and salvation, if it be Thy holy will.” The angry soldiers threw her back into the water, and she joined Margaret MacLachlan before the throne.

We may never face the rising tide of the sea, but the deep waters of trouble and loss can be just as overwhelming. How do you react when you feel you are about to drown in the rising tide of your own troubles?

________

Adapted from THE ONE YEAR® BOOK OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten (Tyndale, 2003)

Just a few weeks ago, Christians gathered in the Holy Land to remember the Armenian victims of genocide. Between 1915 and 1919, 1.5 million Armenians living in Turkey were slaughtered. Shockingly, few today have even heard about the brutal persecution that nearly annihilated this ancient people — who, by the way, chose Christianity as their national religion in 301 A.D.

Ironically, one day after last month’s commemoration, Islamic extremists slit the throats of three Christians working at a Bible publishing house in Turkey — the very country where Armenian Christians were nearly exterminated. The world’s silence on this latest attack on Christians is deafening. As writer Daniel Pulliam wondered aloud at Getreligion.org, “What would the news coverage look like if three Muslims were found with their throats slit in an Islamic publishing house. . . ?” One can only imagine.

Necati Aydin was one of the three martyrs. Born into an Islamic family, he converted to Christianity in 1994. Necati openly and actively proclaimed his faith, even distributing Bibles on the street. In 2000 he spent four weeks in jail for doing so, even though such distribution is legal in Turkey. Because they could find no grounds for keeping him, authorities released Necati. Soon after, he relocated to Malatya, where he was a pastor of a local Protestant church. He also worked at the Zirve Publishing House, a Christian publishing house that has made some 10,000 Bibles available to interested Turks.

At the funeral in Izmir, Turkey, applause erupted when Necati’s coffin was carried into the church yard. Spontaneously, more than five hundred brave mourners broke out in a chorus based on Lamentations, singing “The compassion of the Lord never fails; His mercy never ceases.” And Necati’s wife spoke about the meaning of her husband’s death, saying simply, “He died for Jesus, because he loved Jesus.”

Sadly, this brutal attack against Christians in Turkey is not an isolated incident. In 2006, a Catholic priest was shot in Trabzon while praying. And a few months ago, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was brutally murdered. Dink had served time in prison for “insulting Turkishness” for an article he wrote about the Armenian genocide. Simply speaking the truth about the genocide had left Dink with many enemies.

You see, in Turkey, the potent mix of radical nationalism and religious extremism can breed this type of violence against the perceived threat posed by the Christian West. Dr. Christine Schirrmacher, an Islamic studies scholar in Germany, puts it this way: For these extremists “the mere existence of Christians on Turkish soil [is] an immediate assault which threatens to undermine the unity and character of the Turkish nation.”

You may be wondering what you can do. First, pray for God’s protection of Christians in Turkey and for the Turkish government to reign in the violence against Christians. Next, you can give of your resources. The seminary where Necati studied has established a fund for the families of the victims and for the churches in Turkey. Visit our website, www.breakpoint.org, for MORE INFORMATION. Perhaps through our prayers and gifts, as the early apologist Tertullian once wrote, the death of these martyrs will indeed be the seed of the Church in Turkey.

________

Copyright (c) 2007 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

It would have been very useful and edifying to have the reports of the trials of the martyrs Pontianus, Fabian, Cornelius, Sixtus II, Eusebius, Cecilia... Unfortunately, during the tremendous persecution of Diocletian the archives of the Church of Rome were destroyed.

But the reports of St. Cyprian’s trial have come down to us. The Acta were read in the Christian communities for the glory of the Martyr in order to strengthen others in the moment of their ordeal. We can therefore assume that the reports of the trial of the other martyrs just cited were written in much the same way.

=============

Carthage, 14th September 258.

On the morning of September 14 a large crowd gathered at Sesti by order of proconsul Galerius Maximus. And the same proconsul Galerius Maximus bade that Cyprian should be brought to the hearing which he conducted on that same day in the “Sauciolus Hall.” When bishop Cyprian stood before him, the proconsul said to him:

“Are you Tascius Ciprianus?”

Bishop Cyprian answered:

“Yes, I am.

Proconsul Galerius Maximus said:

“Are you the one who has presented himself as the leader of a sacrilegious sect?”

Bishop Cyprian answered:

“I am.”

Galerius Maximus said:

“The most holy emperors bid you to sacrifice.”

Bishop Cyprian said:

“I will not do it.”

Proconsul Galerius Maximus said:

“Think it over.”

Bishop Cyprian said:

“Do what you have been ordered to do. In such a just cause there is nothing to think over.”

Galerius Maximus, after conferring with the college of magistrates, with difficulty and unwillingly pronounced this sentence: “You have long lived sacrilegiously and have gathered many in your criminal sect, and set yourself up as an enemy of the Roman gods and of their religious rites. The pious and most holy Augusti emperors Valerian and Gallienus, and Valerian most noble Caesar, failed to bring you back to the observance of their religious ceremonies.

“Therefore, since you have been seen to be the instigator of the worst of crimes, we shall make an example of you before those whom you have associated with yourself in these wicked actions. The respect for the law will be sanctioned by your blood.” Having said this he read out in a loud voice from a tablet the decree: “I order that Tascius Ciprianus be punished by being beheaded.” Bishop Cyprian said: “Thanks be to God.”

Following the sentence, the crowd of Christian brethren said: “We want to be beheaded with him.” At this there was great agitation among the brethren and a large crowd followed him. Thus Cyprian was led into the countryside of Sesti, and there he took off his cloak and hood, knelt on the ground and prostrated himself in prayer to the Lord. He then removed his dalmatic and gave it to the deacons, leaving himself only in his linen garment, and so waited for the executioner.

When the latter arrived, the bishop ordered his own followers to give the executioner twenty-five gold pieces. Meanwhile his brethren held out pieces of cloth and handkerchiefs [to receive the blood as relics]. Then the great Cyprian with his own hands bandaged his eyes, but since he could not tie the corners of the handkerchief, presbyter Julian and subdeacon Julian went to help him.

Thus bishop Cyprian was martyred and his body, because of the curiosity of the pagans, was placed in a place nearby where it was hidden from their indiscreet eyes. It was then carried away at night with lighted flares and torches and accompanied as far as the cemetery of procurator Macrobius Candidianus, which is in the “Huts” Road near the Baths. A few days later, proconsul Galerius Maximus died.

The holy bishop Cyprian was martyred on September 14th under emperors Valerian and Gallienus, but in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom all honor and glory be forever. Amen.

________

From the Acta Proconsularia, 3-6

Yesterday on BreakPoint [ID #35809], I talked about a Christian ethic of hope — a hope not based on wishful thinking, but on the reality of God’s promises. It’s this Christian hope that gives us the joy, the self-sacrificial love, the boldness, and the endurance to carry on — even in tough times. You often see these fruits in the lives of devout believers.

For example: Justin Martyr, born around AD 100 to pagan parents; he grew up studying philosophy. But while in Ephesus he was impressed by the steadfastness of Christians under persecution and converted to Christianity. He is known for his “Apologies,” defenses of the faith addressed to those in highest power: the Roman Emperor and the Roman Senate.

Justin boldly defended the lives of his persecuted fellow Christians. For publically debating and defending the Christian beliefs in public, he was tried before a Roman prefect. When he refused to deny his faith, he was beheaded. But it was Justin’s hope in Christ that enabled him to boldly and sacrificially defend the truth.

Centuries later, Nien Cheng would stand up to the authorities of her day. Cheng was arrested in 1966 by Chinese Red Guards. Six years in prison she was pressured to make a false confession that she had been a spy for the imperialists. Despite torture, Cheng would not admit to something that wasn’t true.

Cheng was a Christian and although she couldn’t let the guards see her praying, she secretly turned to God and found solace for her grief and hope to face each day. Cheng was released under the pretense that her behavior had improved. But it was her hope in God that enabled her to endure her brutal treatment.

In a prison cell on the other side of the world, Armando Valladares spent 22 years because of his refusal to bend the knee to a communist regime. Valladares counseled and pled with other inmates to stay true to the faith over the 8,000 days of hard labor and solitary confinement.

He resisted communist indoctrination, saying “For me that would’ve meant spiritual suicide.” He says, “All the time I was in jail, I never gave up my freedom. My freedom is not the space where you can walk around in. There are lots of people in Cuba who have space to walk, and yet they are not free.”

For Vallardes, true freedom was “8,000 days of testing my religious convictions, my faith, of fighting the hate my atheist jailers were trying to instill in me with each bayonet thrust, fighting so that hate would not flourish in my heart.” When he was finally released with French intervention in 1982, he published his classic book Against All Hope.

For Justin Martyr, Cheng, and Vallardes, hope was not a flimsy optimism that everything would somehow work out alright. Hope was understanding that the reward for holding fast to God was a weight of glory that exceeded the pain of any momentary affliction.

For each of them, hope yielded joy, sacrificial love, boldness, and endurance. As we imitate them in their hope, these are fruits which not only would change us, but the world in which we live.

________

Copyright (c) 2009 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

For retired Southern Baptist worker Marty Koehn, Dec. 30, 2002, was a fairly normal morning in Yemen -- until she heard an “extremely urgent and atrociously loud” knock at the door of her home.

Koehn recalls being frustrated by the interruption.

“But when I opened the door and saw the face of the man standing there, my irritation disappeared,” Koehn said. “He said, ‘There’s been a shooting. Come to the hospital.’ And he took off running.”

When Koehn arrived at the hospital, she found that her husband Bill, a Southern Baptist worker serving at Jibla Baptist Hospital as an administrator, along with three other Southern Baptist workers -- Martha Myers, Kathy Gariety and Don Caswell -- had been shot by a Muslim militant.

Koehn made it to the hospital in time to be with her husband for his last moments on earth -- the memory of which remains etched in her mind. Myers died almost instantly. Hospital workers tried desperately to save Gariety and Bill Koehn. Only Caswell survived.

But as clearly as she can remember the events of the Dec. 30 shooting, Koehn remembers the Lord’s hand of provision, comfort and faithfulness before and after her loss.

She had spent a few extra moments with Bill that morning, having stopped by the hospital to use the copying machine and then visiting with him in his office before chapel.

“It was just neat that God gave me those precious extra moments with him that day,” Koehn said.

The Lord also had orchestrated that Koehn’s house helper was with her in her home when she had to answer the door that morning. She didn’t worry about locking the house or taking her keys. She just left for the hospital immediately.

Koehn said the Lord, in His foreknowledge, even had His hand on the couple regarding their respective calls to the mission field.

As a young girl, Koehn felt the Lord calling her to the mission field during a presentation a Nigerian missionary doctor gave at a Vacation Bible School she attended.

“She spoke to us and God just touched my heart,” Koehn recalled. “I knew then that was what I was supposed to do.”

Years later she met Bill and married him in 1963. A few years later God reaffirmed her childhood calling to missions. Bill, though, did not sense the same call.

Despite her eagerness to pursue work on the mission field, Koehn resisted the urge to convince her husband to share her calling. That, she said, was the Lord’s work.

“I was really grateful after the shootings to look back and say I am so glad that I did not manipulate my husband into going, because I would have felt terrible if he had not been supposed to go and I had made something happen that resulted in him dying,” Koehn said.

“It was a hard thing to do to stop and wait, but I’m really glad I did it that way. I’m sure the Holy Spirit had a lot to do with that, because I really wanted to barge on ahead. But he wasn’t ready, and I wasn’t ready.”

It was nine years after Koehn’s call to missions was reaffirmed that Bill felt the Lord call him to missions as well. The two were approved as Southern Baptist workers in October 1974 and arrived on the field in Yemen in June 1975.

Clear answers

After Bill died, Koehn realized many decisions faced her. Should she stay in Yemen? Should she return to America? If she stayed, what would she do? Her chief responsibility had been as wife and homemaker. That had all changed in an instant.

God did not let these questions consume her, though; she said He gave her clear answers.

“All of the sudden, out of the blue, the Lord brought to mind Elisabeth Elliot’s story,” Koehn recounted. This happened within 30 minutes after Bill died. “I had never read the book, and of course the movie wasn’t out at that point, but I had heard a brief summary of [Elliot’s] story, and the Lord reminded me of it. To me, this was His clear indication that I was supposed to go back to Yemen.”

In fact, she added, “It’s just remarkable because I hadn’t thought of that story for years. In Scripture God tells us that He will bring to our remembrance the things we need, and He did. And it was very powerful because I needed that assurance.”

After returning to the States to grieve and spend time with her two daughters, Koehn returned to Yemen -- to a land that had been home for nearly 30 years and to people who had become close friends. When she returned, the Lord already had provided her a role in which to serve.

Kathy Gariety had worked as the purchasing agent and warehouse manager for the hospital. That position needed to be filled.

“To me, this was another indication God wanted me to go back,” Koehn said. “That was the one job I could do because it required someone who knew both English and Arabic and it was a non-medical position. [The Lord] was preparing everything.”

Koehn said the Lord’s provisions before, during and after the tragedy reaffirmed to her that she had indeed placed her trust in the right place.

“I learned that I could depend on Him,” she said. “He was right there directing decisions and blessing my life.”

In addition to protection and provision, the Lord also dealt her a heaping dose of peace.

“I was never afraid,” Koehn said. “I was surrounded totally by people of the same ethnicity as the man who had just killed my husband. I’m sure part of it was that they were my friends, but it was a blessing to not be afraid. It was peace that didn’t make sense. We should have been afraid.

“There was just a keen sense of His presence and assurance that I was where I was supposed to be and the contentment of knowing that,” she recalled.

Jibla Baptist Hospital, established by missionary doctor Jim Young in 1967, was to be transferred from Southern Baptist ownership to the Yemeni government Dec. 31, 2002 -- the day after the shootings. The Yemeni government assumed responsibility of the hospital in February 2003 and continued to employ Southern Baptist workers, including Koehn, alongside their Muslim counterparts.

Jibla Hospital finally closed in May 2007, and Koehn retired to Texas to be near family. She takes pleasure in knowing that one of her granddaughters, who visited her grandparents in Yemen as a child and witnessed their ministry, is eyeing the mission field.

Though some people are amazed at her decision to remain in Yemen following her husband’s death, Koehn eschews the label of heroine.

“That was my life,” she said. “That was all I knew. What else would I do?”

This is a brief except that appeared in the Jounal Sentenial - a very liberal newspaper in our area.

COLORADO SHOOTING VICTIM'S LEGACY WILL BE HIS STEADFAST BELIEF IN GOD.

“Maybe John Tomlin's death will save a soul, and maybe more than one.

The stirring spirit of John's life, so brutally punctuated by his death at Columbine High School, led his friend Brandon Sokol to announce Friday his conversion to Christ. Brandon spoke through tears at john's memorial service, the first for the victims of Tuesday's maassacre.

More conversions may follow, said Tomlin's girlfriend, Michelle Oetter, a 17-year-old who seems guided through this tragedy by uncommon grace and perception.

'I don't know why (John died) and I whish he was still here with me, but God knows what he is doing,' Oetter said. 'If this many people are going to find out what kind of person John was and the faith he had -- it changed Brandon's life -- I don't have to ask why.'“

Boris Cornfeld was a Jew who lived in Russia. And for some reason, no one really knows why (maybe a slip of the tongue where he referred to Stalin as finite), but for some reason he was dumped in the Gulag and was to live there the rest of his life.

Since he was a medical doctor, he was to keep practicing medicine and keep the slaves alive so they could die with all the right things said on their records. Dr. Cornfeld was to rewrite the records and say, “This person is healthy,” whether it was true or not. The slave was then put back into the slave block and expected to do the work. If slaves died of starvation out there, that was fine -- but they were not to die in the hospital.

Slowly, the physician began to see through all of his misapplied politics and philosophy of life. He finally decided there must be another way. And through the influence of a fellow inmate, he heard of Jesus Christ and ultimately came to know the Messiah -- Dr. Boris Cornfeld personally received Jesus Christ into his life. The transformation was slow but steady. On one occasion he did surgery on the very guard who had beaten slaves. He had a chance to tie an artery loosely so the man could bleed to death and no one would know it. But now that Christ lived in his life he found himself unable to kill. He even mumbled to himself on occasions, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Strange words to come from the lips of a Jew in a Russian camp! I'm sure he didn't realize what a model he was and I'm sure he didn't think very much about the cycle.

But on one occasion he was working with another inmate who had cancer of the intestines. The man looked like he wouldn't live. Boris Cornfeld was so concerned for that man's faith that he leaned over and spoke quietly to him as the patient drifted in and out of the anesthesia. He told the man about Christ and explained God's love which was demonstrated in the Savior's death and resurrection. When the man would come to, he would tell him more. At one point, the patient awoke, and in his groggy state, he heard a noise down the hall. His surgeon, Dr. Cornfeld, was being brutally murdered.

When the patient finally did regain consciousness, he realized all that it meant for Dr. Cornfeld to have given his life for a cause, and the patient himself personally received Christ as well. Because Boris Cornfeld had a vision of the cycle, he used his influence to shape a life that did not die, but lived on to challenge and exhort the thinking of prosperous and materialistic Western America. His patient's name: Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

[pages 233-234 Living on the Ragged Edge by Charles Swindoll (p. 27-28 Loving God by Charles Colson) ].

Josef Tson was fully prepared to die.

It was late in the summer of 1977 and Romania was under communist rule when the Baptist minister put all his worldly concerns in order after the manner of a dying man. Buoyed by the courage of his wife, Elizabeth, Tson prepared himself for certain martyrdom.

He was to meet an officer from the secret police in the restaurant of a nondescript Romanian hotel. The communist officer had pledged to do what previous secret police officials had failed to do: silence Tson's ministry by offering him a secular job in exchange for a promise that he never again preach the Gospel. Turning down the job spelled at least hard time in a prison camp. It might very well mean execution.

Tson met with the man and without flinching turned down the job.

“I told the man, 'Now I am ready to die,'” Tson said. “'You said you were going to finish me as a preacher. I asked my God and he wants me to continue to be a preacher. Now I have to make one of you two angry and I decided [it is] better [to] make you angry than God.

“'But I know you, sir; you cannot stand this kind of opposition and you will kill me in one way or another. But I accepted that and you should know that I have even put everything in order and made ready to die. But as long as I am free, I will preach the Gospel.'“

The communist officer was equally unflinching in his response: He told Tson to go and preach the Gospel.

“He [the officer] made up his mind that if I was ready to die for it, then I should have it,” Tson said. “And for another four years until they exiled me, I continued to preach with nobody disturbing me because that man, a key man in the secret police, decided I should be free to preach because I was ready to die for it.”

Tson's testimony is one of both grave persecution and the grace of God.

He was arrested and imprisoned several times in Romania during the 1970s and charged with being a Christian minister. Each time he underwent several weeks of intense interrogation, beatings and mind games before finally being exiled from the country in 1981.

It was in this climate that he began to understand the “theology of martyrdom,” which later became the subject of his book, “Suffering, Martyrdom and Rewards in Heaven.” From a practical standpoint, Tson said his imprisonment helped him form a clearer view of the biblical response to persecution.

“When the secret police officer threatened to kill me, to shoot me, I smiled and I said, 'Sir, don't you understand that when you kill me you send me to glory? You cannot threaten me with glory.’ The more suffering, the more troubles, the greater the glory. So, why say, 'Stop this trouble'? Because the more [suffering], the greater the glory up there.”

During one particularly harrowing session of interrogation, Tson told his inquisitors that spilling his blood would only serve to water the growth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Part of the theology of suffering, he learned, was that tribulation is never an accident but is part of God's sovereign plan for building His church.

“I told the interrogator, 'You should know your supreme weapon is killing. My supreme weapon is dying,'“ Tson said.

“'Now here is how it works, sir: You know that my sermons are on tape all over the country. When you shoot me or crush me, whichever way you choose, [you] only sprinkle my sermons with my blood. Everybody who has a tape of one of my sermons will pick it up and say, 'I had better listen again. This man died for what he preached.’ Sir, my sermons will speak 10 times louder after you kill me and because you kill me. In fact, I will conquer this country for God because you killed me. Go on and do it.'

“Dying for the Lord is not an accident. It's not a tragedy. It's part of the job. It's part of the ministry. And it's the greatest way of preaching.”

Tson has been president of the Romanian Missionary Society since 1982 and is pastor of the Baptist Church in Brasov, Romania.

Romania had been under communist rule since 1948 when the party took control of the country and modeled its government and economy after those of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

After his exile from Romania, Tson spent several years ministering in the United States before returning to his newly liberated homeland in 1991. He has since founded Emmanuel Bible Institute, built a Christian publishing company and established the Christian Radio Voice of the Gospel.

Tson said he has learned that Christians suffer for two primary reasons: as witnesses to the Gospel and to perfect the church of Christ. He recalled being encouraged by a valuable truth that a British theologian taught him: The cross of Christ was for the propitiation of sins, but the cross each Christian is called to bear is for the propagation of the Gospel.

Believers must be ready to give their lives if necessary for the perfection of the church, Tson said, because God's grace spreads when the church suffers in the manner of its Savior.

“It is the job of Christ to perfect His church but I [am to] come and say 'My Lord, I give You my body to suffer through my body to complete Your sufferings for the perfection of Your body, the church,'“ Tson said.

“The agony of every pastor for his unperfected church and of every pastor who wants that church pure [is] the agony of Christ. When we do this we understand the beauty of sharing with Christ in His own sufferings.”

*

About 330,000 Christians a year are martyred for the faith around the world, says the Rev. David Barrett, a noted religious statistician. He said one in every 200 workers on the mission field is killed. "If you are a Christian worker on the frontiers of evangelism in a non-Christian society you are a marked man or woman," he said.

[see also #1135]

Every night, as he was being handcuffed to a tree deep in the Philippine jungle, Martin Burnham would look his armed captors in the eye and say, "Thank you very much."

Then the missionary would wish them good night.

He did this, his wife told friends, because he was determined to stay joyous during the most trying time of his life.

So friends and relatives of the slain native of Rose Hill, Kan., followed Martin Burnham's lead June 14, staying joyous through the tears of a two-hour memorial service that drew an estimated 2,600 people.

Martin Burnham died June 7 during a shoot-out between Filipino troops and his guerrilla kidnappers, who held him and wife Gracia captive for more than a year.

"Why did this happen this way?" asked Clay Bowlin, a college friend of Martin Burnham and a Kansas City pastor. "I gotta tell you, I don't know.

"God knows what he is doing. All we can do is trust him."

Friends and family began lining up outside Central Christian Church before 8:30 a.m. -- at least an hour and a half before the service began.

About 30 employees from Wal-Mart gathered on 29th Street North across from the church. They stood silently, with small flags in hand, holding giant sympathy cards.

As the service began, mourners -- including Philippines Ambassador Albert del Rosario, Sen. Sam Brownback, Rep. Todd Tiahrt and former Sen. Bob Dole -- stood as Martin's widow, Gracia Burnham, and family entered the sanctuary.

In a wheelchair, Gracia Burnham sat in the front row, just feet from her husband's casket.

The service began with a slide show flashing images from Martin Burnham's 42 years of life.

Set to the music of "Amazing Grace," Martin Burnham grew from small smiling child in a bow tie to high school wrestler, and eventually into a pilot, husband and father of three.

One of the last slides showed a healthy man in a blue-green plaid shirt, looking much different from the thin, bearded man he became during more than a year of captivity.

Some of the speakers and music had been chosen by Martin Burnham, who expressed his wishes to his wife in the weeks before he died. He sensed he may not make it out alive.

An uncle, Galen Hinshaw, read letters to Martin Burnham written by his family.

Martin Burnham's oldest son, Jeff, wrote about the dirt bike he and his father shared in the Philippines. And how his dad was going to teach him to fly when he turned 15. Jeff turned 15 while his parents were in captivity.

His 12-year-old daughter, Mindy, recalled her father inserting her name in songs and singing them to her when he returned home from work.

Felicia Reschke, Martin's youngest sister, wrote about wrestling Martin on the living room floor and how he always let her win. He nicknamed her "Pickles" because of the funny faces she made when she ate one.

Another sister, Cheryl Spicer, remembered a time in college when Martin offered to start turning down her unwanted dates for her.

"He took care of me," she wrote.

His mother, Oreta Burnham, remembered her son ending a November interview in the jungle with the words: "Goodbye, Mom. I love you, and I hope to see you soon."

Bowlin, who knew Martin Burnham at Calvary Bible College in Kansas City, Mo., in the early 1980s, said he and Martin were like brothers.

His voice cracked often as he recalled their long talks over cups of coffee and his teasing Martin over his courtship of Gracia.

As their college years ended, most of Bowlin's friends were getting married, including Martin, so he didn't see them much.

Martin, seeing that Bowlin was lonely, approached him one day in the student lounge and promised to ask Gracia if he could start spending some Saturday nights with Bowlin.

Smiling down at Gracia, Bowlin told her he decided not to steal time with her husband but how much he appreciated the offer.

Bowlin described how a hungry Martin and Gracia shared their food during captivity with younger members of Abu Sayyaf -- some of whom were kids with guns, he said -- because they were hungry too.

In recent weeks, he said, Gracia escaped the jungle on a medical helicopter. Martin escaped on the wings of an angel.

Bowlin thanked the city of Rose Hill for lining the streets as buses brought Gracia home.

"There is a golden street in heaven where a couple of weeks ago there was another parade like that," he said.

Mourners once again stood as Martin's casket was carried from the sanctuary, Gracia Burnham following close behind.

The family's poise impressed all those who have tried to imagine themselves in the family's place.

"The family is amazing," Dole said as he left the memorial. "The things that Martin and Gracia went through, you almost wouldn't believe it if you were reading them in a book."

Family members laid Martin Burnham to rest at a private burial at Rose Hill Friends Cemetery. Then hundreds of friends met them for a luncheon at a Rose Hill school.

Gracia Burnham took a break from visiting with friends and family to share a quick story with the media.

Above the roar of a passing train, she spoke of one night in the jungle when her kidnappers allowed her and Martin to listen to a short-wave radio.

Curled up together in a hammock, they tuned into an English station and heard someone saying a prayer for everyone in troubled places, such as Afghanistan or the West Bank.

She and Martin included themselves in that prayer and were comforted, she said.

The funeral service was wonderful, she said. Martin would have loved it.

She wanted everyone to know she's doing well, as is her family and Martin's.

Then she smiled and said: "I asked my kids how I should end my little speech to the press. They said to say: 'God Bless America.'"

--30--

Used by permission of The Wichita Eagle. (BP)

Colin Chapman, in “The Case for Christianity,” quotes Ugandan bishop Festo Kivengere's account of the 1973 execution by firing squad of three men from his diocese:

February 10 began as a sad day for us in Kabale. People were commanded to come to the stadium and witness the execution. Death permeated the atmosphere. A silent crowd of about three thousand was there to watch.

I had permission from the authorities to speak to the men before they died, and two of my fellow ministers were with me.

They brought the men in a truck and unloaded them. They were handcuffed and their feet were chained. The firing squad stood at attention. As we walked onto the center of the stadium, I was wondering what to say. How do you give the gospel to doomed men who are probably seething with rage?

We approached them from behind, and as they turned to look at us, what a sight! Their faces were all alight with an unmistakable glow and radiance. Before we could say anything, one of them burst out:

“Bishop, thank you for coming! I wanted to tell you. The day I was arrested, in my prison cell, I asked the Lord Jesus to come into my heart. He came in and forgave me all my sins! Heaven is now open, and there is nothing between me and my God! Please tell my wife and children that I am going to be with Jesus. Ask them to accept him into their lives as I did.”

The other two men told similar stories, excitedly raising their hands, which rattled their handcuffs.

I felt that what I needed to do was to talk to the soldiers, not to the condemned. So I translated what the men had said into a language the soldiers understood. The military men were standing there with guns cocked and bewilderment on their faces. They were so dumbfounded that they forgot to put the hoods over the men's faces!

The three faced the firing squad standing close together. They looked toward the people and began to wave, handcuffs and all. The people waved back. Then shots were fired, and the three were with Jesus. We stood in front of them, our own hearts throbbing with joy, mingled with tears. It was a day never to be forgotten. Though dead, the men spoke loudly to all of Kegezi District and beyond, so that there was an upsurge of life in Christ, which challenges death and defeats it.

The next Sunday, I was preaching to a huge crowd in the hometown of one of the executed men. Again, the feel of death was over the congregation. But when I gave them the testimony of their man, and how he died, there erupted a great song of praise to Jesus! Many turned to the Lord there.

#1997

*

"Five believers in Christ were crucified recently in Sudan, by order of Islamic courts. Their widows and children were sold into slavery in Sudan and Libya for $15.00 each."

(1994, German agency IDEA PRESSEDIENST)

The Argentine evangelist Juan Carlos Ortiz was arrested for preaching the gospel and taken before the magistrate. The magistrate said, "Mr. Ortiz, if you continue to preach the gospel you will be thrown in prison." He said, "No problem. That will give me a chance to preach to the guards. "Well then we'll throw you in solitary confinement." "No problem, that'll give more time to read and pray." "Mr. Ortiz, we'll have you executed." "No problem, I'll be able to be with my Lord." Totally frustrated the magistrate said, "What are we going to do with you?" Ortiz replied, "You've got a problem."

THE MARTYRS

===========

Wayne A. Meeks: Woolsey Professor of Biblical Studies Yale University

DECIAN PERSECUTIONS BACKFIRE

After a long period in which the persecutions of Christianity were really spasmodic, local, [and] involved very few people, suddenly in the middle of the 3rd century, the year 250, the Emperor Decius decides that Christians are a real enemy of the Roman order, that they must be dealt with empire-wide, with all the police power that the emperor can bring to bear upon them. And he issues a decree that everyone has to sacrifice to the Roman gods and they must produce a certificate signed by a Roman official that they have done so. Why did this happen? Clearly, one of the things which this indicates is that Christianity, which begins with such tiny groups, scattered in various cities across the empire, have become numerous, they have become a significant segment of the population in many places. There is some evidence that in many towns in North Africa, the[y] may actually be a majority already. So they have come forcibly to the attention of the Emperor. At the same time, it clearly indicates that that counter-cultural tendency, which was one aspect of the self-understanding of Christians, from the very beginning..., they are the ones who worship, as Son of God, one who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor. This counter-cultural implication of their most fundamental beliefs still remains, and the Emperor has recognized this counter-cultural tendency and says, “This is dangerous - we can't have this large a group, which by the way, is also very highly organized, and, unlike other religious communities, is organized not just on a local basis, but is organized on an empire-wide basis. Something has to be done about it....”

So, the Romans bring to bear all the power they have at their disposal. They say, “All right, let's hit the leaders. Let's find these bishops and bring them into court and force them to recant, and if they won't, we'll eliminate them.” And so you have bishops fleeing to the countryside and you have others being martyred. You have ordinary people, for the first time, being rounded up, forced to sacrifice, or if they can buy a forged certificate of sacrifice. There's some of those which have actually survived. And the odd thing is it fails.... The net effect of this is that a new cult of the martyrs appears in Christianity, which strengthens the church, which feeds on anti-government sentiment in many segments of the empire - those remote geographical areas distant from Rome which have always been suspicious of Rome. This simply brings those into the Christian fold and in many ways, it backfires. So the Decian persecution is very short-lived....

[What else was going on at the empire at the time of the persecutions?]

At the time of the major empire-wide persecution, under the Emperor Decius, you have to realize, this is also a time when the Emperor's feeling under great pressure. The middle of the 3rd century is often time identified as a crisis in the Roman Empire. There is a lot of internal dissension, there is a lot of what Ramsey MacMullen has identified as sheer corruption in the aristocracy, from the Emperor down. There is a sense that we are being besieged on the borders, that the barbarians may be coming in at any moment, the Persians are dangerous, the Germans are dangerous and so on. There's a great sense that anything that upsets this ancient contract between the Romans and the gods has got to be dangerous to us.... This is one of the factors which must be feeding into the sense of the crisis, expressed in the persecution against the church....

PERSECUTION: HOLLYWOOD VERSION

[Why were Christians persecuted?]

Why were the Christians persecuted? This is one of the great questions which is passed down. One thing we have to remember is that the old Hollywood view of Christianity as kind of an underground persecuted society that skulks around in catacombs for three centuries before they finally emerge after Constantine's conversion, clearly cannot be true. ... Before [the year 250], we hear only rarely and locally of persecution of Christians, which is small scale and often times, has purely local kinds of causes, I think. But the question remains, since the things we see them doing seem fairly innocuous, at least to our eyes, why did people persecute them? Where did the suspicion arise that they did all kinds of dangerous anti-social things like cannibalism and incestuous sexual relations, orgies, this sort of thing? They're different. They are a people that, in a way, declare their boundaries over against the larger society by their very rituals that lead to conversion - turning away from the gods and turning to the one God, living and true, as Paul puts it in his First Letter of the Thessalonians [1:9]. That means that they are not going to participate in a great many of not only the religious, but the civic functions, which emerged in the ordinary society of a Roman or Greek city. This is bound to arouse suspicion. Why do the Christians not participate in these rituals that are necessary to maintain the relationship between our society and the gods?

======================================

Paula Fredriksen: William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of the Appreciation of Scripture, Boston University

THE MARTYRDOM OF PERPETUA

One of the most amazing documents historians of early Christianity are privileged to have is the prison diary of a young woman who was martyred in the year 202 or 203 in Carthage, as part of a civic celebration. Her name is Perpetua. And she insisted on being killed. It's an amazing, complicated story. The diary is in kind of a sandwich. The editor introduces the story, then there's the authentic diary of Perpetua, and then there are editorial conclusions, at the end.

Perpetua has brought herself to the attention of the governor. And she is really insisting on being put into the arena. There's an incredibly powerful trial scene where Perpetua's father is pleading with her and, finally, actually trying to beat her. And the Governor has him subdued by his soldiers. And the governor says, “Please, won't you cooperate?” And Perpetua, who's not even a baptized Christian, who's still catechumen, says, “No, I'm a Christian.” Now, there's no dragnet out for Christians. Perpetua is visited by other Christians in prison. If the governor were trying to get all the Christians in Carthage, he just could have arrested whoever is going to visit Perpetua. But he doesn't. She's what one historian has called an overachiever in a sense. She's insisting on being martyred as part of her Christian witness. She gives her baby back over to her family, because she's still nursing. And she talks about this. And she's really insisting on being martyred because she says, and we have to believe her, this is the only word we have from her, because in so doing, she will get to God through Jesus....

The authentic diary ends before Perpetua is led into the arena. What we have concluding the diary is a description by somebody who is presenting a hero tale. The majority of Christians were not volunteering to be martyred. For one thing, there wouldn't have been an audience for these martyr stories. For another thing, we have doctrinally, the evolution of penance as a way to reincorporate Christians who lapse in the face of persecution. So Perpetua is really being preserved by her community as a role model. She marks off the heroic limit against which other Christians can measure themselves. She's led out to the arena. She, with heroic chastity, faces down the animals and gladiators, and finally, after being tormented by several animals, a young gladiator is sent into the arena to dispatch her. And it's just an incredibly moving scene; his hand is trembling so much he can't cut her. And she grabs his hand and guides his sword to her own throat. It's a kind of assisted suicide....

There are other people members who are members of her community and the person who draws me the most is a slave girl who's also part of this group. Her name is Felicitas. She is in an advanced stage of pregnancy when the group is in prison. And, they all pray around her so that she is delivered of her baby just before going into the arena. And she's also killed with this group....

There's an intense sense of community that binds together these people who are insisting on being martyred. They take care of each other. There is a very affecting scene of Perpetua and Felicitas helping... arrange each other's clothes so they're not exposed after they've been jostled by these animals. And finally they say good-bye to each other in this life with the kiss of peace.

LEGAL STATUS OF CHRISTIANITY

[What's the legal status of Christianity (around the time of Perpetua's death)?]

It's difficult to track the legal status of Christianity in the second and third century. What's happened as a result of the spread of the movement is that we have, in Roman antiquity, an entire population of gentiles who are, in effect, claiming the legal prerogatives of Jews while insisting at the same time, rightly, that they're not Jews. Judaism had long ago come to a legal agreement with the Emperor that Jews would not be forced to participate in pagan rituals. And pagan rituals are part of the normal fabric of life in a Roman city. Jews were exempted from this because Romans knew that Jews were odd about this kind of thing. But a gentile who refused to participate in [the] civic cult had no legal standing. If they were a gentile, then the proper thing to do would be to honor the god of the Emperor and of the empire and of the city. And by insisting on not doing this, certain Christians made themselves conspicuous and invited upon themselves legal action on the part of governors....

Paganism is, in a sense, the religious articulation of citizenship. Civitas is city. A civis is a citizen, and... the analogy between family and city is made continuously, in philosophy, and in popular piety. To exempt yourself from that, then, would have real social consequences.And this is one of the reasons, I think, for the persecution of Christians. Christians, who exempt themselves from this are criticized for -- I'm going to sound like I'm speaking in California dialect, but it's really a similar idea -- confusing the vibrations, the sympathetic harmony between heaven and earth. They are exempting themselves from the peace of the gods, the Pax Deorum and therefore, one church father, Tertullian says, on the cusp of the third century, “if the Tiber overflows or the Nile doesn't, the cry goes up. Christians to the lion.” Christians are ... and by this I mean, specifically, gentile Christians. There are Jewish Christians, too, but in the literature, it's gentile Christians who populate the martyr stories that we have. They are they have made themselves outlanders in their own town. And therefore, they are used as an explanatory device whenever there are the usual natural insults of human existence. Plague. Earthquake. Flood. It's because the Christians, as gentiles who are not doing their duty to heaven ... why should the gods do anything for the city then? And that's how you get Christians dragged before Governors and before these circuit courts and named as troublemakers.

[Was it the official policy of the Roman Empire to persecute Christians?]

Empires have better things to do than persecute nursing mothers, which is the example, of course with Perpetua. Emperors tend not to care much about what people are doing as long as the servants and horses are not disturbed, taxes are collected, and nobody starts a rebellion. So, empires in general, and I think the Roman Empire, in particular, are religiously tremendously ecumenical. If you have a huge expansive political territory with huge varieties of religions, within those boundaries, you don't care what people are doing religiously. You just want your tax money. And so the fact that we have incontrovertible evidence that Christians are being persecuted says several interesting things about the growth of movement and the social fortunes of the empire.

Before the year 250, the persecution of Christians is sporadic. It's local. It's improvised. It is at the discretion of a Governor to whom complaints are made and so on. It's not a dragnet and it's not an imperial policy. After 250, when the empire is being battered on every frontier by invading armies, when there's absolute rampant inflation, [there is] incredible governmental instability. There are an average of two or three Emperors in a year. They keep getting assassinated. It's just an incredibly fraught time. That's also the point at which you begin to get the imperial expression of persecution of Christians. Now then again, also, it's interesting. It's not a criminal offense to be a Christian. What you have to do is get a ticket, a “lebevos,” a chit saying that you have sacrificed for the well-being of the empire.... There [are] various response[s] on the part of different Christian communities. You can have your servant go and do it for you. He might also be a Christian, but, you know, that's his problem. Pay him. He'll get two chits and then you're covered.... Or you can pay for the ticket but not actually do the sacrifice if you can bribe a friend of yours who's a magistrate. Or you can just go ahead and sacrifice, knowing that these gods are nothing, after all. That's right in...Paul's letters, that these gods are nothing. There are all sorts of different ways that people deal with this. But some people absolutely refuse to oblige by this rule at all. And those are the people - again, it's the heroic minority - who end up being martyred by government force.

[What was the impact of martyrdom? What was the impact of people like Perpetua?]

The martyrs are a heroic minority. They don't represent a huge popular swelling. We don't have tens of thousands of people being martyred. What we do have, is tens of thousands of people admiring the few who are martyred. So in that sense, like any extreme, a martyr marks out a spiritual height to be admired but not necessarily emulated. In that sense, the martyr stories have an incredible effect on the imagination of Christians, because who's the first Christian martyr? Jesus, himself. Heroically witnessing to his own faith, in a sense, and against a hostile government tribunal. So there's this kind of imaginative continuity between Christ and the martyr.

What's most interesting is when the heroic age stopped and when the Church itself converted into being a form of Roman imperial culture, after the conversion of Constantine in 312. That's where you get the incredible efflorescence of the cult of the martyrs. Martyrs' shrines, bits of martyrs' bodies, liturgies being written to the martyrs. There's an incredible energy involved in worshipping at the tombs of the martyrs after the age of martyrs have ... has stopped. And I think that's, in a way, Christianity's effort to reclaim its own heroic history after it had already become an arm of government, itself, and was, of course, persecuting other Christians. More Christians were persecuted by the Roman Government after the conversion of Constantine, than before. The difference is that's it's a Christian government who's persecuting the other Christians.

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Elizabeth Clark: John Carlisle Kilgo Professor of Religion and Director of the Graduate Program in Religion Duke University

POLYCARP

[The story of Polycarp is one of our first martyrdom stories]. Polycarp was a bishop of a place called Smyrna, which today is modern Izmir in Turkey, and at a very old age he was brought up for trial and persecution.... Probably his martyrdom occurred somewhere around 165 give or take some years. We're not too sure about that. What 's important about the story of his martyrdom that the church of Smyrna wrote...was that it tended to present Polycarp's martyrdom as copying in some respects the “martyrdom” of Jesus. That is, that there's a government official named Herod who's partly responsible for Polycarp's death. Polycarp is put upon a donkey and rides into the city.... Pagan officials are trying to make Polycarp recant. They ask him to curse Christ, which was always thought to be a sure sign that you weren't really a Christian if you had cursed Christ, and ... to offer the kind of pinch of incense to Caesar to indicate your reverence for the Roman gods and for the emporium. He refuses to do any of these things and is put to death by burning. An interesting feature of the story is that his father must go and collect his bones after he has been put to death. This becomes one of [the] first instances we have of what turns into the cult of the martyrs... [the practice] of preserving bits and pieces of the bodies of martyred people and holding these in great honor and esteem. Many of the martyrdoms written after the time of Polycarp tend to follow this basic model.

INFLUENCE OF MARTYR STORIES

[How did these [martyrdom stories] come off to shape Christianity at this time? What impact did they have?]

I think the martyrdom stories that got circulated were very important for the development of early Christianity. Several of the martyrdoms talk about -- of course we don't know how to judge the historical veracity of those tales -- but they do say that there were pagans present at these martyrdoms who were so impressed by the...courage of the Christians that they came to see the truth of the Christian religion themselves and immediately converted to Christianity.... Probably, for the most part, though, these martyrdom accounts were written for other Christians to try to bolster the Christians' faith at a time of persecution. To keep up your courage in case this happened to you as well. But by and large the Christian leaders did not encourage people volunteering themselves as martyrs. We have a few notable accounts on the books where in a fit of enthusiasm somebody would run into the arena and say, “Martyr me!” and then when the wild beast came running after them they decided this wasn't such a good idea after all, and this brought some degree of shame and disgrace to Christianity. So it was thought it was quite all right not to volunteer yourself and to go to your martyrdom only if pressed and really pushed to the wall, but then you should not deny your faith.

THE PROBLEM OF RECANTERS

[Did many Christians recant during the persecutions?]

After the two major persecutions of the third century and the early fourth century -- these are the persecutions under the Emperor Decius that occurred around 250 and then the persecution under Diocletian in the opening years of the fourth century -- there was a grave problem for the church because many Christians were not made of the kind of moral fiber of the people who went to their death as martyrs. They had been willing to recant the faith, to offer a pinch of incense to the emperor... [or] to bribe the officials at the pagan temples to give them a certificate saying they had offered the sacrifice when in fact they had not. All this made a grave problem for the church when the persecutions were over because many of these people then wanted to come back into the church. It was also a problem because there were some bishops who had defected, you might say, during the persecutions, and they had baptized people. The question then was were you really baptized if you had been baptized by a bishop who fell away from the faith during the persecutions?

There were many controversies about this. Some churchmen took a very lax line on this, “Well, people are repentant. We've all committed sins. They should just be forgiven and brought back in.” Others took a kind of moderate line: after a period of penance and public recantation and repentance for what they had done, then they would be allowed back into the church. There were some hard-liners who thought once you handed over scripture, recanted the faith, done these various acts, there was no way you could ever be a Christian again. [There was] a great deal of controversy among church people in this era, some of which went on for a long, long time. In North Africa, for example, the group of Christians called the Donatists held out all through the fourth century into the fifth century on some of these issues about not allowing such people back into the church.

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New Content Copyright © 1998 PBS and WGBH/FRONTLINE

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[Original illustration here was a duplicate in HolwickID 25837-26027]

This Sunday, November 13, 2005, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Besides encouraging prayer for our persecuted brethren, its goals include “increasing awareness of the persecuted Church worldwide.” For American Christians, at least, that increased awareness is as close as our newspapers.

Recently, media outlets told the gruesome story of what happened to four teenage girls in Indonesia. The girls were on their way to their Christian school when they were attacked. Their machete-wielding assailants beheaded three of them and left the fourth seriously wounded.

If this seems horribly familiar, it should. Central Sulawesi, where the murders took place, has become the site of what the media calls a “bloody sectarian war” between Christians and Muslims.

Calling it a “bloody sectarian war,” however, obscures the fact that all of the recent violence has been perpetrated against Christians. In May, a bomb in a Christian town killed twenty-two people; then, a Christian was shot in the head; and a few weeks later, a bomb exploded outside a church.

The chief suspects in this violence are the Islamic group Laskar Jihad, which is believed to have ties to both al-Qaeda and Indonesian military officers.

In addition to the violence, Christian leaders cite the forced closure of churches and other harassment of Christians as evidence of the Indonesian government's disregard of religious freedom. The JAKARTA POST agrees, citing “signs of uneasiness among non-Muslims because of the government's seemingly constant failure to protect them.”

Indonesia is neither the only nor the worst offender. A few months ago, Chuck told “BreakPoint” listeners about Vietnam's treatment of Hmong Christians. Since then things have only gotten worse.

According to Freedom House, the Vietnamese government's “violent campaign to force minority Christians to renounce their faith” continues unabated. Hmong Christians have testified about the measures employed in this campaign: severe beatings and torture with electric batons being only two of the weapons in Hanoi's arsenal of persecution.

The list of countries where Christians are suffering for their faith only starts with Indonesia and Vietnam. It includes North Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, and Egypt. That's why this Sunday increased awareness of persecution and promoting “ongoing and appropriate action on behalf of the persecuted Church” are the goals of the International Day of Prayer.

As Christians actively seek to promote human rights, we are not only doing God's work, we are profoundly affecting the skeptical secular media at the same time. Just last Sunday, for example, Nicholas Kristof in a NEW YORK TIMES editorial wrote this: “Look, I think Christian leaders on the right like Senator Brownback, Frank Wolf in the House, and Chuck Colson are utterly wrong on many issues. I probably wouldn't vote for them for political office. But I admire them immensely for their humanitarian efforts, and I might vote for them for sainthood.”

So that's why we must be engaged: It's right - the public-at-large knows it - and it helps the persecuted Church, our brothers and sisters around the globe.

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Copyright (c) 2005 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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