This is a not so simple Sunday post today... This day in history means so much as we remember
Kristallnacht, but even more than that, it is a day the church sets aside to remember our brothers and sisters all around the world as they endure persecution for Jesus.
However, I do hope to be devotional and even apologetic with this post, because the ties of persecution to history to the foundation of our faith in the Resurrection of Christ are so interwoven, we mustn't separate it in our minds and in our prayers.
It will not do … to say that Jesus’ disciples were so stunned and
shocked by his death, so unable to come to terms with it, that they
projected their shattered hopes onto the screen of fantasy and invented
the idea of Jesus’ ‘resurrection’ as a way of coping with a cruelly
broken dream. That has an initial apparent psychological plausibility,
but it won’t work as serious first-century history.
We
know of lots of other messianic and similar movements in the Jewish
world roughly contemporary with Jesus. In many cases the leader died a
violent death at the hands of the authorities. In not one single case do
we hear the slightest mention of the disappointed followers claiming
that their hero had been raised from the dead. They knew better.
‘Resurrection’ was not a private event. It involved human bodies. There
would have to be an empty tomb somewhere.
A
Jewish revolutionary whose leader had been executed by the authorities,
and who managed to escape arrest himself, had two options: give up the
revolution, or find another leader. We have evidence of people doing
both.
Claiming that the original leader was alive again was simply not an option. Unless, of course, he was. —N.T. Wright, Who Was Jesus?
Over the years, I have had my share of discussions about what we can know about Jesus.
These three facts about the Historical Jesus
are held by most critical scholars and historians:
1. Jesus died in Jerusalem by crucifixion.
The question we have to ask the person who claims Jesus was "a good guy" or "another prophet" is why. Why would such a good guy be crucified? An execution saved only for the worst of criminals by the Roman government. Perhaps because he claimed to be something more than just a good guy. We are then left with the dilemma, either Jesus was a complete lunatic who did nice things but u
nderneath it all was a deceiver and manipulator and died for it OR Jesus was exactly who he claimed to be: God incarnate. The latter would of course been seen as blasphemy and a threat to Jewish rulers, as well as Roman occupation of the territory.
However, even amidst that, we know from history that the Roman governor, Pilate, saw no fault in him.
2. Very Shortly after Jesus’ death, the disciples had experiences
that led them to believe and proclaim that Jesus had been resurrected
and had appeared to them.
These men would later give their very lives for this claim. It makes zero logical sense to die for something you know to be a lie. The disciples would take this message to the entire known world and preach the message the experienced and knew to be true:
James, the Apostle of the Lord, was the
second recorded martyr after Christ's death (Stephen was the first). His death
is recorded in Acts 12:2 where it is told that Herod Agrippa killed him with a
sword. Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History II.2) both
tell how the executioner witnessed the courage and un-recanting spirit of James
and was then convinced of Christ's resurrection and was executed along with
James.
Although, just before the crucifixion,
Peter denied three times that he even knew Christ, after the resurrection he
did not do so again. Peter, just as Jesus told him in John 21:18-19, was
crucified by Roman executioners because he could not deny his master again.
According to Eusebius, he thought himself unworthy to be crucified as his
Master, and, therefore, he asked to be crucified "head downward."
Andrew, who introduced his brother
Peter to Christ, went to join Peter with Christ in eternity six years after
Peter's death. After preaching Christ's resurrection to the Scythians and
Thracians, he too was crucified for his faith. As Hippolytus tells us, Andrew
was hanged on an olive tree at Patrae, a town in Achaia.
Thomas is known as "doubting
Thomas" because of his reluctance to believe the other Apostles' witness
of the resurrection. After they told him that Christ was alive, he stated
"Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger
into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe"
(John 20:25). After this, Christ did appear to him and Thomas believed unto
death. Thomas sealed his testimony as he was thrust through with pine spears,
tormented with red-hot plates, and burned alive.
Philip was corrected by Christ when he
asked Christ to “show us the Father, then this will be enough for us” (John
14:8). Christ responded, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not
come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you
say, ‘Show us the Father ‘?” (John 14:9). Philip later saw the glory of Christ
after the resurrection and undoubtedly reflected with amazement on Christ's
response to his request. Philip evangelized in Phrygia where hostile Jews had
him tortured and then crucified.
Matthew, the tax collector, so desperately wanted
the Jews to accept Christ. He wrote The Gospel According to Matthew about ten
years before his death. Because of this, one can see, contained within his
Gospel, the faith for which he spilled his blood. Matthew surely remembered his
resurrected Savior's words, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end
of the world" (Matt. 28:20), when he professed the resurrected Christ unto
his death by beheading at Nad-Davar.
Nathanael, whose name means "gift of God"
was truly given as a gift to the Church through his martyrdom. Nathanael was
the first to profess, early in Christ's ministry, that Christ was the Son of
God (John 1:49). He later paid for this
profession through a hideous death. Unwilling to recant of his proclamation of
a risen Christ, he was flayed and then crucified.
James (the lesser) some believe was appointed to be
the head of the Jerusalem church for many years after Christ's death, others
see this as another James. Either way, we know this Apostle remained in
Jerusalem. In this, he undoubtedly came in contact with many hostile Jews (the
same ones who killed Christ and stated "His [Christ's] blood be on us and
our children" (Matt. 27:25). In order to make James deny Christ's
resurrection, these men positioned him at the top of the Temple for all to see
and hear. James, unwilling to deny what he knew to be true, was cast down from
the Temple and finally beaten to death with a fuller's club to the head.
Simon was a Jewish zealot who strived to
set his people free from Roman oppression. After he saw with his own eyes that
Christ had been resurrected, he became a zealot of the Gospel. Historians tell
of the many different places that Simon proclaimed the good news of Christ's
resurrection: Egypt, Cyrene, Africa, Mauritania, (potentially Britain), Lybia,
and Persia. His rest finally came when he verified his testimony and went to be
with Christ, being crucified by a governor in Syria.
Judas (not Iscariot) questioned the Lord: "Judas said to him
(not Iscariot), Lord, how is it that you will show yourself to us, and not unto
the world?" (John 14:22). After he witnessed Christ's resurrection, Judas
then knew the answer to his question. Preaching the risen Christ to those in
Mesopotamia in the midst of pagan priests, Judas was beaten to death with sticks,
showing to the world that Christ was indeed Lord and God.
Matthias replaced Judas Iscariot
(the betrayer of Christ who hanged himself) as the twelfth Apostle of Christ
(Acts 1:26). It is believed by most that Matthias was one of the seventy that Christ
sent out during his earthly ministry (Luke 10:1). This qualifies him to be an
apostle. Matthias, of which the least is known, is said by Eusebius to have
preached in Ethiopia. He was later stoned while hanging upon a cross.
John is the only one of the twelve Apostles to have
died a natural death. Although he did not die a martyr's death, he did live a
martyr's life. He was exiled to the Island of Patmos under the Emperor Domitian
for his proclamation of the risen Christ. It was there that he wrote the last book
in the Bible, Revelation. We do know that he was brought back from Patmos just
before his death and lived and preached in Ephesus. *Some* traditions tell us
that he was thrown into boiling oil before the Latin Gate, where he was not
killed but undoubtedly scarred for the rest of his life.
The deaths of the
Apostles increase the certainty of the historicity of the resurrection to
a level that is beyond excuse for disbelief. People do not die for their own
lies, half-truths, or fabrications. If the Apostles truly died proclaiming to
have seen Christ dead then alive and ascend into heaven, Christ is who He said
He was, God incarnate who came to take away the sins of the world.
3. Within a few years after Jesus death, Paul became a follower of
Jesus after a personal experience that he interpreted as a post
resurrection appearance of Jesus to him.
Paul, a persecutor of the church and one of the people responsible for the first martyr of the faith, Stephen, had everything going for him: respect, dignity, power, honor among the Jewish elite. He had Roman citizenship, he was a pharisee of pharisees, taught by the greatest teachers of the day concerning Jewish law. What would cause him to throw it all away and live like a vagabond?
Paul was the greatest skeptic there was until he
saw the truth of the resurrection. He then devoted his life to the proclamation
of the living Christ. Writing to the Corinthians, defending his ministry, Paul
tells of his sufferings for the name of Christ: "In labors more abundant,
in beatings above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. Of the Jews
five times received I forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with
rods, once was I stoned, three times I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have
been in the deep; In journeys often, in storms on the water, in danger of
robbers, in danger by mine own countrymen, in danger by the heathen, in danger
in the city, in danger in the wilderness, in the sea, among false brethren; In
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in
fastings often, in cold and nakedness "(2 Cor. 11:23-27). Finally, Paul
met his death at the hands of the Roman Emperor Nero when he was beheaded in
Rome.
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. -Hebrews 11:13-16
What is my point in this post?
Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. And my hope is that as we read about our history, and we understand the promise of redemption that is only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we understand what men and women all around the world and all throughout the pages of history are dieing for... and my hope is that this knowledge, this understanding, will give us something to live for.
Pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who are living and dieing in poverty and pain all for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus.
Because like the apostles of old, they are on the frontlines now, us, here, now. And there is a desperate, desperate cry from the battlefield for prayer warriors to pray for the softening of hearts to who Jesus is. Hundreds die every day from beatings and torture for their faith.
"We
set forth our petitions before God, not in order to make known to Him
our needs and desires, but rather so that we ourselves may realize that
in these things it is necessary to turn to God for help."
-St. Thomas
Aquinas
The lives of the martyrs become a source of inspiration for Christians, and their lives are revered. The 2nd-century Church Father
Tertullian wrote that,
"the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church,"
implying that the martyrs' willing sacrifice of their lives leads to the conversion of others.
The blood, sweat, and tears of the persecuted feed that seed even today.
70 million Christians have been killed in the last 2000 years, and the number is continuing to grow. Pray. Pray for strength, endurance, patience, love for the enemies of the church, and for the Gospel to continue to flourish.
And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell
of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who
through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped
the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the
sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign
armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some
were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a
better life. Others suffered mocking and
flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in
two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and
goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering
about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
And all these, though commended through their faith, did
not receive what was promised, since God had
provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made
perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus,
the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the
throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility
against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point
of shedding your blood.
-Hebrews 11:32-12:4
For more information on Christian persecution
Voice of the Martyrs and
Love Costs Everything are great resources for you to check out.
But above all, pray.
---
Nathan Bryant
Is a student of Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri. Majoring in Biblical Leadership, New Testament Studies, and Missiology, he has a combined passion for unity and discipleship in the global church. Nate is a crazed sports fan, he enjoys college football and playing fantasy football. He also enjoys watching baseball with friends. He works as an Admissions Counselor at Ozark. Nate is unashamedly a Starbucks addict. Yay Coffee!
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