Revelation 6:9-11 
9And when the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their witness. 10They called loudly to the Lord and said, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge the people who belong to this world for what they have done to us? When will you avenge our blood against these people?" 11Then a white robe was given to each of them. And they were told to rest a little longer until the full number of their brothers and sisters--their fellow servants of Jesus--had been martyred. (NLT)
As I have written before, there is a whole lot of important and noteworthy news going on in our world that is unreported by the major news outlets because it is not politically correct. One of the ongoing stories I would include in this category is the horrible and glorious reality of martyrdom and persecution for being a follower of Jesus Christ. Every year all over our globe, thousands of disciples of Jesus Christ are imprisoned, lose their homes and jobs, are tortured and even face horrible deaths for the sake of Jesus and His gospel.
This past Sunday on a number of the major news outlets like USA TODAY, the story of an Afghan man facing death for converting to Christianity 16 years ago really caught my attention. I was both saddened for him and encouraged to see this story making the rounds. For all of those people out there who continue to declare that Islam is a peaceful religion, I only need to point out that wherever Shariah Law and the Islamic religion have political power, people of other faiths can be and are often imprisoned and put to death for their beliefs.
This man is a hero that we need to highly esteem and pray for. Let us pray for God's mercy and deliverance from the death sentence for Abdul Rahman. It may be the will of God for Abdul to die as a martyr, but I will pray for his release and for sanctuary in a Western nation where he can love his Lord openly. After all, that is what the early Christians did as they prayed for Peter.
ACTS 12:5 - So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. (NIV)
I do remember certain times in history when 'Christianity' was just as intolerant, but I'm sure you'll hear enough of that from the lefties if they show up here.
ReplyDeleteOriginally, ‘martyr’ meant ‘witness’, but in time Christians have come to use the word exclusively to refer to those who witness of Christ through their death. Martyrdom is a powerful witness; to give your life for a cause is to give everything, and in its early years martyrs showed that Christianity was literally a faith worth dying for. I'm never really sure if I myself could be that kind of hero. I hope I could. In the third century Tertullian said ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church’.
During the recent past, the Iraq operation has captured the minds and resources of the media. Dead and injured by the war appear (the newest stat I could find) to approximate less than 5,000 persons . In the same period, Christians have continued to be slaughtered, at the rate of about 13,000 per month. This modern day martyrdom continues to be ignored by the secular press and, inexcusably, by most of the religious news rags as well.
In addition to the 165,000 Christians slaughtered annually, 80,000 "unborn babies" are killed in each year . They ignore that too. Abdul Rahman is in good company.
Martyrs( even the misguided and the vicious) are a sign that something vital, something that cannot be surrendered, is at stake.
Well, all I can say is, "I sure hope I have the same spiritual fortitude as this guy if I'm ever confronted with similar circumstances."
ReplyDeleteI think of the passage in Hebrews that states, "...the world was not worthy of them."
We have it easy here in America.