And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.
Revelation 12:11
With this Gem I am changing our focus and looking at the stories of some chosen martyrs in detail, up close and personal. You will notice, I’m sure, that in the previous Gem I took a bird’s eye view of the general situation and chose a broad perspective, giving you the facts and figures. Now we draw close to look at some key martyrs which illustrate something profound in order to answer the questions that a number of you still have.
- How could God allow His two witnesses to die such an ignominious and disrespectful death?
- Why is it that God works miracles for some and not for others?
- How can God say He will not allow harm to come to the two witnesses but then allow them to be killed in the manner they were?
I have told you a new feature is being added to this website to contain the 124 God Stories that I told on Radio Rhema from April 1999 to April 2002. The theme of the stories back then was “What on Earth is God Doing?” An update of what was happening in the world of the Mission Organisations. Most of the stories were accounts of God’s intervention in the form of miracles, healings, divine protection and remarkable salvation stories. In short ‘God at work’. Sometimes they were confronting for the very reason Revelation 12:11 is confronting. Why does God act in one situation but not in another? How can God say “nothing will harm them”, when He then allows the beast to “take them out”?
Those Rhema Stories are now available on this website. You can browse them whenever you like. You can go through reading one a day; alternatively you can binge read them all in a day. I have been mightily blessed as I have prepared these stories for publishing on the website. Actually, I have had an uncanny sense of God’s timing as I have read through these timeless stories. So I decided to choose some of them to include as martyr testimonies. Now I have the option of just giving you a God story to illustrate something I want to highlight, a little like I do with my own testimony of God’s intervention.
There are a number of martyr stories among the “Rhema” stories. I have selected some like that of Perpetua and Felicia which I read in The New Book of Christian Martyrs by Moore and Pattengale to add as though they are new Rhema Stories, but in reality they are God Stories. I was aware of the Perpetua story before buying this new book. But I must admit that seeing this book has been very timely. I read through it over this last fortnight or so and discovered some amazing accounts of the bravery of many Christian martyrs. But also what struck me is the outrageous violence and savagery with which acts of martyrdom have been perpetrated on innocent people. It dawned on me that this is a consequence of the devil overplaying his hand of exacting vengeance on the children of the woman with his declaration of war against the rest of her children. (Rev 12:4) The description of the dragon wagging his tail and sweeping a third of the stars (angels) from the sky and casting them down to earth is telling. Oh yes, the wrathful anger of a defeated devil is showing forth in satanic vengeance.
God Story 125 Perpetua & Felicia
It appears even the blood-thirsty Roman populace couldn’t bear the sight of two woman who had just given birth being cast naked into the arena to face wild beasts. Only to eventually be put out of their misery by a gladiator’s sword. Yet Perpetua and Felicia denied them the delight of seeing these two Christian women cowering in the face of death; rather they ran joyfully toward the wild animals. I am sure that must have shocked the Roman audience. It is said that Emperor Septimius Severus found that thought distasteful and begged the women to rethink and recant their Christian principles. Were his values conflicted by their actions?
In the time of the Reformers leading to the Reformation, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale and others, things were stirring for the English speaking populace across the country. Reading the Bible in anything other than Hebrew, Greek or Latin was forbidden. But yet again two women took a stand in different parts of the countryside.
In Chippen Sudburne
A pious woman was burnt at Chippen Sudburne in 1510 by order of the chancellor, Dr Whittenham, for teaching her children the Lord’s prayer and other portions of Scripture. After she was consumed by the flames and the onlookers had gone home, a bull broke loose from behind the butcher’s shop and singled out the chancellor from among those who remained and gored him through, carrying his entrails on its horns. This was witnessed by all the people who had remained behind. The story spread far and wide that it was remarkable the animal hadn’t touched any other person at all.
In Coventry
On April 4th 1519 a woman was burned at the stake in Little Park, Coventry. Why? For daring to teach her children The Lord’s Prayer and The Ten Commandments. Her main crime was that she taught them in English! It was allowable to read the Bible and study it in Latin or in Greek, but not in the common tongue. This crime was so heinous in the eyes of the established church that her children were forced to watch their mother burn to death so they would know not to repeat her crime. This was the climate surrounding the English Bible back in the 1500s.
This is how you got your English Bible! It cost something. It is still costing something. We, in Wycliffe, have many stories of the price people pay in these days to get the Word of God into the language of the people.
What follows are a series of connected stories related to persecution in an Asian country. Names have been changed to protect those still living, but the names of those who lost their lives as martyrs have stayed factual. I have come up with the substitute names of Marty and Martini as the fictitious names of living participants. [Martyrs named Marty and Martini; get it?]
God Story 26 Persecuted Believers in Asia
[This above series runs from 26 to 31. But all are conveniently linked for you.]God Story 78 Faith That Couldn’t be Crushed
God Story 123 I Will Not Defile His Word
I want to tell you one more true story that was shared with me.
[I want to check something first before I post this to the God Stories. The website only went live on God Stories yesterday.]“We had a pastor who came to work in a particular neighbourhood to start a church among Shiite Muslims. He knew very clearly that the Lord said go to this neighbourhood and take his family and start a church. He went and a few days after he arrived, the doorbell rang and he went out to the gate to open the door. Three masked men put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger and murdered him that day.
Not long after, God spoke to another man of God, a pastor, and said to him, “I want you to take that murdered man’s place. I want you to take your family and go to that same place, that same neighbourhood and I want you to plant my church among the Shiite Muslims there.” That Christ follower willingly obeyed the Lord’s instruction, took his family and moved into that same flat where that pastor had been. Not long after he moved in, there was a ring at the doorbell at the gate outside. He went out to the gate and three masked men were at the gate. They put a hood over his head and threw him into the back of a car. He said that he rode for a long time in the trunk of that vehicle not knowing where he was going. The vehicle came to a stop and they lifted the lid and pulled him out of the car. He was still masked and they walked him up some steps and he heard a door open. They stepped inside and the masked men took the hood off the pastor’s head.
He looked around the room, it was a giant room, in which he saw 900 men sitting around the room – 900 Shiite Muslim men. At that point the pastor thought “Oh my, they are going to publicly execute me.” One of the masked men, who had kidnapped the pastor, looked at him and said “Sir, we did not mean to frighten you but do you remember that man who lived in that home before you did?
“Of course”, the pastor said. “Yes, I do.”
Then the man said “Well, I am the one who pulled the trigger. The three of us are the ones that murdered him. The night that we killed him, do you see the men in this room?”
He said “Yes”.
“Well”, the man said, “the night that we killed him, every single one of us in this room had the same dream. We dreamt that the blood of that man was on our hands but that God in his mercy would send someone in his place who could tell us how to get the blood off our hands. Are you that man?”
That night the pastor had the blessed opportunity to share the gospel with 900 Shiite Muslim men who had the same dream on the same night. That night we were told that all 900 of those men choose to follow Jesus the Messiah. We heard later that their entire families, their wives and children, came to know Jesus Christ and follow him as well.
It may surprise you to know that according to the latest statistics Christianity is growing the fastest in the most remarkable places. 25% of all Christians worldwide currently come from the African continent; soon they will account for 40%. The church is growing the fastest in the hardest countries, namely Iran (#1) and China (#2). Why is that? I will tell you in the next Gem.
Now for the quotes for this Gem: based on the martyrs’ testimonies mentioned in this Gem.
Neither can I be called anything other than what I am, a Christian.
Perpetua, Carthage, 203 AD
No, I will not stop teaching my children God’s word in the language they understand the best.
Two nameless mothers, England, 1510 – 1519
Jesus is LORD, His Word is pure, I will not defile it.
Chai Shimei, China
We should all be ready for martyrdom. Am I willing to die for my faith when a statement has been made I can’t go along with?
Greg Pagalia
We had a burden to gather clothes, food, and medicine for the Muslims from the source village of those who killed our brothers. They are now isolated, they cannot bring their produce to market, and are suffering. Perhaps this is our opportunity to show the love of Christ for them.
Pastor Marty* (Name changed for security reasons)
Yes, I am the man who can tell you how to get the blood off your hands.
Iranian Pastor