Martyrs

	<Commanded to Preach>

Boin Romania 1964

The day the Adventist pastor Boin of Ploiesti was released from prison, a Communist officer asked him, "What will you do now?"
Boin replied, "I will begin my Christian work, with or without your permission, exactly where I left off when you arrested me."
He kept his word and eventually appeared before the court again.  The Communist judge asked him, "Do you regret having preached illegally?"
"Why do you have stupid laws that forbid what is pleasing to the Lord?  If you apply them, God will punish you here and in eternity."
"You were not allowed by us to preach."
"God not only allowed me to preach, but commanded me to do so.   Read the order yourself in the Bible.  You will find it in Matthew 28:19,20."
He was sentenced to eight years in prison.  He already had three years of jail behind him.

Such fearlessness is an excellent food for souls.  As we look at these examples of courage and upon Jesus Christ who inspired them, we too are changed into a new breed of Christians.---adapted from Jesus Freaks.

Martyr (Greek word for "witness").

1.) One who chooses to suffer death rather than to deny Jesus Christ or His work.

2.) One who bears testimony to the truth of what he has seen or heard or knows, as in a witness in a court of justice.

3.) One who sacrifices something very important to further the kingdom of God.

4.) One who endures severe or constant suffering for their Christian witness.

5.) A Jesus Freak.

IT IS SAID THAT THERE ARE MORE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS TODAY THAN THERE WERE IN 100 AD - IN THE DAYS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
ACCORDING TO A STUDY DONE AT REGENT UNIVERSITY, THERE WERE CLOSE TO 164,000 CHRISTIAN MARTYRED AROUND THE WORLD IN 1999.
AN ESTIMATED 165,000 WILL BE MARTYRED IN 2 000.---
(Ibid p.15).

How to witness for Jesus Christ
Is it the best winning smile?  Should we study how to make friends and influence people?  What does the Bible say?  How did the apostles witness?
"We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Acts 4:20

Silence, although a virtue, can be criminal especially so when eternal interests are at stake.  In times of spiritual peril God's men speak out.
Consider the prophets and apostles.  Ambiguity and equivocation could never be charged to them.  They stated their message with singular clarity, force, and conviction.  What they had to say, they said, and men understood what they said.

They were understood so well that many suffered martyrdom.  Pleasing platitudes, vague generalizations, and meaningless statements were not the causes of their death.  John the Baptist, Stephen, James, Paul, and Peter lost their lives because their Christian testimony was clear, lucid, and explicit.  
Unpopular, striking at the root and sinful attitudes and practices, their message never diluted the call to repentance and obedience.  God's love and justice were presented as interlocking truths, and the sinner understood that the two could not exist apart from each other.
At the day of Pentecost the apostle Paul left no one in doubt. His message was and is still today: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

Let GOD speak

          Every Minister possessing the spirit of JESUS is fitted to speak to GOD'S people in His name.  Before entering the Pulpit, he waits patiently in GOD'S presence to receive His blessing and instructions.  In his preaching he will not flounder for want of something to say, nor will he feel he is there to entertain his congregation.  Pity the poor preacher who must intersperse his sermons with silly witticism to hold his audience, like a food vendor dashing on spices to cover up the smell of stale meat.
         Humorous sermons in the pulpit, laughter in the congregation / neutralize all spiritual gains and bring on a lukewarm condition.  Whimsical words, the idle joke, facetious remarks, cheap anecdotes make worldlings to laugh, angels to weep / spoil our worship by striking the wrong note.

Sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu put their incense on common fire.  Pity the man who came to the banquet smugly clothed in common attire.  When you stand to speak in GOD'S name, and His people are waiting to hear, know that holy watchers are present - choose your words with trembling and fear.

           A noticeable trend among us has been the one - sided emphasis on justification to the neglect of sanctification.  Coming to CHRIST for forgiveness is made the sum total of the message of CHRIST our righteousness.  All people want, it appears, is His imputed and not His imparted righteousness.  For more on sanctification, see www.come2jesus.info/sanctification.htm

Note: Roman Catholicism, given half the chance,
would repeat her former evil works to anyone
who refuses to accept her idolatries!

In the 1200's a Waldensian prisoner testified before the Inquisition as follows:  "Barbara von Thies testified... that on the last Saint Michael's day concerning confession as it is administered by the priests she has nothing to do with it.  As to that which has to do with the Virgin Mary, on that she has nothing to answer.  Concerning Sunday and the feast days she says, 'The Lord God commanded us to rest on the seventh day and with that I let it be, with God's help and His grace, we all would stand by and die in the faith, for it is the right faith and the right way to Christ.' "  Der Blutige Schau-Plats, Oder Martyrer Spiegel der Taufs Gesinnien, book 2, pp. 30-31.

Isn't ironic, that all apologetic websites do not list Roman Catholicism under heretics, yet those who would teach truth and expose heresies, they list under cults.

CHRIST was vehemently accused by men holding the highest offices in the church.  The people chosen by GOD to be the light of the world stood under the banner of Satan, and reviled and oppressed their long-expected Messiah.  Their wicked deeds testified more loudly against them than did the mark of Cain.

From the record of CHRIST'S trial we may see to what pass those come who have perverted ideas of what constitutes godliness, and who allow their passions and prejudices to rule.  When men are inspired by Satan with false religious zeal, they have no sense of what true piety means.

The religion of the churches of today is of a kind that should make every true follower of GOD afraid.  The religious character of professed Christians makes them act like Demons.  "We have a Law," they say, "And by our law He ought to die." [John 19:7].  The Christian churches also have a Law, the papal Sun-day Law, which will very soon be implemented again to become the "Mark of the Beast 666" [Revelation 13] by which they impose the death penalty.

First, it will be the economic boycott of not allowing to buy and sell the necessities of life with bribes and inducements.  And when that does not succeed, the death penalty.

The servant is not above his master. The Prince of heaven was called Beelzebub, and His disciples will be misrepresented in like manner. But whatever the danger, Christ's followers must avow their principles. They should scorn concealment. They cannot remain uncommitted until assured of safety in confessing the truth.

They are set as watchmen, to warn men of their peril. The truth received from Christ must be imparted to all, freely and openly. Jesus said, "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops."

Jesus Himself never purchased peace by compromise. His heart overflowed with love for the whole human race, but He was never indulgent to their sins. He was too much their friend to remain silent while they were pursuing a course that would ruin their souls,--the souls He had purchased with His own blood. He labored that man should be true to himself, true to his higher and eternal interest.

The servants of Christ are called to the same work, and they should beware lest, in seeking to prevent discord, they surrender the truth. They are to "follow after the things which make for peace" (Rom. 14:19); but real peace can never be secured by compromising principle.

And no man can be true to principle without exciting opposition. A Christianity that is spiritual will be opposed by the children of disobedience. But Jesus bade His disciples, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." Those who are true to God need not fear the power of men nor the enmity of Satan. In Christ their eternal life is secure. Their only fear should be lest they surrender the truth, and thus betray the trust with which God has honored them.

He who would confess Christ must have Christ abiding in him. He cannot communicate that which he has not received. The disciples might speak fluently on doctrines, they might repeat the words of Christ Himself; but unless they possessed Christlike meekness and love, they were not confessing Him. A spirit contrary to the spirit of Christ would deny Him, whatever the profession.

Men may deny Christ by evilspeaking, by foolish talking, by words that are untruthful or unkind. They may deny Him by shunning life's burdens, by the pursuit of sinful pleasure. They may deny Him by conforming to the world, by uncourteous behavior, by the love of their own opinions, by justifying self, by cherishing doubt, borrowing trouble, and dwelling in darkness. In all these ways they declare that Christ is not in them. And "whosoever shall deny Me before men," He says, "him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven."

The Saviour bade His disciples not to hope that the world's enmity to the gospel would be overcome, and that after a time its opposition would cease. He said, "I came not to send peace, but a sword." This creating of strife is not the effect of the gospel, but the result of opposition to it.

 

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