Are we losing the concept of mayrters?

Excerpted from the American heritage Dictionary:

mar·tyr n.

1. One who chooses to suffer death rather than renounce religious principles.

2. One who makes great sacrifices or suffers much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle.
3.
a. One who endures great suffering: a martyr to arthritis.
b. One who makes a great show of suffering in order to arouse sympathy.

Notice that the classical definition does not include dying while killing others or committing a crime...

The terrorists are _NOT_ Martyrs...

They're suicidal psychopaths who are using religion to mask their insanity.

But, I am forced to agree that our tendency to rationalize will cause many to foget:

Mark 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

And, that denying Christ, even at Sword Point, is a form of being ashamed...

Might as well...

1 Samuel 4:9 Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.

They'll probably kill you anyway...

And, you really don't want to die having just denied Christ, do you?

Mike Sr.

 

Hmmmmm

I hadn't thought much about that...

That's a good thing to seriously consider...

I have an un-nameable relative who is called to Evangelize the Muslims...

This person has already been 'asked to leave' one Muslim Country...

So, in the one sense no we aren't forgetting the 'people'...

But, on the other hand the actual pyschopaths are, IMHO, too far gone to approach...

At least not unless God has called you to be a Martyr...

Also, one should not consider doing such a thing without God's Divine Call...

Because when you are captured and your death is threatened by the Terrorists, people, who may not be believers, will try to rescue you and may die in the process...

Mike Sr.

 

SMM, just a reminder, you are in a Baptist only forum here.

 

Uncharted,

remember, there are people going into those countries in order to evangelize. But out of necessity we do not hear much, if anything, of them.


Also, have any of you heard of H.E.L.P. Ministries? We had some representatives from this ministry at our church yesterday. They are very active in areas that around here are called the "10-40 window".

 

There are more Martyrs today than ever in history.You just may not be in touch. A good way to keep abreast is to read "Voice of the Martyrs",just type that in your search window and hit find.

 

Bill is right here. Someone wrote a big, thick book on the pattern of Foxe's Book of Martyrs about those killed for the cause of Christ in the 20th centruy, but I never bought it and can't remember the title.

 

We are not told of all the martyrs. Some estimates say more Christians have died in the last one hundred years for their faith than all the time before then. It's hard to get reports from people working in closed countries. Most countries don't openly document those things.

Personally I think we all should be willing to die for Christ, to suffer persecution. But it is one thing to die for Christ, I think it may take more to live for Christ and die to self every day.