I was listening to a sermon by
Jeffrey Rosario, one of my favorite preachers. He was speaking on why a person
would die for their beliefs. He spoke about the men who were tortured and
burned to death during the Dark Ages. To save themselves, all they had to do
was say they were wrong about what they believed and say the Mother Church was
right.
Why did they think the different
beliefs they held were worth dying for? Jeffrey said a beautiful thing. He said
they weren’t dying for a belief; they were dying for a person. Their beliefs
weren’t a thing, they were a person. I love that.
Some things Christians disagree about
are not very important. But when it comes to who God is, that is important. God
is the only God, he is worthy of our praise and worship.
“For I am God, and there
is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.” Isaiah 46:9
The early Christians
were told to worship the Emperor of Rome or die. Some chose to die. In the Dark
Ages, Christians were told to accept the Roman Christian Church, and if they
didn’t they would die. Some chose to die. They could not say they agreed with
what the church was teaching about God.
When I was in
university, a guest professor came into our class. Someone asked him why
Christians would die for their faith. He said he thought they were like suicide
bombers and no one could understand them.
“They were nothing like
that!” I said.
He asked me what they
were like then. I said, “If a German during WWII didn’t want to become a Nazi,
wasn’t that worth dying for?
He said there were some
Germans who did that. Then he looked at my professor in exasperation and she
said the discussion was over. I wish I had thought of something better to say
than what I did, but it all happened so quickly.
Many Christians have
been killed by ISIS because they would not renounce their belief in Jesus. They
are being killed in the Sudan and many other countries. One day, persecution
will come to the West. One day there will be religious people who will want to
arrest and kill those who disagree with their concept of who God is.
But we need not be
concerned; if we stick close to God through faith and prayer, he will give us
the strength at the right time to stand with him. Jesus told us not to even worry about what to say, for the Holy Spirit would give us the words.
