What can you learn from those who paid the ultimate price for their faith? How could you use more of the faith that they demonstrated in their deaths?
For many ages now, the people of God have been asking, “how long?” This question suggests a longing, a longing for the Lord to set things straight.
John wondered at the thought that there would be a time in the future when a group identifying as Christian would put others to death for having faith in Christ.
In the tribulation, there will be many who will love “not their lives unto the death.” Their love for the Saviour will surpass their love for life itself.
The Bible has been unjustly criticized for stating that believers living in Daniel’s Seventieth Week could be “beheaded for the witness of Jesus.”
A martyr is one who is killed for his faith. Only two individuals are specifically named as martyrs in scripture: Stephen and Antipas.
Mankind’s list of rules for pleasing God has become increasingly invasive upon the lives of those affected by such man-made decrees. Yet, the reality is that God most desires for man to trust Him in the present (through faith) as well as in the future (through hope). The Lord is well pleased when an individual chooses to place all of his hopes solely upon the Lord and upon His word. Simply put, man was created for only one purpose—to please the One who brought him into this world in the first place (Revelation 4:11). This single purpose is impossible to fulfil without faith (Hebrews 11:6) and hope in the Lord (Psalm 147:11). The Lord promised that He would one day return for His church. Placing all of one’s faith and hope upon that promise (of the Lord’s return) demonstrates an unfailing love for the Lord!
One day, the world’s hope will come to an abrupt end. Although the world (apart from Christ) derives its hope from several sources, their common ground revolves around the fact that their hope is not in God. The Bible points to the results: “the hypocrite’s hope shall perish” (Job 8:13), “all that forget God” (Job 8:13) will see their hope “cut off” (Job 8:14), and the hope of the wicked “shall be as the giving up of the ghost” (Job 11:20). Unfortunately, the world can only focus upon the here and now. They judge everything by how things are presently taking place. If they gain (riches, health, material goods, promotions), they assume that they have hope, yet they fail to see that there will be no hope when God brings judgment upon their souls (Job 27:8).
