Foxe's Paper

This is my second time reading Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. I read the book a little while back in a discipleship group with some of my friends in 6^th grade. Reading the book this time, basically impacted me in the same way as it did when I read it in 6^th grade. The book in its entirety is so encouraging, seeing people stand for their faith until all they could do is kneel. These Christians preached God’s name through their lives, all the way unto death. At the same time, this book is also extremely convicting. I almost hate to say this, but we, as Americans (and understand that I am not labeling everybody, but those that claim to be Christians and are not following through with their walk), have fallen into a lukewarm state of being, in that we will acknowledge God’s existence and his presence in our life but few will legitimately walk with God daily. Christianity has been skewed in America and only holds the label of a religion. The majority of “Christians” in the United States see Christianity as a religion, and not as it should be, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Not that I am wishing martyrdom upon us, but I believe that the lack of this has lead us to a self-seeking Christianity. It’s not about what we can do for God anymore, but rather, what God can do for us. Now I said that I wasn’t wishing anything upon us, but I have prayed for it. If we suffered the same kinds of persecution as the Christians in this book, I can guarantee you that this country would not claim “Christianity” as freely as it does. People are backing down from their “faith” at work because others are voicing their opinions about how ignorant their beliefs are. Do you really think that these “Christians” would hold fast while being boiled in oil or thrown into a red hot chair? No! Christianity would become a joke to those persecutors who are trying to diminish the Good News of Jesus Christ. I have to constantly keep myself in check. It’s so easy to say “I’m not going to back down, I will stand.” It’s hard enough when it’s your life on the line, but the minute you’re strapped to a wall and forced to watch your 2 daughters raped and murdered, would you stand?

In this book, there is a story of a girl who was sat down and forced to watch her parents executed for their faith, and she was unharmed. She kept the faith of her father and held fast to Jesus Christ, knowing that one day, she would be reunited with her family in heaven. There are stories in this book of loved ones being tortured because one person would not deny Jesus as their Savior. A woman was asked recently what she looked for in a man in regards to marriage. She said that she wanted a man who loves Jesus more than he loves her. If you were married, could you sit by and watch your wife be brutally tortured and still say, “I will not back down?” Is Christ really worth dying for? He thought we were. God sent His son to be ferociously beaten and forced to carry his cross on which he would be crucified so that one day, we could be with him in paradise. If we are worth dying for, how much more is the life of Christ worth? The very least we can give to him is our life. He deserves it.

Dying for the faith is not by any means all there is to do in Christianity. It was St. Francis of Assisi who said “Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.” There is such a lack of the gospel being preached in and outside of the church today that it is absolutely no wonder why we, “the church” are not being persecuted for the sake of the gospel. Americans are so tolerant of everything as long as it doesn’t take us away from our daily routine of comfort. If we called out, not only Americans, but the Church as well, I can guarantee a spark to a revolution. Weather good or bad, the movement of the faith would be so much better than the Dead Sea it is right now.

Christianity has lost its meaning in the American culture. To the typical American, Christianity is just a religion in that you attend a church semi-annually and you live your life the best you can and maybe Jesus will bless you for it at the end of it all. And that’s assuming that the first person you talk to on the street is not a “Christian!” There are so many who say that they believe in Christ and follow him, but really have no idea what that means. This is part of the reason people stop attending churches. “There’s too much hypocrisy in the church.” That’s partially because most of the people attending the church aren’t actually listening to what is being taught from behind the pulpit. This is also assuming that the actual word of God is being taught. Christianity is not about the “Christian.” This may shock some people, but we are not Christian’s for our sake, but for the glory of God. But I’m not going to lie, the benefit of not going to hell is amazing! Our lives are lived to glorify God and that is what we will do as Christians. Our faith in God has nothing to do with the way we feel about ourselves. Psychology is creeping into the church and saying “God loves you, and God wants you to love you too!” We as humans have no problem loving ourselves. We’ve been doing it forever! Our self esteem has nothing to do with our relationship with Christ. I, however, am not referring to those who struggle with depression, there are people with genuine needs in this world and God has given us the knowledge to help those with these needs. Beside this, there are also false teachers out there who are saying that because we don’t have enough faith, this is why hardships come to us. Try telling that to every person mentioned in this book. Their faith is Christ, I am not scared to say, has surpassed mine radically! By God’s grace I will have a faith like those in this book. It doesn’t matter how much you dislike yourself. To him who hates his life will gain it in heaven, and him who loves his life will lose it. How much money you make, how many friends and connections you have, how white your teeth are, none of it matters if you’re not living your life to glorify Jesus Christ. So many churches need to be confronted and blatantly told, “You are not teaching the words of God but of man.” It’s not about what everybody wants to hear, but rather what they need to hear. And that which they need to hear is the gospel of Jesus Christ. God, in His glory, sent His Son, Jesus the Christ to lower himself to and walk among men that we may believe in Him. He would then die on a cross for the sake of our sins and 3 days later, conquer death by rising from it.

I always hear people say that it was our sin that held Jesus to the cross. And as profound as that statement is, it’s wrong. Jesus hung on that cross because of his love for us. We betrayed the Son of man with a kiss, yet he still hung on a cross for our lives. He could’ve, with one word called down angels from heaven and condemned us to hell for our wickedness. But he forgave us because we did not know what we were doing. It is because of His love that Jesus stayed hanging on that cross. His love is the reason we will be called to heaven to be in communion with the Father. Our sin is what separated us from God. That, my friend, is the gospel. This is what needs to be preached to the people who come to church expecting encouragement because they sinned but they know God will forgive them, so they continue in living their life in wickedness. Without Christ, we are damned to hell for eternity to suffer for our sins that have separated us from God. It is better to have a moment of pain and come before God in His presence than to live a life of bliss and suffer an eternity of torment.

The world we live in today is consumed with narcissism that without persecution, we will remain stagnate and asleep. I’m not going to say that the time has now come, because the time has been here time for quite a while now. We’ve passed so many opportunities and have been sleeping through our alarm clocks for so long now. Stop lagging. Pull your fat out of bed and face the world. I know it sounds lame, but who are we to say what is lame when we have trees growing from our eyes? Preach the gospel until the point of death.

This paper has been convicting for me. I know that I have been tolerant of so many things. There are areas in my life that I know have become stagnate. I’ve been in so many situations where the gospel could have been preached, and the people I was around had enough of a respect for me that they would have listened. I’ve let so much get by. My tolerance for the things of this world is almost disgusting. I am a Christian. I should live like one. But if you were to ask me, “Of coarse I’d give my life for Christ! Of Coarse I would preach the good news of God our Father to my end!” Would I?

What is it that motivates me to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ? I can tell you that it should be the fact that every person who does not accept Christ is going to hell and burning for all eternity. I would never wish this judgment on anybody, but am I doing anything to stop it? Sometimes I get caught up in the mindset that I need to be on some sort of “mission trip” to express God’s love towards every one that is lost. I’ve prayed at times for God to give me an opportunity to share His love with a person who is lost. The bible says that God will give us the desires of our heart if they are in his will. So either I am insincere in my request that I am making known to God, or I’ve been passing every opportunity that He’s given me.

We have no idea what God can do through us if we obey him and hold fast to his word. God will have his way in the hearts of men. Who are we to say who can and cannot be saved by God’s redemptive grace? Live fully unto God and He will use us in ways that we could have never imagined. Tying into this is a story of 2 brothers named Fausines and Jovita, who were tortured together. Their patience in the midst of their suffering served as such a witness to one man named Calocerius that he cried out in astonishment “Great is the God of the Christians!” After this claim, Calocerius was immediately put to the same tortures as the 2 men. God used these men’s attitudes to dramatically change the heart of another man. These 2 men didn’t even have to speak. If we give God our hearts, He will use them. After reading this, I was almost as struck with admiration as the man who was torturing the 2. These men knew what they were getting themselves into, but more importantly, they knew God.

The stories of these valiant men and women have all been fairly recent, but by no means is persecution a new thing. Persecution for our faith in God has been going on since before the life of Jesus Christ. Noah was mocked for building an ark to take every animal on the earth, because something called rain was going to poor down from heaven and cover the earth. Even Job was persecuted for his faithfulness in God. Satan was given permission to completely destroy everything in Job’s life. His land, his cattle and his family were suddenly taken from him because of his faithfulness in God. Before he had lost his wife, she came to him and said curse God and die. His friends told him he was receiving all this as a punishment for some wrong that he did, when in reality, his faithfulness is what brought him to this in the first place. And God blessed him.

After the resurrection of Christ, the persecution of his followers became even more widespread. Stephan, a disciple of Christ was the first to be killed for his faith in Jesus Christ. He was stoned outside of a city and prayed to God saying “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit… do not charge them with this sin” and he fell asleep. After this, the apostles of Jesus were all maligned and ravaged for the sake of the gospel and the majority was killed because of their faith.

Martyrdom through out the coarse of history has proven and made confident the faith of those others in the Lord. So many attempts have been made to relinquish the flame of Christianity. But God is Sovereign. The flames grow higher and stronger with every body.

Suffering for the sake of Jesus Christ, I believe, is not something we as Americans, can completely understand. One Christian in the midst of persecution stated that suffering had renewed his youth. We don’t actually want the pain of following Jesus Christ, but to an extent, it is necessary for our faith to continually burn bright. One man in the midst of suffering said “We would like an easing of our conditions but not full ceasing of the oppression. We fear that liberty would make us loose the burning love of Christ Jesus.” And to an extent, I believe our liberty has lead to the dwindling of our flame. Our faith in Christ is not pushed or tested in America, at least not in the way of persecution. If we were in constant persecution, I do believe that not only our faith would be stronger, but running and spreading life to everyone it comes in contact with. It’s a struggle in itself to hold fast to the faith when everything is so easy. We have the temptation of believing that we are where we are because of us. We worked for it, so we deserve everything that we have truly been blessed with. “God is here, but it is because of me that my life is so good.” If you fall into this mind set in any part of your life, get out of it right away. It’s dangerous to believe a lie like that. It is only because our God, only because of his love for us that we have that next breathe in our lungs. God’s love is the only thing that keeps us alive.

We have done nothing, we are nothing. Apart from Christ, our lives are meaningless. Christ has done everything for us, and we have done, if anything, little for him. There is no question of what God can do for us. Our lives are about what we can do for God. He is our only reason for life, and because He sent His Son, He is our only reason for death. “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lords.” –Romans 14:8

On Luther’s death bed, he prayed a prayer unto God. “My heavenly Father, eternal and merciful God, you have manifested unto me your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I have taught about him, I have known him, I love him as my life, my health, and my redemption. The wicked have persecuted, maligned, and afflicted him whom I love. Draw my soul to you…

…I commend my spirit in your hands, you have redeemed me, O God of truth.”

By God’s grace, I will say the same in my final hour.