By Dr. Taylor Marshall
Nero did not understand it. Diocletian did not understand it.
God’s greatest love is unleashed into creation through martyrdom.
When
a believer in Jesus Christ surrenders his life in death for witness of
Christ, suddenly and immediately the power of the crucified Lord enters
into the world.
Two
“citizens” of the Islamic State beheaded the 86-year-old priest Father
Jacques Hamel. Like Nero and Diocletian, the Islamic State does not
comprehend the power they are fighting.
Rome
molested the Church. And Rome was overcome through martyrdom. Islam has
been molesting Christianity for 1,400 years. And Islam will be defeated
through martyrdom. It’s easy to day, but the difficult questions are
these:
- Do I believe that God would give me the grace to die as faithfully as a martyr?
- Would I be willing for my children to demonstrate the witness of a martyr in the future?
- Would I rejoice to be a martyr as so many thousands of martyrs have in previous centuries?
It
is helpful to remember that from AD 60 till AD 313, receiving
sacramental baptism meant that you were enrolled for martyrdom. Every
parish and every diocese on the planet during those years could name
martyrs from their midst. Every Christian community possessed martyrs:
Jerusalem, Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, Lyons, etc.
Martyrdom was so common that Christianity underwent a crisis of identity after Constantine legalized Christianity: Can Christians truly be Christian without the reality of impending martyrdom?
The
monastic revolution of the 4th and 5th centuries was a response to this
identity crisis – the monastics sought to regain the danger and
asceticism of carrying the cross.
For
me personally, this is a moment of personal crisis. I wrote books about
Christ. I record podcasts and videos about Christ. I talk about Christ
frequently. But am I ready for this to happen to me:
…two
Islamic State knifemen who cut the priest’s throat after bursting into a
French church and taking nuns and worshippers hostage before being shot
dead by police.
Question: What about you? Do you feel ready? What if it comes to this in the West?
Father Jacques Hamel, pray for us.
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