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The other day I was listening to a radio talk show (conservative) and the host asked the listening audience, "What would you do if you were forced to convert to Islam at the point of a gun?" One caller, claiming to be a Christian, said "If it were me, I'd probably convert." Another caller insisted that she would never convert, even with a gun to her head or a knife pressed against her throat. The host was quick to point out that while the Apostle Peter stood warming his hands by an open fire he was asked if he knew Jesus and he denied knowing him three times. Peter was one of Jesus's followers, he saw His miracles, and still he was afraid to admit that he knew Jesus! In the host's way of thinking it's understandable, even acceptable, for a terrified Christian to deny Christ.
But what about all the Christian martyrs we read about in the history books, the ones who were marched into a den of hungry lions to be eaten alive, or covered in pitch and used as human torches to light the streets of Rome? Certainly they were terrified by the prospect of the pain they'd have to suffer for refusing to renounce their belief in Christ. The Apostle Paul had his head separated from his body with a sword. (The guillotine wasn't invented until the French Revolution.) Think he wasn't a tad nervous? Legend has it that Peter was crucified with his head downward because he declared himself unworthy to die in the same manner as the Lord. Joan of Ark was burnt at the stake. Her response was to repeatedly call out the name of Jesus while the flames lapped at her feet!
In the old days, Christians chose death over renouncing their faith in Christ. Yet modern Christians should do whatever it takes to skirt death? And this would include "temporarily" converting to another religion!
Not all Christians are worried about the here and now; they're more concerned with pleasing God. As I write this piece, Christians around the globe are being tortured, mutilated and murdered for refusing to renounce their faith. They are the real martyrs.
Christian martyrs are different from Japanese kamikaze pilots that flew planes into ships or Islamic jihadists who fly planes into buildings. They all chose when and how they will die. Today's Christian martyrs are not given that option. Their lives are snuffed out by Christ-haters, not for any crime they've committed, only because they bear the Name of Jesus Christ. Case in point: In 2005 on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi 3 teenaged girls, all Christians, "were savagely attacked with machetes as they walked across a cocoa plantation on their way to the private Christian school they attended. Their heads were found some distance from the bodies, the head of one girl discarded mockingly in front of a Christian church." [1]
Contrast Christian martyrdom with Muslim martyrdom. Islam rewards those who are willing to die for their god, "Allah." The Islamofacists believe that those who murder the infidels, burn their cities, hijack airplanes to fly them into buildings, butcher innocent women and children, and generally terrorize people, will spend their eternity in Paradise. They expect to be rewarded for their violence with 72 virgins who await them at the gate and offer them a bottle of French wine. (Evidently there are vineyards in Paradise.) Men and women are willing to strap bombs to their bodies and blow themselves to kingdom come so that they will receive their rewards in heaven, sooner than later. Many jihadists are conditioned from childhood to become killing machines. In Palestinian textbooks there's an officially sanctioned message for 11 and 12-year-old kids: "The noble soul has two goals: death and the desire for it." [2] Muslim Children are being prepared for jihad practically from birth! Albeit their reasoning is warped, these people go willingly to their deaths, taking innocents with them to the grave. They do it because of what they believe in, i.e. suicide and murder are normal and martyrdom is the highest achievement a Muslim can aspire to. Martyrs do not anticipate "Allah" meeting them when they enter heaven; they expect a host of young women who will service them to their hearts content.
Continued...
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