Ask yourself now and again after reading and considering their stories:

Did these men know Jesus?

Did they witness and perform miracles including the raising of the 

dead?

Did the believe Christ was the Son of God (God Incarnate as a Man)?

 

All except two of the original apostles gave their lives to spread the Good News of Christ’s sacrifice and teachings, and to share the miracles they had witnessed. Nonbelievers cannot seem to grasp the significance of this. 

     

Christianity did not spread across seven continents in a vacuum. The apostles didn’t travel the known world, giving their lives to spout dogma. Such thinking should be absurdity to all reasonable women and men. Yet hundreds of thousands were martyred, and Christianity became the world’s largest religion, while many continue to view Jesus as some sort of philosopher. 

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The apostle Peter was crucified upside down by the Romans. They were going to do it the regular way, but he begged them to do something different because he felt unworthy of suffering the exact fate of Jesus. 

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Bartholomew was whipped mercilessly and skinned alive. Let me reiterate that: he was skinned alive. And yet, he did not deny the teachings of his “philosopher.” 

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Andrew was also whipped, nearly to death. His tormentors stopped the beating because they didn’t want him dying too quickly. He lived for two more days tied to an X-shaped cross. What did he do during those days on the cross? Did he beg to be let down? Did he deny his “philosopher”? No, he continued preaching the Good News. 

     

James was sentenced to death for spreading his belief in Christ. While waiting for his execution, he witnessed to his Roman guard, who was so moved by James’ faith that he asked to be martyred as well. James and the Roman guard were beheaded side by side.

     

Some locals tossed James the Younger off a cliff after he refused to deny Christ. He survived the fall, so they beat him and threw stones at him. When that failed to kill him, they bashed his head in with a club. 

     

Thomas was stabbed with spears and burned alive. Matthew was done in by sword in Ethiopia.

 

And so it went for these brave men. Even many of the later apostles, most notably Mark and Paul, who never knew Jesus in human form, ended up martyred for their own great faith. Mark went to Alexandria to tell the Egyptians about Christ, the things he’d learned, and the miracles he’d witnessed. The Egyptians welcomed him by tying him to a couple of horses and dragging him down the street until he was dead. And Paul, responsible for turning so many to Christ, was beaten, imprisoned, exiled, tortured, and finally beheaded by the Roman Emperor Nero.

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These men were either insane or had seen things to bolster their faith to an extreme that could not be denied. Had they all been insane, it would have been some sort of strange, mass hysteria or hallucination, unshakable in so many even through the horrific torture, unparalleled in the annals of psychiatry, science, or any other known history. 

     

The idea is ridiculous. There is only one truth here. These men gave their lives because they witnessed and practiced miracles, speaking to God in the Spirit or after the return from the dead of their friend and teacher, Jesus, in the flesh. And it was a shame their deaths have to be ignored by even one man, let alone the billions of skeptics who question their sacrifices.

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