How Should Christians Respond In The End Times?

 

As we look at the cataclysmic situations in the world, most of us would naturally figure them to be the preludes of the End Times. Many are happy that Jesus will be coming back soon but many are afraid of the persecution and suffering that would come before Christ’s return. In fact, some believers are selling their homes in the urban areas and moving to rural areas – remote countryside, forested mountains or even to the deserts. Some are stockpiling food and learning how to grow and preserve foods. Many of these are even buying weapons so that they can protect themselves. 

The question is whether God wants His Church to run and hide when the situation becomes bad or that His Church should stay and continue to minister to the people? We do not need to look far to see what we should do during such cataclysmic time – just look at how the churches not only survive but thrive in the Communist countries around us. For example, back in the 1970s, we as young overseas Chinese Christians, were praying and fasting for China because we thought that the Communists had managed to totally destroy Christianity in China. But, in the 1980s, we received good news that in spite of not having missionaries, the Church of Jesus Christ had survived. 

The Chinese believers went through their own Tribulation for more than thirty years and they did not only survive but thrive. And from a mere one million believers before the Communist’s rule to now over 100 million believers. How did they do it? 

At the beginning of the persecution in 1951, majority of the pastors and elders were arrested and imprisoned. These people were arrested on fabricated charges of crimes and that they were falsely accused as counter-revolutionary activists.

The climax of the persecution came in 1966 with the great proletarian cultural revolution. By that time, organised Christianity had been totally demolished and many of the Christian leaders were arrested and subsequently executed. 

What were left behind were mostly the women and their children who went underground to form the underground churches. It was in these dire circumstances that the Church was purified and cleansed. Those who could not take the persecution left the faith. There were also traitors and betrayers who sold the safety of their brothers and sisters so as to secure safe passage for themselves. 

When I was in China in the late 1980s, I personally listened to testimonies from the persecuted believers about how they survived and thrived in the face of danger and death. They worshipped in the cold forest at three in the dark early morning and some worshipped in secluded caves. They did not seek just to survive but to be able to worship the Lord and also to share the Gospel.

How did they physically survive? There were stories about how the urban Chinese believers who escaped to the rural areas learned from the locals how to survive in the harsh conditions of the countryside. Many of them also learned about God’s natural ways of treating infirmities with herbal and traditional methods. When I was in the military, basic jungle survival method was taught to all recruits but we rarely needed to use it. However, those in Commando training, were put to the test because they were left in an isolated island to survive on their own for a week. I heard that each trainee had only a hunting knife and a small amount of ration. The idea of learning how to grow vegetables or hunt animals is of course useful, if one has to really live in the jungle. These would of course be interesting courses to take even in peacetime.

Back to the Chinese Church that survived the persecution – while I was in one underground church, the Elders asked me to lay hands and pray for a sister who was to take the place of her father in the ministry. Apparently, the father was killed by the Communists while in prison and now his place of eldership in the underground was vacant. She was to take his place and face the danger that her father had faced. There was a particular sadness in my heart because I felt like I was ordaining her to be martyred for Christ.

What should we do in the face of persecution of the End Times?

When we look into the Bible, we should be thankful that the Apostle Peter did address this matter of how to face the End Times. Writing specifically about this matter, Peter revealed what God had shown him - “the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, [and] both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”

He added. “Since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” (2 Peter 3:10-12).

Please note that Peter did not suggest that all Christians should head for the jungles or hills in order to hide from persecution. He did not suggest that believers should be isolated from the ministries that God has assigned the Church to do. Throughout the history of Christianity, the believers who ultimately made an impact for the Kingdom of God were not the ones with the “fortress mentality”. The early disciples were not exactly brave and they were found together praying in the upper room. When the Holy Spirit came upon them there was such a transformation. (Acts 1-2). Were they persecuted after the Holy Spirit came? The fact is that the persecution was intense so much so that believers like Stephen and James were murdered for their faith. Many others were arrested and put in prison. In the midst of the heavy persecution, they continued to preach the Gospel. There was no stockpiling of food or weapons in a fortress. However, the believers did move from one place to another. In the process, they spread the Gospel further and wider to other cities and even countries.

The fortress-mentality is for people who do not see life as being eternal. Sadly, for them, this temporal life is the only one that they treasure and so they have to sustain it at all cost. Basing upon the revelation of Peter, all believers who are going through the End Times can do one thing, apart from worrying about food and drink, and that is to practice holiness and do good to others wherever and whenever we can. Indeed, we are supposed to do the works of the Kingdom of God “while it is day” (John 9:4). The Apostle Paul also received the same revelation from the Lord: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).

I hope this clarifies and answers some of your questions about what we should do during the End Times. Thanks for reading.

Pastor Albert Kang

Wang Ming Dao - No More A Judas

Wang Ming Dao and his wife, Liu Jingwen

Reverend Wang Ming Dao (王明道) served as the Pastor of Christian Tabernacle, Peking’s largest church. During Communist's persecution, he was thrown into prison because of his testimony and ministry. At the hands of his perpetrators, he was tortured for his faith.

Fearing even greater suffering, Dao recanted his belief in Christ and was released by the authorities. He quickly regretted his decision and was seen walking the streets of the city weeping and mumbling, “I am Judas! I have betrayed my Lord!”

Within a few weeks, he was unable to bear the guilt and shame any longer. He returned to the Communist authorities, confessed his faith in Christ, and asked to be put back in prison.

For the next twenty-seven years, he suffered the abuse of prison life but never again entertained the thought of denying his Lord. When Dao was released at the end of his life, the Chinese church considered him a hero who had given strength and assurance to the many who faced the perpetual threat of persecution and imprisonment.

Enduring faith will experience doubts, struggles, and disappointment. It happened to John the Baptist, to Paul, to Jesus and it will happen to every person who seeks to walk in Christ-like obedience. In times of spiritual crisis, may we be inspired by both the success and failure of people like Wang Ming Dao.

The Vision of His Glory, Anne Graham Lotz, 1996, p. 81

Reconciliation!

Shortly after the turn of the century, Japan invaded, conquered, and occupied Korea. Of all of their oppressors, Japan was the most ruthless. They overwhelmed the Koreans with a brutality that would sicken the strongest of stomachs. Their crimes against women and children were inhuman. Many Koreans live today with the physical and emotional scars from the Japanese occupation.

One group singled out for concentrated oppression was the Christians. When the Japanese army overpowered Korea one of the first things they did was board up the evangelical churches and eject most foreign missionaries. It has always fascinated me how people fail to learn from history. Conquering nations have consistently felt that shutting up churches would shut down Christianity. It didn't work in Rome when the church was established, and it hasn't worked since. Yet somehow the Japanese thought they would have a different success record.

The conquerors started by refusing to allow churches to meet and jailing many of the key Christian spokesmen. The oppression intensified as the Japanese military increased its profile in the South Pacific. The "Land of the Rising Sun" spread its influence through a reign of savage brutality. Anguish filled the hearts of the oppressed -- and kindled hatred deep in their souls. One pastor persistently entreated his local Japanese police chief for permission to meet for services. His nagging was finally accommodated, and the police chief offered to unlock his church ... for one meeting.

It didn't take long for word to travel. Committed Christians starving for an opportunity for unhindered worship quickly made their plans. Long before dawn on that promised Sunday, Korean families throughout a wide area made their way to the church. They passed the staring eyes of their Japanese captors, but nothing was going to steal their joy. As they closed the doors behind them they shut out the cares of oppression and shut in a burning spirit anxious to glorify their Lord.

The Korean church has always had a reputation as a singing church. Their voices of praise could not be concealed inside the little wooden frame sanctuary. Song after song rang through the open windows into the bright Sunday morning. For a handful of peasants listening nearby, the last two songs this congregation sang seemed suspended in time. It was during a stanza of "Nearer My God to Thee" that the Japanese police chief waiting outside gave the orders. The people toward the back of the church could hear them when they barricaded the doors, but no one realized that they had doused the church with kerosene until they smelled the smoke. The dried wooden skin of the small church quickly ignited. Fumes filled the structure as tongues of flame began to lick the baseboard on the interior walls.

There was an immediate rush for the windows. But momentary hope recoiled in horror as the men climbing out the windows came crashing back in -- their bodies ripped by a hail of bullets. The good pastor knew it was the end. With a calm that comes from confidence, he led his congregation in a hymn whose words served as a fitting farewell to earth and a loving salutation to heaven. The first few words were all the prompting the terrified worshipers needed. With smoke burning their eyes, they instantly joined as one to sing their hope and leave their legacy.

Their song became a serenade to the horrified and helpless witnesses outside. Their words also tugged at the hearts of the cruel men who oversaw this flaming execution of the innocent: Alas! and did my Savior bleed? and did my Sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?

Just before the roof collapsed they sang the last verse, their words an eternal testimony to their faith: But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe: Here, Lord, I give myself away 'Tis all that I can do! At the cross, at the cross Where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away -- It was there by faith I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day.

The strains of music and wails of children were lost in a roar of flames. The elements that once formed bone and flesh mixed with the smoke and dissipated into the air. The bodies that once housed life fused with the charred rubble of a building that once housed a church. But the souls who left singing finished their chorus in the throne room of God. Clearing the incinerated remains was the easy part. Erasing the hate would take decades. For some of the relatives of the victims, this carnage was too much. Evil had stooped to a new low, and there seemed to be no way to curb their bitter loathing of the Japanese.

In the decades that followed, that bitterness was passed on to a new generation. The Japanese, although conquered, remained a hated enemy. The monument the Koreans built at the location of the fire not only memorialized the people who died, but stood as a mute reminder of their pain. Inner rest? How could rest coexist with a bitterness deep as marrow in the bones?

Suffering, of course, is a part of life. People hurt people. Almost all of us have experienced it at some time. Maybe you felt it when you came home to find that your spouse had abandoned you, or when your integrity was destroyed by a series of well-timed lies, or when your company was bled dry by a partner. It kills you inside. Bitterness clamps down on your soul like iron shackles.

The Korean people who found it too hard to forgive could not enjoy the "peace that passes all understanding." Hatred choked their joy. It wasn't until 1972 that any hope came. A group of Japanese pastors traveling through Korea came upon the memorial. When they read the details of the tragedy and the names of the spiritual brothers and sisters who had perished, they were overcome with shame. Their country had sinned, and even though none of them were personally involved (some were not even born at the time of the tragedy), they still felt a national guilt that could not be excused.

They returned to Japan committed to right a wrong. There was an immediate outpouring of love from their fellow believers. They raised ten million yen ($25,000). The money was transferred through proper channels and a beautiful white church building was erected on the sight of the tragedy.

When the dedication service for the new building was held, a delegation from Japan joined the relatives and special guests. Although their generosity was acknowledged and their attempts at making peace appreciated, the memories were still there. Hatred preserves pain. It keeps the wounds open and the hurts fresh. The Koreans' bitterness had festered for decades. Christian brothers or not, these Japanese were descendants of a ruthless enemy.

The speeches were made, the details of the tragedy recalled, and the names of the dead honored. It was time to bring the service to a close. Someone in charge of the agenda thought it would be appropriate to conclude with the same two songs that were sung the day the church was burned.

The song leader began the words to "Nearer My God to Thee." But something remarkable happened as the voices mingled on the familiar melody. As the memories of the past mixed with the truth of the song, resistance started to melt. The inspiration that gave hope to a doomed collection of churchgoers in a past generation gave hope once more.

The song leader closed the service with the hymn "At the Cross."

The normally stoic Japanese could not contain themselves. The tears that began to fill their eyes during the song suddenly gushed from deep inside. They turned to their Korean spiritual relatives and begged them to forgive. The guarded, calloused hearts of the Koreans were not quick to surrender. But the love of the Japanese believers -- unintimidated by decades of hatred -- tore at the Koreans' emotions:At the cross, at the cross Where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away ...

One Korean turned toward a Japanese brother. Then another. And then the floodgates holding back a wave of emotion let go. The Koreans met their new Japanese friends in the middle. They clung to each other and wept. Japanese tears of repentance and Korean tears of forgiveness intermingled to bathe the site of an old nightmare.

Heaven had sent the gift of reconciliation to a little white church in Korea.

Tim Kimmel, Little House on the Freeway, pp. 56-61.

The Fall and Rise of Wang Ming Dao

Pastor Wang Ming Dao

The Fall and Rise of Wang Ming Dao

Georgina Giles

The year was 1949 and the first unified central government for forty years was in power in China. Christian believers were fearful.

At the Peking (Beijing) Christian Tabernacle, the congregation prepared itself for Communist rule. Wang Ming Dao, the pastor, continued to hold tenaciously to Scripture. The Christian, he affirmed, should obey the authorities (Romans 13:1-7 ). But if ordered to go against God’s inspired Word, the Bible, then it was God’s Word that must be observed.

The ‘Three Self’ Movement
Wang Ming Dao knew the greatest threat that confronted the church would come from within. A man called Wu Yaozong, a little known YMCA secretary having strong sympathies with Communism, seized his opportunity.

Over the years many had recognised a prophetic ring in Wang Ming Dao’s words. ‘From a man with a selfish heart’, he had written, ‘any terrible act can emerge. Anyone looking for selfish gain can lie, cheat, practise evil and plot for his self interest. The majority of sins in this world issue from people who are out for selfish gain’.

Wu Yaozong approached Zhou Enlai, the Chinese premier. With his and Mao-Tse Tung’s full support, Wu drew up a ‘Christian Manifesto’. This called for the church to sever all ties with Western imperialism and purge itself of everything connected with it. The church must be self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. Thus was born the government-sponsored Three Self Patriotic movement (‘TSPM’), and hundreds of thousands of Christians throughout China gave it their support. Wu Yaozong rose rapidly to power.

Adverse Effects

Wang Ming Dao firmly believed in the separation of church and state. He recognised that the aim of the movement was to bring the church under state control.

Besides, the Christian Tabernacle had always been independent of Western aid or connection. There was no need for Wang to join. All his deepest convictions were in conflict with the beliefs propagated by Wu Yaozong and other leaders in the TSPM. Wu wrote in an article: ‘The incarnation, the virgin birth, resurrection, Trinity, last judgement, Second Coming etc., these are irrational and mysterious beliefs which cannot be understood or explained … no matter how hard I try, I cannot accept such beliefs’. Wang Ming Dao steadfastly refused to join the TSPM. He could act in no other way.

Meanwhile the churches that had joined the movement began to feel its adverse effects. The formidable ‘accusation meetings’, already a feature of the Communist secular world were introduced into the church. Pastors who had been linked with foreign missions were isolated, and their congregations encouraged to denounce them.

Another Gospel
All over China, churches were torn apart. The Peking Christian Tabernacle was like an oasis in a spiritual desert, where pure biblical gospel preaching could still be heard.

Wang Ming Dao laboured night and day, setting up his own printing press to continue publication of the Spiritual Food Quarterly. His uncompromising stand on biblical truth strengthened Christians throughout the land.

Between 1951 and 1954, he published many books proclaiming the gospel and speaking out against the modernists. Those who preach the ‘social gospel’, he pointed out, ignore the essential atoning work of Christ for the individual’s eternal salvation and the purifying effect it has in this life. They seek to transform society and establish the ‘kingdom of heaven’ in this world.

But this, taught Wang, was ‘another gospel’ (Galatians 1:9 ). Such people have never put their own trust in Jesus. Men and women need to know the true gospel for their eternal safety and blessing.

Alarm Bells

The TSPM ground its teeth. Its leaders deeply resented the man who was ‘an iron pillar against which the whole land could not prevail’. All they could do was to mount a personal attack on Wang.

In 1954 the TSPM ordered all churches in Beijing to send delegates to an ‘accusation meeting’ against Wang Ming Dao. Leslie Lyall (OMF) writes, ‘it would be difficult to find fault with him, for he practised what he preached: upright, disciplined living’.

Throughout the meeting, Wang did not speak a word. Imprisonment or the death sentence were called for. The congregation sat silent. Many wept. No penalty could be imposed.

So Ming Dao continued to preach. The crowds were larger than ever. The evangelistic meetings in January 1955, says Leslie Lyall, ‘were probably the most fruitful he had ever conducted’.

Then students, as students will, daringly started their ‘Oppose the persecution of Wang Ming Dao’ campaign. It received wide support all over China. Alarm bells began to ring in high places. Their plan to subjugate the church to Communist control was under threat.

Accusation meetings were arranged against Wang Ming Dao across the whole of China. Nevertheless, in two weeks of meetings in the Christian Tabernacle in July 1955, attendance broke all records. Wang’s important article, We, because of Faith, had been published. With powerful logic, he dealt with the arguments of the modernists. He explained how they overturned the Bible and the Christ of the Bible. Was he being uncharitable, he asked, if he called them ‘the party of unbelievers’?

ImprisonedThe Three-Self controlled magazine (the Tianfeng) branded Wang Ming Dao ‘a criminal of the Chinese people, a criminal in the church and a criminal in history’.

On 7 August 1955, Wang preached his last sermon in the church. For thirty years he had laboured tirelessly to show his country where her true hope lay, namely, in the atoning work of Christ and obedience to his Word. His final sermon showed that the TSPM church leaders had betrayed Christ in China.

At midnight the police arrived and Wang was thrown into prison without a conviction. He was parted from his wife and did not realise that she had been imprisoned too.

To the Communists, Wang Ming Dao’s refusal to join the TSPM was a counter-revolutionary act, the very worst of crimes. They could not, of course, understand that he was called by God to summon the church to chastity to Christ.

Wang shared a filthy cell with two other prisoners. From his daily interrogations, Wang was returned to his cell to be taunted with descriptions of torture reserved for preachers, and to be beaten and pressurised by his fellow prisoners to confess his ‘crimes’.

Freedom and Rearrest
The authorities used every device to break down the resistance of this powerful opponent to their scheme. After a year of tremendous pressure, Wang was informed of a wave of arrests of Bible-believing Christians sympathetic to him. Then news came of Jing Wun’s plight. She, too, was in detention, unable to eat the coarse prison food because of her poor health. China’s ‘iron man’ began to weaken. He ‘confessed’ to crimes he had not committed, and agreed to join the TSPM and preach for them. He signed a document stating he was a counter-revolutionary, and he and Jing Wun were freed.

Then began the darkest six months in Wang Ming Dao’s life. The TSPM leaders were elated. They waited eagerly to claim the lifeless jewel that would crown their movement. But with a mind deranged with guilt and sorrow for the denial of his Lord, Wang never did join or preach for the TSPM. With the same tender love the Lord had shown to Peter, Wang was granted time to regain normality by a period of illness.

He informed the government he could not join, Jing Wun affording outstanding support to her husband. Exactly seven months after their release, Wang Ming Dao and Jing Wun were re-arrested.

Restored in Spirit

By the 1960s, Mao Tse Tung’s disastrous policies, along with natural calamities, left millions starving in a terrible famine. All, except high government officers, were affected. Officials at the bottom level were blamed for Mao’s mistakes.

While some ‘counter-revolutionaries’ were released at this time, Wang Ming Dao received the sentence he most dreaded — life imprisonment. Earlier, the Beijing People’s Court had drawn up charges against him. The recorded evidence stated that Wang Ming Dao and his wife had undermined the TSPM set up by Chinese Christians, and had accused the TSPM of committing adultery with the world.

It was now that God met with Wang Ming Dao and restored him to his brightest hour. A scripture he had learned many years before was brought by the Holy Spirit to his remembrance: ‘When I fall I shall arise, when I sit in darkness the Lord will be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he pleads my cause and executes judgement for me’ (Micah 7:7 ).

One Great Prison
Through the next sixteen and a half years Ming Dao was to suffer solitary confinement, torture, and the horror of five months of daily meetings attempting to force confessions from him.

But the Lord stood by him and gave him the victory through his Word. Never again was he to fall. Though Wang Dao’s voice was silenced, his life still spoke throughout the land.

During this time all China had become one great prison from which there was no escape. The ‘little red book’ of Mao’s teachings was in everyone’s hands. As the Cultural Revolution flourished, everyone spied on his neighbour and almost every family suffered at least one death.

Preaching Again

In Beijing, more than anywhere else, the youthful Red Guards were authorised to terrorise intellectuals. Had Wang Ming Dao still been there, he would have been targeted for death. The ancient city walls were demolished, as things old and beautiful were destroyed to make way for Mao’s new China. Even the TSPM ceased to function.

Gradually it became clear that Mao had failed the nation. His ‘little red book’ was laid aside. God had destroyed the wisdom of the wise (1 Corinthians 1:19 ). In 1976 Mao Tse Tung died, and his revolution died with him.

Prison doors opened, and seventy-nine-year-old Wang Ming Dao, now nearly blind and very deaf, was free again. In his little home in Shanghai, and always mindful of his fall, he began again to preach the Holy Scriptures which are able to make one ‘wise unto salvation’ (2 Timothy 3:15 ). He died in 1991, a radiant witness to his Saviour.

The healthy state of the vast house-church movement in China today, and the breathtaking increase of true Bible-believing Christians there, are not unrelated to the life and work of Wang Ming Dao. He has emerged as the greatest Chinese Christian leader of the twentieth century.

Auntie Deborah Wang - Never Alone

Auntie Deborah and her famous husband, Pastor Wang Ming Dao

By Dr. Harold J. Sala.

Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. Hebrews 13:5

It is said that behind every great man is a great woman. Unquestionably, that was true of Wang Ming Dao. The woman, Deborah Wang, a frail but vibrant saint, endured what no woman should ever have to face. Her husband, Wang Ming Dao, was one of the unofficial architects of the house church movement in China, and when her husband was sentenced to prison for what the Chinese government termed "anti-revolutionary" activities, his wife followed.

For 20 years, this saintly woman was in prison, facing the bitter cold of northern Chinese winters with thin clothes and insufficient food, but she never complained.

In 1989 I met the Wangs for the first time. I'll never forget the afternoon I sat in the humble little apartment in Shanghai and listened to them recount their experiences. While I deeply admired and venerated Wang Ming Dao, I was drawn to the strength of this saintly woman whose smile came from her heart. As she talked about the years of imprisonment, I asked, "Did you ever lose hope?" (After all, 20 years of separation, with very little news and few letters from the one you loved so deeply, is a long time.) Her eyes spoke far more than her answer as she said, "No, never!"

After the Wangs were released from prison, their home became a refuge for those who needed encouragement and counsel. God only knows how many cups of tea Auntie Wang (as her friends called her) served to weary men and women who traipsed up the stairs to their flat for encouragement and help.

What a woman! Two weeks after her husband passed away, at the age of 91, I again visited Auntie Wang. The ashes of her late husband were in an urn on the table near the chair which Brother Wang had used as a pulpit to share the Word. My son-in-law and I sought to comfort her, quoting some of my favorite passages of Scripture. But it was Auntie Wang who really comforted us. She was in her mid-eighties. Successful surgery a few months before had removed one of the cataracts from her eyes, and few details escaped her. When a small piece of paper fell from my lap, it was she who quickly leaned over to pick it up.

"Auntie Wang," I said, "I will pray that you will not be lonely." Pausing for just a moment she spoke with a clear and resolute tone of voice, "I will not be lonely; I was not lonely before." It was what she didn't say that spoke the loudest. On a previous visit, she told me that she had seen her husband but three times during the twenty years of imprisonment. That one word, "before," said so much. I knew what she was thinking.

Those words rang in my ears when a close friend told how Deborah Wang had developed pneumonia and was taken to a Shanghai hospital. With no rooms available, she was given a temporary bed in a hallway, and there in the early hours of the morning on April 18, 1992, she met Him who had been her stay and companion for so many years. As the leaves of the trees were budding, following the cold of a Shanghai winter, Deborah Wang made her entrance into the presence of the Lord, where a faithful and devoted husband awaited her.

The saddest part to me was that she couldn't be surrounded by friends and flowers when the angel sweetly took her hand and escorted her across the threshold of death. But I am sure of one fact: While she was alone, she was not lonely. She had the promise of her Lord who said, "And surely I am with you, always...." (Matthew 28:20). Deborah Wang experienced that, both in life and in death.
Resource reading: Hebrews 13:1-5



Dr. Harold J. Sala, well known speaker, author and Bible teacher, has served as founder and President of Guidelines International, Inc., since 1963. He is the featured speaker on the daily "Guidelines-A Five Minute Commentary on Living" which is broadcast on over 1000 radio stations around the world and translated in over 15 languages. Author of over 40 books published in various languages and hundreds of publications. Residing in Mission Viejo, California, Harold and his wife, Darlene, have three adult children and eight well-loved grandchildren.

A Brave Soldier of God

“Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Revelation 2:10

Roy Pontoh, 15 years old, Indonesia, 1999

The teens could tell that the shouts and chanting were getting closer and closer. An older teen nervously looked at his friend. "The Muslims are coming. We’d better hide the kids," he said. Others, following his lead, helped the smaller children find hiding places in the buildings nearby. Then they hid themselves.

It was January and a crowd of mostly Christian children and teenagers had gathered for a Bible camp at the Station Field Complex of Pattimura University on the Island of Ambon, Indonesia. When the camp was over, cars came to take the laughing, rejoicing children back to their homes. But there were not enough cars to hold the young people.

Mecky Sainyakit and three other Christian men had gone to Wakal village to try to ask the military for additional transportation and the provision of security to take the rest home. But they had not yet come back.

What the kids waiting for rides home didn’t know was that on their way to the village, the men were attacked by a Muslim mob, who pulled them from their car and out onto the road. Mecky and one of the other men were stabbed to death, and later their bodies were burned by the mob. The two other men escaped with their lives.

Back at the university crowds of Laskar Jihad fighters and muslim extremists from the surrounding villages started to gather at the gates, so the remaining adults started to hide the youth around the building, then hid themselves and began to pray.

Eventually the mob broke into the buildings armed with machetes, spears, knives and clubs. They found many of the youth and beat them. The girls and women were forced out of the building, but the boys and men were kept inside. Roy Pontoh was singled out and dragged from the group.

He was asked "Who are you?" and replied "I am a soldier (warrior) of Christ" to which he was struck on the arm with a machete. He was asked the same question again and gave the same reply to which he was struck on the other arm. 

A third time he was asked the same question and replied as before. This time Roy was struck on his stomach with the machete and as he died his last words were "Jesus" (some accounts speak of a prior blow to the stomach ripping into Roy's Bible that he was holding).

The mob dragged Roy’s body out and threw it in a ditch. Four days later, his family found it. Even though they were wracked with grief, Roy’s parents stand proud of their son, who stood strong in his faith to the end.

~~
Whoever declares openly – speaking our freely - and confess that he is My worshipper and acknowledge Me before men, the Son of man also will declare and confess and acknowledge him before the angels of God. -Jesus (Luke 12:8 AMP)

Away With Christianity! Crucify It!

"The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: "He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him."'"¹

"In about 1930, Nikolai Bukharin journeyed from Moscow to Kiev. His mission was to address a huge assembly; his subject, atheism. For a solid hour, he aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity, hurling every argument and ridicule he could think of. At last he was finished and viewed what seemed to be the smoldering ashes of men's faith.

"'Are there any questions?' Bukharin demanded.

"A solitary man arose and asked permission to speak. He mounted the platform and moved close to the Bolshevik. The audience was breathlessly silent as the man surveyed them first to the right, then to the left.

"At last he shouted the ancient Orthodox greeting, 'CHRIST IS RISEN!'

"The vast assembly arose as one man and the response came crashing like the sound of an avalanche, 'HE IS RISEN INDEED!'"²

Today here in America at least it isn't Communists who are screaming "Away with Christianity! Crucify it! Crucify it!" It is some of our radical fellow so-called progressive Americans. So let those of us who name the name of Christ—not just on Good Friday but every day of the year—by our life and testimony rise to the occasion and stand up as one to claim: "HE IS RISEN INDEED!"

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, how can I ever thank you enough for your great love sacrifice to the world in giving your Son, Jesus, to die in my place on the cross to pay the penalty for all my sins so that you could grant me forgiveness and give to me the gift of eternal life. Because you died for me please give me the courage to live always for you in all ways regardless of the circumstances. Please make my life a living testimony and powerful witness for all you have done for me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen.

Written by Dick Innes

Remembering Agnes, a Girl Who Glorified Christ

Dan Graves, MSL

Christ has the power to turn even a young teenager into a heroine. Agnes (also known as Ines) was just twelve or thirteen when she was dragged before a Roman judge. The accusation against her was that she was a Christian. It seems that she came from a well-to-do family and that several youngsters from noble families looked at her as a prospective mate. In those days of youthful marriages, she was not considered too young. However, she rejected all proposals. In anger, one of the rejected boys denounced her to the authorities.
Aat that time, the dreadful persecution of Diocletian raged. Tens of thousands of Christians suffered for their faith all across the Roman Empire. The pagans were determined to break Christians to their will.
A wicked judge ordered Agnes to sacrifice to the pagan gods. She was hauled before idols, but instead of pouring out libation, she made the sign of the cross. Furious, the judge threatened her with fire or torture on the rack. Agnes said she welcomed torture. She meant to remain pure for Christ.
Tradition says that the exasperated judge then tried to break her by throwing her into a public whorehouse. At the very least, he embarrassed her by publicly stripping her naked. Ambrose of Milan (who lived in the same century) mentioned this in his writings. In spite of everything, Agnes clung to her integrity and her faith.
Finally the judge ordered her head cut off. Agnes' death may have been a key event in ending the persecution against Christians. It shocked the pagans. That a beautiful young girl could be killed simply because she refused to marry made them ashamed. After all, their own law forbade execution of a virgin. Furthermore, although they were used to seeing adults die fearlessly for the faith, they were impressed that faith could put the heart of a brave man into so young a girl. And, of course, they wondered what could be so threatening about an innocent thirteen-year-old girl that Rome found it necessary to execute her.
Soon after her death, Agnes became a favorite saint. One of Emperor Constantine's daughters built a church at the site of Agnes' grave. A Pope wrote an epitaph for her. Her bones have been examined and show that she really was as young as history says. Someone composed a hymn in her honor and legendary acts appeared which told about her. She was probably executed on this day, January 21, 304. At any rate, she is remembered on January 21st. (The Romantic Era poet, John Keats, wrote a poem called "The Eve of St. Agnes" about a girl who elopes--a work completely contrary to the spirit of the martyr).
Agnes' symbol is a lamb, because her name means "pure" in Greek and is similar to the Latin word Agnus, which means lamb. When popes confer a portion of their power on bishops, they send them a woolen cloth called a pallium. These are woven from the wool of lambs consecrated on St. Agnes' day.

Bibliography:

1. "Agnes of Rome." http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainta05.htm.
2. Butler, Alban. "St Agnes, Virgin, Martyr." Lives of the Saints. Various editions.
3. Kiefer, James. "St. Agnes of Rome." http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Agnes.htm
4. Kirsch, J. P. "St. Agnes of Rome." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1907.
5. "St. Agnes of Rome." Catholic Online Saints.

 Source: http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/remembering-agnes-a-girl-who-glorified-christ-11629635.html?utm_source=This%20Week%20in%20Christian%20History%20-%20Christianity.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01/16/2013

Henry Nott's First Convert in 22 Years

In 1797, Henry Nott was the first missionary to Tahiti. During his first five years on the mission field, three missionaries were killed and four others deserted the field. Henry built a friendship with the island’s chief Pomare, and soon new missionaries arrived to help support Henry.

Then in 1803, Pomare he died and his son assumed the title Pomare II. He was even more vicious and violent than his father. After eight years of fruitless labor and the missionary house being ransacked, six more missionaries abandoned Tahiti, again leaving Nott alone to minister. He repeatedly went on long, arduous preaching tours throughout the island. He spent months and years over his lexicons, in the study of Hebrew and Greek, and in the translation of the New and Old Testaments into the language of Tahiti.

Henry did not see his first convert until he had been in Tahiti 22 years. It took several decades, but he was successful in translating the Bible into the Tahitian language.

Henry returned to England only two times during 47 years on the field. His perseverance at preaching the Word finally took hold in Tahiti.  

The Lord asks us to be faithful both in season and out of season. In His time, He will bless. Today in prayer, praise Jesus for His great patience and seek to be patient in all that you do.

"Obedience is the fruit of faith; patience the bloom on the fruit."  - Christina Rossetti

By Peter Kennedy

Translator William Tyndale Strangled and Burned

How many Bibles do you have in your house? For most of us, Bibles are easily accessible, and many of us have several. That we have the Bible in English owes much to William Tyndale, sometimes called the Father of the English Bible. 90% of the King James Version of the Bible and 75% of the Revised Standard Version are from the translation of the Bible into English made by William Tyndale, yet Tyndale himself was burned at the stake for his work on this day, October 6, 1536.


Back in the fourteenth century, John Wycliffe was the first to make (or at least oversee) an English translation of the Bible, but that was before the invention of the printing press and all copies had to be hand written. Besides, the church had banned the unauthorized translation of the Bible into English in 1408.


Over one hundred years later, however, William Tyndale had a burning desire to make the Bible available to even the common people in England. After studying at Oxford and Cambridge, he joined the household of Sir John Walsh at little Sudbury Manor as tutor to the Walsh children. Walsh was a generous lord of the manor and often entertained the local clergy at his table. Tyndale often added spice to the table conversation as he was confronted with the Biblical ignorance of the priests. At one point Tyndale told a priest, "If God spare my life, ere many years pass, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scriptures than thou dost."


It was a nice dream, but how was Tyndale to accomplish this when translating the Bible into English was illegal? He went to London to ask Bishop Tunstall if he could be authorized to make an English translation of the Bible, but the bishop would not grant his approval. However, Tyndale would not let the disapproval of men stop him from carrying out what seemed so obviously God's will. With encouragement and support of some British merchants, he decided to go to Europe to complete his translation, then have it printed and smuggled back into England.


In 1524 Tyndale sailed for Germany. In Hamburg he worked on the New Testament, and in Cologne he found a printer who would print the work. However, news of Tyndale's activity came to an opponent of the Reformation who had the press raided. Tyndale himself managed to escape with the pages already printed and made his way to the German city Worms where the New Testament was soon published. Six thousand copies were printed and smuggled into England. The bishops did everything they could to eradicate the Bibles -- Bishop Tunstall had copies ceremoniously burned at St. Paul's; the archbishop of Canterbury bought up copies to destroy them. Tyndale used the money to print improved editions!


King Henry VIII, then in the throes of his divorce with Queen Katherine, offered Tyndale a safe passage to England to serve as his writer and scholar. Tyndale refused, saying he would not return until the Bible could be legally translated into English. Tyndale continued hiding among the merchants in Antwerp and began translating the Old Testament while the King's agents searched all over England and Europe for him.


Tyndale was finally found by an Englishman who pretended to be his friend but then turned him over to the authorities. After a year and a half in prison, he was brought to trial for heresy -- for believing, among other things, in the forgiveness of sins and that the mercy offered in the gospel was enough for salvation. In August 1536, he was condemned; on this day October 6, 1536 he was strangled and his body burned at the stake. His last prayer was "Lord, open the King of England's eyes." The prayer was answered in part when three years later, in 1539, Henry VIII required every parish church in England to make a copy of the English Bible available to its parishioners.


Bibliography:
Adapted from an earlier Christian History Institute story.
Bowie, Walter Russell. Men of Fire. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1961.
Daniell, David. William Tyndale, a biography. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. London: Oxford University Press, 1921 - 1996.
Kunitz, Stanley L. British Authors Before 1800; a biographical dictionary. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1952.
Mozley, J. F. William Tyndale. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York: The Macmillan company, 1937.
Sampson, George. Concise Cambridge History of English Literature. Cambridge, 1961.
"Tyndale or Tindale, William." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
Wild, Laura Huld. The Romance of the English Bible; a history of the translation of the Bible into English from Wyclif to the present day. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1929.
Various encyclopedia articles.
Last updated July, 2007


Find this article at: http://www.christianity.com/churchhistory

Elizabeth Dirks Drowned as Anabaptist

An Anabaptist lady being drowned for her belief

Elizabeth Dirks was a trailblazer and a woman of great courage. Raised in a nunnery in East Friesland, she learned to read Latin and read the Bible through and through. She became certain that monasticism was not the way taught in Scripture. With the help of milkmaids she escaped and became a follower of peaceful Menno Simons. She was one of the first Reformation women ministers, probably a deaconness.

In 1549, Catholic authorities arrested her. When they found her Bible they knew they had the person they were looking for. Mistakenly, they thought she was the wife of Menno Simons. When they tried to get her to take an oath at her interrogation, she refused, saying Christ had taught that our yes should mean yes and our no mean no.

The record of her inquisition shows that the examiners asked her to inform on those whom she had taught. Knowing that this would lead to their arrest, she refused.

"No, my Lords, do not press me on this point. Ask me about my faith and I will answer you gladly."

"We will make it so tough that you will tell us," they threatened.

When she would not reveal who had baptized her or whom she had taught, they questioned her beliefs. She insisted that church buildings were not the house of God, for our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. She denied that the New Testament spoke of the bread and wine as a sacrament but rather as the Lord's Supper. Asked if she were saved by baptism, she replied, "No, my Lords. All the water in the sea cannot save me. All my salvation is in Christ, who has commanded me love the Lord, my God, and my neighbor as myself." She denied that priests have authority to forgive sins--only Christ.

Still refusing to reveal who had baptized her, she was taken to the torture chamber and said, "So far we have treated you gently. Since you won't confess, we will put you to the torture."

A man named Mr. Hans applied screws to a thumb and fingers until blood spurted from under her fingernails. Still she wouldn't give away her friends, but her agony was so great that she cried aloud to Christ and received relief. So they lifted her skirt to apply torture to her shins. She pleaded that she had never allowed anyone to touch her body and they promised to respect her.

Then they crushed her leg bones with screws until she fainted. The men thought she was dead, but she came to and assured them she was not. Realizing that they could get nothing out of her, the authorities condemned her to die. Rather than burn her, as was customary, they tied her in a bag and drowned her on this day, March 27, 1549.

Bibliography:

1. Bainton, Roland H. Women of the Reformation in Germany and Italy. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg, 1971.
2. Williams, George Huntston. The Radical Reformation. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Westminster Press, 1962.