Bible Study: The Martyrdom of the Apostles.

[mortensen]

.... Our Christian Brothers.

Do we know the name of each of the 12 Apostles?

Do we know what each Apostle accomplished in his Ministry?

Do we know how each Apostle died in the name of Jesus Christ?

First, the Apostles were continually threatened and pressured to deny their Lord during their ministry; especially as they faced torture and martyrdom. However, none of these men who spent time with Jesus chose to save their lives by denying their faith in Him.

Consider this hypothetical situation: Supppse these men had conspired to form a new religion based on their imagination. How long would anyone continue to proclaim something they knew was a lie when faced with lengthy tortures and an inescapable, painful death? All they had to do to escape martyrdom was to admit they had concocted a lie and simply deny their faith and claims about Jesus. It defies both common sense and the evidence of history that anyone, let alone a group of twelve men, would persist in proclaiming a lie when they could walk away by admitting that it was a fraud.

Yet, history reveals that not one of these men, who knew Jesus personally, ever denied their testimony about Him despite the threat and reality of imminent death. This proves to any fair-minded observer that these men possessed an absolute unshakable personal knowledge about the truth of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Each of the Apostles were called upon to pay the ultimate price to prove their faith in Jesus, affirming with their life's blood that Jesus was the true Messiah, the Son of God, and the only hope of salvation for a sinful hummanity.

Most of our information about the deaths of the Apostles is derived from early church traditions. While tradition is unreliable as to small details, it very seldom contains outright inventions. Eusebius one of the most important of the early church historians wrote his history of the early church.

Matthew: Suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound.

Mark: Died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead.

Luke: Was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost.

John: Faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos. The Apsotle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.

Peter: Was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross, according to church tradition because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Jesus Christ had Died.

James the Just: The leader of the church in Jerusalem, was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southwest pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his ememies beat James to death with a fullers club. This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the Temptation. Church tradition says that James, brother of Jesus, wrote the book of James in the New Testament, although the author assignation in James 1:1 is ambiguous. (One of several places in the New Testament where it is difficult to ascertain which 'James' is being referenced! - see also 1 Cor 15:7). James is mentioned by Josephus in his massive work Jewish Antiquities.

James the Greater: A son of Zebedee, was a fisherman by trade when Jesus called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, James was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem. The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.

Bartholomew: Also known as Nathanal, was a missionary to Asia. He witnessed to our Lord in present day Turkey. Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia when he was believed to have been flayed to death by a whip. He may have been crucified.

Andrew: Was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it." He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he expired.

Thomas: Was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the subcontinent.

Jude: The brother of Jesus, was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

Matthias: Matthias was chosen by the Apostles to replace Judas Iscariot, after the death of Judas in the field of Blood. Information concerning the life and death of Matthias is vague and contradictory. One tradition maintains that Matthias was stoned at Jerusalem by the Jews, and then beheaded.

Barnabas: One of the group of seventy disciples, wrote the Epistle of Barnabas. He preached throughout Italy and Cyprus. Barnabas was stoned to death at Salonica.

Phillip: Was crucified, according to the plaque in the church of the Holy Apostles.

Paul: Was believed to have been tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67. Paul endured a lengthy imprisonment which allowed him to write his many Epistles to the churches he had formed throughout the Roman Empire. These letters, which taught many of the foundational doctrines of Christianity, form a large portion of the New Testament. Most scholars believed that Paul was released from house arrest in Rome in c. 62 A.D., and that he may have made a fourth missionary journey, which may have gone as far as Spain (Rom 15:24,28). Church tradition says that Nero executed Paul in Rome c.67 A.D. However, the New Testament is silent on the death of this great Apostle.

The details of the martyrdoms of the disciples and Apostles are found in traditional early church sources. These traditions were recounted in the writings of the church fathers and the first official church historian Eusebius. Although we can not at this time verify every detail historically, the universal belief of the early Christian writers was that each of the apostles had faced martyrdom faithfully without denying their faith vin the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Reference:

http://bibleprobe.com/apostles.htm

[mortensen]

The Apostles' Creed.

As usually recited today. (One of a few different translations).

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord;

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit,

and born of the Virgin Mary,

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried.

*He descended to the dead. (In older translations, "He descended into ****")

On the third day He rose again.

He ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again to mjudge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, *the holy Catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

* The phrase into '****' in older translations and the phrase 'to the dead' both translate the phrase 'into hades' in the original Creek of the creed.

This realm of the dead is called 'sheol' in Hebrew and 'hades' in Greek.

Neither of these words including '****' connotes punishment. It's just a waiting room for the resurrection and the judgement.

* The phrase 'The Holy Catholic Church' does not imply the Catholic Church (Roman). Catholic is a Greek word meaning 'whole' or 'Universal.'

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting.

AMEN

[mortensen]

God & Christian Denominations.

God & Christian Denominations.

What does God think about the existence of so many Christian Denominations?

The Gospel of Jesus records that He built one church and that all saved people were in that church. He prayed for unity and rebuked division. Denominations as we know them did not exist till centuries later. Yet today hundreds of denominations exist in the name of Christianity, claiming to be Christian.

To the average person, 'Christianity' includes hundreds of different denominations that disagree with one another in name, organization, doctrine, worship, and plan of salvation. Such a situation clearly constitutes division, not unity. Yet all the denominations claim to be Christian and to follow Jesus Christ. You would think that if we really wanted to please God we would forsake what we want and practice what He wants.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 "Man's whole duty is to fear God and keep His commandments. We should be determined to do God's will, not our own."

Matthew 16:24 "To follow Jesus one must deny himself. True religion does not consist of what pleases us. It is entirely a question of what pleases God."

Let's go fast-forward to the 20th and 21st centuries and you will see just how far astray the church has gone and especially your major religions which are nothing more than big business. We must remember that the church is built on Jesus and belongs to Him.