Willing to Die?
Being willing to live and die for Christ is the measure of our love for Him.
When our four kids were little, Rachelle and I would read Foxes Book of Martyrs to them at breakfast for our family devotional before school.
I’m not sure I’d recommend this practice to other families, but all four of our children walk with the LORD in their married adulthood and faithfully teach their children the Christian faith.
‘I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.’ - 3 John 1:4
If the only persecution we Christians experience are a few slams and curses thrown our way via social media, we haven’t considered the costs of true Christianity.
It’s Time for a Modern Book of Christian Martyrs
Christians are being imprisoned, tortured, and murdered around the world.
There are too many stories, but I’ll highlight one from North Korea.
Some Background
The North Korean government demands that the Supreme Leader be worshipped as a god. This religion is called Juche (pronounced CHOO SHAY), also called ‘Kimilsungism’ (pronounced KIM—ILL—SOON—CHISM), in honor of the Kim family.
Juche is more than an ideology; it’s North Korea’s cult religion. In Juche, Kim Il Sung is worshiped as god, and his son, Kim Jong Il, is the son of god. Whether North Korea’s current Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, will become worshipped as the grandson of God remains to be seen.
Under penalty of death or imprisonment and torture in a concentration camp, Juche is the only religion North Korean people can have.
David Hawke, a respected researcher and former executive director of Amnesty International, interviewed 40 North Korean escapees.
David tells the first-hand account of a man in the North Korean army before escaping North Korea. David calls him ‘Interviewee 17’ to protect him from targeted assassination by North Korean government agents.
The Story
‘While Interviewee 17 was in the North Korean Army, his unit was dispatched to widen the highway between Pyongyang and the nearby port city of Nampo.
They were demolishing a vacated house in Yongkang county, Yongkang district town, when in a basement between two bricks they found a Bible and a small notebook that contained 25 names, one identified as pastor, two as chon-do-sa (assistant pastors), two as elders, and 20 other names, apparently parishioners, identified by their occupations.
The soldiers turned the Bible and notebook over to the local branch of Department 15 of the Korean Workers Party (KWP), but the Party officials said it was up to the military police unit to investigate.
Tracked down at their place of work through the listing of occupation in the notebook, the 25 persons were picked up without formal arrest by the military bowibu (The North Korean Ministry of State Security). The interviewee was not aware of any judicial procedures for the Christians seized.
In November 1996, the 25 were brought to the road construction site. Four concentric rectangular rows of spectators were assembled to watch the execution. Interviewee 17 was in the first row.
The five leaders to be executed - the pastor, two assistant pastors, and two church elders - were bound hand and foot and made to lie down in front of a steamroller.
This steamroller was a large construction vehicle imported from Japan with a heavy, huge, and wide steel roller mounted on the front to crush and level the roadway prior to pouring concrete.
The other twenty persons were held just to the side. The condemned were accused of being Kiddokyo (Protestant Christian) spies and conspiring to engage in subversive activities.
Nevertheless, they were told, “If you abandon religion and serve only Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, you will not be killed.”
None of the five said a word.
Some of the fellow parishioners assembled to watch the execution cried, screamed out, or fainted when the skulls made a popping sound as they were crushed beneath the steamroller.
Interviewee 17 thought, at the time, that these church people were crazy.
He thought then that religion was an “opiate,” and it was stupid for them to give up their lives for religion.
He heard from the soldiers who took away the other twenty prisoners that they were being sent to a prison camp.
He sketched from memory a diagram of the execution scene for me.’
Next time you get bent out of shape over politics or what’s happening in Washington DC - either to or against your liking - and when you begin to feel the urge to slam a fellow Christian on social media or take offense being slammed yourself…
Remember the steam-rolled Christians in North Korea.
Christians in government leadership ensure the individual liberties of a nation’s citizens.
United States governmental, educational, and commercial leaders need a reset.
Michael Snyder reports on a woman named Yeonmi Park, who was born in North Korea. By the age of 13, she had witnessed people drop dead from starvation right in front of her eyes.
Thankfully, she escaped North Korea to South Korea and a better life.
In 2016, Park transferred from the university she was studying at in South Korea to Columbia University in the United States.
Initially, she was very excited to be able to study in this country, but once she started attending classes, she quickly realized that ‘even North Korea isn’t this nuts.’
Columbia University was founded in New in 1754 with the stated purpose:
‘Columbia University is now ‘nuttier,’ says Yeonmi Park, ‘than North Korea.’
The U.S. Needs a Revival of True Christian Statesmen
Noah Webster (yes, that Webster of Webster Dictionary fame), the great educator and United States politician of the 19th century, wrote:
Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the Christian religion.
It is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the bible, particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion.
The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government.
The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all of our civil constitutions and laws.… All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.
It’s time to pull your big-boy Christian pants up and ask yourself three questions:
‘How deep is my love for the LORD Jesus Christ and His Kingdom?’
‘Do I target or ridicule fellow Christians who see the world differently than I do?’
‘What am I doing to advance Christian statesmanship and leadership in the U.S.?’
In my experience, only those captivated by Christ's love will love others the way Christ loves us, and being full of His love, we’ll be the only ones willing to die for our Savior and King.
What can one say to what has happened around the world, and over the years has been increasing within the United States (except for the steam roller), WOW!
Your article on what’s happening in regards to USAID, and this article on “willing to die” are perfect examples of crossroads where America is at today, with a leader working at standing in their way.
I have a friend on Facebook, originally from my hometown, that is just battering President Trump and calling other Christians who aren’t standing up and writing that Jesus says to love all people. She calls President Trump a dictator, tyrant and other names!
I can’t even read her posts and I think back when Biden was the leader of our country and never saw praise from her on his ability to lead.
There’s plenty of work to do around the world and even in our own backyard!