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By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the Twentieth Century An old bishop thrown to lions; several persons, with crowns of thorns on their heads, crucified and speared through the side; a pregnant lady gored by a bull then put to death with a sword; many burnt at the stake—all because they refused to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. Most of these heart-rending images come to us from the laborious effort of John Foxe, whose Book of Martyrs has inspired generations of Christians since it was completed in 1559.
Try some modern images: fourteen Russian clergymen shot one by one
by a firing squad for their opposition to Communist violence.
Vietnamese Christians caught in the crossfire between the Communist
nationals and French soldiers, because they would not participate in
the violence. Missionaries kidnapped and murdered by bandits and
terrorists because they would not be ransomed. Everyone in a Sudanese
church shot and left to burn to death as the church is set afire by
Muslim soldiers.
Today many in the Western world view the twentieth century as the
pinnacle of the age of progress. However, as early as 1964, Dr. Paul
Carlson, an American missionary in the Congo, noted that “in this
century more people have died for their witness for Christ than died
in the early centuries, which we think of as the days of martyrs”; and
the martyrdom certainly did not slow down after 1964. In countries
where religious persecution is minimal or nonexistent, it is all too
common for Christians to be ignorant or to forget that severe
persecution for one’s faith is a daily reality for many fellow
believers.
Authors James and Marti Hefley challenge Christians to “remember
those in prison as if [we] were their fellow prisoners, and those who
are mistreated as if [we ourselves] were suffering” (Heb. 13:3 NIV).
By Their Blood records not only the accounts of many
twentieth-century martyrs but also the religious and political
situations in which they lived. Further, the Hefleys often take the
reader back several centuries to explain the long-term political and
religious histories of these areas. Indeed, the book’s contextual
political history is quite enriching for those interested in world
history.
The book is laid out geographically by world region, subregion, and
country. It covers all the major demographic regions of the world
except those Western countries that have experienced little
persecution of Christianity in this century. The Hefleys, who have
traveled the world researching this subject and are eyewitnesses to
some of the persecution described, realize that such background
information is essential for a proper understanding of why certain
peoples or factions have been so hostile to Christianity. The reasons
many martyrs are killed are often more complex than simply refusing to
renounce Christ at gunpoint. Martyr in popular usage refers to one
who has died for his or her beliefs, but the Hefleys point out that
“most Christian martyrs die in circumstances related to their
witness for Christ” rather than “strictly for their testimony of
Christ.”
By Their Blood tells the stories of hundreds of these brothers
and sisters who have given their lives throughout this century. On one
hand, I often found myself outraged as I read about the injustices and
atrocities committed against God’s people; everyone who has read
martyr accounts knows how depressing the detailed and sometimes
graphic stories can be. But ironically, as I saw the courage and love
Jesus infuses in “those who are persecuted because of righteousness”
(Matt. 5:10 NIV), I felt an even stronger sense of encouragement that
we serve the Living God who is with His people in the midst of their
suffering.
I had a renewed sense that we are in a war against the powers of
evil in this world. But we are members of the Kingdom that responds to
hatred with love, insult and slander with blessings, blows and kicks
with an outstretched hand of forgiveness, martyrdom with an offer of
new life to the persecutors. And all this by the grace of God. I
highly recommend this significant work to anyone who wants detailed
information about global martyrdom in this century and who wants to
see what God is doing in our time.
By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the Twentieth Century
includes a very lengthy bibliography of sources (however, individual
stories do not identify specific sources) and an index of persons,
peoples, and organizations. Chitu
Cults, New Religious Movements, and Your Family: A Guide to Ten
Non-Christian Groups Out To Convert Your Loved Ones
Richard Abanes has provided a handy, well-researched introduction
to some of the most controversial religious groups active in America
today. He not only gives a clear explanation of the doctrinal errors
but also exposes the questionable ethical behavior built into the
very fabric of some of these groups. Each chapter opens with the testimony of a former adherent to the movement, followed by a brief history of the group and a comparison of its teachings with what the Bible says. Abanes ends most of the chapters by asking what the attraction is to this particular group and offers suggestions for witnessing to people caught up in the movement. Everything is highly readable, with footnotes and an index. The reader may be shocked by the outright hatred expressed by the Christian Identity Movement (which hates blacks) and the Nation of Islam (which hates whites); and of course both these groups rabidly hate the Jews. Each speaks of coming race wars with apocalyptic imagery, seeing their own side as the victor. It’s sobering and frightening to realize that there are actually people out there who not only believe such things but also act out their bizarre beliefs.
Abanes documents the gross immorality of the Family (formerly the
Children of God), the brazen selfishness of satanic groups, and the
money-making mechanics of Scientology. He also includes the Moonies,
Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the New Age movement, and the occult.
The book is a great introduction to most of the destructive groups out
there. Not every cult is included, but the book is meant to be an
introduction, not an extensive reference book like Walter Martin’s
Kingdom of the Cults. According to the book, many of these groups present a nice public image and save their stranger teachings for those who have already been initiated. Because of its support of family values, the Unification Church—which teaches that Sun Myung Moon is the Messiah —has actually had well-known Christians like Jerry Falwell speak at some of its conferences. Mormonism is another group which has been gaining wide public acceptance in recent years. With their heartwarming commercials and internationally known choir, the general public has begun to mistake this polytheistic, Christ-denying religion for a Christian denomination. Abanes does a great job of shattering these deceptive images. With ample quotations, often from the cult founder, he shows the uninitiated what goes on behind the scenes and compares the cult’s teaching with biblical theology.
Cults, New Religious Movements, and Your Family is an excellent
resource for those who want an introduction to some of the major
spiritual influences of our day. It will hopefully inspire believers
with a compassion for the lost and remind them of the power of
deception. Tom Montgomery
When Faith Is Not Enough A Christian is a believer in Jesus Christ, one who believes and trusts and hopes, who has faith and does not doubt. Right? What do you do, then, if you are a Christian, or hope you are a Christian, or could consider becoming a Christian, but you cannot get rid of the nagging doubts that dwell alongside your sincere desire to believe?
On a similar note: As we walk along life’s way, how often do we
stop to consider if the life we are living is a meaningful one?
Suppose we were to stop unreflectively going on day by day and could
pause for a while to consider which way we were heading. Would we find
that the way we have chosen to live, the possessions and status we
strive to acquire, and the achievements we aspire to attain and glory
in really give us the sense of significance that our hearts so deeply
long for?
When Faith Is Not Enough is a soul-searching book that addresses
these two issues and tries to help those struggling with them. While
these themes are related in that they are both concerned with our
fundamental convictions, they are sufficiently distinct to make Kelly
Clark’s book seem like two books in one. Clark himself must have
realized this, since he divided the book into two parts, one to
discuss each of the two themes.
Part 1, titled “The Shadow of a Doubt,” discusses the nature of
doubt in the life of the believer or sincere seeker for God. Drawing
from the biblical examples of Abraham and Job, Clark argues that faith
is a lifelong journey, a moving forward based on belief in uncertain
hopes amidst doubt and pain. But God wants us to approach Him
honestly, as much in our uncertainty and doubt as in our belief. Clark
affirms the sincere doubter and argues why one should hopefully hold
on to the glimpses of light that are seen. While he does not try to
answer the reader’s doubts directly, he provides very sympathetic
guidance on how to deal with these doubts.
Part 2, “Searching for My Self,” examines the human need to feel
significant and how we try to attain meaning in life. Whether we
explicitly address the issues or not, the way we live our life
reflects what we believe is truly significant, as is evidenced by our
specious and futile attempts to “make a name for ourselves.” Often
from childhood we grow up in the false belief that we are more
significant than we really are; we must come to learn that only in God
do we acquire true value as we humbly acknowledge our actual worth, as
being one “made in the image of God.” Clark challenges some of our
deepest unchallenged attitudes, but while steering us in the right
direction, he comes short of providing a practical guideline of how we
should then live.
Although this is properly a book of philosophy, Clark’s style is
personal and down-to-earth, avoiding boring abstraction. Clark
illustrates his points throughout with colorful stories—many from
his personal experiences—countless excerpts from past and
contemporary literature and film, and Scripture. He draws from a wide
variety of writers, including Shakespeare, Flannery O’Connor, T. S.
Eliot, Georges Bernanos, and Annie Dillard. These vignettes dispersed
throughout the book keep the tone lively. Clark’s use of Scripture is
also a major strength of the book; in particular, his exposition and
interpretation of the Book of Job in part 1 stood out as the most
accurate and the most honest I have ever read.
When Faith Is Not Enough has been a very sobering, yet
encouraging, read for me. It has inspired much introspection, which
has led to very rich times with God. I highly recommend this book to
those dealing with doubts about their relationship with God and to
those neglecting to deal with questions of what is truly valuable in
life. Chitu
This Was Your Life
It’s often called the “Bema Seat” judgment. It’s the time when
every Christian stands before the Lord to be rewarded for their life
of service to Him. Many Christians are under the mistaken impression
that there is nothing they need to do to prepare for Christ’s Second
Coming. As This Was Your Life demonstrates, nothing could be further
from the truth. Authors Jamie Lash and Rick Howard have chosen a topic
that is, for most readers, unsettling to say the least. Imagine having
every thought, word, and deed scrutinized. But every thought, word,
and deed will be judged. The question is, How can we be ready to meet
our Lord certain that we will hear the words “Well done, good and
faithful servant”?
I found this book to be uniformly excellent, and one of the best
guides to the basic Christian life I have ever read. It clearly
outlines God’s blueprint for focused, effective service by emphasizing
the importance of dependence on God and the way He uses trial and
struggle to make His truth real to us, equipping us to share that
truth with others. It asks, Where does the issue of character fit into
God’s idea of success? What are the attitudes and thought patterns of
the person whose heart is truly after God? What are the things
promised to the believer who seeks first God’s kingdom and His
righteousness?
Howard and Lash also identify common stumbling blocks and talk
about how to avoid and/or overcome them. The fear of man, busyness
instead of God-directed action, comparing oneself to others, boredom,
loneliness, frustration-all of these are things that can rob us of the
earthly and heavenly rewards God has for us. In this materially
obsessed world it’s nice to read a Christian book on reward that is
balanced. Not once in 189 pages did the authors dip into the
faith-movement pool of selfish theology. This is a book that shows how
to get your eyes off of yourself and on the prize. And what a prize it
is. Dave Canfield
Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity,
Otherness and Reconciliation
"To exist” means “to stand out from”: against Nothingness we
separate our Self, drawing a line between “Me” and “Not-me.” Without
this exclusion there could be no “Me,” and there could be no
“Other.” And without an “Other” there could be no embrace: no love,
no community, no belonging. Yet how easily the legitimate effort of
self-preservation slips into making Self an absolute, “the Imperial
Self” as one writer says, consolidating our individual identity at the
expense of the Other. The frantic securing of enclosed borders is
driven by fears of losing identity, a desire for inner integrity, “a
world without the other.” Such exclusion divides the world into good
guys and bad guys: the source of “culture wars,” the worst examples
being the Nazi quest for “racial purity” and various “ethnic
cleansings.”
Recent thinkers lay blame for all ethnic violence on this pursuit
of “self-enclosed” or “stable” identities; postmodernism rejects all
claims of absolute truth, which are viewed as excuses to exclude those
who don’t fit somebody’s personal notion of “normal.” The solution to
such unjust exclusion: end the quest for wholeness or purity which
promotes violence. If selfhood is constructed by exclusion, create a
new way of conceiving of Self. This is already happening, says psychologist Robert Jay Lifton, who hails the emergence of the “Protean Self,” named after the shape-shifting Greek sea god. The fragmenting process of modernity has led to twin extremes: disintegration, i.e., split and multiple personalities, incoherence; and what Lifton calls “Fundamentalism,” closing off behind absolute boundaries, the desire for purity which ends in violence. Between these extremes, though, a more fluid Self is evolving, “able to function in a world of uncertainty and ambiguity.”
Proteanism differs from disintegration, says Lifton, because it
seeks an integrator, a grounding for its juggling act in a preferred
“energizing image,” religious or otherwise. This is similar to what
the pop mythmeisters have been telling us to do: find a myth that
gives our life coherence. But grounding the Self this way merely
involves figuring out what you want to do and finding an “image” that
justifies it. Lifton thinks it’s possible to be Protean and “ethical,”
but then again, he says (with a straight face), the “essence” of
Proteanism is its “odd combinations.” Postmodernism can’t seem to escape self-contradiction (i.e., “if exclusions oppress, exclude them). Worse, says theologian Miroslav Volf, the rejecting of all boundaries means giving up moral categories and letting loose ”the wild flow of desire.“ Absolute tolerance ”does not eliminate but enthrones violence.“ Yet the postmodernist critique is not so easy to completely ignore. Volf shares the postmodern belief in ”the tendency of self-enclosed identities toward violence.“ Like Lifton, Volf seeks a middle ground between disintegration (chaos without boundaries) and ”fundamentalism“ (oppression with boundaries).
Once again, the solution involves an evolving notion of identity:
following the postmodernists, Volf says the Self is less stable and
more complex than once thought. More importantly, the Self includes
the Other from the start; the notion of “Me” is formed in interaction
with “Not-me.” Ergo, we must always be willing to make room for the
Other, constantly adjusting our personal borders. Volf says we should
take our cue from the nature of the Trinity, a very complex identity,
indeed: very distinct individuals, yet Each is unthinkable without the
Others.
This idea is extremely intriguing, but there is still the problem
of grounding. Even if the identity of God is complex within the
Trinity, the Trinity itself is an enclosed identity: in other words,
in the traditional view, God doesn’t seem to be continually adjusting
His character in response to His Other—humankind (though some
theologians are challenging this view). So let’s change the example to
marriage: there may be constant renegotiation of territory within a
marriage. But if the “stable identity” of a marriage is compromised by
someone “embracing the other,” that seems to be an unacceptable
compromise of borders.
Thus, while Volf has many good things to say about “the will to
embrace,” a will which must transcend stark exclusionary binaries of
good and evil, it is only with difficulty that he reconciles the
absolutist, exclusionary aspect of God (i.e., Final Judgment, the
heaven/hell polarity) with His unconditional embrace. Nevertheless,
Volf has identified the core debate in contemporary culture wars as a
matter of essence and accident; that is, How much can one negotiate
before losing identity? Exclusion and Embrace is best taken as intended: not as a workable framework for multicultural society (a disappointment for those, like me, desperately longing for one) but as notion of “what kind of selves we need to be in order to live in harmony with others.” For Christians, this includes reconciling to the sense of exile, not attaching too closely to any particular culture, lowering expectations for earthly solutions, making judgments with humility, and reminding us that our unity is ultimately based on a Person.
Especially good is the stress on viewing the Cross as a motif for
all interpersonal engagement: “Having been embraced by God, we must
make space for others in ourselves and invite them in—even our
enemies.” Such self-giving “has no assurance of success, it does have
the promise of eternity because it reflects the character of the
divine Trinity.” Mike Hertenstein
First published in Cornerstone (ISSN 0275-2743),
Vol. 27, Issue 115 (1998), p. 33-34, 39 |
Copyright © 1999 Cornerstone Communications, Inc.