Tag Archives: martyrdom

Powerful Testimonies of Christian Martyrdom in modern Iran

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These are very sobering accounts of current martyrs in the last 10-20 years in the modern country of Iran. There is a great work of God in underground house Churches in Iran but the cost to see the Gospel go forward in this closed country is tremendous.

This is an excerpt from the soon to be released free Principles eBook:

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On January 19, 1994, Haik disappeared from the streets of Tehran. The authorities reported his death to his family on January 30; he was stabbed 26 times in his chest: “Indeed, Haik gave his heart to Christ twice. Once when he invited Christ to his life as his Savior, and second, when his heart was torn apart for his faith in Christ.”

Martyr Mehdi Dibaj wrote:

“I have always envied those Christians who were martyred for Christ Jesus our Lord. What a privilege to live for our Lord and to die for Him as well. I am filled to overflowing with joy; I am not only satisfied to be in prison but am ready to give my life for the sake of Jesus Christ.”

Iranians Abbas Amiri and his wife Sakineh Rahnama, who hosted an underground house Church service died from injuries sustained when secret police raided their house Church service and severely beat them to death. Abbas died right away. Before becoming a Christian Abbas had been a devout Muslim even making a pilgrimage to Mecca. His wife died less than a week later. At the house Church service were seven other men, six women and two children.

Martyr Mohammad Ali Jafarzadeh, was executed by hanging in Evin Prison in Iran.

Martyr Mohammad Jaberi was also executed by hanging in Evin Prison in Iran.

Martyr Pastor Ghorbandordi Tourani an Iranian house Church leader was murdered near his house.

Martyr Pastor Mohammed Bajher Yusefi, affectionately known by his flock as Ravanbaksh, or soul giver, was murdered. He had left his house to spend time in prayer, but he never returned. The Iranian authorities notified the family later that evening that his body had been found hanging from a tree in a nearby forest. Pastor Yusefi was survived by his wife, Akhtar, who is also is from a Muslim background, his 7-year-old son Stephen, and his 9-year-old daughter Ramsina.

Recently a brother was arrested and put on trial for his faith in Iran and he shared this exhortation in a letter: “One day there are intense pains after beatings in interrogations, the next day they are nice to you and offer you candy. These hot and colds only make you a man of steel for moving forward in expanding His Kingdom. When for 120 days you are asleep in a room with one big light that is constantly lit and does not separate day or night and when you can only see true sunlight for a few minutes a week, that’s when you are becoming His workmanship and you can be a vessel in bringing His kingdom in a dark place and you are able to share the Gospel of peace and life to the dying world. And this is where you learn you can love your enemies with all of your heart.”

The sadness and hurt of any believer in Christ being martyred is hard to bear. Yet from an eternal mindset and perspective there is a glory and esteem the Iranian believers have for those who have laid down their lives for the cause of Christ. The stories of the martyrs in Iran are many. Above we have mentioned a few.

Such lives are not laid down in vain, but are paving the way for the furtherance of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. As Tertullian  said in his Apology in AD 200: “The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow. The blood of Christians is seed.” This seed is being sown in Iran today and we should expect a vibrant harvest of souls in the coming days before the coming of our Lord.

 

Practical Suggestion to prepare for coming persecution and suffering

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Persecution for true believers in Jesus Christ is increasing world-wide. End Times opposition of the Gospel is here and the devil knows his time is short. As it becomes more and more difficult to be a born again spirit-filled believer in the West what can we do as practical preparation?  We know that the greatest preparation for all of life’s difficulties is to abide in Jesus Christ in daily trust, relationship and prayer. 

Yet there are still some practical things we can to so these days will not come on us unawares.

These suggestions come from the soon to be released Principles free eBook:

 

We offer a few practical suggestions:

1) One to start with is to read the lives of martyrs in the Christian faith. One such book widely available is: Foxes Book of Martyrs.

2) Develop a theology of suffering from the Scriptures and don’t allow small inconveniences and pains to disturb you. The Romanian pastor who suffered much under communism gives us some good advice: “Preparation for underground work begins by studying sufferology, martyrology. The preparation for underground work is deep spiritualization. As we peel an onion in preparation for its use, so God must ‘peel’ from us what are mere words, sensations of our enjoyments in religion, in order to arrive at the reality of our faith. Jesus has told us ‘that whosoever will follow’ Him will have to ‘take up their cross,’ and He, Himself, showed how heavy this cross can be. We have to be prepared for this.”685

3) Study the Scriptures towards the theme of martyrdom especially in the Book of Revelation. Learn to practice memorization as an underground Church pastor did while in solitary confinement: “I read the Bible from memory. To memorize the Bible is very important for an underground worker.”686

May we also be bold to stand for the Name of Jesus Christ before others, and therefore not be ashamed before Him at His coming.687

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Footnotes:

685  Richard Wumbrand

686  Richard Wumbrand

687  1 John 2:28

 

The True Evidence of the Spirit Baptism in a believers life in the body of Christ

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There have been many teachings on the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church and the need for an experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We have heard and experienced so many wrong teachings on the subject that true believers shun away from this experience or to even talk or teach about it. But Acts 1:4-5 says:

And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Many teach that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit will have with it a special manifestation or experience. Others teach that when you receive that baptism experience you are truly saved then. Others teach it is a power that we can utilize for miracles and to have power in such outward ways. Others say it is a one-time experience that gives sanctification and perfect wholeness. But what does the Baptism experience do? Can it be experienced today?

Through simply looking at the Scriptures we see that the Lord exhorts us to receive many filling’s of the Holy Spirit and such times of this give power to be witnesses and to live holy lives. If an experience of the Holy Spirit does not encourage saints to live godly and to take up their cross daily and suffer then the baptism is not clearly accomplishing what the Lord intended. We see clearly in Scripture this experience happened many times to the Apostles and early disciples and it allowed them to have the grace to lay down their lives in martyrdom as missionaries around the known world. It also gave them a supernatural love for enemies and the world to preach the Gospel.

Here is an excerpt from the Principles Book where brother Brian Long shares his burden on this subject:

 

THE EVIDENCE OF THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT

What is the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit?  Power!  Power to become holy – because He is the Holy Spirit – power to be witnesses of Christ!  You know better than I because I don’t know Greek, but I know this Greek word for ‘witnesses’: martus.  The same word for martyrs.  The same word in other parts in the scripture where they actually use the word ‘martyr;’ Acts 22:20, the Apostle Paul speaking of Stephen:

“And when the blood of thy martyr [martus] Stephen was shed.”

Revelation 2, Jesus speaking of Antipas:

“I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.”

“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs [martus] of Jesus:”

Witnesses / martyrs: a holy people endued with power from on-high who did not love their lives to the death.  How?  You tell me, how did that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us – some of them sawn in two, some of them ripped apart by lions in an arena as the crowd cheered, jeered, mocked, some of them burned at the stake – they never denied Christ; never stopped loving their enemies; never stopped preaching; never stopped praising the Lord even in the midst as their bodies burned.

How?!  ‘Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord.’  That’s the only way, brothers and sisters.  Lydia Perpetua – a 22 year old mother – had her baby boy taken away from her, thrown into prison, thrown into an arena of wild beasts . . . and finally was martyred at the end of the sword of a gladiator in that arena.  While she was laying there before she died, cried out ‘Give up the world.  Stand fast in the faith.  Love one another.  Don’t let our suffering become a stumbling block to you.’ How did a 22 year old mother do that?  ‘Not by might, nor by power but my Spirit says the Lord’ – she was filled with the Holy Spirit.  There is no other way.

Allan Cameron, a Scottish covenanter, while being held in prison, they bring to him the head and the hands of his son.  They cruelly asked him, if he knew them.  He said ‘Yes, I know them . . . I know them’ as he kissed them ‘they are my son’s . . . my own dear son’s.  It is the Lord . . . good is the will of the Lord who cannot wrong me nor mine, but has made goodness and mercy to follow us all of our days.’ How did he do it?  ‘Not by might, not by power but my Spirit says the Lord.’  You must be filled with the Holy Spirit.  We must be endued with power from on-high.  We need the Spirit of the Living God.

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Footnotes:

706 Acts 1:8

707 Acts 22:20

708 Revelation 2:13

709 Revelation 17:6

 

The Great Persecution that is Soon to Come Upon the Remnant Church

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I believe that persecution is coming to the Church, the Remnant, whoever truly belongs to Jesus. I do not believe that God’s hand will be stayed in this because I believe that He has His purpose and that it is part of the prophetic calendar. So let me lay out for you how I ” see,” the times that are approaching. There is something that we call Christendom. To me, that is everything that calls itself by the name of Christ. This would include every denomination, including Catholics, Pentecostals, Baptists, Evangelicals a host of Non-denominational churches and the man in the street who does not go to any church but if you were to push him, he would call himself either a believer or a Christian.

Now let me say plainly, I believe that only a very small percentage of that which calls itself Christian is in fact true born-again, new creature in Christ, sold out disciples of Jesus. Various men have given numbers over the years, Ravenhill once said that he reckoned only 7% of professing Christians in America were actually Christians. The truth is, I have no idea. I do know that Jesus said that many were called but few were chosen and that the road to heaven was a narrow one and few there were that found it. That’s not so complicated and I see no need to complicate it further by adding to what Jesus said.

And so, how will the persecution come about and who will persecute the saints of God, martyring them and believing they are doing God a favor by doing it? Well, I believe that the vast majority of Christendom that is not saved will soon morph into the great whore church. What is this great whore church? Well it will be a church that will bring together the major religions of the world under one roof. Islam, Judaism and Christianity will join together under a false prophet who will testify to the authenticity of the man of peace, the anti-Christ. Tumultuous circumstances in the world will give rise to this anti-Christ. People of every nation will be mesmerized by him and by his displays of power. Only the saints will not falL for this grand delusion. And as they refuse to follow him they become the targets of hatred of the world in general and specifically the religious.

Now I believe that there will be a direct correlation between the rise of persecution of the pouring out of God’s Spirit upon His people. What will come first I do not know. I lean towards persecution coming first and God pouring His Spirit into His people in order for them to deal with this, yet I also believe that prior to the beginnings of the great tribulation that God will pour out His Spirit upon His people in measure and that this will really be the beginnings of a deep hatred from the religious people. You see, there are many who desire to see a great outpouring of His Spirit but there are few who embrace the cross of Calvary, few who embrace the hard narrow path of the Word of God.

And so who amongst us can embrace a God that has martyrdom in mind for us? Some may see this kind of thinking as some kind of doom and gloom preaching. Yet, the people who I am writing this article too know very well that this is not so. You see, the Bride-groom is coming back for His bride the Church. We know that the time is short. And so we would celebrate the end of the ages because the Lord is coming. We know that we have been walking through a dry and thirsty land, a land in the midst of famine, and whatever it takes for God to pour out His Spirit in power, then the child of God embraces that. If it takes a mighty confrontation on the mountain for the rain to come , then so it must be. If the word has to go out ” choose ye this day whom you will serve,” then that word must go out. If the five virgins without oil must be warned then they must be warned. If there is a generation of saints that are alive at the culmination of the ages and that generation has to be us, then praise the Lord for He knows what He is doing.

This excerpt is from: http://acalltotheremnant.com/the-great-persecution-that-is-soon-to-come-upon-the-remnant-church/

 

Brothers and Sisters I believe this is an important theme and consideration for all of us to consider. Are we prepared for God’s eternal purpose for His end times body of Christ? Are we considering that we will be a fulfilment of Hebrews 11 where many suffered greatly and were martyred for simply being God’s people.

The end times people of God in the world will be a martyr people.

 

Revelation 17

New King James Version (NKJV)

The Scarlet Woman and the Scarlet Beast

17 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me,[a] “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.[b] 5 And on her forehead a name was written:

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH.

6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

Footnotes:

  1. Revelation 17:1 NU-Text and M-Text omit to me.
  2. Revelation 17:4 M-Text reads the filthiness of the fornication of the earth.

 

Hated by All Nations For The Testimony of Christ by Greg Gordon

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There is a coming great persecution upon Christianity in the west and other protected pockets in the world.

In places where the has been a protected Gospel witness, there will come such a sweeping persecution that even if it were told before of what would happen no one would believe it. You might ask how do you know that this is going to happen? I do not claim to have a vision, revelation or any special spiritual knowledge to say these things rather as I have read through Matthew 24 and other clear prophetic passages in the bible, it is very clear there will be a world-wide hatred of Christians in the end times.

Our Lords words are painfully clear and poignant as they were written 2000 years ago:

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.” (Matthew 24:9-11)

As we read the Scriptures carefully and slowly we will be shocked to find truths that modern preachers, ignore and with dispensational theologies confuse the masses by stating these words do not apply to us as Christians.

Yet the truth is that these words do apply to Christians of all ages and they more readily apply to us whom these Scriptures could see their fulfilment.

The one particular phrase sheds light into the awful occurrences that will prevail in the end times:

“…you will be hated by all nations because of me.” (Matthew 24:9)

Notice our Lord Jesus states “all nations”, not some nations or not even America and Israel will be exempt.

They will all be haters of those who follow Jesus Christ and will put to death these out of hatred of all that true Christianity stands for. America persecuting and hating those who name the name of Christ? Yes, it will surely happen.

Yet our Lord further speaks of something even ore controversial with our modern evangelical mind:

“many will turn away from the faith…” ( (Matthew 24:10)

In the earlier ministry of Jesus Christ at one point in John 6 there is a very large crowd following Him. Perhaps even the largest crowd that followed the master in those days. It is very interesting to see Jesus’s repines to such interest in His claims and power. His response was to preach a hard saying, ” Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.’” (John 6:53).

He basically said “its all in or nothing” either you are fully committed to me or you have no part with me.

Such a radical Gospel and discipleship was not in their plans of incorporating Jesus into their lives. And the sad response John gives in his Gospel:

“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” (John 6:66)

They stopped following Him.

They gave up on the road to discipleship and went back to fashioning a god of their own making in their own likeness. And such is what the Lord says: “many” (more then just a few), will “turn away.” They will deny the Lord that bought them and go back to an life of living for self.

Do you believe this is possible for yourself?

When the pressures of persecution for the Name of Christ and an unwarranted hatred comes against you simply because you adore and worship Jesus Christ. Will you be able to stand in that day?

It will be easy to follow the multitudes, the “many” who will be turning away from the faith. Yet our Lord desires we stay true to His calling and Name by His grace. He states to the church of Philadelphia: “I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” (Revelation 3:8) Also in the city of Pergamum: “Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.” (Revelation 2;13).

May God find us with these faithful churches that happily and with hope endured much for the kingdom of God and do not allow compromise and lukewarmness to allow them to drift away from being bold for the Lord.

This falling away is shown in (2 Thessalonians 2:3) “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness[a] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.”

May God preserve us in that day and allow us to ruthlessly cling to Jesus Christ as our hope and salvation and be willing to bear the lose of all things for His name sake.

Our great security in Christ is never at jeopardy as we continue to abide with Him daily.

Sitting at His feet and learning of Him, the great Shepard of the sheep will keep them. Let us stay close to our Master and none of these things will befall us. But let these words bring fear to our souls also to pray for strength for these coming days and to do the will of the Father and live.

“Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.” (1 John 3:13)

Now 2000 years later let us not either be surprised that the entire world system will hate us who call ourselves after the Name of Christ. Be valiant for His testimony, suffering and martyrdom will soon be not abstract theology but practical reality. May we learn of the Lord now how to endure for that time ahead. His “grace is sufficient” (2 Corinthians 12:9). And He will bear us up in that day for His glory sake. Amen.