Christian Martyr

Christians throughout the world often suffer many types of persecution ranging from mockery and mild harassment to threats of death. The most severe religious persecution results in death. A Christian martyr is one who is murdered for refusal to renounce belief in Jesus or the Bible. The Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament records the events surrounding the first Christian martyr--Stephen, a Jew. He was stoned to death while proclaiming his commitment to Jesus as the Messiah.

Other early Christian martyrs include Jewish men: James, the son of Zebedee, who was beheaded; James the Just, the son of Alphaeus, who was crucified and stoned; Philip, who was crucified; Matthias, who was stoned and beheaded; Andrew, who was crucified; Mark; Peter; Paul; and Luke. Second and third century A.D. Christian martyrs include Polycarp, who was stabbed and burned; Ignatius; Justin; and Origen.

During the sixteenth century Reformation, the Christian martyr list includes names such as Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, Thomas More, William Tyndale, Margaret Pole, and many others. Throughout the years, millions have joined the list, simply because they were committed to their strong belief in the Bible as the infallible word of God.

As much as one would like to think that there are no longer Christian martyrs, that is simply not so. There are still many places in the world where anyone who makes a statement about believing in Jesus or the Bible is subject to death. This holds true for missionaries from many religious affiliations. Burning at the stake, decapitation, and other execution-style killings still claim the lives of Christians by the hundreds of thousands every year.

In recent years, Muslims have targeted entire Christian communities for massacre in Sudan because community members profess belief in Jesus. Tens of thousands have died as a result. In the United States in 1999, during a school shooting at Columbine High School, one of the gunmen asked a Christian student if she believed in God. When she said "yes," he shot her. A little known fact is that more Christian martyrs, 45.5 million, have been killed in the last one hundred years than in the preceding nineteen hundred years.