Johnnie Moore - The Martyrs Oath: Living for the Jesus Theyre Willing to Die for

ILL NEVER FORGET witnessing two thousand followers of Jesus take a martyrs oath.

I was in India attending the graduation at a Bible school founded by one of my mentors, the late Bishop M. A. Thomas. He not only knew firsthand the sting of persecution and the reality of holding a minority faith in a dangerous world, but he also knew the power of Gods love to soften even the hardest heart. Born into poverty, he had walked across India to the area where God called him, wearing a giant placard with the gospel written on it so he could minister along the way. Once he arrived, he was thrown in prison, but he led so many inmates to Christ that the jailers kicked them all out. Those inmates became the first members of his church.

The ministry he founded in Kota in 1960 grew and eventually established ninety-five Bible institutes, sixty-one orphanages, forty-three thousand church plants, a hospital, medical clinics, substance abuse programs, and a publishing arm that prints literature in the countless languages of India. attempts and walked with a limp because he was beaten so many times. Yet he wore a prominent cross around his neck to ensure extremists would recognize him. He was not ashamed of the cross.

Bishop Thomas made it clear that each of his students would be qualified for graduation only once they stood and confessed their willingness to serve Jesus even if it meant their death. They were to repeat after him, word for word, a martyrs oath. And they did standing in an open-air tent next to a church that was too small to house them all. To this day, that church has a memorial next to its platform listing the names of the graduates who have already been martyred for Jesus.

One year extremists threw Molotov cocktails over the wall during a gathering the day before the graduation service, threatening to kill Bishop Thomas and burn the church. I can still hear Bishop Thomass resonant voice booming over the microphone. Listen to me! he said. Tomorrow there will be a service at this church. It will be a funeral service or a graduation service, but there will be a service!

He was fearless.

The first time I witnessed the graduation, it shook my faith in a way I had never felt before. The temperatures soared over one hundred degrees without even a whiff of breeze, and an aroma of spices and humanity filled the still air as two thousand students pressed together with their family and friends. Unlike the American culture I was accustomed to, no one complained about the heat, the smell, or the inconvenience while singing I Surrender All.

Word by word, the resolute roar of the students voices rose from that dusty tent as they pledged their lives and deaths to Jesus. I remember thinking that I was standing in the book of Acts, witnessing a raw, first-century Christianity that Id been shielded from in the United States. I felt deprived yet suddenly spiritually alive in an entirely new way.

My faith finally made sense. All the disparate parts of the New Testament came together in my heart as I witnessed this authentic expression of faith in Jesus. Real faith in Jesus. These bold brothers and sisters werent just willing to live for Jesus; they were willing to die for him.

I asked myself as I have a thousand times since Why are so few of us in America willing to live for Jesus when others are so willing to die for him? Seeing Jesus through the eyes of the persecuted church transformed me.

Ive written this book because I believe seeing your faith through their eyes will change you, too. My prayer for you is that their stories will change your life in a way you desperately need. Perhaps it will change you in a way you dont even know you need.

Ive also written this book because the Bible declares, If one part [of the body] suffers, all the parts suffer with it (1 Corinthians 12:26, NLT ). I feel like we barely care or barely know the stories of our persecuted brothers and sisters. Either is an unspeakable tragedy. As my friends at Open Doors International are fond of saying, If you follow Jesus, theres a part of your family you need to know: those who are suffering and those who will die for Jesus.

Some estimate that every five minutes, a Christian is martyred for the faith. Christians who have come before them so compelling that they will not weaken or renounce their faith regardless of the cost.

It has cost them their lives. The gospel has cost most of us nothing.

My team and I have crisscrossed the world, recorders in hand, to gather reports from survivors, asking them to tell us what God is doing in and through ordinary people who meet extraordinary circumstances with overcoming faith.