Willing to Die for a Lie?

As a pastor and counselor, I have always been interested in why people react and behave the way they do. What really causes individuals to do what they do? Most behavior is fairly easy to explain, but there are certain behaviors that seem impossible to understand and certainly to explain. For example, would you be willing to allow yourself to be tortured, and even killed, for a story you knew to be a lie?

People have been known to deny the truth in the face of torture, pain, and the threat of death. But to face torture and death for a story that you know to be a lie? History is filled with hundreds of accounts of deathbed confessions...people who wanted to clear the record before they met their Maker. And it is an accepted fact that "a dying person never lies."

So what kind of person would allow himself to be tortured for something he knew to be a lie? Men do not willingly face torture and death for a story or cause they know to be fictitious. Men do not willingly die for something they know to be a lie!

May I tell you a story about a man and the agonizing torture to which he was submitted? In the country where this man lived, the rulers were particularly cruel. (They would make Adolf Hitler appear to be a nice guy!) The rulers arrested this man and tortured him because of a story he was telling to anyone and everyone who would listen. They devised the most horrible, painful torture they could think of because they were determined to get this man to admit that the story he was telling was a lie.

They tied ropes around each of his wrists and hoisted him in the air. Then they swung him around until he hung over a pot of boiling oil. With him hanging only inches above the pot of oil they again ordered him to admit that the story he was telling was a lie. He would not. He could not!

They dipped his body into the vat of boiling oil. Can you imagine the agony, the horrible pain? Would anyone allow this to happen to himself for a lie? Men do not willingly suffer this kind of torture for a cause they know to be a lie.

There was another man, in another country who was also arrested and tortured because he would not admit the same story was a lie. The authorities literally skinned him alive to try and make him confess that what he was saying was a lie.

The first man was the Apolstle John and the second was the Apostle Bartholomew. Christian history records that John survived his torture and died an old man. Bartholomew, after being skinned alive, was crucified. Neither man ever admitted that what they were saying was a lie.

I could tell you many more tales from early Church History of men who died because they would not admit that the story they were telling was a lie. In fact, all of the disciples of Christ, were tortured and died for the same storoy:

Peter - Crucified head down.
Andrew - Crucified on a cross-shopped like an "X"; he preached to his torturers until he died.
James - Beheaded.
Philip - After scourging, he was hanged against a pillar.
Thomas - Thrust through with a spear.
Matthew - Died by a sword.
James the Less - Beaten and stoned; his brains were beaten out with a club.
Thaddeus - Crucified.
Simon - Crucified.
Jude - Shot to death with arrows.
Matthias - Stoned and beheaded.
Barnabas - Stoned to death.

And then take the case of PAUL. You can read in II Corinthiasn 11:24 about the torture he endured:
...He was lashed five times, receiving 39 lashes each time.
...He was beaten with rods three times.
...He was stoned, and left for dead.
And, finally, he was beheaded by the infamous Nero of Rome.

What was the story, the message that these men would not admit to as a lie? It was the empty tomb story about Jesus the Christ. Even in face of the threat of horrible torture, and even on their deathbeds, each of these men never once denied the resurrection of Jesus Christ. "He is Alive!: is the message of Easter that they died for. More people have died in history for that message than any other!

One other interesting fact to consider about the story these men told: The message of the resurrection was first preached by these same men in the city where the crucifixion took place within a twenty minute walk of the empty tomb!

As a pastor and counselor, I have always been interested in why people behave the way they do. The deaths of the Disciples intrigue me, not just because they died painful, horrible martyr's deaths, but because something happened in their lives that turned fishermen, tax collectors, ordinary guys into men who were willing to die for their beliefs. They never denied the truth of their story. The only explanation is the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

This article was written by Waylon O. Ward M.Ed., Executive Director of Mercy Matters, a ministry dedicated to helping men experience resurrection life personally. For permission to reprint or for additional information, call (214) 415-3486 or write the author at PO Box 275, Colleyville, TX 76034.