I don’t know how many of you have been following it, but there is a man in Afghanistan who is on trial for his faith. He converted to Christ 16 years ago. Abdul Rahman is on trial in Afghanistan for rejecting Islam, a crime that carries a death sentence by their law. He was told that if he denounced Christ and returned to Islam, the charges would be dropped and he refused. Now they are seeking to show him as mentally ill so as not to be required to execute him. All the while, Muslim clerics demand his death for what they see as a grievous attack on Islam by Satan.
I personally admire the man’s faith. I hope to be as courageous in the face of persecution as he. If executed, he will be a true martyr. Webster’s definition of a martyr is:
a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion.
In fact, it originates from the Greek word μάρτυς (martys) and means “witness, testimony”. It also came to refer to a man killed for his testimony. Now it seems to be used for anyone who dies for a cause. To me a true martyr is the former, person who is killed for what he believes. A man who straps bombs to himself to kill many innocents while taking himself with them is not a martyr.
There are those that I’ve talked with who don’t understand why he doesn’t just deny Christ and go back to Islam to save his live. Some of these people profess to be Christians and this greatly disturbs me as it shows a lack of knowledge of what it is to be Christian.
When we all became born-again, we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior. To denounce Him is essentially to lose our salvation. For further evidence of this, refer to Matthew 10:32-33:
“‘32 Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.’” – Matthew 10:32-33 NIV
This same passage has been floating around various chain messages in MySpace and Yahoo — although not reposting it, and spamming your friends with it, is not to disown him in my understanding of scripture. But that is another discussion for another time. — This passage explains why the Christian cannot simply deny his faith to save his skin.
Some may argue, “Well I’d commit this sin then ask forgiveness later.” Yet another attitude I’ve seen in more self-professing Christians around me these days. There is also a fallacy in this. While it is true that Jesus does forgive us, that is no excuse to intentionally sin. The Apostle Paul, in my opinion, put it the best in Romans chapter 6. In fact, this theme is all through Romans.
“1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” – Romans 6:1-2 NIV
We are also told that we are “not promised tomorrow” numerous times in the Bible. We are told to keep short accounts for this reason.
This also leads to another problem; loving the world. The only reason to deny Christ to save your skin would be live another day in this world. Heaven awaits me, a place far more beautiful and better than this world if I should be killed anyway.
It is also taking things in your own hands and especially telling God that you don’t trust him. If God wants him to live, I guarantee that Abdul Rahman will live. God will do something here if He wants to save him, rest assured. It may not be some obvious miracle such as breaking the cell open like He did for Paul and Silas; it may be as simple as touching a heart or two to sway them into releasing him.
No matter what the outcome, live or die, this man will be able to stand before Jesus on Judgment Day and be able to say, “I stood up for you, Jesus!” All we can do for him at this point is pray for him. And remember in your lives what GK Chesterson once said, “Jesus promised his disciples three things. They would be absurdly happy, absolutely fearless, and in constant trouble.”