As I noted in a previous series, masses of people have been martyred for their stand for Jesus Christ. A number of martyrdom’s have been televised world-wide. Did this outward expression of Christian faith automatically qualify them for salvation? Did their sincerity and good intentions save their souls? If we are to believe the Word of God, the answer is No. The Jesus they believed in and the salvation they believed they had received were bogus. The messiah they died for and the salvation they supposedly had attained were based on the Satanic teachings of Catholicism/Protestantism.

With rare exception, those within professing Christendom believe that martyrs of all ages were saved and born again simply because of their religiosity. In my part of the country they would be described as having been “active in church.” The Counterfeit Church can be compared to quicksand. No matter how hard one works (religious activity), down is the only direction one will go. Unless, that is, the victim allows the Lord to pull him/her out of Satan’s quagmire (separate from his religious body), gets cleansed of the slime (reject all teachings), turns away from it (reject its beliefs and traditions) and obeys the Word of God (walks the Word way). Most in the church would assume that the people discussed in this and the previous posting had been “saved,” “born again” and were guaranteed a mansion in heaven in spite of their transgressions. But were they? We will now study the lives of several other people who, finding themselves in similar situations for seemingly the same reason, faced death for the true God.

In the 3rd chapter of the Book of Daniel we find 3 Hebrew boys–Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego–being ordered by the Babylonian king to bow down to his heathen god under threat of death. Refusing to bow, they prepared to face whatever fate the Lord had decreed for them. The threat of death by fire did not move them to bow to a false god. They could have taken the easy way out–bow to the idol while praying to their God. But they refused and were thrown into the fire. Unlike the martyrs mentioned above, had they died they would have died for the only true God.

Daniel, some of the Old Testament prophets, all of the New Testament Apostles except John, Jesus Christ and many others have been put to death for believing and obeying the Biblical God. See Hebrews 11. These people died as Christians. Those unwitting souls martyred for their belief in and obedience to the church’s god died in vain, the victims of Satan’s religious system.

I have heard people laud the “Christian values” and “Christian lives” of famous preachers and entertainers who were known by one and all to be the exact opposite of what they professed to be. (Martin Luther King and Elvis Presley readily come to mind). Both were held up as “men of God” because of their public displays and pronouncements of churchiness. They, along with Naaman, Balaam, Simon, Ananias and Saffhira would one and all be welcomed with open arms by the churches in Satan’s religious organizations. All one need do is complete the prescribed ritual, get dunked in water, say the religiously correct words, wear a cross, tithe, show up in a church regularly, etc. and one is a Christian beyond doubt, especially if he/she is rich and famous. Jesus had much to say about such false Christians.

We do not need to guess where we stand in the eyes of God–He tells us in His Word. Now if He could just convince church people to study it, believe it and obey it. As He said in Matthew 7:13,14, only a few will do so and live with Him forever in the Kingdom of God. Would you be one of the few? L.J.