People will die for their religious beliefs if they sincerely believe they're true, but will people die for their religious beliefs if they know they are false? While most people can only have faith that their beliefs are the truth, the disciples were in a position to know without a doubt whether or not Jesus had risen from the dead. If they were not absolutely certain, why would they have allowed themselves to be tortured to death for proclaiming that the resurrection had happened? All but one were offed, and there were no skin-saving last minute de-conversions.
• Matthew was killed in Ethiopia by sword.
• Mark was dragged by horses through the streets in Alexandria, Egypt until he was dead.
• Luke was hanged in Greece.
• John faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil in Rome. However, he escaped death and was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.
• Peter was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross.
• James the Just, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller's club.
• James the Greater, a son of Zebedee, was a fisherman by trade when Jesus called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, James was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem. The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.
• Bartholomew, also know as Nathanael, was a missionary to Asia. He was martyred for his preaching in Armenia when he was flayed to death by a whip.
• Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece after being whipped severely by seven soldiers. He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he expired.
• The apostle
Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the subcontinent.
• Jude, the brother of Jesus, was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.
• Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.
• The apostle
Paul was tortured and then beheaded by the Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67.
Lee Strobel, Grant Jeffrey
The writers of the New Testament make it clear that they are not intending to create legend. From the beginning, Luke in particular goes out of his way to establish that his intent is to create a historical truthful document. Legends from the time do not include details unessential to plot development, like Jesus writing in the sand when he met the adulterer (Luke 8:7), and prose fiction did not exist as a literary form in the first century.
People will die for their religious beliefs if they sincerely believe they're true, but will people die for their religious beliefs if they know they are false? While most people can only have faith that their beliefs are the truth, the disciples were in a position to know without a doubt whether or not Jesus had risen from the dead. If they were not absolutely certain, why would they have allowed themselves to be tortured to death for proclaiming that the resurrection had happened? All but one were offed, and there were no skin-saving last minute de-conversions.
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."
