I'll start with a shocker: did you know that Christianity is the world's most persecuted religion?
From the days of the early Church, right after Christ's resurrection and ascension, a group of uneducated fishermen were left with the mandate of spreading the Gospel. To go into the world and preach the Gospel to every living creature.
And that they did, starting in Jerusalem among the Jews.
But many of their fellow Jews opposed a message which they thought annulled the Law of Moses and the traditions of the fathers.
As such, they persecuted those who preached Christ.
The first Martyrs
The earliest victims of the Jewish rage were Stephen and James (the son of Zebedee and also brother of John the Apostle.)
In Acts 6–7, Stephen is falsely accused of blasphemy against Moses and God by his opponents. He's brought before the council to defend himself.
He gives quite the defense, but his words only make them angrier. Eventually, he's dragged out of the city and stoned, with his famous last words being:
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
James, the brother of John the Apostle in Acts 12, becomes a victim of King Herod's small "win hearts and minds" project.
Herod had James killed, and when he saw that it pleased the people, he went after Peter next who ultimately survived because of the believers' prayer's for him.
Then Came Rome
As the persecution of the believers intensified in Jerusalem, believers started moving out to other places spreading the Gospel.
Most notably was Philip the Evangelist in Acts 8 who as the result of the Jerusalem persecution took the Gospel to a Samarian city.
Very quickly, this became a recurring trend throughout the Roman empire. The Gospel was taken to as far as Rome and even reached parts outside of the empire such as India.
But the Romans weren't particularly fond of Christianity because Christians refused to worship the Roman gods and the emperor, which they believed threatened the empire.
Want another?
Christians were persecuted under the watch of many emperors, but two emperors in particular stand out.
One was Nero, who famously had Christians burned to light his gardens. Yes, you read that right. Light his gardens. While we don't know exactly how many Christians were killed under Nero, the brutality is well documented.
Then came Diocletian and the Great Persecution of AD 303–311. Unlike Nero's persecution, which was largely confined to Rome, this one stretched across much of the empire.
It was open season on Christians. They were hunted down, arrested, tortured, imprisoned, and executed. Some Christians were also condemned to the arenas, where public executions became entertainment for watching crowds.
The Apostles themselves would pay a heavy price for the Gospel they preached: BLOOD!
1. Peter
Peter was one of the fishermen Jesus called to be his disciple and later an Apostle. He walked on water with Jesus, denied Him three times, and later became one of the most prominent leaders of the early Church.
His death was even implied by Jesus in John 21:18-19:
Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”
He died in Rome around AD 64 - 68 during Nero’s reign. According to tradition, he was crucified upside down, considering himself unworthy to die in the same manner as Jesus.
2. Andrew
Andrew was Peter's brother and one of the first disciples Jesus called. After Christ's ascension, he took the Gospel into different parts of the ancient world, eventually reaching Patras, Greece.
Around AD 60–70, Andrew was condemned to death and crucified in Patras. He was reportedly tied rather than nailed to the cross, prolonging his death.
Even while hanging there, Andrew continued preaching to the people gathered around him until he eventually died a slow, painful death.
His cross later became famous for its distinctive X-shape, now commonly known as St. Andrew's Cross.
3. James, Son of Zebedee
We've already met James. He was the brother of John the Apostle, one of Jesus' inner circle, and one of the famous "sons of thunder."
He was killed by Herod Agrippa with the sword, making him the first of the Twelve to have his martyrdom recorded in Scripture.
4. Philip
Philip is the Apostle who once asked Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father" to which Jesus replied:
He who has seen Me has seen the Father.
This Philip is different from Philip the Evangelist in Acts 6 and 8 we looked at earlier.
Philip later preached the Gospel in Hierapolis, in modern-day Turkey, where he died as a martyr. One ancient account says he was crucified there, possibly upside down, although the exact details of his death aren't certain.
5. Bartholomew
Bartholomew was one of the twelve Apostles. He's also commonly identified as Nathanael, the man who meets Jesus in the book of John.
He was skinned alive and then beheaded in Armenia.
This has got to be the most gruesome of all the Apostles' deaths.
6. Matthew
Matthew was a tax collector who left everything behind when Jesus simply told him,
Follow Me.
- Matthew 9:9-13
After the resurrection, Matthew took the Gospel beyond Judea, preaching as far as Ethiopia and Persia.
Matthew eventually died a martyr, but the details surrounding his death remain unclear.
7. Thomas
Yes, that Thomas. The one who said:
Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
- John 20:25
Thomas went far. In AD 52, he arrived in India and spent the following years preaching the Gospel and establishing Christian communities there.
In AD 72, Thomas was martyred at Mylapore, in modern-day Chennai, where he was killed with spears. His tomb is still there today.
8. James, Son of Alphaeus
And then we have the other James.
James the son of Alphaeus appears in the lists of the Twelve, but Scripture tells us almost nothing else about him.
We simply don't know how James died.
9. Thaddaeus (Jude)
Jude, also called Thaddaeus, is another Apostle who mostly disappears from the biblical record after the Gospels. He gets one speaking line in John's Gospel (John 14:22), and that's about it.
He took the Gospel eastward, preaching in places such as Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia. He was eventually martyred in Persia, where he was reportedly killed with an axe, alongside Simon the Zealot.
10. Simon the Zealot
Simon the Zealot was martyred alongside Jude in Persia.
Scripture tells us very little about Simon beyond his place among the Twelve. He disappears from the biblical record after the book of Acts.
Some accounts say Simon was sawn in two. Dramatic? Absolutely. Historically certain? Not even close.
11. Matthias
Matthias wasn't one of the original Twelve during Jesus' ministry. He was chosen in Acts 1 to take the place left by Judas Iscariot.
According to Acts, Matthias had actually followed Jesus from the time of John's baptism all the way to the resurrection.
Accounts of Matthias' death conflict. One says he was stoned and then beheaded in Jerusalem, while others give different accounts. We simply don't know exactly how he died.
12. Paul
Now the people's favorite Apostle: Paul.
Paul wasn't one of the Twelve, but there's no way we're talking about the Apostles and leaving this man out.
Once the Church's persecutor, Paul became one of Christianity's greatest missionaries. He was beaten, imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked, and repeatedly chased out of cities, yet somehow kept going.
He was eventually beheaded in Rome under the reign of Nero.
13. John the Apostle
And finally, John.
John is the odd one out. He was the only one of the Twelve to live into old age, eventually dying at Ephesus.
But it wasn't for lack of trying.
Tertullian records that John was taken to Rome and thrown into boiling oil. Except John didn't die. He came out unharmed.
He was later exiled to the island of Patmos, where he received the Revelation.
John became the Apostle they couldn't kill.
Never Destroyed
History is littered with examples of men, as we have just seen, who gave their lives for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
They refused to save themselves by renouncing what they believed, even in the face of certain death.
And even today, Christians around the world are still being persecuted, with 13 Christians reportedly killed every day for their faith.
The good news is that Christianity has survived and even thrived under persecution.
Paul says it best:
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
- 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
NEVER DESTROYED!!!
