|
“I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
(John 16:33 HCSB)
|
|
As Victors
It all began as my boss, Herr Depuhl, and I discussed the evil represented by the Iron Curtain. A few of our students that came to Christ Camp in West Germany travelled from the east and it was heart-rending to send newly-minted Christians back there after a week of camp. [By the way, the Warsaw Pact designs toward Christians are described by sociologist Paul Froese in his very thorough recent book The Plot to Kill God. It’s a remarkable description of the totalitarian Soviet regime of the 20th century and their wholesale persecution of Christians.]
What Mike Depuhl wanted me to understand is that for 2000 years the plot to kill God has been the norm. One day, my boss told me to take a day off so that he could show me something important. We drove to the lovely town of Xanten on the Dutch border. Herr Depuhl took me down into the crypt under the cathedral in Xanten. There, he showed me a pile of bones in a glass case and told me their story…
1900 years ago, Xanten was the furthest north colony of the Roman Empire. Over the ensuing years, many there came to faith in Jesus as Christianity spread through the Roman world. But in 362 A.D. Christians were severely persecuted across that province. And in Xanten, a Roman officer named Victor was accused of being a Christian. He proudly confessed Jesus, along with a few of his fellow soldiers. They were killed in the amphitheater. Other Christians saved their bodies and venerated the bones. Even as the Roman Empire retreated and disintegrated…even as wild barbarians streamed in…the Christians remembered their brave brethren. Eventually those believers converted many of the barbarians to Christianity and their children built St. Victor’s church over the site of the martyr’s bones.
Herr Depuhl told me all this and more. Then he said, “You mustn’t think the freedom to run our Christian camp is normal. Nor is your freedom to teach the Bible or even to live as a Christian normal. We are blessed. But this [pointing to Victor’s bones] is normal. We need to be ready to live and die as Victors.” |