You are correct that those who are regarded as Christian martyrs in history seemed to lack faith in the gospel concerning the miraculous. It is also true that a person can think that he is a martyr for the faith, but then goes straight to hell when he dies. This is what happens when he has a lot of zeal merely as a function of his personality, but no genuine faith in the gospel, or if he dies for something that is not the gospel at all. Even non-Christian religions have their martyrs, but their deaths evince only their delusion.

True Christians who die for their faith are heroes, and we would not want to take this honor away from them. They are our examples. We gladly make this acknowledgment, and express our gratitude and admiration. That said, right is right, and wrong is wrong. Consider the apostle Peter, who transgressed a most elementary principle of the gospel when he stopped eating with the Gentiles at Antioch. What made this especially inexcusable was that God himself told him in a vision, “Do not call anything unclean that God has made clean.” Right is right, wrong is wrong, and Peter was wrong. Therefore, Paul publicly rebuked him and withstood him to his face.

Thus we see the gospel of Jesus Christ possesses higher authority than even an apostle of Jesus Christ. God indeed attested to the gospel through the apostles after the Lord first declared it, but when they transgressed this standard — and it was possible, as Peter demonstrated — they were censured by this same standard. Paul said that if “we” — anyone who brought the gospel to the people in the first place — if anyone, including himself, preached a different gospel than the one he delivered, then let him be accursed. In fact, he said that even if an angel “from heaven” — not a demonic impostor — preached a different gospel, let him also be accursed. He said this indiscriminately to the Galatians, to a group of unstable and ordinary Christians. So it does not require an apostle to confront an apostle or angel who teaches false doctrine. Any believer has the authority to disagree with even a real apostle or angel if he comes with a gospel different from the one already delivered. The gospel carries the very authority of God. It is a standard that can judge any apostle or angel. Since this is the case, we should much more eagerly acknowledge the errors in our heroes, scholars, and creeds, regardless of how much history and tradition pressure us to respect them.

What is this gospel, once-for-all delivered? Within a short space in this same letter to the Galatians, we observe at least three pillars of truth. First, Christ the Son has come in the flesh through a woman (4:4). Thus we affirm the divinity and humanity of Christ. Second, Christ the Redeemer has atoned for sin by his death (3:1). We affirm justification by faith alone, without the works of the law. Third, Christ the Baptizer has endowed his people with miracle power by his Spirit, and God works miracles among his people not because of the works of the law, and not because of persons and periods, but because the people believe the gospel (3:5). Therefore, we affirm that Christians can receive superhuman and supernatural power by the Spirit, and that miracles, prophecies, and other signs and wonders are available to each one because of faith, and not only because of special gifts and ministries. As a Christian, I have the authority to smite any genuine apostle or even an angel from heaven who preaches a message that deviates from these pillars of the gospel. God is greater than any apostle or angel, and this is the gospel he has established. This third point is inseparable from the gospel, because it is the gospel. It is the gospel just like the first point is the gospel, and just like the second point is the gospel. In fact, Paul uses this third point as proof for the second point.

The Bible provides us with its own martyrs, and these are heroes and examples that the inspired record wishes us to follow. They are our prototypes, and offer us more excellent patterns and promises. The Bible has much to say about suffering for the faith, and one way the martyrs glorified God was their testimony and experience of the miraculous.

Daniel was thrown into a den of lions, but the next day he was able to say to the king, “My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions.” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were about to be thrown into a furnace, and they said to the king, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” They said that they would remain true to God “even if he does not” deliver them from death. They had the spirit of martyrdom, and they were prepared to die for God, but at the same time, they had faith that God would rescue them. What happened? The flames killed those who threw them into the furnace, but Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego themselves were not harmed. When they came out, the king saw that their clothes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. They did not merely survive, but they completely triumphed. And they triumphed not only in spirit or in attitude, but they dominated the natural forces.

Herod had imprisoned Peter, and intended to bring him before the people. As Peter was asleep between two soldiers, bound with chains, the angel of the Lord came to him. He had to hit Peter to wake him, and the chains fell off from his hands. The iron gate opened by itself, and the apostle walked out to freedom. Paul and Silas were beaten and jailed. In prison, they prayed and sang praises to God. Suddenly there came an earthquake so violent that the very foundations of the prison were shaken, and all the doors were opened, and everybody’s chains were loosed. Paul wrote that he received lashes five times, he was beaten with rods three times, and once he was stoned. Any one of these instances could have disabled or sometimes killed a man, but he was still traveling and preaching. He demonstrated in his body the healing and sustaining power of God. Sometimes suffering for the gospel is not caused by man. Paul was shipwrecked three times, but he lived. He was bitten by a viper, but he was immune.

One might argue that not every person in the Bible who suffered for the faith experienced miraculous deliverance. However, this reminder is self-damning, because it acknowledges that many of them indeed experienced miraculous deliverance, so that at least some of us should experience the same if we belong to the same heritage. If we do not expect at least some of us to experience the same spectacular and miraculous deliverance, then the remark that not all of them in the Bible experienced deliverance would be meaningless, since we have entirely cut ourselves off from the biblical pattern in the first place. If we have cut ourselves off from the biblical martyrs, then to appeal to them only results in condemnation. Nevertheless, even those who died often experienced the power of God. For example, as Stephen was stoned to death, he received one of the most wonderful visions recorded in Scripture – he saw the very glory of God and Jesus Christ standing at his right hand. And he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Do not hold this sin against them.” Then the disciples scattered and preached the gospel wherever they went, and the word of God increased in influence. What a hero of the faith! He brought triumph to the gospel in life and in death. Some martyrs in the Bible died without fanfare, but of course not one of them was a cessationist, and they often experienced the revelations and miracles of God throughout their lives.

Sometimes we indeed come across testimonies about God’s miraculous deliverance of those who face persecution. Although we probably hear about only a fraction of these, we still wish that there are more of them, and we work toward this end by teaching the truth about God’s power as the gospel — not as part of the gospel, but as the gospel, just like the deity of Christ is the gospel, just like the atonement by Christ is the gospel. Power from Christ is also the gospel.

There was a missionary who was surrounded by some tribesmen, and he said to his companions, “These men intend to execute us. Let us commit our lives to God before we leave this tent and face them.” So they knelt and prayed. But when they walked out, the people dropped their weapons. They fell on their faces and worshiped. Later the tribesmen explained that when the Christians came out of the tent, they saw coming out behind them large human-like creatures dressed in white and armed with swords. When the missionary told the story back in the United States, one woman told him that she was moved to pray in tongues for a long time one night, and had the impression that she was interceding for his life. When she showed him the record in her diary, he realized that it was the same date and time of his encounter with the tribesmen. An account like this should not surprise us. It sounds wonderful, but also normal. There is nothing here that stretches the expectation or the imagination of any ordinary reader of the Bible.

We ought to expect such occurrences as a matter-of-course. And if we refuse to believe someone’s testimony, we should at least believe the Scripture. When the king of Aram sent a large army of horses and chariots to surround Dothan in order to seize Elisha, the prophet’s servant panicked and said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” Elisha answered, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then he prayed, “Lord, open his eyes that he may see,” and the servant saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Why would anyone consider it incredible that several of these — or several thousand of these — would also stand behind a missionary of the gospel? And why would anyone consider it incredible that sometimes they could become visible? The only explanation is spiritual blindness. The only explanation is a wicked, stubborn, demonic unbelief. A person can call himself a scholar, a defender of the faith, a servant of “the prophet” or Scripture, and be spiritually blind. Spiritually stupid.

The way to honor the biblical martyrs is to follow their examples of courage, faith, and doctrine. And the way to honor the historical martyrs is to follow their courage, but in faith and doctrine to believe even those things in the gospel that they rejected due to their sin, unbelief, and ignorance. Surely, if they loved the Lord Jesus enough to die for him, they would also want everyone after them to have more faith and to believe more of the gospel than they did. Surely they would not want anyone to have less faith and to believe less of the gospel. The greatest insult to the legacy of the martyrs come from those who perpetuate the satanic lies that God no longer works miracles as he does in the Bible, that God’s promises mean something other than what they clearly say, and that God’s powers were exclusively restricted to certain persons and periods. If the martyrs suffered and died for their testimony about the word of God, then we must never allow this word of God to become a mere memorial to us, but we must live out what it says, and all of what it says.

From: email