Convictions IV.

This is coolbert:

It has NOT always been the case that persons, when faced with the choice of either death or converting to another religion, chose "conversion". When faced with coercion, death to these persons was preferable over accepting another God.

The Jewish people in particular have been victims of such intolerant behavior for milleniums!!

From the "Jewish War" by Josephus, we read how Jews, captured by the Romans, were put to hideouos torture and eventual death by burning ALIVE!! Even children. The object was to get the captives to convert and recognize Caesar as a god.

To the amazement and probably grudging respect of the Romans, NOT A SINGLE JEW WOULD RECOGNIZE CAESAR AS GOD!! NO MATTER WHAT WAS DONE TO THEM. EVEN SMALL CHILDREN RESISTED UNTO DEATH!! A CRUEL AND HORRIBLE DEATH!!

"VICTORY WILL BE THEIRS!!

Here from CHAPTER 10. of the "Jewish War" by Josephus.

"it came to pass that many Jews were slain at
Alexandria in Egypt; for as many of the Sicarii
[Zealots] as were able to fly thither . . . and to look
upon God as their only Lord and Master . . .
and ran with great violence upon the Sicarii,
and seized upon them; and indeed six hundred of them
were caught immediately . . . whose courage,or whether
we ought to call it madness, or hardiness in their opinions,
every body was amazed at. For when all sorts of torments
and vexations of their bodies that could be
devised were made use of to them, they could not get
any one of them to comply so far
as to confess, or seem to confess, that Caesar was their lord;
but they preserved their own opinion, in spite of all
the distress they were brought to, as if they received
these torments and the fire itself with bodies insensible
of pain, and with a soul that in a manner rejoiced under
them. But what was most of all astonishing to the beholders
was the courage of the children;
for not one of these children was so
far overcome by these torments,as to name Caesar for
their lord. So far does the strength of the courage
[of the soul] prevail over the weakness of the body."

["torments and vexations=torture of the most horrible kind!!"]

["they could not get any one of them . . . to confess"]

["that Caesar was their lord"]

["the fire itself=burned alive"]

["most of all astonishing was the courage of the children"]

["not one of these children was so far overcome by these torments"]

["as to name Caesar for their lord"]

Let us get this straight now. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, some of the Zealots fled to Alexandria in Egypt. The local Jews apprehended them and turned them over to the Romans. These Zealots were slowly tortured to death while the Romans attempted them to deny their Jewish GOD and accept Caesar as God. EVEN CHILDREN WERE SUBJECTED TO TORTURE AND DEATH BY BURNING. NOT A ONE WOULD DENY THEIR FAITH. DEATH ITSELF WAS PREFERABLE!!!

And do not think that this is just an ancient thing.

In his book, "Passage to Ararat", Michael Arlen speaks of a massacre perpetrated by Turkish Muslims on the Armenian population of Istanbul in the late 1800's. Thousands of Armenian men, Christians, were clubbed to death by Islamic mobs. Mobs that first offered these unfortunates the option of converting to Islam. To accept Islam would mean you would live. To not accept would mean death by clubbing. NOT ONE ARMENIAN COVERTED TO SAVE THEIR LIFE!! THEY ALL DIED TO A MAN RATHER THAN ACCEPT CONVERSION.

What are moderns in the "western world" to make of this? Who of us has our convictions to behave as the ancient Jews did or the even the not so ancient Armenians??

I cannot say.

coolbert.