The Meaning of Martyr

Yesterday I mentioned a testimony from this great book Tortured for Christ.  Today I wanted to share with you another very important piece of information concerning the title of the ministry of The Voice of the Martyrs.

I bet most of you are thinking a martyr is someone who is killed for their cause.  In our case, as Christians, we would call someone who died for Jesus Christ a Christian martyr.  In fact, we see the first martyr in Scripture in the New Testament book of Acts when Stephen was killed by stoning for his confession of faith in Jesus Christ.

However, if you were to pick up a copy of Tortured for Christ and read the Forward, then you would learn that the word martyr in Greek means "witness." Tom White, USA Director for The Voice of the Martyrs writes,

St. Augustine once stated, "The cause, not the suffering, makes a genuine martyr."  In his play Murder in the Cathedral, T.S. Eliot describes a martyr as one "who has become an instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, not lost it but found it, for he has found freedom in submission to God.  The martyr no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of martyrdom."

I don't know about you, but if I'm understanding this correctly, all Christians are martyrs if we truly live our lives the way He calls us to. Blessed be His name!