Memorial Day 2022: Remembering Those
Introduction
Memorial Stones (Pointing to the Past Works of God)
Remembering those who Paid the Cost
Polycarp
The kindly, old bishop entered the arena under armed guard. The stands were filled with an angry mob; their shouts filled the air.
Suddenly, a voice from heaven spoke to the bishop, saying, “Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man.” Despite the noise from the crowd, many of those who stood nearby also heard the heavenly voice.
Once inside the arena, the soldiers quickly brought Polycarp before the Roman proconsul. Polycarp, the well-known Bishop of Smyrna, was the last living link with the twelve apostles, as he had studied under John. As soon as the crowd learned that this famous bishop had been arrested, a great cheer went up.
The proconsul tried to get Polycarp to deny Jesus Christ: “Swear by the fortune of Caesar. Take the oath and I will release you. Curse Christ!”
The bishop stood firm. “Eighty-six years have I served the Lord Jesus Christ, and He never once wronged me. How can I blaspheme my King who has saved me?”
The proconsul threatened, “I have wild beasts ready, and I will throw you to them if you do not change your mind.”
“Let them come, for my purpose is unchangeable,” replied Polycarp.
“If the wild beasts don’t scare you, then I will burn you with fire,” said the proconsul.
“You threaten me with a fire which will burn for an hour and then will go out, but you are ignorant of the fire of the future judgment of God reserved for the everlasting torment of the ungodly. But why do you delay? Bring on the beasts, or the fire, or whatever you choose; you shall not move me to deny Christ, my Lord and Savior.”
When the proconsul saw that Polycarp would not recant, he sent the herald to proclaim three times in the middle of the stadium, “Polycarp has professed himself a Christian.”
As soon as they heard these words, the whole multitude of Gentiles and Jews furiously demanded that he be burned alive. Immediately dry wood was brought out and heaped in the center of the arena for a bonfire.
When they were about to nail him to the stake, Polycarp said, “Leave me as I am; He who gives me strength to endure the fire will enable me to remain still within the fire.” They agreed to this and simply tied his hands behind his back with a rope.
In his final prayer, he prayed, “O Father, I thank You, that You have called me to this day and hour and have counted me worthy to receive my place among the number of the holy martyrs. Amen.”
As soon as he uttered the word, “Amen,” the officers lit the fire. The flames rose high above his body, but miraculously, he was not burned. Those who watched said, “He was in the midst of the fire, not as burning flesh but as gold and silver refined in a furnace. And we smelled such a sweet aroma as of incense or some other precious spice.”
Since the fire did not hurt him, the executioner was ordered to stab him with a sword. As soon as he did, so much blood flowed from the wound that it put out the fire
Tyndale (1536)
“It would be wrong to translate God’s holy Word into English,” the Doctor of Divinity said sternly. “Only a language like Latin or Greek is able to fully convey God’s truth. English is a vulgar language — fine for plowmen and shopkeepers, but hardly suitable for the Bible.”
William Tyndale’s eyes blazed. He was a highly educated man, fluent in several languages, including Greek and Hebrew. “Not only can an accurate English translation be done, it should be done. The Scriptures of God are being hidden from the people’s eyes. The only way that poor people can read and see the simple, plain Word of God is if it is turned into their mother tongue, English.”
In the early 1500s, only scholars could read God’s Word. The only legal Bible was in Latin, which most of the common people could not understand. Since they could not read God’s Word for themselves, they had to rely upon what others told them it said.
It was illegal to own an English Bible or even memorize Scripture in English. In fact, in 1519, seven Christians were burned at the stake in Coventry, England, for teaching their children the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments in English!
Before long, the two men were arguing heatedly. Tyndale quoted Scriptures, the doctor quoted man-made traditions and church rules. Finally, the Doctor of Divinity shouted, “It would be better to be without God’s laws than without the Pope’s.”
Tyndale courageously replied, “I defy the Pope and all his laws! In fact, if God spares my life, I intend to make it possible for a common farmer, a plowman, to know more of the Scripture than you do!”
Within a year of Tyndale’s conversation with the Doctor of Divinity, he decided it was no longer safe for him to stay in England, so he traveled to Germany. There he lived under an assumed name while he worked to finish his translation. When spies from England found him in Germany, he escaped to Belgium, where he printed thousands of his New Testaments.
In 1526, Tyndale’s English New Testament began trickling into England. The Scriptures, now referred to as the “pirate edition,” were made smaller than conventional books. This size was easier to smuggle into bales of cotton and containers of wheat being shipped into England.
As copies poured into England, they were eagerly bought and read by all sorts of ordinary people, who often sat up all night reading them or hearing them read. When the Bishop of London discovered the New Testaments, he bought as many as he could on the black market, paying full price for them. He declared, “I intend to burn and destroy them all.” The merchant who had smuggled them into England gave the money to Tyndale, who then printed three times as many in a revised version. The Bishop of London had unknowingly become Tyndale’s foremost financial supporter!
When Tyndale heard the Bibles were thrown into the fire, he said, “I expected they would burn the New Testaments. I expect they want to burn me too! This may yet happen, if it is God’s will. Even so, I know I did my duty in translating the New Testament.”
Within the next ten years, Tyndale’s New Testament was widely distributed throughout England. Bible truths were now available to everyone, and many people discovered they could have a personal relationship with God based on His Word. At the same time, anyone caught with this illegal book faced severe persecution. Prisons were overflowing and thousands of Christians were executed. Weekly, reports of the persecutions would come to Tyndale, who remained in exile in Europe and continued his translation of the Old Testament. Two of Tyndale’s close friends were burned at the stake. Even church officials, once persecutors, became martyrs after finding truth in Tyndale’s work.
In the spring of 1535, a man named Henry Phillips arrived in Antwerp, where Tyndale had been hiding. In hopes of a reward, Phillips took it on himself to betray Tyndale. He befriended Tyndale, noting that he was “simple and inexpert in the wily subtleties of this world.” Before Tyndale knew what was happening, Phillips had set an ambush for him.
Tyndale spent the next eighteen months in prison near Brussels, Belgium. With the help of Miles Coverdale, he was able to complete part of the Old Testament. During his stay in prison, his powerful preaching and the sincerity of his life greatly influenced those around him. The jailer, the jailer’s daughter, and others of his household accepted the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior.
On October 6, 1536, Tyndale was taken from his dungeon and strangled. Then his body was burned. His last words were a fervent prayer: “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!”
God honored Tyndale’s prayer. Within three years, the King of England gave instructions that a copy of the “Great Bible” completed by Tyndale’s co-worker, Coverdale, including Tyndale’s New Testament be placed in every church in England!
Tyndale’s translation was so accurate that 75 years later, when the King James Version of the Bible was published, it was based largely upon Tyndale’s work. In fact, about 90 percent of the words remain exactly as he wrote them!
Rowland Taylor
Rowland Taylor
England
1555
“Rowland, don’t go,” his friends urged. “You have done your duty. You have testified to the truth and resisted the priest when he tried to bring again his idolatry. Our Savior Christ told us that when they persecute us in one city, we should flee into another. Keep yourself for another time, when the Church shall have great need of such diligent teachers and godly pastors.”
Dr. Taylor replied, “God will not forsake His Church. He will raise up others to teach His people.
“As for me, I believe, before God, I shall never be able to do God so good service, as I may do now; nor shall I ever have so glorious a calling as I now have, nor so great mercy of God offered to me, as now. So I ask you, and all other of my friends, to pray for me; and I know God will give me strength and His Holy Spirit.”
By the mid 1500s, the Bible had been translated into English. The town of Hadley was one of the first places to receive the Word of God in all of England. Here, many had often read the whole Bible through and followed God’s Word in their living.
But when King Edward died, freedom of religion took a giant step backward. Dr. Rowland Taylor, pastor of Hadley, bravely challenged those who tried to force believers back into the Dark Ages of superstition and idolatry. For this, he was ordered to appear before the bishop and Lord Chancellor.
“I am old and have already lived too long to see these terrible and most wicked days,” he told his friends. “You do as your conscience leads you. I am fully determined with God’s grace to go to the bishop. I am not expecting justice or truth, but imprisonment and cruel death. Yet I know my cause to be good and righteous and the truth are strong upon my side.”
With these words, he willingly went to London where, as predicted, he was accused as a heretic and thrown into prison. After two years, he was again brought before the bishops and given a chance to change his stand.
He answered boldly, “I will not depart from the truth which they had preached in King Edward’s days. I thank God for calling me to be worthy to suffer for His Word and truth.”
When the bishops saw him so boldly, constantly, and immovably fixed in the truth, they sentenced him to death.
He was immediately sent back to his home town of Hadley to be burned at the stake. Along the way he was so joyful and merry that anyone watching would have thought he was going to a banquet or a wedding. His words to his guards often caused them to weep as he earnestly called them to repent from their evil and wicked living. They marveled to see him so steadfast, fearless, joyful, and glad to die.
Two miles out of town, he got off his horse and did a little dance, he was so glad to be close to home. He then prayed, “Thank You, Lord, that once more I will see my flock, whom I have most heartily loved and truly taught. Bless them and keep them steadfast in Your Word and truth.”
He had to pass through the town to get to the place of execution. On either side of the street were women and men, weeping and crying. “Ah, Lord! There goes our good shepherd, who so faithfully taught us, cared for us, and governed us. O merciful God! What shall we poor, scattered lambs do? What shall come of this most wicked world? Lord, strengthen him and comfort him.”
When they reached the place where he would be burned, Dr. Taylor said to all gathered there, “I have taught you nothing but God’s holy Word and those lessons that I have taken out of God’s blessed book, the holy Bible. I am come here this day to seal it with my blood.”
As he kneeled down and prayed, a poor woman stepped in and prayed with him; but they pushed her away and threatened to trample her with the horses. Even so, she would not leave, but stayed and prayed with him.
He went to the stake, kissed it, and stood against it, with his hands folded together and his eyes toward heaven. And so he continually prayed.
They bound him with chains, and several men put the sticks in place, one cruelly throwing a bundle of sticks at Dr. Taylor, so that it hit him on the head, and made blood run down his face. He said, “O friend, I have harm enough; why did you need to do that?”
At last they lit the fire. Dr. Taylor held up both his hands and called upon God, saying, “Merciful Father of heaven, for Jesus Christ my Savior’s sake, receive my soul into Thy hands.”
He stood in the flames without either crying or moving, his hands folded together. To spare him further suffering, a man from the town ran towards the fire and struck him on the head with a long-handled battle ax. Taylor died instantly, his corpse falling into the fire.
Pastor Kim
Pastor Kim and his congregation
North Korea
1950s
For years, Pastor Kim and 27 of his flock of Korean saints had lived in hand-dug tunnels beneath the earth. Then, as the Communists were building a road, they discovered the Christians living underground.
The officials brought them out before a crowd of 30,000 in the village of Gok San for a public trial and execution. They were told, “Deny Christ, or you will die.” But they refused.
At this point the head Communist officer ordered four children from the group seized and had them prepared for hanging. With ropes tied around their small necks, the officer again commanded the parents to deny Christ.
Not one of the believers would deny their faith. They told the children, “We will soon see you in heaven.” The children died quietly.
The officer then called for a steamroller to be brought in. He forced the Christians to lay on the ground in its path. As its engine revved, they were given one last chance to recant their faith in Jesus. Again they refused.
As the steamroller began to inch forward, the Christians began to sing a song they had often sung together. As their bones and bodies were crushed under the pressure of the massive rollers, their lips uttered the words:
“More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee
Thee alone I seek, more love to Thee
Let sorrow do its work, more love to Thee
Then shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise
This be the parting cry my heart shall raise;
More love, O Christ, to Thee.”
The execution was reported in the North Korean press as an act of suppressing superstition.