Here die 40 men for Christ
Here die 40 men for Christ
It was a
bitterly cold winter and in the middle of that winter an order came from the
Roman emperor that every man, woman, and child under the rule of his empire
must bow down to him as a god. Now there was a powerful force of Roman soldiers
in that Armenian city known as the “Thundering Legion”, and their reputation as
a powerful military force was known through all the Roman Empire. But the
emperor was not satisfied with their military service - he wanted each soldier
to bow down to him.
When the time came for each soldier to bow down, 40 could not. They were
faithful soldiers, but more importantly, they were Christians - they could not
obey the emperor's order to make him their god. They said, “We can only worship
the one true God.”
Well,
when the word of these 40 Christian soldiers refusing to bow down and worship
him was received by the emperor, his command back was simple, “Bow down to me,
reject your Christian God, or die”. But the 40 Christian Roman soldiers did not
bow down - so the decision was made that they would die. But how should they
die? Should they be fed to the hungry lions? Should they be burned at the
stake? These were both terrible ways to die, but an even more cruel death was
prescribed - they were to be frozen to death in the bitter cold
winter.
So
they took the 40 soldiers to a frozen lake in the middle of a terrible storm.
They stripped them of all their clothing and left them to freeze to
death.
But
the general didn't want to lose these 40 good soldiers. He said, “Simply bow
down to the emperor and save your life?” But they did not. The soldiers taunted
and laughed at them – “soon you'll be back; you will bow down”. But the
laughing stopped when these 40 Christians bravely walked barefoot across the
icy freezing lake.
Well,
through the night the soldiers lit a fire and cooked food to tempt the
Christians to give up. But the Christians prayed to God to make them brave, and
they began to shout, “Here die 40 men for
Christ”.
The
freezing bitter cold night went on until finally, the cold was too much for one
of the men. He staggered back to the fire and agreed to denounce his God and to
bow down to the emperor. But the remaining 39 Christians would not give in,
even though they were literally freezing to death.
Then,
amazingly, something happened that they could not believe - one of the Roman
soldiers sitting by the fire, having watched the bravery and courage and faith
on these dying Christians, he stood before the general and uttered these words,
“I will take that man's place - I will be a Christian.” As the general watched
in amazement, this Roman soldier removed his clothing and walked onto the icy
lake to join the 39.
Well
the Roman soldiers sat by that fire all night long and the last thing they said
they could remember hearing through the howl of that terrible freezing winter
storm was the now 40 Christian men shouting, “Here die 40 men for Christ”. In
the morning, sadly, there were 40 frozen bodies; men who have sacrificed for
their faith and belief in Christ.
A
full 350 years later, in the chapel in the forum of Rome, was dedicated to
these 40 soldiers a plaque, a simple plaque which still hangs there today, with
these powerful words engraved on it,
“Here die 40
men for Christ”.
What would you have done?
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