Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Loving Death vs. Martyrdom

Here's a good article by John Piper over at the Desiring God blog. He references an article where multiple Muslims are quoted as saying that they love death. Piper responds an says Christians do not love death, but Christ. He continues:
There is a long history of Christian martyrdom. Often missionaries have desired to die for Jesus. But there are two great differences between this and the death wish of radical Islam. One is that Christian martyrs join Jesus in dying to save, not dying to kill. In their own sufferings, they extend Christ's sufferings to those for whom he died (Colossians 1:24). The other difference is that they call death gain not because of the secondary benefits of paradise, but because “to depart and be with Christ . . . is far better” (Philippians 1:23).

He also references Raymond Lull who was the first martyr in trying to reach the Muslims in 1315.

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