The Disciples Died for the Truth; Why Would They If It Was a Lie?
Why would 12 men accept torture if they didn't believe?
This has been on my mind lately; I blame it on a recent conversation with Shay Brickhouse, my friend and owner of Landscaping Unlimited Inc.
Jesus’ closest followers, the men who walked with Him, ate with Him, touched Him, and walked the Earth proclaiming He was God…
They didn’t go to Heaven after peacefully going to sleep in old age; they died brutal deaths due to their allegiance to the truth that Christ was no ordinary man.
These were not men looking for fame, wealth, or easy living.
They were fishermen, tax collectors, and ordinary men who had nothing to gain by lying. If anything, they had everything to lose and did lose it in the worst ways imaginable.
Let’s lay it out as best we can according to historical texts:
(Please, do not just read this part, but really absorb what I am saying, imagine these men, in the flesh and blood, going through this…)
Peter: Crucified upside down in Rome under Nero; he didn’t even consider himself worthy to die the same way as Christ.
Andrew: Crucified on an X-shaped cross in Greece, he was tied up for days as he preached to crowds until he died.
James: Beheaded by Herod Agrippa, and he was, according to all I’ve read, the first apostle who was martyred.
John: Exiled on the island of Patmos after being tortured and having his body doused with boiling oil.
Philip: Crucified upside down in Hierapolis.
Bartholomew: Flayed alive and then beheaded in Armenia.
Thomas: Speared to death in India while preaching the Gospel of Jesus.
Matthew: Stabbed to death in Ethiopia.
James: Thrown from the temple in Jerusalem and then beaten to death with a club for continuing to spread the word of Christ.
Thaddaeus: Martyred in Persia; the records suggest someone killed him with an axe.
Simon: Crucified in Persia.
Matthias: The apostle chosen to replace Judas, was stoned and beheaded.
(On the note of Matthias: The number twelve carries a deep symbolic meaning. It reflected the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus chose twelve apostles to represent God's restored people, so losing one left the circle incomplete. The apostles knew someone must be selected to take Judas’ place, and Matthias was that man.)
One by one, these men sealed their testimony in blood.
They weren’t defending an idea they’d read in a book; they were defending what they had seen with their own eyes. They saw Christ alive after the crucifixion; they touched His scars, and they ate meals with Him after He walked out of the grave.
Now ask yourself this question, which I have asked myself over and over again throughout my life: Why would they endure torture, fire, exile, and the sword if they weren’t 100% convinced it was true?
Men will die for many reasons: the first to come to mind are family, honor, love, and country. But nobody goes to the grave, willingly tortured, for a lie they invented.
If the Resurrection were a hoax, if Jesus were just a man and not God, the secret would have cracked long before the first nail went through Peter’s hands.
But it didn’t.
Not one of them broke; not one of them sold the truth for survival.
And that leaves us with a choice: If they were so convinced that Jesus was Lord, that He rose from the grave, that He was worth dying for, then what excuse do we have for living weak, watered-down lives?
Their blood echoes across history, a rallying cry to every man and woman of faith:
Stand firm.
Hold the line.
Defend the truth.
And carry the Cross.
The word of Christ is not a story; He was the living God who walked among men, and these men knew it was real. Now, God lives within all of us, and the same duty rests on our shoulders.
I will continue to explore my faith and be more open in sharing my thoughts, but the main question I want to leave you with today is this: If all these men were willing to die terribly painful deaths in defense of their truth, what keeps you from defending yours today?
- Zac Small