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Bible Verse of The Day -- Believe and you will be saved If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 This verse is often quoted and is a very powerful and true one. Our belief and faith from God in God does indeed lead to our salvation. However that belief manifests itself in our changed lives and renewed minds in Christ. Salvation leads to our worlds being turned upside down because we are no longer the same person. Former behaviors, attitudes, habits and thoughts are replaced by Biblical ones as we keep growing. And when our belief grows that way, we can show it no matter what! Why? Because God will give us the faith to overcome. In the above Bible verse, Paul was writing a church in Rome that was under heavy persecution. These believers were in need of reassurance because they were under potential attacks every day. Below is an example from a book on the early church. It specifically addressed the sufferings they experienced, and recounted the martyrdoms of Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp, two early church fathers. It demonstrates what Romans 10:9 meant in the lives of these two early Christians, and what the verse still means today. Ignatius (A.D. 67-110) was ordered by the emperor to be arrested and was sentenced to be thrown to the wild beasts in Rome. He longed for the honor of giving his life for his Savior, saying, "May the wild bests be eager to rush upon me. If they be unwilling, I will compel them. Come, crowds of wild beats; come, tearing and manglings, wracking of bones and hacking of limbs; come cruel tortures of the devil; only let me attain unto Christ." Polycarp was the last one of those who had been personally taught by the apostles. He was arrested and brought into the amphitheater in Smyrna, which was filled with an immense multitude. Since there were no images of gods in the house of worship of the Christians, the heathen rightly concluded that the Christians did not in believe in the existence of the gods, and so they accused them of being atheists. The proconsul reminded Polycarp of his great age, and urged him to show his penitence by joining in the cry, "Away with the atheists!" Polycarp looked straight at the excited crowd, pointed his finger at them, and cried, "Away with the atheists!" Then the proconsul said, "Revile Christ and I will release you." But Polycarp answered, "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has never done me wrong, how can I blaspheme Him, my King, who has saved me?" To the crowd the proconsul then proclaimed, "Polycarp has confessed himself to be a Christian." The crowds yelled, "Let him be burned!" Wood was collected and made into a pile. Polycarp asked not to be fastened to the stake. "Leave me thus," he said, "He who strengthens me to endure the flames will also enable me to stand firm at the stake without being fastened with nails." The woodpile was lighted. While Polycarp prayed with a loud voice, "Lord God Almighty, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I praise Thee that Thou hast judged me worthy of this day and of this hour, to participate in the number of Thy witnesses, and in the cup of Thy Christ," the flames consumed him. Polycarp’s martyr death took place in the year 156 A.D. -From "The Church In History" by B.K. Kuiper Now while we thankfully are nor facing this level of persecution, we can rest know that for the trials and tribulation we do face in our own lives, we can still rest assured in our salvation if we believe. |
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Very good 
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7/21/2008 7:36 pm |
That was very accurately put. I see you are a Bible scholar. I just graduated from Victory Bible Training Center. I found my classes on the Early Church very interesting. Our trials don't come anywhere near the persecution that they faced. So our reasonable service should be resting assured that He will see us through.
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