This week in persecuted church history (September 13-19)

Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7b (ESV)

September 13, 1624: Ketevan, the Queen of Georgia, is killed after ten years of captivity as the Shah of Persia attempted to convert her to Islam first by persuasion and threats, then by torture. The Queen refused every effort to drive her into apostasy, and before each new torture would make the sign of the Cross and say “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” They finally crucified her on a tree, while torturing her with red hot pincers. Then a brazier of burning coals was fixed to her head and, in the midst of her extreme torment, she was strangled with a bow-string.

September 13, 1635: The Massachusetts General Court banishes Roger Williams, 32, for, among other things, his outspoken advocacy of a separation of church and state. Williams went on to found Rhode Island and the first Baptist church in the American colonies.

September 13, 1865: Robert J. Thomas, a Welsh missionary to China, arrives in Korea, the first Protestant missionary to the “Hermit Kingdom."

September 14, 258: Cyprian (Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus), bishop of Carthage, is beheaded during the persecution under Roman Emperor Valerian.

September 14, 407: Early church father John Chrysostom, the greatest preacher of his age, dies in exile when, in poor health, he is forced to travel on foot in bad weather.

September 14, 1716: Metropolitan Anthimus of Iberia, Bishop of Georgia, is attacked by a band of Turkish soldiers who stab him to death on the bank of the Tundzha (Tunca) River where it flows through Adrianople, not far from Gallipoli, and cast his butchered remains into the river.

September 15, 2003: thirteen militant Hindus, including a popular Hindu activist, are convicted of the deaths of Graham Stewart Staines and his sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, 8, in January 1999 when a mob burned their vehicle while they slept outside a church in Manoharpur, in eastern India's Orissa state.

September 15, 2003: Bill C-250 is passed by the parliament of Canada adding "sexual orientation" to the prohibited groups in the hate propaganda section of the Criminal Code of Canada.

September 16, 1498: Tomas de Torquemada, the first Spanish Inquisitor General, dies. He burned over 2,000 victims, tortured thousands more, and in some areas, executed by burning as many as 40 percent of those accused.

September 16, 2003: Three Christian women who are working to build the fence around a church in Kotadeniyawa, Sri Lanka are brutally attacked by Buddhist militants. The fence is also destroyed. A week later, on the night of September 23, unidentified motorcyclists burn down the church building itself.

September 17, 2005: Rev. Than Van Truong is released from the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital where he had been held against his will for the past year because Communist authorities declared him to be "insane" due to his zeal for God.  Kept in solitary and injected with mind altering drugs, he was told that if he would simply cooperate with authorities and admit that their lies were accurate he would be allowed to leave. He refused.

September 18, 1965: The Council of Churches of Evangelical Christian-Baptists is formed in the Soviet Union with Georgi Vins was secretary, breaking away from the government recognized All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. Vins was forced underground in 1970. Captured in 1974, he was imprisoned and tortured for his faith. Eventually a letter campaign won his release to the United States.

September 19, 1853: Baptist missionary pioneer J. Hudson Taylor sets sail from England for China at the age of 21.

September 19, 1955: Mission Aviation pilot Nate Saint spots the Auca villages in the Amazon jungle. The Auca later killed him and his companions on January 6, 1956.

September 19, 2007: Ajay Topno, a missionary with a Christian media organization, is shot and killed in the Ranchi district of Jharkland state, India for converting three tribal families to Christianity

(sources: Christianity Today, Glimpses of Church History, The Voice of the Martyrs, www.abbamoses.com)

Prayer: “Grant that we, who now remember these before thee, may likewise so bear witness unto thee in this world, that we may receive with them the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” – taken from The Book of Common Prayer, Canada (1962)