LO V E YO U R E N E M I E S T H E P E R S E C U T E D C H U R C H T O D AY
" S t. S t e p h e n " b y S p a n i s h p a i n t e r L u i s d e M o r a l e s ( c . 1 5 7 5 ) . M u s e o d e l P r a d o , M a d r i d , S p a i n .
T
by Mathew Block
he year is approximately 34 A.D. A young man named Stephen stands before a crowd in Jerusalem. He confesses that Jesus is the Messiah promised by the prophets of old and that, though He was killed, He now stands alive at the right hand of God. The mob is enraged and drags him from the city. There he is stoned to death—the first Christian to die for his faith. The year is about 203. A father pleads with his imprisoned daughter Perpetua, a young woman in her twenties, begging her to renounce her faith in Christ. She refuses. A few days later she is led out with her fellow Christians to the amphitheatre
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THE CANADIAN LUTHERAN September/October 2021
