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In Matthew 10:22 the Bible says
“And ye shall be hated of all men because of my name; but he who endures to the end will be saved.” As heavenly Christians, like the apostles, we should expect persecution and trials. They fought the good fight of faith until their death. This is how they were persecuted and killed:
1. Matthew (The Tax Collector)
Matthew became a missionary and was arrested in Ethiopia, where he was martyred. He was impaled or impaled in the dirt with spears and then beheaded there.
2. Mark.
He died in Alexandria, Egypt after being dragged through the streets by horses until he was dead. It was a very painful death.
3. Luke.
He was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost.
4. John. (The beloved)
He faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously saved from death.
John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic book of Revelation on Patmos. The Apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. He died an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully
5. Peter.
He was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross. According to church tradition, this happened because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die the way Jesus Christ died.
6. James.
The Church leader in Jerusalem was thrown more than 100 feet from the southeastern tip of the temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they found out he had survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a Fuller’s mace. This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the temptation.
7. James (the son of Zebedee)
He was a fisherman by trade when Jesus called him to a lifelong ministry. A strong leader of the Church, James was beheaded in Jerusalem. The Roman officer guarding James watched in amazement as James defended his faith at his trial.
Later, the officer walked to the execution site alongside James. Overcome with conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept the beheading as a Christian.
8. Bartholomew. (aka Nathaniel)
He was a missionary in Asia. He testified for our Lord in present-day Turkey. Bartholomew was martyred for preaching in Armenia, where he was beaten to death with a whip.
9. Andrew.
He was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece. After being brutally whipped by seven soldiers, they tied his body to a cross with ropes to prolong his agony.
His followers reported that when Andrew was led to the cross, he greeted it with these words: “I have long awaited and awaited this happy hour. The cross was consecrated by the body of Christ hanging thereon.” He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he died.
10.Thomas.
He was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to organize the Church in the subcontinent.
11. Judas.
He was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.
12. Mathias. The apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot. He was stoned and then beheaded.
13. Paul.
He was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero in Rome in AD 67. Paul endured a long imprisonment that enabled him to write his many letters to the churches he had planted throughout the Roman Empire. These epistles, which taught many of the basic tenets of Christianity, form a large part of the New Testament.
In summary, this is perhaps a reminder to us that our sufferings here are indeed small compared to the intense persecution and cold cruelty to which the apostles and disciples were subjected during their time for the sake of faith.
