Silence

My husband and I saw the movie "Silence" last night.  It's basically about the persecution Christians went through in Japan in the 1600s (I think).  I'm going to try to not give too many spoilers of the movie.  If you haven't seen it I recommend it.

While I was watching the movie, it got me thinking, "To what extent would I be willing to go to teach people about Jesus?"  I always thought that no matter what, even if it meant death, I would not stop teaching about Jesus.  After everything I've been through, I would not apostatize.  But what if people were suffering because I wouldn't leave Christianity?  What if people were being tortured and killed because I refuse to shut up about my faith?  As I thought about this, it really caused me to be upset because honestly, I don't know what I'd do.  Sure, go ahead and kill me, but other innocent people?  That would be really tough.

When I proposed this question to my husband, he was sure he would stick through it, but I'm not so sure about myself.  It reminded me of a story I heard (I believe it's a true story in fact) about a father and son.  Forgive me if I don't remember the story completely accurately because I do have memory problems.  Basically, ISIS went into this home where a father and son lived.  They told the father to apostatize from Christianity and if he didn't, they would cut a finger off his son's.  The father refused to and the son lost all of his fingers and in the end, both the father and the son were killed.  If someone was torturing my husband (or anyone in my family or friends) and told me to renounce my faith in Jesus or they would be tortured, would I keep my faith?  Or would I renounce it in hopes that they wouldn't have to suffer anymore?  As heartless as it may seem, I would hope I would keep my faith in Jesus.  I would hate to watch people suffer, and would cry out to God asking "Why?  Why is this happening to them?  Why can't they torture or kill me instead?"  But in the end, I would hope I would keep the faith.  If I renounced my faith, then all those people who were tortured and killed would have been so for nothing.  Would God forgive me?  I think he would if I asked him to.  After all, Jesus told us to ask and he will forgive!  At the same time though, he also said if we deny him, we deny the Father as well.  To reject Jesus is to reject God all-together.  So let me ask you, how far would you go to share the truth about Jesus?