The brilliant and the sparkling.
Two people groups have been particularly on my heart, the Japanese Christians who were forced to deny their faith in Christ as "Savior of all" in the 1700's or 1800's by their oppressive government; and the native people of what is now Turkey who were a major part of the early Christian Church but who were forced to deny their faith and embrace Islam when their country was conquered by the Ottomans.
(I am thinking of the Christians in that part of the world at the time when Paul of the NEW TESTAMENT was traveling and teaching about Jesus in the first century a.d. Paul and John of REVELATION mention several names and communities in what is now Turkey. It is just around the corner of the Mediterranean from Israel, on the way to Greece. So there WAS a Christian community there. How long did it florish? Were they faithful? did another persecution cause then to leave or disapate? Were there Christians there when the Ottomans and other Muslims invaded?)
In both of these communities, there were, I think, people who were able to remain true to Christ in the face of persecution. Maybe they could escape. But, I read that in Japan, at least, the oppressors designed the dire consequences of remaining true to Christ such that the Japanese Christians would have incurred cruelty upon their loved ones if they had continued to publicly proclaim Christ.
Author Phillip Yancey described in his book SOUL SURVIVORS the Japanese government's (1700's or 1800's) persecution of Christians. I want to explain how things went: the persecutors gave the Christians the choice of either trampling on an image of Christ, a plaque, or having family members be tortured horribly. When I read Yancey's description I wondered about the
second commandment of the Ten Commandments. God said, "do not make for yourself an image or idol in the form of a creature in heaven, on Earth or under the Earth. Do not bow down to an image or idol." Some Christian churches have lost that knowledge that our Creator God has commanded that we not make and bow to images. The Catholics are the largest church that does not follow that second commandment of the Ten Commandments. I can't help but think that one thing God was doing by that commandment was protecting His followers from that type of coersion. If you do not have and worship a physical (and man-made) image of God, an oppressor cannot force you to dishonor God and deny your God by breaking that thing. God is good; and His mercies endure forever!
"The brilliant and the sparkling" of this title refers to the Christians of Asia Minor and Japan that were persecuted.
Jesus said, "Blessed are you when men insult you and persecute you for my name's sake. Great is your reward in heaven." (MATTHEW 5:11)
Some of those maybe could not stay the course. In the case of the persecution of the Japanese Christians, the way the persecution was designed would need to be taken into account. God is good. Those people are not forgotten.
