Do martyrs make Christianity true?
“People will die for their beliefs if they sincerely believe they’re true, but people won’t die for their religious beliefs if they know their beliefs are false.”
–Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ
The argument that Christianity is true—that Jesus, the Son of God, died and was bodily resurrected to save us from our sins and give us eternal life—because some of his early disciples were willing to be tortured and executed for not renouncing their beliefs, is advanced from the pulpit and by Christian apologists ad nauseam. But does that necessarily make those religious beliefs true as well?
David Koresh of the Branch Davidians
Using the logic that one's willingness to die for a religious belief makes that belief true, one could say the belief that David Koresh, unhinged prophet and founder of the Branch Davidian Church, was the second coming of Christ is true because 76 of his followers sacrificed their lives and the lives of innocent children for him.
Jim Jones, aka 'Father' of The People's Temple
Reverend Jim Jones of The People's Temple plus 909 men, women and children were willing to drink the cyanide-laced Kool-Aid for their belief that their version of Christianity was true.
Marshall Applewhite of Heaven's Gate
Marshall Applewhite, leader of Heaven’s Gate and 39 disciples happily and peacefully committed suicide believing their bodies would be magically transported to an alien spaceship awaiting their arrival while in the tail of the passing Hale-Bopp comet. Before committing the act, goodbye messages recorded on video were addressed to family and friends. These messages displayed a certain creepy calmness and unwavering commitment to the truth of their belief.
Mary Eddy Baker, founder Christian Science
The founder and leader of the Church of Christ, Scientist, Mary Baker Eddy, taught that Jesus' healing power was readily available today; that disease, the human body and the physical world were merely illusions of the unenlightened. Only those who knew the “Truth” would be instantly healed. Often Christian Scientists who refuse life-saving medical treatment end up in the morgue for belief in this delusion.
Poster celebrating "The Divine Wind"
Over 3,800 Japanese kamikaze pilots were willing to die for their emperor during the War in the Pacific because they believed that he, like Jesus, was a man-god. This belief was introduced by Japan's first emperor, who claimed that he had descended from heaven as a direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu. The Japanese people believed that they were chosen by Heaven to rule over all Asia, and so they considered it their duty to obey their emperor's orders without question. With so many more deaths than attributed to the early Christians, using Lee Strobel’s logic, this belief held by the Japanese must be truer than Christianity.
Then, of course, are the untold numbers of Islamic suicide bombers who put their life exactly where there mouth is, believing their reward will be 72 virgins with beautiful eyes in a heaven flowing with milk and honey.
Others that have died for the "truth" of their beliefs include:
- Believers in Church of Scientology.
- Believers in faith healers such as Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Katherine Kuhlman, Peter Popoff, et al.
- Believers that refused to wear masks and be vaccinated during the COVID 19 pandemic who claimed Jesus was their vaccine.
The list goes on and on.
Christian martyrs are not singularly unique in this world. One can find countless examples of individuals throughout history willing to die for a religious belief, yet there is not one mainstream Christian that believes any of the examples above demonstrate the unequivocal truth of those beliefs. All have one thing in common, however: they all believed they would receive an eternal reward in some version of an afterlife.
Tragically, those who die for such religious beliefs look... well... stupid.