Willing To Die For A Lie

 Each of the 12 apostles left their families and careers, often traveling alone to distant countries, declaring that Jesus died and came back to life. For proclaiming Jesus' resurrection, they were beaten, imprisoned, and many killed in torturous ways. This is how some of them died....


1. Matthew
Suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound.

2. Mark (not an apostle, but one of the first missionaries) died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead.

3. Luke ( not an apostle, but was Paul's doctor) was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost.

4. John
Faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge pot of boiling oil during a wave of persecution In Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered 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 as 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, it was because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die In the same way that Jesus Christ had died.

6. James
The leader of the church in Jerusalem was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller's club.
* This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the Temptation.

7. James the Son of Zebedee, was a fisherman by trade when Jesus called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, James was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem. The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.

8. Bartholomew
Also known as Nathaniel was a missionary to Asia. He witnessed for our Lord in present-day Turkey. Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia where he was flayed to death with a whip.

9. Andrew
Was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: 'I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it.' He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he died.

10. Thomas
Was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the Sub-continent.

11. Jude
Was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

12. Matthias
The apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot was stoned and then beheaded.

13. Paul
Was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67. Paul endured a lengthy imprisonment, which allowed him to write his many epistles to the churches he had formed throughout the Roman Empire. These letters, which taught many of the foundational Doctrines of Christianity, form a large portion of the New Testament.

14. Simon the Zealot
Simon was traditionally martyred by being sawn in half.

15. Philip
Philip evangelized in Phrygia where hostile Jews had him tortured and then crucified upside down. Some sources have him being stoned.

 Some say that Jesus' disciples stole His body and made up a story that He rose from the dead. However, if the disciples made it all up, each of them allowed himself to be executed...for what they knew to be a lie. It doesn't make sense. Would you die for something you knew was a lie?

These disciples risked their lives to speak out about what they had no doubts about...that Jesus had risen from the dead, proving that He was everything He claimed to be...the Son of God.

Perhaps this is a reminder to us that our sufferings here are indeed minor compared to the intense persecution and cold cruelty faced by the apostles and disciples during their times for the sake of the Faith. “And ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake: But he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”

God bless you! 

In His love, 
Elizabeth