So, get killed for refusing to convert to Islam and that makes a person a Saint? Kind of a low bar, really.
“So, get killed for refusing to convert to Islam and that makes a person a Saint? Kind of a low bar, really.”
Let’s see you travel to Saudi Arabia and pray in Christ’s name in the middle of Ryadih.
Talk is cheap.
Yeah, they are sorta called ‘martyrs’.
refusing to convert to Islam and getting killed is pretty much more than either you or I have done...
Martyrdom for Christ is the highest profession and work of faith one can make. The amount of faith it takes to lay down one's life in this world for life in the next is much greater than a mustard seed.
I'd say martyrdom is actually the highest bar that exists, at least when it is understood that it is not the martyrdom itself that saves but the saving faith that underlies it that really matters. How many of us can say we would do the same when faced with the same circumstances? We like to think we would, but what we would like to do and what we would actually do are two separate things.
Faith consists not in believing the right things about everything but rather in hearing the words of our Lord and doing them. The martyr has done this more fully than any of us can claim to have done and there is absolutely no reason to doubt the sainthood of a martyr, no matter what creed he professed in life so long as he professed Christ.
But, again, it is the faith that saves and not the action which points to the faith. I believe that this is an essential distinction, though I firmly believe God cares less whether we understand this distinction than he does about us doing what He commands.