Identity Theft by Ron Cantor

Author:Ron Cantor [Cantor, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780768486063
Publisher: Destiny Image, Inc.

Notes

* * *

1. Patrick M. Jones, Revelations from Revelation (Brushton, NY: TEACH Services, 2008), 19.

2. You can read the full account of Stephen in Acts 6 and 7.

Chapter Seventeen

BOILED ALIVE!

“It was that peace that you have just witnessed in Stephen that gave me the courage I needed as I stood before Domitian. I trusted that God’s presence would cover me in the same way.

“That demented dictator, Domitian, continued to rant like the madman he was, ‘Bow before me, heretic, and declare, “Domitian is god!’”

“I shouted in Hebrew, then in Greek, ‘Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohanu, Adonai Echad.’”

“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one,” (Deut. 6:4). In English I quoted from memory the Shema—one of the most sacred creeds in Judaism.

“Yes,” said John, “and this infuriated him even more. ‘Death to the atheist!’ he shouted. The crowd joined in. ‘Boil him alive! Death to the heretic Jew! Feed his boiled flesh to the lions!’ In your day, David, people rail against Hollywood for making ungodly forms of entertainment—and rightly so in most cases. But in my day, there were no movies or reality TV competitions—this was the entertainment. Coliseums would fill to capacity just to watch a man being torn apart by lions, or burned alive or, as in my case, boiled in oil.

“Anyway, as the crowd clamored for my execution or boiling, I stood there enveloped in the peace that passes all understanding and I thought, This is it. I am finally going to be with Him. Reunited with my best Friend! No more sadness, no more pain, just forever in His presence—until my thoughts were rudely interrupted by Roman soldiers, men who had been turned into bloodthirsty savages by the inhuman nature of their work, violently grabbing me. They dragged me over to the vat of oil as the crowd followed, eager for a spectacle, and then they hurled me over the top. My body plunged into the massive pot, my eyes closed to keep the oil out, and as quickly as I could, I stood up. The oil, dripping from my head and clinging to my beard, came up to my armpits.

“‘Light the fire!’ came the command. A flame ignited the dry brushwood beneath the pot. Within minutes I could see tongues of fire rising higher than the massive pot of oil in which I was standing. As the flames burned higher, I knew it would only be a matter of time before the oil would heat up and begin to boil.

“Time for one last sermon, I thought, knowing they wouldn’t kill me quickly because that would put an end to the show. I opened my mouth, for what I assumed was the last time on earth, and shared as passionately as I knew how about the love of God and His desire that all would be saved. Rather than plead for my life, I exhorted the crowd to turn to Yeshua. ‘No emperor can save you. He is not God. No man is divine, but One.

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