Adultery American Style

Valentine’s Day is over and with it comes the end of the “American Divorce Season”; that is not to say that the continued onslaught by Christians against their marriages will not continue; it will just slow slightly. But just a word to those who can hear.   

If you are a Christian you would probably agree with this statement ‘Continuing in sin does not cause it to cease being sin’.  A person who steals from his neighbors continues to sin, a person who slanders his co-workers continues to sin.   If a practicing homosexual comes to Christ it is expected that they repent of their sin and refrain from further homosexual acts.   If an unwed person in a fornicating or adulterous relationship comes to Christ it is expected that they repent of their sin and refrain from further sexually immoral acts.  If a person continues in this sin his conversion is suspect since the fruit that is borne does not match the verbal profession.  If a professing Christian enters into adulterous relations they should be disciplined by the local fellowship for sexual sin and treated as an unbeliever until they repent (Matt. 18:15-18; I Cor. 5:11-13).  One cannot have sexual relations with his neighbor’s wife and then claim that since he committed adultery with her once he is now free to continue sexual relations with her.  

Now here is where it gets difficult for the American Christian and the American church…. The Bible teaches that when a person enters into a marriage with a divorced person they enter into an illegitimate sexual relationship with another person’s spouse.  That is why it is called adultery.  Since this relationship is adulterous at its inception the only logical conclusion is that it remains adulterous through its entirety.

Jesus did not say that they commit adultery only during the first sexual act and then it stops.  Paul uses the future tense when he states that the remarried woman “will be called an adulterous” (Romans 7:2).  This is contrasted with his statement “And such were some of you” (I Cor. 6:11).  Paul uses the imperfect tense to show that they were forgiven of the sins listed in verses 9 and 10.  He warns them against further practicing theses sins because those who do “will not inherit the kingdom of God

Most believe that they have not sinned by remarrying after divorce.  However The New Testament states seven times in six passages that remarriage after divorce is adultery.  The Bible does leave some room for grace for the individual who is rejected and divorced by their spouse, by transferring the guilt of their adultery to the one who committed the divorce, “But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery”.  Matthew 5:31-32.  But it is still adultery.

 

However there is absolutely no indication of any grace given to the one who commits adultery, who decides they are not in love anymore, or just wants to abandon their spouse for any other reason.  In fact it clearly states time after time that there is no room in Heaven for those guilty of unrepented adultery.   Just because some do not believe these actions are sinful does not make it so.  All it makes them is a hypocrite, they excuse their own sexual immorality while condemning others.  

I use to believe that most if given the opportunity would choose love, honor, faith,  loyalty, and forgiveness; however I have come to realize that  when Jesus revealed that the path to Heaven was narrow, that in fact what he was revealing is that most blindly and bitterly choose Hell. 

Previous Post on Christian Divorce 

Christian Divorce - The Biblical view

“The Christian’s love for the person for whom he has committed himself is called on to remain faithful even when rejected; and to pursue relentlessly, powerfully, sweetly, even when its object flees it – as men did God’s”  Gordon Fee

So you call yourself a Christian.  However you are planning on divorcing your spouse.  Hmmm… Just in case you have somehow missed what the Bible (that would be God’s word) has to say about it, I have listed both the Old Testament and New Testament verses that address divorce and adultery.  Because adultery is what you commit when you remarry, and God is very clear about the fate of adulterers. 

Now some will tell you that you can do whatever you like and you will be forgiven because you are a Christian, and you may like hearing that, but it is not the truth, and there is not one verse in the bible that supports such a claim.  Others, perhaps more reasoned will tell you that divorce is a sin, but you can be forgiven for it if you repent; I tend to fall into that viewpoint, however there is one huge question to that answer - and it is a pretty sticky one, ‘How do you repent from divorcing the one God joined you together with?’

“You shall not commit adultery”  Exodus 20:14     The 7th of the Ten Commandments

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”  Exodus 20:17     The 10th of the Ten Commandments

If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die—the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel.  Deuteronomy 22:22

‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.  Leviticus 20:10

And this is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, With weeping and crying; So He does not regard the offering anymore, Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.  Yet you say, “For what reason?”  Because the LORD has been witness Between you and the wife of your youth, With whom you have dealt treacherously; Yet she is your companion And your wife by covenant.  But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit?  And why one?  He seeks godly offspring.  Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.  “ For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the LORD of hosts.  “ Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.”  You have wearied the LORD with your words; Yet you say, In what way have we wearied Him?”  In that you say, “ Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, And He delights in them,” Or, “Where is the God of justice?”  Malachi 2:13-17

Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?  For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives.  But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.  So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.   Romans 7:1-3

Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband.  But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband.  And a husband is not to divorce his wife.  1Corinthians 7:10-11

The Pharisees came and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” testing Him.  And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”  They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.”  And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.  But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’  ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”  In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter.  So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.  And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”  Mark 10:2-12

“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.  Luke 16:18

“Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’  But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery”.   Matthew 5:31-32  (part of the Sermon on the Mount, do not miss Jesus' warning at the end of it)

And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, even for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”  Matthew 19:9

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived.  Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  1 Corinthians 6:9-10

And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.  “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”  Matthew 7:23-27 (Jesus’ warning at the end of the Sermon on the Mount)

Your legacy is about to be written, it is either about you, or about God, time for you to choose.  If you choose your will over His will, let me know how that repenting from divorcing the one God joined you together with works.  Share with us how repenting from all the destruction, hurt, broken dreams, pain and suffering you caused to your spouse, children, friends, family and society works.  

As I have said before - You are either a fan of Christ or a Christian, however ask any football fan, being a fan is not the same as being on the team. You can not divorce your spouse and call yourself a Christian, the two are mutually exclusive. 

Previous Post on Christian Divorce 

Christian Divorce - The Divorce Season

As the Christmas season draws quickly to a close, we (at least in the United States) are about to enter another season   -  Across America there are ten of thousands of husbands, wives, and children who will shortly discover that this past Christmas was the final Christmas for their family.   A husband or a wife will have decided that it is their spouse that is making them unhappy and seek to end their marriage;   “The Divorce Season” will have begun.  Shortly after the New Year has commenced, divorce filing surge in the United States.   There has been a lot of energy, money and time spent trying to ascertain exactly why that is, which I find particularly disturbing.  Does it really matter why or when?  There is no good time to divorce.   But more disturbing is the reaction to it within the churches and Christian community, as “professing Christians” in greater numbers then agnostics or atheists swell the ranks of the newly divorced.  

It seems that in America at least, that the Christian community and churches have decided to pay only lip service to the permanency of marriage. We have become a tolerant culture, individual happiness is what we have decided God wants most for us; being holy is something only radicals concern themselves with.  This is snapshot of what that attitude has brought America, all of which cause these words to flash across my mind; ‘Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart… Therefore thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they cry out to Me, I will not listen to them.” ’ Jeremiah 11:8 & Jeremiah 11:11

America has the highest divorce rate in the world – Twice as high as the next country.

Professing American Christians make up the majority of that number.   

The divorce rate among Christians is higher then that of any other religion, agnostics or atheist.

Each 100 additional divorces causes two additional suicides, 1 additional murder, 6 additional rapes, 33 additional armed robberies, and puts another 100 men in prison.

Divorce increases the premature mortality rates of fathers, mothers, and the children of divorce.

Children whose parents have divorced are increasingly the victims of abuse. They exhibit more health, behavioral, and emotional problems, are involved more frequently in and drug abuse, and have higher rates of suicide.

Only 42% of all children between the ages of 14 to 18 live in an intact two-parent family.  And each year over 1 million American children are forced to endure the divorce of their parents. 

70% of children coming from divorced families consider divorce an adequate answer to marital problems (even if children are present), compared to only 40% of children from non-divorced families.

Recent sociological studies have pointed to a variety of long-term economic, social, physical, and mental health consequences that divorce has on the families, men, women, children, and society.  Conversely no study thus far has been able to find even one benefit to society or the family as a result of divorce.   However that is not the point of this post. The point of this post is simple and over the next several weeks I will address this issue a couple of times in hopes of perhaps saving one family from the devastating consequences of divorce.  

  

I have mentioned before that it is rare to hear a minister give just one sermon on repentance or obedience, let alone a series.  It is so much easier to fill the pews with sermons on prosperity, and immunity.  So it should come as no surprise that the topic of divorce as a sin of gigantic proportions, one that leads to the loss of all moral authority, of eternal consequences, as the ultimate act of narcissism and selfishness; a sin that left un-repented, leads to the eternal separation from God.  As churches across the nations turn a blind eye to the behavior choices of those who fill the pews on Sunday morning, it is rapidly becoming apparent that divorce is the single most critical issue facing the church today.  

With that said, the next statements may offend some of you, perhaps most of you, however they are connected, and if you can not see the connection then you simply do not wish to, and nothing I say or write can alter that. 

In an article in the New York Times (12/28/2011) Mr. T.K. (I have omitted his name), a male teacher in Marion, Ill., who was turned away by Catholic Charities three years ago when he and his longtime partner (also a man), tried to adopt a child, said: “We’re both Catholic, we love our church”.   Likewise, is the husband or wife who chooses to divorce his or her spouse while professing to be a Christian.  You must understand this point – You can not choose to live a lifestyle that chooses to directly disobey the word of God, and then claim to be a Christian (or Catholic), while you may ‘feel’ like you are a Catholic or a Christian, your actions say otherwise.  You cannot seek to divorce your spouse and call yourself a Christian.  They are mutually exclusive.  To do the first and claim the second, simply makes you a liar. 

The Church and Christians alike hesitate to take a hard stand against the immorality of those who choose to practice a lifestyle of homosexuality in part, because they have failed to obey God’s command in regards to marriage and divorce (is it any surprise that gay marriages are now becoming the law of the land).  You can not excuse your own sexual immorality while opposing another’s without being a hypocrite.  

Make no mistake about it; Jesus drew a very hard line on divorce and subsequent remarriage.  He repeatedly commanded against it, calling those who chose to do so and especially those who forced it onto their spouse an adulterer.   While you may feel differently, as we have exampled in previous postings, what you feel has absolutely no bearing on the truth.  If you feel differently it is time you go to the Bible, learn the truth and OBEY it.   

Your actions are about to declare for the world to see if your are in fact a Christian or just a ‘fan’ of Christ’s.  Saint Ambrose wrote this warning to those who were about to chose this path “You dismiss your wife, therefore, as if by right and without being charged with wrongdoing; and you suppose it is proper for you to do so because no human law forbids it; but divine law forbids it.  Anyone who obeys men should stand in awe of God.”

 

And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, even for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.” Matthew 19:9

“ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived.  Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”  1 Corinthians 6:9-10     

      

We will visit this issue again, this is only my opening salvo on this subject as we enter “The Divorce Season” and perhaps I would not have to write as much on it, if our churches and those who fill the pews each Sunday took a more diligent approach to the subject. 

Next post on Christian Divorce 

Examined Christian Faith 'Marriage' 3.5 What is Christainity

If your faith can not save you from your own self-centeredness, your own selfishness, then it will not save you from Hell.  

No where is it more obvious and painfully clear to both those who claim Christianity and those outside the faith to readily see the true nature of a person’s heart, then by observing their response to the Christian viewpoint on marriage.  Christ’s teachings on this matter are clear and absolute; as a result this is where pretenders and hypocrites are sorted out, where the wheat is separated from the chafe.   This is where those who are a ‘good person’ and a ‘nice person’ have their selfish, self-centered, self serving heart exposed.

These next sentences are critical to those who claim the Christian faith.  The Christian idea of marriage is based upon Christ’s words that a man and wife are to be regarded as a single creature (one-flesh), and that Jesus was not expressing a sentiment, but rather a fact – just like a lock and key are one mechanism.   When God created humans, He created them in two halves, the male and the female, they were made to be combined (joined together) not just on the sexual level, but totally combined.  The monstrosity of sexual “relations” (as we like to call it) outside marriage is that those who live that lifestyle are attempting to isolate one kind of union (the sexual) from all the other kinds of union which are intended to go along with it and form the complete union.  

As a consequence, Christianity teaches that marriage is for life.  There are no if’s, and’s or but’s.  Divorce plus remarriage, equals adultery.  You will hear a lot of ‘Christians’ who will take issue with that statement, but it does not alter Jesus’ teachings on marriage.  He was crystal clear and left no wiggle room.  Christians and all Christian churches following Jesus’ teachings, regard divorce as something like cutting up a living body, as a kind of surgical operation that is so violent that it cannot be done.  That divorce is more like having both of your legs and arms cut off with a rusty dull saw, than it is like dissolving a business partnership.  Christians follow Jesus’ teaching that disagrees and condemns  the modern viewpoint that divorce is a simple readjustment of partners, to be made whenever someone feels they are no longer in love with the other, or when either of them “falls in love” with someone else. 

One must not forget to consider this in relation to another virtue that I wrote previously about, “Justice”.  Justice as I mentioned in a previous posting includes keeping promises. Everyone who has been married in a church has made a public solemn vow to stick to his or her partner until death.  The duty and responsibility of keeping that promise has no special connection with sexual morality: it is the same as any other vow or promise.  If as some would have us believe that the sexual desire is just like all other desires; then it should justifiably be treated like all our other desires; and as our other desires are controlled by our promises, so should this one be.   If it is as I believe, it is not like all our other desires, but is rather one that is morbidly inflamed, then we should be especially careful to not let it lead us into dishonesty. 

Now I freely admit that there are those who make this promise as a mere formality and never intend to keep it.  Who were they trying to deceive, the groom, the bride or the in-laws, or just the public?  If so their words and heart is treacherous.  Or perhaps he or she is trying, when they make the vow to deceive God, if so they can only be counted among the foolish, the very - very foolish.  These individuals want the benefits and the respectability that is attached to marriage without ever intending to pay the price that is required.  They are imposters, they are liars, they are cheaters and God calls them adulterers.  If they remain contented to be a liars, and adulterer, then I have nothing to say to them (pearls before swine’s), who would urge the high and hard duty of chastity on someone who has not yet desired to be merely honest?   However if they have now removed the blinders from their eyes and truly want to be honest, then their promise, already made constrains them.  This then comes under the heading of Justice.  

The idea that some have that “being in love” is the only reason for remaining married, leaves no room for marriage as a promise at all.  If love is the entire thing, then the promise can add nothing, and if it adds nothing then it should not be made.  The curious thing is that lovers know this while they remain really in love, better than those who talk about love.  The Christian law of marriage simply demands what lovers already know, that they should take seriously something which their passion impels them to do.  

Of course, the promise, made when I am in love and because I am in love, to be true to my beloved as long as I live commits one to being true even if I cease to be in love. A promise must be about things that I can do, about actions.  No one can promise to go on feeling in a certain way.  You might as well promise to never have a headache or to always feel thirsty. 

Being “in love” is a glorious state, and in several ways is good for us, it helps us to be generous and courageous, it opens our eyes to beauty, and it conquers lust.  No one would deny that being in love is better than common sensuality or self-centeredness.  Being ‘in love” is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. It is a noble feeling, but it is till just a feeling, no feeling can be relied upon to last in its full intensity or even at all.  Principles can last, knowledge can last, habits can last; but feelings… they come and go.  However, ceasing to be “in love” need not mean ceasing to LOVE.  LOVE as opposed to “being in love” is not merely a feeling, rather it is a deep unity, maintained by will and deliberately strengthened by habit, and grace.  This LOVE can be kept even in those moments (hours, days, weeks, months) that you do not like each other, just as you love yourself even when you dislike yourself.  This LOVE can be retained even when each other would easily if they allowed themselves, to “be in love” with someone else.  “Being in love” is what moves one to a promise of fidelity until death, “LOVE” enables you to keep that promise.

This is one little part, I think, of what Christ meant by saying that a thing will not really live unless it first dies.  Far too few people understand that if you decide to make thrills (being in-love) the definition of love, then over time the thrill will get weaker and weaker, fewer and fewer, until you at last end up a bored disillusioned old man or woman. However if you let the thrill go- let it die away- go on through that period of death into the happiness that follows (Love, honor, commitment, loyalty, faith, hope)- you will find that you are living in a world of new thrills all the time.  It is because so few people understand this that you see husbands and wives destroying themselves, their spouses, their families, their faith, when they are at the very point when new horizons ought to be appearing and new doors opening all around them. 

As I said in the beginning - If your faith can not save you from your own self-centeredness, your own selfishness, then it will not save you from Hell.  

If you honestly desire to fully understand Christian Divorce and Remarriage, you might want to consider my book   "I am an Adulterer"

Next Post in this series: "Forgiveness" 
Previous Post in this series; "Sex" 

One of Us is Wrong - is it the Muslim or the Christian

As a culture we have come to value tolerance almost to the point of worshiping it.  How many of you desire to be referred to as ‘intolerant’?  Our society tends to believe that truth is whatever you believe it to be, and at the same time, truth is whatever I believe it to be.  There is no absolute right and wrong, good and evil; to be called ‘tolerant’ is the best compliment one can receive.  Truth is subjective to the individual.  Don’t worry - Be Happy.

This is how those in our culture can contend that a Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and a Christian, all holding completely different worldviews, can each be right. Those of us who are ‘Christians’ have no problem asserting just how preposterous that is.  However, we have no such objection when it is applied to those within the faith.  It is how we within the Christian faith, can say ‘what I feel the Bible means’ and hold a completely opposite view of what the listener ‘feels the Bible means’.  Paul addressed this very issue in his letter to the Galatians (Gal 1:6-8)

It plays out something like this – while sitting around a table in a bible study group you hear a discussion between ‘believers’ where one says he ‘feels’ that  a Christian can seek a divorce and that gay ‘Christians’ should be allowed to marry, only to have another categorically state that he ‘feels’ that both are abominations.  Both cannot be right, however at the end of the bible study, everyone leaves; complementing themselves on what a great conversation they had, yet they are no closer to uncovering the actual truth.

The reason God gave us the Bible is so that we would know His truth.  He has only one meaning for each text, only one true belief.  The next time you are thinking of saying ‘I feel the Bible means’ – STOP- and instead ask yourself ‘What is God telling me?’

The Muslim and the Christian can not both be right.  One of us is wrong,

 

While You Were Sleeping - Christian Martyrs

On January 7 of this year, one day after a phone conversation with her neighbor, during which Asha Mberwa shared her testimony of her Christian faith; in front of her children and the villagers in Warbhigly, on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Islamic extremists slit the throat of 36-year-old Asha because of her faith in Christ.  Asha is survived by her children – ages 12, 8, 6 and 4 – and her husband of 17 years, who was not home at the time she was apprehended.  According to Compass News, Asha’s children are being cared by “a good Samaritan” in Mogadishu.

Sadly Asha’s story is hardly unique, yet we in the Western world prefer statistics, we do love our statistics, confident that everything can and needs to be demonstrated empirically.  Can we measure our own Luke warmness with statistics?  If so, perhaps it would be by this statistic.  Last year 105,000 Christians just like Asha were martyred for their faith.  That works out to 1 person every 5 minutes.   A number that begs the question, how does your faith stack up compared to Asha’s?  How is your walk?  

On your way home tonight, as you stop to pick up the latest movie and dinner, driving past the man on the corner with the sign begging for food.  As you pat yourself on the back for ushering at your church, or perhaps as you are walking to your bible study group contemplating divorce, because God just wants you to be happy, and your spouse isn’t making you happy.  Think about this short list of names; a list of those just like Asha Mberwa, those who like her gave their life for their faith.  Just a short list of names, the number of Christians that will be martyred as you get your 8 hours of sleep tonight.  By the time you are done reading this post, 1 more name will be added to it.

Asha Mberwa Rei Unius Hasem Patros Dman Helda Zuhair Astefan Nadan Yonadm Safae sabah habesh Dani Eshak Weliam Qaiser Esmaeil Yuosef Sadeq Sargon Nato Bashir Toma Dr. Sarmad Sami Majed Bia Toma Haitham Sulaka Hanna Eklas Qorial Yokana Narmin Yonan Aodisho Shamun Aodisho Marta Zkaria Warda Farid Aodisho Shamun Zaia Audisho Shamun Amijan Kona Eaziz Jaudat KaKos Ednan Hanna Bia Al-Shaklaui Rannin Raeed Rafi Raeed Romio Aisha Daud Emad Mika Wesam Yakob Asoffi Samir Shlemon Ashur Korial Yalda Saher Farej Murdakai Aisho Nissan Markos Ramzia Nuia Youkana Duraid Sabri Hanna Alis Ara Maiss Aida Bedros Bogos Muna Jalal Karim Sami Saeed Rami Saeed Shada Sada Janet Sada Janan Jossef Hanni Yuohanna Naeum Rimon Farok Shamun Firas Moefak Raed Eishoe Naem Takrid Abd Almasih Hala Abd Almasih Tara Majid Nessan Sliua Shamueel Kaled Poles Hani Poles KorKis Yoaresh Nessan Mark Luis Shito Bassam Sabri Sanne Toma Munir Toma Maradona Emanuel Nessan Raeed Nessan Amer Nessan Amir Shabo Rassm Elias Sliwa Naeem Korkis Emanuel Nessan Mammo Majd Sako Mehari Gebreneguse Asgedom Mother of Lao Lia Po Hrudayananda Nayak Shakeela Bibi Luis Edilberto Velazquez Francisco Meléndez Suzan Latif David Muna Banna David Basil Shaba Gregor Kerkeling Mohammed Sheikh Abdiraman Yemane Kahasay Andom Pastor Sabo Yakubu, Rev. Sylvester Akpan Rev. George Orji and 9 other believers Hameed Masih, Akhlaq Hameed Asia Hameed Parveen Asifa Hameed Umia Hameed Musa Hameed. Ahmed Matan Omar Khalafe Mariam Muhina Hussein Amina Muse Ali Mumin Abdikarim Yusuf Patras Masih

Patras Mashi is meet by a small group of his friends on the outskirts of Karol village, all of their eyes focused on their long time companion and friend.  After Patras refuses his friends urging him to recant his professed faith of Christianly, His friends draw guns and Patras is ordered to recant his faith if he wishes his friends to spare his life, Patras again refuses.  Patras Masih died from multiple gunshot wounds. 

His dejected and grieving father said with a sad, faint but proud smile, “My son bravely refused to recant Christianity and clung to Christ, he bravely embraced martydom.” Each of the names listed above all knew, what is Christianity.