The Martyrdom of Stephen

I recently started an online New Testament class. I will be posting weekly blogs about some of the concepts that I've studied that week in the class. 

Acts 6: 6-8 and 7:51-60; Mosiah 17: 7-20

The last words of Stephen were essentially the prayer of man full of faith and the power of God. Stephen stayed true to the spirit and used that as his strength as he called upon God in prayer. He didn’t ask for the stoning to stop, rather, he asked if God would accept his spirit into His kingdom.  He exemplified the very example that Christ gave as he asked for God to forgive his killers of their sins. He loved those that were stoning him enough to forgive them as they were in the act of ending his life.  I only can try to imagine how strong a testimony the Christ’s first disciples had as they bravely faced the world after Christ’s resurrection.

In these scripture’s we are told how the Godhead was really with Stephen throughout his martyrdom. He felt empowered by the Holy Ghost, he had the eternal vision of the glory of God and the resurrected Jesus Christ. They didn’t abandon him when he was in his time of need. This is a powerful and constant attribute of the Godhead; they do not abandon us in our times of need.

In the Book of Mormon the prophet Abinadi also suffered martyrdom for his firm and unshakeable testimony about the Savior. He was brutally abused and killed because he would not deny his words about Christ. Like Stephen, he called upon God and asked for Him to receive his soul into his awaiting arms. Both gave their lives as testimonies of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Their final testimonies are those of true devotion and sacrifice toward our Lord. I imagine myself having such firmness in my faith; yet it is hard enough to always keep some of the simple commandments. They were not perfect men; but once they’d obtained their testimony the showed their integrity by staying true to what they had witnessed. If only we all could be as true to the daily miracles manifested to each of us by the Holy Ghost. Perhaps we won’t be martyred for our beliefs, but we can be of much  more good if we really dedicate ourselves to living a true example of Christ.