Christians - how does it make you feel to know that the 12 apostles suffered these horrendous fates?

They died for the truth...

Jesus tells us this life isn't where its at for us... When we have the chance to finally go home with our Saviour, thats the best reward possible.

These men couldn't deny what they knew to be true, God is truely a Living God.

John of Patmos become not a similar individual by using fact the bathroom the Apostle. the author of Luke/Acts become particularly ingenious and subsequently isn't a solid source. something are from uncorroborated oral custom. For all all of us understand the twelve all went to a retirement homestead in Capernahum and died of previous age.

My feeling is that many Christians do not understand the privilege we have been given by God to live in a country where the most common persecution comes from those who want to point fingers and call names. Talk about Christianity handed over on a silver platter.

The bible does say that the devil, the enemy comes like a roaring lion and disguised like an angel of light. In my opinion, the devil comes disguised as an angel of light in the United States and as a roaring lion in other parts of the world where Christians are being put to death.

I am thankful for God's grace and mercy even if I have the honor of dieing a horrable death for the glory of Him who has called me to eternal life. Amen.

Recorded evidence of what happens when the truth is spoken to non-believers. They died for their faith. Their bodies died, there souls are still alive. Without the death of the martyrs in the beginning, Christianity never would have spread,

Unfortunately, we DON'T know that any of these things happened. These are all pious Christian traditions with no objective historical verification. We can understand that someone named James, the "brother of the Lord" was executed by Herod Antipas from the account in the Acts of the Apostles, but we don't know for sure which James he is, and none of the others' deaths are even mentioned in the Bible. John of Patmos, which John is he? And where exactly do you get these dates of yours?

True or not, it speaks well for the importance and validity of a faith to believe that its leaders were all willing to undergo persecution, even death for the sake of its promotion. And Christianity has its good points. But propaganda readily makes similar claims. We can't really tell that these accounts are the way it happened or the way it SHOULD have happened. And being conveniently dead, the apostles were never able to confirm or refute the legends.

The vast majority of people would rather lie than suffer a beating, let alone death. Obviously these men knew something amazing, so powerful that death itself ceased to have any real power over them. Their overwhelming faith is yet another reason why I choose to believe.

You forgot to mention St. Paul who was beheaded.

That is why all the Apostles are venerated as Martyrs, even St. John, who, although wasn't executed, suffered greatly for his witness to Christ Jesus.

Yes, the 12 Apostles are Saints, indeed!!

Over the centuries there have been many many hundreds of martyrs for Christianity and we honor their memories and sacrifices on All Saints Day.

All Holy Eve is the night before..

Sadly it was turned around into the mockery of the saints with trick or treat and goblins....

there are many books written of the martyrs...

How many were burned at the stake as heretics? these are very well doumented...

Jan haas

" Christians bandy this argument about so much that many will no doubt think it strange that anyone would question that the apostles died as martyrs, but the truth is that the evidence of widespread martyrdom in the early church is very weak. The claim assumes the historical accuracy of the New Testament, which makes some scattered references to persecutions of early Christians (Acts 8:1; 11:19; 13:50; 2 Thess. 1:4), but if the accuracy of the New Testament is to be assumed, then it would be pointless to debate any of the major apologetic claims, because the New Testament does claim that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he worked many miracles, that he was resurrected from the dead, that he ascended into heaven, etc. Outside of the New Testament, however, evidence of wholesale persecutions of early Christians is primarily a tradition that has been foisted on an unsuspecting Christian public. In his debate with Celsum, Origen, as late as A. D. 240-250, said that the number of Christian martyrs was "few" and "easily numbered":

For in order to remind others, that by seeing a few engaged in a struggle for their religion, they also might be better fitted to despise death, some, on special occasions, and these individuals who can be easily numbered, have endured death for the sake of Christianity (Contra Celsum, Book 3, Chapter 8, emphasis added).

In The Search for the Twelve Apostles, Dr. William Steuart McBirnie examined the maze of traditions about the fate of the apostles, and although he seemed to retain his belief that the apostles were real historical characters who had suffered persecution and often martyrdom, he admitted that the traditions were sometimes so inconsistent and contradictory that it cannot now be determined how all of the apostles died. He referred to Tertullian's claim that the apostle John was tortured and "boiled in oil but was delivered miraculously," and then admitted that "(t)his story does not seem to have much foundation in historical fact," even though tradition says that the Church of San Giovanni "has been built on the spot in Rome" in honor of the apostle's escape (Tyndale House, 1977, pp. 116-117). McBirnie concluded that the best traditional evidence indicates that John died in Ephesus of old age. If this is so, John would not have been an example of an apostle who died for what he knew was right.

McBirnie had no better luck in trying to determine the fate of other apostles. He found Matthew to be an especially confusing case. Various traditions had Matthew preaching in places as far flung as Ethiopia, Persia, Parthia, Isidore, and Macedonia (p. 176). The traditions relate preposterous accounts of attempts that were made to kill him, which he, like John, miraculously escaped from. In one tradition, a jealous king tried to have Matthew burned alive, but the flames flew out, took the form of a dragon, and curled around the king. McBirnie concluded that "(t)here are too many stories of Matthew's death to be certain just where he died" (p. 182), but even though he had earlier cited Heracleon and Clement of Alexandria (The Miscellanies, 4, 9), who had both said that Matthew died a natural death (pp. 175-176), McBirnie would not give up so easily on his desire to find martyred apostles. "It is perhaps possible that Matthew was martyred in Egypt upon his return from Ethiopia in Africa," he said, "but this conclusion is not certain" (p. 182, emphasis added).

Uncertainty was what McBirnie seemed to find everywhere in his research. He found traditions that said Bartholomew was "flayed alive and crucified in agony" in India after banishing a demon from the idol of a king (p. 135). He found other traditions that said Bartholomew was martyred in Armenia. To reconcile the conflicting traditions, he cited Edgar Goodspeed, who had suggested that "India" was a "term very loosely used by the ancients" (p. 133).

McBirnie's search for the fate of the other apostles uncovered traditions that were just as inconsistent and uncertain as those noted above. He claimed that his research took him three times to the island of Patmos (where John allegedly wrote Revelation) and to the locations of the seven churches of Asia cited in Revelation (p.7). He traveled to Germany, Rome, Greece, Lebanon, and "almost every Middle Eastern country." The other locations he visited and libraries and archives he claimed to have used are too numerous to list here, but the results of his research were as noted above, i. e., too much inconsistency and contradiction to determine with certainty how and where the apostles died. "

Many thousands of Christians have suffered similar deaths - and worse - since then. If that's what is required to live by the truth, bring it on!

It makes me feel that Jesus is the Truth for he predicted all these things already. It also makes me feel that these men are blessed for Jesus said " blessed is he who is persecuted for my name's sake". Paul made a statement that I'd like to make clear he said " rather I live, I live in the Lord and rather I die, I die in the Lord". Therefore all who are in Christ Jesus will live forever even if it may seem like they died. Blessed are these men and blessed be the name of the Lord!

It also inspires me even more to keep hold of the testimony of Christ even facing death. For this is what my Savior has said...

"But before all this they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons and you will be brought before kings and governors and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents brothers relatives and friends they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life.