Chapter IX

There was a time in the Roman Empire when Christians were hunted and slaughtered in throngs.  For many it would not have been hard to bow down to the pagan idols, or even just practice their own religion in secret.  But that was the problem with Christianity, it made men’s hearts burn within them.  They became committed and converted to it so much that they were willing to die for it.  And many were not only willing but they eagerly sought a martyr’s death.  The same was true during the middle ages for heretics and reformers, even some atheists.  Why?  Because that’s what belief can do to a man.  Many feel that by their death they can really accomplish something.  They can show the world the veracity of the thing they believed.  Unfortunately, this is not always the case, some martyrs’ names have been lost to history; their ideas really were stamped out by those who persecuted them.  This is perhaps, the single hardest thing to fathom in dealing with Soviet history.  How many millions believed and died martyrs for their belief-Communism?