When most people think about past genocides, they more than likely recall the six million Jewish people who are said to have died at the hands of the Nazis in Germany during World War II. Did you know, though, that throughout known history, about 70 million Christians have been murdered for their faith to become martyrs?
Todd M. Johnson wrote a paper for a class at Notre Dame in 2012 that contains a demographic assessment of Christian martyrdom around the world. It turns out that far more Christians have died for their faith than Jews have for theirs.
One would think, based on Western history books, that Jews have endured the worst of the worst throughout time, but that title actually belongs to the tens of millions of Christian martyrs who paid for their faith in Christ with their lives.
"Throughout Christian history, across all traditions of Christianity, and in every part of the world, some 70 million Christians have been murdered for their faith and hence are called martyrs," Johnson writes.
"The English word 'martyr' is derived from the Greek martyrs, which carries the meaning 'witness' in English. In New Testament usage, it meant 'a witness to the resurrection of Christ.' This witness resulted so frequently in death that by the end of the first century, martyrs had come to mean a Christian who witnessed to Christ by his or her death. This enlarged meaning has become the accepted norm throughout church history."
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What is a martyr?
The world's three major Abrahamic religions, as they call them – Christianity, Judaism and Islam – use the word martyr to describe adherents who die prematurely as a result of their religious beliefs, which in the case of Judaism can also mean historical ethnic identity.
There are five major elements of what it means to be a martyr in the Christian context, according to Johnson:
1) They must be believers in Christ.
2) They must have lost their lives.
3) They must have prematurely departed their earthly bodies.
4) They must have died early in situations of witness, meaning because of their faith in Christ.
5) They must die prematurely as a result of human hostility as opposed to natural or accidental deaths, i.e., a car crash, natural disaster, or other "act of God."
The reason why this full definition is important to understand is because it will put into context what Christians have endured throughout history compared to what Jews have endured and still are enduring in some areas of the world.
Anyone who puts his or her faith in Christ is a Christian by definition who takes on that witness and all existential threats that come along with it. A Christian, simply by living life and walking with God through Christ, is hated by the world. More often than not throughout history, Christians have overwhelmingly died for their faith as Christianity is incompatible with this world and its many gods.
Judaism, by comparison, is more of a mixed bag. There are people who claim to be Jews by heritage and blood that also feel as though they are "chosen" based on their ethnic identity to live superior lives. There are also Jewish converts, seeing as how Judaism is also a religion.
During the holocaust, Jews were targeted based on their ethnic identity, as well as because of serious problems that were sweeping Germany that some blamed on Jewish presence. The conflict ultimately led to one of the most extreme purges of Jewish identity in history, as well as the subsequent creation of the modern Jewish state of Israel where many Jews have since migrated.
There is a segment of Jews that believes persecution of Jewishness is inherent to the Jewish faith much in the same way that Christians are persecuted for putting their faith and identity in Christ.
"One who is killed because he is Jewish, even though he is not given any choice, is considered a martyr," said Rabbi Kaplan, this being why the Jews who died during the holocaust are largely considered to be martyrs.
"Martyrdom thus establishes the veracity of our faith more dynamically than anything else, since one must accept the Torah as absolute Truth to be martyred for it. This commandment applies to all Jews, even children."
More Christians died in Soviet prison camps than Jews who died in holocaust
Westerners have grown accustomed to hearing about the six million Jews who perished in the holocaust, but what most people seem not to know is that many more Christians during that same time period died at the hands of the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union.
Between 1921 and 1950, upwards of 15 million Christians died in Soviet prison camps. Another five million died between 1950 and 1980. Here are some other examples of Christian genocide throughout history:
1) In 1214, Genghis Khan murdered four million Christians.
2) In 1359, Tamerlane destroyed the Nestorian church, murdering four million Christians in the process.
3) Between 1929 and 1937, Joseph Stalin murdered 2.7 million Orthodox Christians.
4) In 1560, Conquistadors murdered two million Christians.
5) In 1925, the Soviets murdered 1.2 million Roman Catholics.
6) In 1258, Hulaku Khan captured Baghdad and massacred 1.1 million Christians.
7) In 1214, Genghis Khan sacked the Diocese of Herat, murdering one million Christians in the process.
8) And finally in 1939, Nazis executed at least one million Christians in the death camps alongside Jews.
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