Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
I’ve been reading some Tertullian. Tertullian lived about 160-220 AD and is the first major Christian writer to use Latin. He’s famous for introducing several words into the Christian language, including trinitas (trinity) as a description for the Godhead.
He’s been called a “pugilist with a pen” because in his writings, he’s always arguing a case. He targets paganism, idolatry, the Jews and Christians who aren’t maintaining the true beliefs, particularly Christian standards. He believed the church was for saints, not sinners.
Tertullian’s Antidote to the Scorpion’s Sting is a piece about martyrdom—it’s the scorpion’s sting. This was written at a time when Christians within the Roman Empire were being executed for being Christian.
It seems the Roman officials were targeting new Christians to stop others becoming Christians. You find this in the story of the martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas—a story that appears to be a partial firsthand account written by Perpetua that some believe Tertullian edited and finished.
He explains just as a doctor might use the scalpel, the hot iron and the fire of mustard to bring healing, so martyrdoms bring salvation. God, he writes, creates the “opportunity for martyrdoms.” To those who had given in to the pressure and denounced Christianity, he calls for a return to an authentic Christian understanding of martyrdom and embrace its possibility.
As one who has never had to face the possibility of martyrdom, I wonder how I would face this challenge. Then I wonder if I remained firm to my convictions would it be from stubbornness or faith?
Of course, you can argue against Tertullian’s reasoning, that’s easy 1800 years later. The fact remains living is more meaningful when you have a cause—and a faith—that’s worth dying for.
That’ll never change.
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