Do you know this nice looking person stepping up to the podium? Most do not. Too bad for us!

He is Josef Tson. He is 90 years old this year, 2024. Born in Romania in 1934 to wonderful Christian parents, he grew up to love Jesus and to lead a church as Pastor and to become the national Christian leader in his country. And that status cost him dearly as it coincided with living in the same period as the reign of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausesco. That Communist wall came down in 1989, but in the 70s and 80s, God was moving in a great way in Romania and in revival among the churches, and many believers there paid dearly for their faith.

In that communist season, it was against the law to go to church. Josef was tortured for his faith. He was imprisoned; he was interrogated. Wanting to get the facts straight, a pastor emailed Josef, who was in the US while exiled from his country. That Pastor received this mail back in sharing his testimony. ¹

Josef Tson writes:

The Lord blessed me to grow up in a home of very devout Christians. They were the first Baptists in our area, and they went through a lot of persecution. No wonder, in their bedroom, in the most prominent place, they had this Scripture written beautifully on a glass plaque: Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. As their bedroom was also our living room, I may say that I grew up under this Scripture.

As I grew up, one day I wanted to read this Scripture for myself, so I opened to Revelation 2:10, and I was surprised to read that they were going to be imprisoned just for ten days. This wasn’t to be a big deal. Why then the advice to be faithful unto death? Not until years later, when I studied the issue of martyrdom, did I come to see what was behind that statement.

In the days following Christ’s ascension and during the forming of the church at the time of the Roman persecutions, if a person was accused that she was a Christian, she would be summoned to the authorities and asked If, indeed, she was a Christian. If she responded, “No,” she would be asked to prove it by taking a pinch of incense and spreading it above the fire of the altar of Caesar and saying, “Caesar is Lord.” If she did that, she would be given a certificate that she worshipped Caesar and would be set free. They would not necessarily have to denounce Christ, just worship Caesar.

If she responded, “No, I cannot say that Caesar is Lord, because only Jesus Christ is Lord,” she would be immediately taken into the room for torture, and there she would be tortured cruelly the entire day to force her to confess that Caesar is Lord. If she resisted all that torture, she would be condemned to die in the arena. She would be taken to prison for ten days, to let the most visible wounds of the torture be healed, and then after those ten–fourteen days, she would be taken to be martyred in the arena.

It was then I understood that being thrown in prison for ten days meant confirmed martyrdom. Therefore, “Be faithful unto death” was very meaningful indeed!

One day I read in Hebrews 2, verse 15 that Satan keeps people in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. I came to clearly see that in our situation, under the terror of Communism, fear was indeed the supreme weapon of Satan. Everybody was afraid of being arrested and being sent to the labor camp to perish there. That is why everybody learned to say only what Communists expected them to say. It was then that I asked the Lord to really liberate me from the fear of dying.

There were three ways in which He liberated me. First, I understood that, literally, He died my own death. Therefore, I shall never die; I shall only go home to be with my Lord, where it is much better. Second, He made me understand that when I die for Him and for the gospel, this, in itself, is a way of defeating Satan and makes for the triumph of the gospel (this is the essential meaning of martyrdom).

Let me insert here, that’s one of the purposes of the testing God takes us through. Our willingness to suffer for Christ’s sake glorifies God in that it becomes a visible witness to the watching world that Jesus is worth living and dying for. My willingness to die for the gospel is a way of defeating Satan and makes for the triumph of the gospel.

Third, if I am full of love for the very people who will persecute me, torture me, and kill me, I cannot be afraid of them, because there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts away fear. This liberation is the basis of all that followed in my story.

When I was first summoned to the secret police headquarters in 1974 and an officer was upset that I did not want to do what he wanted, and threatened to kill me, I responded calmly: Sir, let me explain this issue of you killing me. Yes, you can do it, but, sir, you should know that your supreme weapon is killing, but my supreme weapon is dying.

Here’s how it works, sir. You know that my sermons are on tapes all over the country. When you kill me, you just sprinkled them with my blood, because everybody will know that I died for my preaching. Everybody who has a tape of one of my sermons will take it and listen to it again, and say, ‘I can trust what this man says, because he died for what he preached.’ Sir, my preaching will speak ten times louder after you kill me, because you kill me. In fact, I shall conquer this land for God because you kill me. So, go on and do it.” He was shocked. He pondered for a moment and said, “Wait here for a few minutes.” Apparently, he went and reported to his boss, because when he came back, with a very calm voice, he said, “You go home, and we shall see what will happen.”

Another aspect of this story came three years later in 1977, when I was charged with treason and was threatened to be executed. An interrogator who was acting very scared came to me and explained that I had better make a compromise and thus save my life.

I calmly said, “Sir, there is no need to save my life. Just go on and shoot me. I am ready for it.” He exploded in fury! “What sort of man are you? When I say to somebody that I will kill him, he jumps in fear, but you smile to your ears, and say, ‘Kill me.’ You are not normal!” Yes, I am not normal, because I was liberated from fear of dying, and I came to see there that they can do nothing to a man who is not afraid of dying.

Curiously, the Kingdom of God is built on the firm foundation of the suffering of Our King and on the backs of the suffering Saints.

Josef has said; “The gospel will never be spread without someone suffering.” He said our first question in suffering should not be, “Why?” but “What?”. “God, what do you want to do in the world through my suffering?”

In Revelation 2: 10 Jesus tells us, “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

In some mysterious way our suffering helps to build the kingdom. David Powlison said it this way:

When you’ve passed through your own fiery trials and found God to be true to what he says, you have real help to offer. You have firsthand experience of both his sustaining grace and his purposeful design. He has kept you through pain; he has reshaped you more into his image. . . . What you are experiencing from God, you can give away in increasing measure to others. You are learning both the tenderness and the clarity necessary to help sanctify another person’s deepest distress. (Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, pg166)

For the rest of us here in America’s 21^st century, we do not currently experience the physical persecution of so many others across the world. Perhaps our time of physical suffering is still ahead of us. Today though, to us it will mean saying “no” to self, denying our flesh, taking up our cross, and following Jesus Christ. This is what it means to follow our Exalted Head. Our Risen King. Our Savior!

I am not sure how the testimony of a victorious martyr brings me so much hope, but it surely does. I hope this Backyard Conversation brings you hope and perspective and courage in the coming season of your life. This is Dave Scherrer President of 100 Fold Ministries. Peace!

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¹ Eternal Perspective Ministries, Randy Alcorn, https://www.epm.org/blog/2022/Jun/24/josef-tson