Christian martyrs in 20th century America? It happened
on this day, April 20, 1999. When Eric Harris and
Dylan Klebold began shooting up their school, they did not fire
randomly. In their twisted minds, Athletes, minorities and Christians
were the enemy.
"Do you believe in God?" they asked Cassie Bernall. They knew full
well she did. The girl who had once indulged in the occult (as the
killers now did) had moved into a realm of peace when she learned to
center her heart on Christ. She became a church-goer and a worker among
those who needed Christ. Often she brought her Bible to school.
She was reading it in the library when the killer pointed his gun at
her. Did she believe in God? "Yes, I believe in God," she replied.
"Why?" asked the boy in the dark trench coat. Without waiting for an
answer, he pulled the trigger.
"My God, my granddaughter was a martyr," said Cassie's grandma when
she heard the report.
And not the only one, either. Rachel Scott, a spiritually-minded
seventeen-year-old whose ambition was to become a missionary to Africa,
died, too. So did John Tomlin, a sixteen-year-old who had recently gone
to Mexico to help with a church project for the poor.
The Sunday before her death, Cassie wrote these words after
church:
Now I have given up on everything else I have found it to
be the only way
To really know Christ and to experience
The
mighty power that brought Him back to life again, and to find
Out
what it means to suffer and to
Die with him.
So, whatever it
takes I will be one who lives in the fresh
Newness of life of
those who are
Alive from the dead.
Bibliography:
- Colson, Charles W. "Littleton's Martyrs." BreakPoint
Commentary - April 26, 1999.
(www.stormloader.com/omegakids/Casiemail.html). [Casie's poem is quoted
from this source].
Nimmo, Beth and Darrell Scott with Steve Rabey. Rachel's Tears.
Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2000.
- Rosenberg, Jennifer. "The Columbine Massacre." 20th
Century History.
http://history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa041303a.htm
- Numerous other internet articles, including articles originally
printed in the Boston Globe and Washington Post. Read this article at - http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901-2000/columbine-killers-targeted-christians-too-11630857.html
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