The Assassination of the Early Apostles

Even As They Died Valiantly, So Let Us Live

Jesus Christ

(Whose Hebrew name is spelled Yehoshua, meaning, Yes Father, I will) Was burdened in the garden of Gethsemane, with those burdens caused by those who hurt their fellow man, thus first taking the pains and afflictions of those who had been hurt and abused by their oppressors, by first extending to us His love and nurture.

Later, when in Roman rule and interrogation, He was striped, with His body still covered in His blood, and mockingly re-robed in a scarlet robe, symbolizing kingly reign. Next, He was again mocked with an earthly crown of thorns, wherein His blood was shed through His head, in the which He drained out our impure thoughts, as part of our continuing atonement.

Then, He was again unencumbered, and scourged with a multi-faceted woven whip, enclosing flint and broken sharp animal goat bone, wherein He took the beating for us, in which we deserved the penalty for our demerits.

Next, He was made to carry His cross beam up hill, from the streets of Jerusalem to Calvary, where among the mockers, there was found a mourner among the few, who stepped forward to carry His cross, when our dear Christ stumbled, symbolizing our part to take, when we see others suffer and struggle in life.

Then, the dear Christ was fastened to the Cross in sacred covenant, literally and symbolically giving his life for the Church.

After He hung for some time, seeing that he had not died, they attempted to administer bile and vinegar, a poisonous mixture intended to aid in his death. This mixture would have also deadened or numbed some of the pain He was experiencing, which was not appropriate.

After this was unsuccessful, they pierced a Roman spear through His side, in which all of the bitterness, built up from still experiencing and performing the atonement and work of our salvation, was drained from Him. Again, our pains and bitterness can be relieved from our bowels, through His atoning mercy. This still did not kill Him.

Three hours later, His Father, God, then allowed His Son to feel the entire weight of self existence on His own, withholding divine support, so as to complete His mission.

Three minutes later, the Christ voluntarily sent up His Spirit to The Father, with the words, “Father, it is finished, receive my Spirit.”

This is significant, because He was the only one who could voluntarily leave His body, and thus also the only one who could then bless through healing, perfecting, and then voluntarily re-enter His own renewed, holy body. This process is known as a sacred ordinance, called the resurrection.

Peter

Was crucified upside down, on an upside down cross, because he told his tormentors, that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Jesus Christ had died (according to the early church).

James

(The brother of Jesus) Who was the leader of the church head quartered in Jerusalem, was chased by Roman soldiers, and then pushed over the East pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem, where he refused to deny his faith in Christ. He survived the hundred foot drop, and when the on-watching crowd discovered that he had survived the fall, a Jewish fuller, beat him with his fullers club. This was the same pinnacle on the Temple where the Spirit had taken Jesus, after which came the tempter, charging him to cast himself down.

John

Faced martyrdom, when he was thrown into a huge basin of boiling olive oil, during a wave of preaching in Rome. He was miraculously delivered from death, because he had already been translated into a form in which he could not be killed. John was then sentenced to the prison mines on the  island of Patmos, where he had his visions and revelations, and wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation. After this, John returned to serve as the Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. John still tarries upon the earth today, until the second coming of our Lord and Savior, to help bring souls to Christ.

Matthew

Was struck and wounded by a sword, and bled to death, suffering martyrdom in Ethiopia.

Mark

Was killed in Alexandria, Egypt, by being tied, put into a chariot, pushed out, and being dragged by horses through the streets, until he was dead. A common death practice among the Egyptians.

Luke

Was hung in Greece, because of his tremendous preaching to the lost.

Other Apostles

(Whose names are found in the book of The Acts of the Apostles) were likewise killed by Roman influence and reign.

This finally gave way for the new order to begin. Namely, the Roman Catholic.

This is not to say that there is no good in this church today. There are good and negative influences in any multitude of people, whether combined under religious affect or not. Everywhere you go, you will experience good and hard, but with God, all can and will be made right.

In 1 Nephi 13:32 we read:

32 Neither will the Lord God suffer that the Gentiles shall forever remain in that awful state of blindness, which thou beholdest they are in, because of the plain and most precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back by that abominable church, whose formation thou hast seen.

Thus we see that Nephi, a prophet from The Book of Mormon, was shown in vision the formation of the Catholic Church, under Constantine and his constituents, who strategically altered holy writ, to impose a form of control, under the guise of religion.

The church of Christ was lost, with it’s organization, priesthood and ordinances, with many of the covenants, truth and gospel teachings.

Before the Catholic Church was forced to let the Bible go to the public, by the work of the early reformers and martyrs, they had altered much of the Holy Bible, including Revelation 22:18, which reads:

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

A more correct translation would read something like this:

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, for if any man shall alter or change these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

The Lord needed to restore His true church again, with its fullness.

We read in Doctrine & Coventants section 1:17-23 the following:

17 Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments;

18 And also gave commandments to others, that they should proclaim these things unto the world; and all this that it might be fulfilled, which was written by the prophets—

19 The weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones, that man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh—

20 But that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world;

21 That faith also might increase in the earth;

22 That mine everlasting covenant might be established;

23 That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers.

This shows us that the Lord has indeed restored His original gospel and church upon the earth, and we have the living oracles, or prophets and apostles again in our day, with the Lord’s holy priesthood power and authority, and the proper priesthood keys, handed down from Jesus to his Apostles, to perform all the sacred ordinances, such as baptism and the confirmation of the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

Shane