What Does Martyrdom Prove?

The other day I was talking to my Atheist friend at work about the foundations of the Christian faith.  I mentioned the evidentiary importance of the martyrdom of the Apostles.

He replied with indignation:

You can't use their martyrdom as evidence.  It proves nothing.  There are plenty of people who die for all kinds of things.  So are you willing to say every other faith with martyrs is true as well?

Is that the case?  The Apostolic martyrdoms has long been used as evidence for the truth of the Christian claim.  But does that work?  Does their willingness to die prove anything?

The Limitations of Martyrdom:

When confronted with appeals to the Apostle’s martyrdom, folks like my coworker will point to examples of people dying for false or absurd causes.  For instance, the 9/11 hijackers died for their interpretation of the Islamic faith.  Does that mean their version of Islam is true?

Well… no.   But does that mean martyrdom has absolutely no evidentiary power?

Not quite.

Say whatever you like about the 9/11 hijackers, but those men willing to put their cause above any other good they might have received in life.  Their deaths, however evil, showed that they were sincere in their belief that Islam was true.

And that’s what martyrdom proves:  Sincerity.

Likewise, if I were to die a martyr for Christianity, it wouldn’t prove that Christianity is true. But it would certainly prove that I am a Christian.  I may be deluded, but I am at least honestly deluded.


When Honesty becomes Evidence:

My martyrdom would show the sincerity of my belief.  But it doesn’t prove the Christian faith, because I am repeating what was handed down to me.

This changes when we’re talking about the first generation of Christians who were the originators the claim.  They received their faith, not from the testimony of another, but from witnessing the events in question.

Unlike later witnesses, the Apostles would have firsthand knowledge about whether their testimony is bogus.  That means their sincerity really, really matters.

The Christian religion stands and falls on whether the apostles were lying.  And it wasn’t just those twelve, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians records that there were plenty of others too:

“[Christ] appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me.”    – 1 Cor 15: 3-8

The Historical Conundrum:

Something very peculiar happened in 1st century Palestine.  In 33AD, a sizable group of people suddenly became convinced that they saw a man get beaten, scourged, crucified, and stabbed in the chest … and not stay dead.

Then these nobodies burst out onto the global scene telling everyone they could find.  In the process they suffered ostracization, beatings, stoning, crucifixion, being flayed alive, poverty, and the loss of all worldly goods.

For this reason, it isn’t enough to say that the Christian faith is false.  A genuine seeker of truth must also explain why so many first-hand witnesses were willing to give up comfort, property, family, friends, and even their lives for the sake of what they had seen.

The way I see it, one must have an alternate explanation as to why these people were willing to wear the red crown of martyrdom… or be willing to wear it also.