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2008年09月13日
The Church in Japan: Nagasaki-The City of Martyrs
Reiko and I just got back from three days in Nagasaki. I found it to be one of the most unique Japanese cities that I have ever been in. The main reason is that one of the major attractions of the city is the city's churches. In fact, the first place that many tourists first visit would be the Oura Tenshudo Church which was constructed in 1864 to honor the 26 martyrs of Nagasaki. These 26 Christians were arrested for their faith in Kyoto and then marched to Nagasaki in the middle of the winter for the express purpose of seeing them all die on 26 crosses waiting for them there. The youngest was only 12 while the oldest believer was 61 years old.
Another place that a tourist might decide to make the first place to visit is the monument that stands in honor of these 26 believers. In fact, throughout the city of Nagasaki these 26 martyrs seemed to either follow us or be waiting for us.
The last church that we visited was the Urakami Tenshudo Church-another spot that most tourists visit. Our first reaction was very negative-it just seemed like a large modern church. However, things are often not what they seem on the surface. The Christians of the Urakami area went underground for 200 years while Christianity was banned. When they were free to surface the first thing that they did was to build the largest Catholic Church in East Asia.with their own hands. This was their way of expressing their faith. All the persecution in the world could not stop them from believing in and following the true God. However, on August 9, 1945 the A-bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and totally destroyed the church. Again, the first thing that the Urakami believers did after the war was to rebuild their beloved church. Their message was that neither persecution nor A-bombs could destroy their faith in God ! And so, even though it is a modern building, it is a church with great meaning
And of course besides the famous 26 martyrs were many many others who gave thier life for their faith. In each case, the message was the same. Believing in and following Jesus was more important than life itself. The confession, "I believe in Jesus Christ" was the road to physical death while the confession, "I renounce Jesus Christ" was the way to physical life. I am now fighting cancer but it is simply a sickness that has come upon me which I need to accept while the believers of Nagasaki of their own free will chose suffering and death. This was a great challenge to me.
On our last evening in Nagasaki, Reiko and I visited the church next to the Oura Tenshudo. This was a church built for prayer here and now rather than looking back to the past. We enjoyed a time of prayer and meditation there. Again, I was amazed at the city of Nagasaki. A Japanese city with a unique message-To die for Christ is the way to Eternal Life. I am sure that all the students and young people who visit this city are forced to think about what is most important to them. Is there anything that they believe in that is worth giving up their life for? And of course those most basic questions of all-Does God really exist? and Who is Jesus Christ? Is He really the Son of God and our Savior from sin?
On our last day in Nagasaki we got into our taxi to go to the train station and found out that our taxi driver was a Christian. In his taxi he has a book that listed every one of the churches in the city and we spent most of our time talking about Christianity and faith. Only in Nagasaki would such a thing happen! I trust that God will use this city to challenge people about the importance of faith in God and the importance of Eternal Values.
投稿者 bethany : 2008年09月13日 14:46
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