September 19, 2025
What's in a word?
I was moving rather slowly on a parking-lot-like West Seattle Bridge while heading to First Covenant this week, when I noticed the company name on the van in front of me. The company’s name was “Brimstone Fire Safety Management.” Staring at this logo for some time made me think of what an attention getting name it was. One might say a hell of a name!
When I think of “brimstone” I think of “fire and brimstone” as a traditional description of hell. Brimstone comes from the old English word for “burning stone.” This word referred to sulfur in particular, a stone that burns and gives off a fairly strong, pungent odor. This is how it got its association with eternal damnation. That association is what made this company’s name grab my attention, much more so than “Sulfur Fire Safety Management” would have.
This makes me think of how the meaning of a word can change over time in significant ways that can also be misleading. “Martyr” is one such word. Martyrs in the Greek language referred to those who gave witness to, or testified to, a fact or event. A witness in court was a ‘martyr’. Those who saw and testified to the risen Christ are described as martyrs in the gospels.
We are having two young people in our church being baptized tomorrow. It reminds me of the (months, sometimes years) long process of preparation the early centuries of the Christian churches for baptism that one would go through in before being baptized. If a catechumen—or one being prepared for Christian initiation—was killed before they were baptized, they were said to have been “baptized in blood.” That is, their willingness to die for the faith was a testimony or witness to their faith, making them a “martyr.” For this reason, they had entered the church by their death and their eternal destiny was not questioned. For Christians since those early centuries, martyr is used to describe one whose death was a testimony to their faith in Christ.
However, in popular parlance, martyr is now used generically for someone who suffers or dies for something they believe in, or a cause they fight for. This later understanding has been thrown out as a blanket description of people of faith who may have died for reasons other than their faith, such as their ideological views or promotion of humanitarian or charitable work.
Yet, Christian martyrs through the centuries have been women and men who willingly put themselves in situations where they chose not to renounce or diminish their commitment of their faith knowing it could cost their life. If I were to be killed for something I believed about economics, for example, I would not be a Christian martyr. On the other hand, if I were to be killed for my beliefs or actions defending the God given value of all people, I would be considered a Christian martyr.
I am concerned how some are currently wedding politics with the reign of God on earth in ways that confuses both. But I am most concerned about how this may distort the Gospel and taint the way the world may see Christian churches—and our church—in terms of both faith and ideology. I would hope we would be a community with a broad embrace of ideas of the world. I would also hope we would never confuse those ideas with the Gospel. To do so, would make our faith give off a burning, odious scent that repels, not attracts, people to the love and grace of God in Christ, given for all people.
Let us pray that our witness to the gospel, and the lived testimony of our faith, would lift up the Cross of Christ, which will draw all people to our God. (John 12:32)
With confidence in Christ,
~ Pastor Todd