He loved God, his congregation, and his wife.
Many different wild and crazy things and events occur throughout the course of human history,…that much is for certain. Often times there are good and specific reasons for the different occurrences. Many times there are no seemingly apparent needs, causes, or explanations for such things to ever happen….but they, in fact, do happen. Whenever man has no reasonable explanation as to the cause of special events, most often there will later be discovered a “spiritual” reason or cause….And, we must always remember that our Creator, God, is under no sense of obligation or requirement to explain to us why He is permitting any event(s) to occur.
Such is the case in the explanation of the events surrounding today’s article of discussion.
After the death of the godly teenage king Edward VI and the nine day reign of the likewise godly teenager, Lady Jane Grey, in 1553,..Mary Tudor, the Roman Catholic daughter of King Henry VIII, became queen of England. She immediately insisted in restoring Catholicism as the state religion of England and in 1555 gave the courts of the Roman Catholic Church the power to burn heretics. All Protestants were considered to be heretics, and the burning began–thus earning the queen her name “Bloody Mary.” Robert Samuel found himself among the ranks of the heretics.
Robert Samuel was the pastor at Barfolde, England, where he was known during the reign of king Edward VI for his sincere faith, holy life, and dedication to preaching the Word of God. As part of Queen Mary’s request to eliminate Protestantism, Samuel and the other Protestant ministers were removed from their parishes and forbidden to preach. Putting his commitment to serve God above his personal safety, Samuel decided to continue to minister to his congregation secretly.
The English clergy under the Roman Catholic Church had been celibate but under the influence of the Reformation had been allowed to marry. Now adding insult to injury, the queen ordered all married clergymen to leave their wives and return to celibacy. Samuel was not willing to leave his wife. In his own judgement such an action, abandoning his own wife, would cause him to be breaking God’s law. He simply was not willing to break God’s law for man’s tradition. As a result, he risked arrest and refused to leave his wife.
One night when he returned home to his wife, the authorities were waiting for him and arrested him. He was immediately taken to prison, never to see his wife again.
While he was incarcerated, the bishop of the Church ordered that he be tortured with the cruelest techniques of the times. Many times several prisoners succumbed to such torture and either renounced their faith or lost their minds. Samuel was chained upright to a post, so that he had to support his own weight with only the tips of his toes. At the same time, he was deprived of food and drink, given only two or three mouthfuls of of food and a few sips of water each day, just enough to keep him alive so as to endure more pain. But Samuel showed great bravery, courage, and tenacity in enduring the pain. And, he remained true to his faith.
On August 31, 1555, Samuel was taken from prison to be burned at the stake. He was eager to put an end to his torment and to be with his Savior. Before his execution he told the assembled crowd how after he had been deprived of food and water for a few days, he had fallen asleep and a man dressed all in white appeared to him and said, “Samuel, take a good heart unto thee; for after this day shalt thou never be hungry or thirsty.”
He reported that after he awoke, he did not suffer from hunger or thirst during the rest of his imprisonment and torture!
Robert then was burned at the stake, and went “home” to meet his Savior.
Points To Ponder
Although many of God’s people have suffered and died under similar circumstances without having a divine visitation like Robert Samuel had, his personal experience demonstrates how God is always concerned for the sufferings of his people. If we are ever called upon to suffer, in a similar way, let us remain faithful unto death, whether or not we have a visit from heaven. It will be your faithfulness and obedience to God and His instructions that will be rewarded in the eternal time hereafter.
“And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”
Book of Matthew 10 : 22 (NKJV)
Man has proven throughout the course of human history that he is incapable of getting along peacefully with his fellow man. His violent actions against his own kind can be traced all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Remember it was there that Cain slew his own brother, Abel. The supposedly Christian religion has somewhere along its development splintered into over 500 different denominations many of which cannot tolerate one another even when they claim to believe in the Creator God from whence we all originally came. God’s heart must break as He sees how his finest creation, man, continues to be intolerant against himself and each other.
“ By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Book Of John 13 : 35 (NKJV)
Learn Well the Lessons of History……………..