Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. (Hebrews 11:35, NKJV).
The Bible is crystal clear: we are all immortal; we will all be resurrected.
However far removed these truths may seem from daily life on this planet is irrelevant. The real question, the question posed to each of us by Jesus Himself is, will your immortality be the result of the resurrection of life - the better resurrection, or the resurrection of condemnation - unthinkable torment in Hell (John 5:29)?
It is also no trivial matter that torture is included in this verse of Hebrew's faith chapter, and explicitly associated with endurance and deliverance.
In this life, on this fallen world, there are innumerable forms of torture, which in the present context must mean purposely inflicted pain. There are the unspeakable tortures perpetrated against believers throughout history, and even today in some parts of the world, and then there are the tortures we inflict upon ourselves. Add to that the torturous uncertainty of life in an environment currently ruled and fueled by the Devil, and the basket of woes is overflowing.
Heroes of the faith qualify for that designation by enduring whatever this God-hating, Satan-controlled world throws at them. And by enduring even what they throw at themselves. All sources of torture are used by the enemy to destroy faith.
It makes perfect sense. If faith is the manner of entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, then undermining that faith is essential strategy in the Long War Against God. Destroy a man's faith, and you have a writhing immortal corpse forever suffering in the flames of Hades.
Endurance is the definitive proof of true, internal, essential, transformative faith. Anybody can say he or she has faith, but the proof is in the twofold declaration of how a professing believer lives… and dies.
In fact, dying is the common thread in Hebrews 11. It is mentioned at least eight times (Hebrews 11:4,5,12,13,19,21,22,35), in different contexts, all serving to illuminate some aspect of the relationship between faith and death.
Christ came to die, and, in dying, conquered death, to release those, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Torture in this regard always includes the dangled prospect of death, and most specifically, a drawn out and painful death - the kind used to coerce fundamental changes in behavior and belief.
Few of us in the West have undergone the deliberate torture inflicted upon prisoners of war, or victims of heinous crime, or martyrs of the faith, but that in no way means we escape all forms of torture. And how we respond to it applies here and now to our lives in ways similar to verse 35 above. Do we accept temporary deliverance or endure to a better resurrection? Do we give up and take the easy way out, or do we go on?
What loving parent has not been assailed by the torturous anxiety over a child in dire circumstances? What human, young or old, has not been subject to the torture of real or imagined loss, or humiliation, or lack of safety, or any other of a billion horrors that are part and parcel of being alive? What person would not be tempted to accept any way of escape?
And how each responds, ultimately, to that torture is indicative of what and how deeply each believes.
Sadly, whether we acknowledge it or not, physical life in this present age hangs on a gossamer thread. Our statistical chances of survival hinge on the most ephemeral, and uncontrollable "accidents" of fate: genetics, socioeconomic background, geography, culture, diet, and what the world sees as "luck".
But as Christians, we must believe that there is no such thing as "luck" or "accident" in an existence governed by an all-powerful sovereign Deity who rules over every conceivable minutiae of all of Creation.
And we must also conclude that there is a purpose, a divinely ordained and good purpose, in every event. We may not comprehend it this side of the grave, but if we believe that to be true, then we, like Paul must be persuaded that "that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
And "that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
This is the power of faith in earthly life, being more than a conqueror of those ancient and implacable enemies of life and peace, being able to know that despite what it may seem, we are always in the hands of a loving God.
If we truly believed what the Bible says about God and His relationship with us, His children by faith, then it is not that we will never be afraid, or doubtful, or weak, or anxious, but that ultimately those fears, doubts, weakness and torturous anxieties will not defeat us.
