A few hundred years later another servant of Satan determined that all who did not worship his statue would likewise be slaughtered, this time by fire. He had already seen Jerusalem fall and could not comprehend that the people he held captive meant anything to anyone. But they did. Nebuchadnezzar too threatened and attempted to kill the worship of the one true God.

Then came Darius with his promise to throw into a den of lions anyone who would worship Jehovah. And the Persian king who teamed with Haman to destroy the Jews altogether.

There's a family resemblance here. And it doesn't end in the Old Testament. Herod likewise was slaughter-happy as the unfortunate babies of Roman Jerusalem discovered too late.

The Caesars, the Popes, the Nazis, the Communists. Hitler, Stalin, Mao. All have set their sites on the People of the living God. But the "People" remains while all these tyrants are in their graves, and worse.

Tyrants remain in our day. The Tyranny family has been permitted a place on earth for the purpose of purifying the people of God in every generation. Whence comes the martyr? From the tyrant. Whence come the robes of white? From the slaughterer of God's people.

Even the final horrendous torture of the faithful will be permitted . Antichrist will rule and reign, wearing out the saints. (And these are not a special class of "tribulation-only" saints. These too are the very people of God, your brothers and sisters) But only for awhile. They will get their new address and he will be consigned to the flames.

One name I have omitted from my narrating. I have mentioned him often enough. But his fate is as sealed as all the rest. Unless he repents of his treatment of the people of God, and receives God's gracious forgiveness, he shall be tormented with all of the lost forever and ever.

What horrors we speak of today. Yet realities. The fires of hell are licking up all around, yet how often do we see them?So many that we converse with so casually every day have missed Christ and will miss the joys of eternity. Not only the Hitlers and Stalins, but all who have turned Christ away.