WHAT BECAME OF THE APOSTLES

By Akin Ojumu

Power. Power. Power. Just as it has always been in the history of mankind, the average churchgoer today is obsessed with supernatural power. Possessed, as it were, with the ever-consuming passion for the miraculous, they chase after any charlatan professing to live a naturally supernatural lifestyle. 

Being the type to never to let an inordinate desire go waste, the shysters of the contemporary pulpits fan into flame the lustful longing of their captives by leading them to spend their lives jumping from crusade grounds to prayer lines all in pursuit of miracles, signs, and wonders of the type performed by the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ and documented in the Book of Acts.

Yet, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard a preacher wound up their biblically uninformed and spiritually undiscerning audience by whetting their appetite with the pie-in-the-sky idea that the authentic Christian life is a daily re-enactment of the Book of Acts, I’d be a multi-millionaire by now. 

What these Gospel hucksters, who are supposedly living an Acts-of-Apostle styled Christianity, fail to disclose to their enamored followers is what actually became of the Apostles whose acts are recorded in the Book of Acts. 

For instance, you are never ever going to hear these powerfully anointed preachers talk about the toil and hardship of Paul, an true Apostle who, when presented with the opportunity to boast about his supernatural exploits for God’s Kingdom, was more interested in telling his audience about his trials and travails.

2 Corinthians 11:16-33

“…Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure…”

Perhaps blinded by the rose-colored glasses with which they look at the lives of the Apostles, the megalomaniacs who rule in the various denominations today cynically conceal from their audience the fact that the Apostles of the First Century Church endured unimaginable suffering and all of them, save one, got killed for their faith.

Unlike your so-called General Overseer, Bishops, Apostles, and Prophets who’d rather you didn’t know the truth about the fate of the original Twelve Disciples, this commentary is a capsule summary of how eleven of these Patriarchs of the faith died.

Apostle Peter: Jailed, Tortured, & Crucified Upside Down 

Leader and spokesman for the disciples, Simon Peter’s ministry was a great blessing to the church when persecution broke out in Jerusalem against the Christians under Herod. 

His ministry continued into 60AD where at long last he was arrested by the Romans. Under the tyranny of Nero, Simon Peter was thrown into the notorious Mamertine Prison in Rome.

Simon Peter was tortured for quite a period before he was taken to the Circus Maximus and executed by being crucified upside down. He didn’t want to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus, because he said he was not worthy to be executed in the same manner Jesus was, and so he was crucified upside down.

Apostle Andrew: Crucified on a Cross in the Shape of X

The first of the disciples called by the Lord Jesus, Andrew was the brother of Peter. 

He was killed in 70 A.D., the same year in which Jerusalem fell, and his crucifixion was on a cross in the shape of an X. Tradition tells us that when he saw the cross that had been prepared for his execution, he broke out in joy. He said, “My whole life has been for the cross.” 

Rather than being nailed to the cross, he was tied to that cross, and he lived on that cross for three days of torture before he died.

Apostle James: Impaled with a Sword

James the Greater is one the two sons of the Zebedee. He had the distinction of being the first Apostolic martyr in Christian history. James was not the first Christian martyr. The first martyr, of course, was Stephen, but the first of the Twelve, the first martyred Apostle, was James in the year 44 A.D. James was killed by the sword during a Jewish persecution led by Herod Antipas.

Apostle John: Boiled in Oil, Made to Drink Poison, But Died a Natural Death

John, the other of the sons of the Zebedee, experienced exile under the emperor Domitian to the island of Patmos, where he received that heavenly vision that he recorded, as Jesus instructed him, which comes to us now as the book of the Revelation. 

John suffered many times. On one occasion, he was scheduled to be executed by being boiled in oil, but somehow, we don’t know how, he was able to escape that fate. On another occasion, tradition tells us that he was supposed to be executed and was administered some kind of poison. He was to be executed by drinking poison. According to tradition, he drank the poison, and it didn’t affect him. He suffered but did not die. He didn’t die until the Lord was ready to take him.

Apostle Philip: Stoned and Crucified

Like many of the disciples, Philip became a missionary to other lands after Jesus’ resurrection and the day of Pentecost. Tradition tells us that the missionary outreach of Philip carried all the way to ancient Gaul, or France. He also spent much time in Turkey where he was despised by the pagan priests and martyred in the year AD 54. He was doubly martyred, if that’s possible. First, he was stoned almost to the point of death, and then they finished the job by crucifying him.

Apostle Bartholomew: Skin Flayed with Whipping & Crucified

Also known as Nathaniel. It was of whom the Lord Jesus spoke as being, “an Israelite in whom there is no guile.” 

From the testimony of church history and tradition, we are told that Nathaniel became a missionary and started the first Christian church in Armenia. His ministry, however, caused conflict with the local, pagan priests because they didn’t like what he taught. So, he too was martyred. He was killed in AD 70 by having his skin flayed with whips, that is, being whipped so severely that most of his skin came off, and then he was crucified.

Apostle James: Thrown Off the Pinnacle of the Temple & Crucified

Tradition tells us that James the son of Alphaeus, aka James the Less, was a missionary to Syria. Around AD 63, he was recalled to Jerusalem and tried by the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem as a heretic. He was taken to the pinnacle of the temple and told publicly to renounce Jesus. Instead, James reaffirmed his conviction that Christ was the Messiah and the Son of God, whereupon he was thrown to the ground from the pinnacle of the temple. But that did not kill him, it merely broke his leg. So, to finish the job, the executioners came and hit James in the head with a large stone and killed him.

Apostle Matthew: Beheaded

Also knowns as Levi, the tax collector. Matthew wrote the gospel bearing his name. He went on to become a missionary. According to ancient tradition, he took the gospel to Ethiopia and was one of the first to visit and establish a church in Africa. He also got into problems with the local, pagan priests and was beheaded in AD 60 as a martyr to the faith.

Apostle Thomas: Speared to Death

Thomas, of the doubting Thomas fame, became a missionary to India and suffered martyrdom in AD 70, being killed with a spear.

Apostle Simon : Sawn in Half

Simon the Zealot was also a missionary. He went to North Africa, to Spain, and then to Britain. There, in the year AD 74, he suffered martyrdom as he was sawn in half.

Apostle Judas: Killed with Arrows

Judas, son of James, was also named Thaddeus in the New Testament. Next to nothing is known about him, except that through tradition we understand he was martyred in AD 70 by being shot with arrows and killed.

These men laid the foundation of the Church. Their lives represent a testimony for us today. What their sufferings and death demonstrate is the fact that living an Acts of Apostle Christianity is not about signs, wonders, and miracles, but rather about putting one’s life on the line and ready to die. True Christianity is not about chasing after the supernatural. An authentic Christian living is being prepared to give one’s life in martyrdom for the Lord.

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In writing this commentary, I borrowed and adapted from a sermon series titled, The Twelve Apostles, given by the late R.C. Sproul. This great theologian, a true gift to this generation, should be credited with nearly everything you’ve just read.