Learning the Fear of God — Zac Poonen

The Balanced View of God's Kindness and Severity

I want to read a verse in Romans chapter 11. You know that to grow healthy physically we need a balanced diet. It's the same spiritually. And a lot of problems among Christians come because they have certain favorite themes or subjects in the scripture which they go to often, favorite verses.

And think only of those, the result is imbalance in their life, problems. In fact, most of the cults in Christendom have arisen through some one verse or one side of truth magnified out of all proportion.

If you look at most of the cults that use the Bible as their base and basis, you'll find that they use the scripture but blow it out of proportion to everything else in scripture. And then, of course, you get a wrong doctrine.

Can you get a wrong doctrine from scripture? Yes, you can. The devil quoted scripture to Jesus and that was wrong. Jesus countered it by saying it is also written. And then you get the whole truth. So here in Romans 11 and verse 22, it says, Behold the kindness and the severity of God.

Behold is a word which means look carefully, look carefully at God's kindness and his severity. And you know how our natural tendency is only to look at his kindness because that comforts us more. And if you are discouraged, that's certainly something you need to look at because he's infinitely kind.

His mercies are new every morning. But if you keep on looking at that and you don't see anything about God's severity, I feel that you may come to the place where you could lose your salvation. I personally have no doubt in my own mind about that because when a person doesn't understand the severity of God, he plays around with sin and he just keeps on meditating on God's kindness.

And the end result is he's lost. He may have been once saved but he finally goes to hell forever. So it's very important that when we think of the grace of God, that's not the only thing mentioned in the New Testament.

The New Testament also speaks about the fear of God or reverence for God. So if the grace of God is balanced with your understanding of the reverence of God or the fear of God, then you have a balanced development.

Grace and the Fear of God in Holiness

How do we become holy? Romans chapter 6 verse 14 says, Sin shall not rule over you or be your master when you are under grace. So you can't become holy without the grace of God. Grace is God's power that helps us to overcome sin, that helps us to overcome our fallen nature.

Grace is the power that keeps us from falling. But the Bible also says in 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1 that if you want to perfect holiness, you can do that only in the fear of God. Therefore having these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

So I understand from that verse, you just can't become holy if you don't fear God. However much you may experience grace, if you don't fear God, you're not going to be holy. You've got to understand God's grace and you've got to understand God's fear.

It also says in Hebrews chapter 12, there are verses about the fear of God in the Old Testament, but we could say, well that was something which they concentrated on the Old Covenant because they didn't know the grace of God then.

It's true, they did not know the grace of God then. They only knew the fear of God and the law. But when Jesus came, He added grace. He didn't substitute the fear of God with now His grace. He added something.

And that's what a lot of people haven't understood. Most Christians haven't understood that. They think that Jesus substituted the fear of God now with the grace of God and that's all we need to think about.

And that's why the reason why most Christians, their lives are so shallow. They're defeated by sins in their personal life, family life, church life, because they haven't got a balanced life. So Hebrews chapter 12, it says, it speaks about the time when God's going to remove everything that can be shaken.

It says here in verse 27, the last section of Hebrews 12, yet once more denotes that removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things, so those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

So one day God's going to shake everything that can be shaken. And if your life can be shaken, it will be shaken and it will be removed. Because it says here, the removing of all things that can be shaken.

I don't want to be removed. I want to live for eternity. And I don't want to be shaken. Jesus spoke about the house that will not be shaken. And so it says here about a time when even Almighty God, when He shakes things, there are certain things that will not be shaken, even when God shakes heaven and earth.

It's amazing. And it says here, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, the kingdom of God is something that cannot be shaken. And if I'm a part of that, let us show gratitude. If you want to be a part of this kingdom, gratitude is of course very important.

Everything we do for God must be filled with gratitude and thankfulness. And by this gratitude, by grace let's say, we offer to God an acceptable service with fear. You see how the two go together? With reverence and awe.

Because our God is a consuming fire. It's a fire of love and it's a fire of purity. See, when I think of the early Christians, I'm talking about the early apostles, they were not very mature when they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

And yet they didn't know all the doctrines that we know, because the New Testament was not even written on the day of Pentecost. There are a lot of things you and I know about doctrine, which Peter did not know probably until he was 50 or 60 years old.

And yet how is it that he lived in freedom from sin? Those early Christians. See, the reason was those early Christians were all from the Jewish community. And from childhood they had been drilled by their parents and their leaders in the fear of God.

They had to learn to fear God, fear God, fear God. They didn't know anything about the grace of God, but they were taught the fear of God. And people like Peter and James and John, for 25, 30 years, they had learned the fear of God, then they understood the grace of God.

And that makes a lot of difference. Whereas today's Christians have come straight to the grace of God, without even spending one year in learning the fear of God. And if I were to use an illustration, it's like going to college without going to school.

Galatians 3 says in verse 24, the law which taught people the fear of God was a schoolmaster. It was not a college principal, it was a schoolmaster, a school principal. The law was the principal of a school to lead us to grace, to Christ.

So here, he's comparing the Old Testament to a school education. And you enter the New Covenant and the Holy Spirit, it's like entering college. Now can you imagine if a child has taken, hasn't even learned the ABC or addition or multiplication or anything, and the parent is very eager that he finishes his degree quickly and put him straight into college.

And he's five years old and he's sitting in a BSC class. How long do you think he'll sit there? All his life. And he'll learn nothing because he doesn't know the alphabet. You can't rush through education like that.

That's why we are patient to send our children to school for 10 -12 years before we even dream that they can go into college. The law was our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. And that was the tremendous advantage that those early Jewish Christians had.

You see, the non-Jewish Christians didn't have that advantage even in the first century. For example, in Corinth, most of those people in Corinth were, church in Corinth, were all from Gentiles. And so you find all types of things going on in their midst.

Imagine a man living with his father's wife, sleeping with her. I can't imagine a person with a Jewish background ever doing that. And when I see the horrible things that I hear some believers do nowadays, I can't imagine Jewish Christians doing that.

Or Jews doing that. God-fearing Jews. Can you imagine Elijah, if you were living today, sort of secretly clicking on internet pornography? Elijah, under the old covenant? Or can you imagine Moses or John the Baptist fooling around with women or playing the fool with money, cheating?

I can't. Because they knew nothing. Their knowledge of God's grace was zero. But their knowledge of God's fear was very large. And the Bible does not say that the grace of God is the beginning of wisdom.

The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's like saying, the fear of the Lord is the ABC. The grace of God is not the ABC. So if you try to get the grace of God before you've learned your ABC, you're going to have a faulty understanding.

And probably all through your life, it'll be like this child who was pushed into college, somehow or the other learns to struggle with learning the alphabet and everything else while it's attending this BSC first-year class.

He's going to be a very poor student. Because he's got to learn 12-year stuff so quickly. So I want to say, my brothers and sisters, that we all need greatly to learn the fear of God. David used to tell people, come, my children, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

It's one of the great things we need to learn. It says even about Jesus. You know, it's an amazing verse we read in Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5, it says in verse 7, In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death.

And he was heard because of his godly fear. Why were Jesus' prayers heard? The standard answer that all Christians, most Christians would give is, he's the son of God. But that's not what the Holy Spirit says.

The Holy Spirit says that there was no partiality with God and God did not treat Jesus any different when he came to earth as a man. He came to earth as a man and he lived as a man and he didn't get any special treatment.

It's very important to remember, he didn't get any special treatment. What God did for Jesus, he'll do for you if you fulfill the same conditions. And Jesus learned the fear of God. And if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then it says in Luke chapter 2, the child grew in wisdom in Nazareth.

That means he must have grown in wisdom because he learned more and more the fear of God. And here it says his prayers were heard because of his godly fear. Imagine Jesus on earth, who'd never sinned, living in such godly fear.

And that's the reason why he says he prayed with loud crying and tears. People who have a fear of God, there's a lot of loud crying in their prayer life. People who don't fear God, there's no such loud crying as a casual attitude to Jesus like a buddy-buddy, you know, put your arm around Jesus and say hi.

These are the guys who've got no understanding of God at all. The more you know God, the less you think he's your buddy to put your arm around him and say hi. The more you learn to worship him. We have a shallow Christianity today, which has lost that fear of God.

It's a very, very sad thing. Look at the songs we sing very often nowadays, all these modern choruses, some of them are excellent. But if you notice, many of them, the element of the fear of God is absolutely lacking.

And some of them are so trivial, you've heard me mention this before, talk to Jesus as if he's some type of lover. Oh, I can't do without you, I can't live without you. And the word Jesus is not even mentioned in the song, you don't know who you're talking to.

It's amazing. Written by people who have no fear of God, but have some ability in music. And there are multitudes of Christians who love singing it. Because they themselves have no fear of God. They don't know God.

They know somebody who they think is Jesus. It's not the real Jesus at all. If in the first century people could be attached to another Jesus, do you think it's possible for people to be attached to another Jesus who's not the Jesus of the Bible?

I think so. I think a lot of people are. And that Jesus cannot help anybody. He can't save people from their sin. The real Jesus saves people from their sin. That's the meaning of his name. The real Jesus baptizes people in the Holy Spirit and fire.

He does that. But this other Jesus, you can pray and pray and pray to him. It's almost like praying to the prophets of Baal. Like praying to Baal, like the prophets of Baal did. No answer, no fire. So, here's the real Jesus.

One who prayed with loud crying and tears. Because he peered. And I want to ask you, dear brothers and sisters, when was the last time you prayed with loud crying, strong crying and tears? For anything.

Jesus is praying here that spiritual death should not touch him. And spiritual death didn't touch him for 33 and a half years. It's not talking about physical death here because Jesus never prayed to be saved from physical death.

Never. Even martyrs are bold to go to physical death. Why can Jesus be scared of that? The death he hated and avoided was spiritual death. Spiritual death means darkness, that which belongs to the devil.

Jesus hated it. It just means the same thing as what it says earlier in Hebrews, that he loved righteousness and hated iniquity. He hated iniquity means he hated spiritual death. But he came as a man, and from that purity of heaven where there was no spiritual death, into a slum called the earth, full of spiritual death.

And he didn't want to be touched by it. It's something like if you were brought up in extremely clean surroundings, and you suddenly went and lived in a slum, and all the time you're reacting to everything around you, I don't want to touch that, and I don't want to sit here, and I don't want to drink from that cup.

Everything is so filthy, and you're so careful, because you've been brought up in such clean, hygienic surroundings. That's exactly how Jesus felt. Now a person who's lived in that slum all his life, he's not bothered.

He sits anywhere, eats anything, rolls around anywhere, and that's how a lot of Christians are. They've grown up in this slum called the earth where sin is all around, and there's no desire to be saved from that.

Oh, Father, please save me from this, save me from this. All around I see this. He prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed, and spiritual death did not touch him. Because that was the proof of his godly fear.

God hears such prayers. God really hears such prayers. I tell you this, I believe with all my heart that what God did for Jesus, he will do for you and me, if we have the same attitude towards spiritual death that he had.

He prayed with loud crying and tears to be saved from spiritual death, and he was heard. For thirty-three and a half years he was heard. It never touched him, but it wasn't automatic. He didn't have some type of Teflon non-stick type of nature where sin couldn't stick.

I wish it were like that for us, but it isn't. Sin sticks very quickly to us. We're not non-stick. There is no such Teflon where we have to resist it. We have to resist it, and Jesus resisted it. He himself came without any Teflon non-stick coating.

He resisted it, resisted it constantly. I can imagine many nights Jesus would have been praying with loud crying and tears like in Gethsemane. Because that was the most important thing. Just like people today cry out to God, Lord, give me a bigger house, give me a better car, and give me a beautiful wife, and give me this job and that job.

That's how Jesus prayed to be saved from spiritual death. The only thing is these folks are praying for something different. Something earthly, like all the heathen pray for. What do you think all the prayers of all the non-Christian people in the world are?

Do you think they're praying for holiness? Not one of them. They're also praying for better houses, bigger cars, and to become millionaires, etc. There's a great deception that that religion has come into Christianity today.

And dumb Christians sit with open mouth and swallow that. It shows they don't have the fear of God. They haven't seen Jesus. There's another Jesus being proclaimed in Christendom today. I want to say to you, brothers and sisters, let's learn the fear of God if we are to go further.

Pleasing God Before the Judgment Seat of Christ

One more verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we read, Paul is speaking about heaven and earth and says, we must all appear, verse 10, before the judgment seat of Christ. When you think of appearing before the judgment seat of Christ, do you have the same reaction that Paul has when he thinks about that?

Now, here is a man who could say in verse 9, we have only one ambition, that is to please God. Paul's ambition was not to have a better house or a better means of transport. His ambition was to please God.

He had one passion in life and he had no time for secondary ambitions. One passion in life, to please God. 2 Corinthians 9, he says, and the interesting thing he says here is, whether I'm at home in heaven or absent from heaven here on earth, it doesn't make a difference.

When I get to heaven, my ambition will be to please God. I mean, we all know that. When we get there, that will be our ambition. But the wonderful thing he says is, here when I'm on earth, my ambition is no different.

Absolutely no different. I mean, in heaven I'm not going to long for a bigger house or a better car. I don't long for that even here on earth, Paul says. Isn't that great? He says, the same ambition I'm going to have for all eternity in heaven, I've got right now because I've become a creature of eternity.

I've been changed from a creature of time to a creature of eternity. I've been changed from a child of Adam to a child of God. And now my ambition is the same as Christ's, as Jesus Christ's. I have the mind of Christ.

How many Christians do you think have the mind of Christ today? The mind of Christ was not always longing for more money and more prosperity like we hear today. He was longing to please the Father, everything.

Paul had that mind of Christ. We have this ambition, because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, verse 10, so that everyone will be rewarded for his deeds done in the body, whether they are good or whether they are bad.

Therefore, therefore what? Therefore we know the fear of the Lord, and we are made manifest to God. He says, God sees everything in me, and I know his fear. And we are not trying to, verse 12, commend ourselves to you.

Paul had that attitude. He said, I couldn't care less what you fellas think about me. I live before God's face, and that's the thing that matters. Now I want to turn to an Old Testament example in Genesis, in chapter 22.

Abraham's Fear of God and the Meaning of Worship

In Genesis chapter 22, this is a very interesting chapter, because of two reasons. One, it's the first place in the Bible, where, and in fact I think it's the only place in the Bible, well, you could count Hebrews 5, but here's the first place anyway, where God himself gives a certificate about somebody, he fears me.

He gave that certificate about Joe, and as we just read, the certificate about Jesus himself in Hebrews 5. The Lord said that about Job in Job chapter 1, but here, the first time in the Bible, someone is called a fearer of God.

It's here in Genesis, where God himself gives that certificate, is in Genesis chapter 22, where God says, in verse 12, middle, Now I know that you fear God. My brothers and sisters, imagine if Almighty God could say that to you.

Boy, I'd give anything in the world to get that certificate. All your degree certificates and doctorate certificates are trash, compared to this certificate from God. Now I know that you fear me. I hope you're willing to give anything in the world to get that certificate from God.

That's the first place in the Bible, where the fear of God is read, a person is spoken of as fearing God. The second thing is, that this is the first place in the Bible, in this chapter, where the word worship is used.

And, you know, he says earlier on in verse 5, I'm going to go up there in the last part and worship. That's another thing which is one of the most misunderstood words in Christendom today. A lot of Christians don't know what grace is.

And I'll tell you this, even less Christians know what worship is. I would say that 99 .5 or 99 .9 of Christians think that worship is what we do on Sunday morning. I shared a message on that some time ago, that that was not worship, that was praise.

And that's Thanksgiving. There are three different words used in the Bible. Thanksgiving, praise and worship. And what we do on Sunday morning, I mean, I'm not disturbed that people call it worship, because I understand what they mean.

So, I'm not going to be sticky about that. But what I say is, if you think that's all there is to worship, you're going to miss something. So, if you think I worship the Lord, because I had a great time singing together and the music was all great, you've missed something.

You had a great time praising God, sure. You had a great time expressing your thanksgiving, but that wasn't worship. No. Worship is mostly done in silence, without any drums or music. And mostly when we are all alone before God.

So, and it's connected to the fear of God. You see, and so if people don't know the fear of God, obviously they're not going to be serious about worship either. And when Jesus said that the Father is seeking all over the world for those who will worship Him in spirit and truth, what do you think that verse means?

Do you think the Father is looking all over the world for people who have drums and keyboards? Well, if He was looking for that, I think He was pretty disappointed for 19th century. But most of that has come up only in the 20th century.

I don't think He was looking for that. Well, what was He looking for? Was He looking for people to raise their hands and clap their hands? What does it mean when it says, God is His spirit and the Father seeks all over for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth?

That's different from the sacrifices of praise, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. That's important. But worship is something different. So I just want to share something of that with you.

Here is a man who is called, the first person in the Bible, who is called the fearer of God. So I presume we can understand something. Just like Abraham is called the father of faith. A lot of things we can learn from Abraham about faith that when God said He's going to have a son, He said Amen.

When God says something, we believe it and He got it. So he's the father of faith. And the Bible says even though he was so weak and helpless and his wife was barren, he gave glory to God by believing that what God had said, God would do.

Not what God had said I would do. Notice that. He believed that what God had said God would do. If God's promised to give me victory, He will give me victory. He will keep me from falling. It's not me keeping myself from falling.

Abraham didn't think he could produce a son on his own and I don't ever believe that I can get victory on my own. It's He who keeps me from falling. It's He who will save me from my sin. That's the mistake a lot of people make.

They're themselves trying to be saved from sin. It's like trying to climb out of a thousand foot pit. You just can't do it. Somebody else has to pull you out. It's God who gave Abraham a son and it's Jesus who saves us from sin.

It's Jesus who fills us with the Holy Spirit. When Abraham is called a fearer of God, here are a few things that I saw as I meditated on this chapter. Seven things that I'd like to share with you. Number one.

Listening to God as the First Mark of Fear

One who fears God is one who listens to God. Notice, God tested Abraham and God said, Abraham, and the Message Bible says, Yes, answered Abraham, I'm listening. I'm listening. That's great. He said that before Samuel said it.

Speak, Lord. The servant is listening. One who fears God is one who is always ready to listen. It's like God calls me and I drop everything and I say, Yes. You see that often. Somewhere out of the blue, God would say, Abraham, and He'd drop everything and say, Yes, Lord.

Do you have that attitude? I tell you, I know many a time when I have failed. I'm doing something which I think is very important. Sometimes even writing a Christian article and God says, Stop. Just talk to me for a little while.

And I have sometimes said, Lord, just hang on. Just let me finish this. Ten minutes, I'll be over. The ten minutes are over and I finish my article and I look around for the Lord. He's not there. The sense of His presence, which was so near ten minutes earlier, has gone.

And it's taught me that I don't have God at my beck and call. Hey, God. Why does it say, Seek the Lord when He can be found? Does it mean He can be found anytime? Why does it say, Call upon Him when He is near?

I tell you, I have learned that lesson by failure. And I say, God, let it never happen again in my life. When you call me by name, I drop everything and I say, Lord, yes, tell me. The most important thing in the world must be dropped.

And I tell you, it has practical benefits too. The other day, I was going to do something or read something and again, that voice said, spend a little time with me. So I dropped it. I said, OK. And most of the time when I'm spending time with the Lord, I don't talk.

I listen. Do you know why I listen? For one simple reason, that God is holier than me. When you speak to somebody who is a million times holier than you are, what do you do? Listen or talk? I've learned through the years to listen.

A lot of people when they pray, you know, prayer is like a telephone call, it's like calling up someone and you speak to them for half an hour, this, this, this, this, this, this. OK, bye. That's how a lot of people pray to God.

They don't hear one single thing. You know, it's such an insult even to speak to an ordinary human being like that. You pick up the phone and keep on talking for half an hour and then put the phone down and say bye.

Do you know how many Christians insult God every day by going through their long prayer list and one hour, two hours, they say so many things to God or 15 minutes, whatever it is. Amen. They haven't given a chance for God to say anything to them.

I gave up that type of praying ages ago. I listened. Because I've learned through the years, even when I was a young man, when I sit in the presence of a godly man, I'll get a lot more by listening to him than by talking to him.

So what about when I sit in the presence of God? In any case, what information can I give to God which he doesn't know? Can you think of something? What can I tell him? He knows everything. I tell him so that I get it off my chest.

That's all. That's the only reason. Not to inform him. Otherwise it will be weighing down on me. I say, Lord, I pass it on to you. Finished. But otherwise there's nothing he doesn't know. But I tell you, there are a lot of things I don't know which I can learn if I listen.

And so when God said, Abraham, Abraham said, Yes, Lord. I'm listening. That's the first mark of a man who fears God. And I'll tell you this, I never knew how to listen to God when I didn't fear Him. And I can guarantee, the less you fear God, the less you listen to Him.

You will ask Him for 10 ,000 things. People who don't fear God can ask Him for 10 ,000 things. But those who fear God ask Him for very little. They listen. And He adds more than they need to them. It's my testimony for 46 years.

I've asked God for very little of earthly things. Pretty close to zero. Yes, it's the honest truth. In 46 years I've asked for pretty close to zero earthly things. But He's added many things in abundance to me.

But I've listened a lot. And I've come to know God so much better by listening than if I did all the talking. Well, many of you have wasted many years talking. Why not spend the rest of your life listening?

That's one mark of a man who fears God. Secondly, I want to say here, a man who fears God obeys immediately. The Lord said to him, take now your son, verse 2, and your only son to the land of Moriah. And He didn't tell him when to go.

Immediate Obedience to God's Command

You know, Abraham could have banked on that and said, well, God didn't tell me when to go. I've got a lot of important things on tomorrow, day after, but I'll make an appointment to go there next week.

No, nothing of the sort. Early in the morning, probably 4 o 'clock, rose up, and God spoke to him at 2 o 'clock, he woke up, 4 o 'clock in the morning, he was off. I've seen through the years, different types of believers, some who are very slow in their obedience.

They obey, but they think about it, and sometimes they use spiritual language and say, we are praying about it. Sounds very spiritual. But what it really means is, I don't feel like obeying right now.

And I found that people who are very sluggish in obedience, remain sluggish all through their life. You know, people who slowly get up and do something. By the time they have finished 50 years of their life as Christians, they have done what a wholehearted Christian has probably done in 2 years.

Imagine, waking up in eternity, and discovering that in all the 30 -40 years as a believer, all I did was what should have been done in about 1 year. When I look at the life of the Apostle Paul and see the fantastic amount he accomplished, even though he was an unconverted man for 30 years, and he got converted, and came to know Christ only around 30 years of age.

Most of us have come to know the Lord much younger. I came to know the Lord when I was 19. Paul came to know the Lord when he was 30. And Paul died about 67, and I am pretty close to that now. Boy, what a lot he accomplished.

Even though he was converted long after, I was converted in terms of age. There I see how much God can do through a man totally yielded to Him. Through one man. I remember hearing, was it D .L. Moody perhaps?

Somebody said in his presence once when he was a young man, D .L. Moody was a great evangelist in America 150 years ago, 120 years ago, and he, somebody said in his presence when he was a young man, the world has yet to see what God can do through a man who is totally surrendered to Him.

The world has yet to see what God can do through a man who is totally surrendered to Him. And Moody listened to that and said, I am going to be that man. I am going to be that man who will have no desire or ambition of my own.

It's going to be God all the way. You know, God did a lot through one man. And when I study church history, I find though it's true that the body of Christ is large, there are many believers, and though it is God's perfect will that every part of the body should be healthy, strong, that the left hand should do what the left hand should do, the right hand should do what the right hand should do, and the ear and the eye and every part should do what it's supposed to do, in actual fact, it has not happened like that.

When I study church history, I find it is certain outstanding individuals through whom God has been able to accomplish His work, that if you remove, say, twenty, thirty people from Christian history, Christian history would have been very different.

I mean, think if you just removed Paul. Paul didn't exist. Or take away some guy like John Wesley. Didn't exist. Or some person like William Booth, or Charles Finney. Just a few people like this. Or Sadhu Sundar Singh, or someone like that, or Amy Carmichael.

Just take them out. They didn't exist. Or Mother Teresa. Someone like that. Supposing they didn't exist. Just these few people. Can you imagine what a tremendous loss would have been to Christianity? Ten thousand other Christians couldn't have done what these people did.