Heroes of history

[MoreCoffee]

When I look back on my schooling and on documentaries and films the heroes are names that you probably all know. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Martin Luther, Queen Elizabeth I, George Washington, Napoleon, Catherine the Great, Fredrick the Great, Lord Nelson, and if you're Russian maybe Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, or if you're Chinese Mao Tse Tung, a Mongolian may name Genghis Khan is there a pattern?

Who are the heroes of history for you?

 

[Josiah]

Jesus would be way up there on the list..... Martin Luther would be on the list.....

Politically, maybe George Washington....

And obviously, Donald Trump.

 

[Pedrito]

Pedrito’s top place would be awarded to God.

While not Part of history as such, He was the Great Architect who created it, and He also intervened in it. (And it’s just as well for us that He did.)

Second place would have to go to the Son of God, the Logos, who was sent and given by God for the salvation of Mankind.

He emptied Himself and became Man, and gave His unsullied life as a substitutionary death to pay the price of mankind’s sin.

Who next? The apostles? People who were tortured mercilessly and martyred either for being Christian, or for standing against a corrupt worldly organisation that claimed to be effectively God’s kingdom on Earth? The hundreds of thousands butchered throughout history (or was it indeed millions?) for not being members of that organisation?

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And where would we slot in martyred missionaries (including those belonging to the above organisation) who travelled to heathen climes in the honest personal belief that they would bring benefit to those to whom they went? They would include the Jesuit missionaries Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant in (what is now) Canada, and the five men killed by the Huaorani (Auca) tribe they were trying to convert in the Ecuadorian jungle – Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian.

Definitely not high on Pedrito’s list would be the names presented by MoreCoffee to trigger thought – many of whom were guilty of persecution themselves, or guilty of the deliberate slaughter of people for personal aggrandisement.

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The World’s rating scales should not be ours.

So would it be wrong for Pedrito to start filling third place onwards with say, the heroes of faith from Hebrews Chapter 11?

 

[faramir.pete]

it is true what they say, that history is written by the victors.

We all choose our heroes based upon our own experiences don't we? Ask a bunch of young teens who their heroes are and more than likely they will be filled with sports and tv and movies celebrities or popular musicians. But meet those same people 40 years later and their list would be far more personal and circumspect.

Here we have Pedrito giving us instruction by listing God first and then Jesus, although His name is not mentioned, and leaving the rest open to be filled by any number of named and unnamed Christian folk from the bible or else killed for their faith. And that is admirable but in truth not really relatable. After all shouldn't a persons hero be someone they want to emulate and aspire to be like? So from Pedrito's list I can honestly say I would only include Jesus in my list.

I might include my high school Geography teacher Mrs Hale, and a man called John Littlewood who first explained the gospel to me in a way I understood, and a few authors like JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, John Eldredge, Joyce Meyer, Max Lucado, all of whom have had a profound influence in my personal life.

So that would be my list of heroes at the moment. But ask me again in 10 years and that list may look different.


Pete from Peterborough UK

 

[Pedrito]

Pedrito commends the thoughts expressed by faramir.pete.

Did not the apostle Paul say:
“Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me” (1 Corinthians 4:16)
“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)
“Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.” (Philippians 3:17)

We just have to circumspect enough to choose our heroes with care.

 

[NewCreation435]

When I look back on my schooling and on documentaries and films the heroes are names that you probably all know. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Martin Luther, Queen Elizabeth I, George Washington, Napoleon, Catherine the Great, Fredrick the Great, Lord Nelson, and if you're Russian maybe Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, or if you're Chinese Mao Tse Tung, a Mongolian may name Genghis Khan is there a pattern?

Who are the heroes of history for you?

I'm wondering why you posted this under christian theology? I don't look up to many people. Jesus is my hero

 

[MoreCoffee]

I'm wondering why you posted this under christian theology? I don't look up to many people. Jesus is my hero

I posted it here because it is a theological question. Catholics have saints as well as the Lord Jesus Christ as human beings who are "heroes" though "good examples" would be a better description. The world has conquers, poets, politicians and so forth. So I wondered how the folk here would frame their answers because knowing who is important in history gives insight into what is important the person answering.

 

[NewCreation435]

I posted it here because it is a theological question. Catholics have saints as well as the Lord Jesus Christ as human beings who are "heroes" though "good examples" would be a better description. The world has conquers, poets, politicians and so forth. So I wondered how the folk here would frame their answers because knowing who is important in history gives insight into what is important the person answering.

I would be much more likely to list as a "good example" people whose name would mean nothing to you. People like my grandfather, who was a great example to everyone who ever met him and a very godly man. People like the associate minister at the church I was at as a teenager who took an interest in me or the youth leader when I was 17 who led the worship time during our youth meetings and took time out to talk to me. Their names would mean nothing to you, but everything in the world to me.

 

[IACOBVS]

I would be much more likely to list as a "good example" people whose name would mean nothing to you. People like my grandfather, who was a great example to everyone who ever met him and a very godly man. People like the associate minister at the church I was at as a teenager who took an interest in me or the youth leader when I was 17 who led the worship time during our youth meetings and took time out to talk to me. Their names would mean nothing to you, but everything in the world to me.

I think that is what MoreCoffee was asking for ... who are your heroes? They don't have to be heroes to anyone else.