TURKEY

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The library at Ephesus

to the Seven Churches of Revelation, Patmos & Mars Hill in Athens By Tony Cartledge

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ne of the best things about being involved in the Baptist World Alliance is the opportunity to visit global cities that you might not see otherwise. About 70 folk who attended the Baptist World Alliance Annual Gathering from July 6-11 – or who came over to join friends who’d been at the Annual Gathering – embarked July 12 for a three-day tour of the seven churches, even though none of the churches still exist. With luck, you can see ruins of the ancient cities where the churches were founded.

Smyrna

Izmir’s history goes back 8,500 years, and includes a parade of civilizations from stone age folk to Hittites, Ionians, Lydians,

Faithful Unto Death By Timothy George

The following are excerpts of a devotional meditation during the BWA Annual Gathering in Izmir (Smyrna), Turkey, in July 2014. (Footnotes have been removed.)

Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

— Revelation 2:10

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. — Tertullian

This ancient city of Smyrna, the gateway to Asia and the stepping-stone to Europe, is sacred soil because of what happened here one Sunday, around 2:00 in the afternoon, in February of the year 155. On that day, Polycarp, the 86-year-old leader of the Christian church in Smyrna, was cruelly put to death by fire and sword because he refused to renounce Jesus Christ.

14 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE

Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans, and the current Republic of Turkey, founded in 1923. Most Christians would know it best as the ancient city of Smyrna, home to one of the churches addressed in the book of Revelation. A large agora, or marketplace, has been largely excavated,

including a long, three-story judicial and commercial center called a “basilica.” We were here during Ramadan, a month marked by fasting

and prayer. Prayer calls echoed from many minarets as the faithful gathered in mosques both large and small to recite prayers and hear sermons from the Quran. Izmir is built around a deep bay, an inlet from the Aegean Sea called the Kordon. Facing west, it’s a terrific place to take in the

Who was Polycarp – the pastor, the bishop, the saint, the

martyr forever associated with ancient Smyrna? We think he was born around the year 69 or 70, shortly after Peter and Paul had been put to death under Nero in Rome. According to one source, Polycarp had been born a slave but was adopted as a young boy by a woman of faith named Callisto, who brought him up as her own son.

As a young man, he was saturated with the scriptures, powerful

in prayer, and known for his deeds of mercy to those in need. Later, Ignatius of Antioch would remind young Polycarp of the commitment he had made at his baptism. Through his baptism he had enrolled in the militia Christi, the army of Jesus that sheds no blood. “Let your baptism endure as your arms; your faith as your helmet; your love as your spear; your patience as a complete panoply.” In Polycarp’s day, baptism was a radical act: It identified one as a follower of the crucified and risen Jew, Jesus of Nazareth.

Polycarp and the Apostles

We don’t know exactly when the Christian faith first came to Smyrna. Most likely it was through the preaching of the Apostle