Post by rgrove on Jul 12, 2005 15:34:20 GMT -5
Very Interesting blog today by Phil Johnson. He says:
phillipjohnson.blogspot.com/2005/07/monday-menagerie_11.html
"Cindy Swanson's recent interview with Noel Piper reminded me of someone whom I had not thought of in a long time: Esther Ahn Kim. She was one of my favorite authors when I was a manuscript editor at Moody Press. (Her Korean name was E-Sook Ahn. She liked the biblical roots of the Anglicized version.)
When Esther was a young woman, she was interned and tortured for six years in a Japanese prison. A young schoolteacher just before the outbreak of World War II, she was singled out during the Japanese occupation of her native Korea because she refused to bow at a Shinto shrine.
Esther was a committed Christian and understood that a public display of idolatry—especially under duress—would dishonor Christ and severely hurt her testimony to her countrymen who were not Christians. So in an action reminiscent of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, she boldly and resolutely remained standing alone in a crowd of thousands of people who submissively bowed on command. As a result, she was consigned to a Japanese detention camp under the most degrading and dehumanizing circumstances until the end of the war. What sustained her and kept her mind busy and full of hope during those bleak and lonely years was meditating on the Scripture she had memorized."
What a truly humbling and encouraging story. Reading Christian biography is a powerful force at building up our faith. I think I'm going to get this book. The title is even a powerful testimony: "If I Perish".
Yours In Christ,
Ron
phillipjohnson.blogspot.com/2005/07/monday-menagerie_11.html
"Cindy Swanson's recent interview with Noel Piper reminded me of someone whom I had not thought of in a long time: Esther Ahn Kim. She was one of my favorite authors when I was a manuscript editor at Moody Press. (Her Korean name was E-Sook Ahn. She liked the biblical roots of the Anglicized version.)
When Esther was a young woman, she was interned and tortured for six years in a Japanese prison. A young schoolteacher just before the outbreak of World War II, she was singled out during the Japanese occupation of her native Korea because she refused to bow at a Shinto shrine.
Esther was a committed Christian and understood that a public display of idolatry—especially under duress—would dishonor Christ and severely hurt her testimony to her countrymen who were not Christians. So in an action reminiscent of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, she boldly and resolutely remained standing alone in a crowd of thousands of people who submissively bowed on command. As a result, she was consigned to a Japanese detention camp under the most degrading and dehumanizing circumstances until the end of the war. What sustained her and kept her mind busy and full of hope during those bleak and lonely years was meditating on the Scripture she had memorized."
What a truly humbling and encouraging story. Reading Christian biography is a powerful force at building up our faith. I think I'm going to get this book. The title is even a powerful testimony: "If I Perish".
Yours In Christ,
Ron