John , the "beloved disciple," was the brother of James. From Ephesus he was ordered to Rome, where he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. He escaped by miracle, without injury. The Romans banished him to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. He was the only apostle who escaped a violent death.

What is so amazing, and why I went into so much detail here, is because Christian persecution didn't slow the growth of the Christian faith during the first few centuries after Christ. Even as its early leaders died horrible deaths, Christianity flourished throughout the Roman Empire.

How can this historical record of martyrdom be viewed as anything but dramatic evidence for the absolute truth of the Christian faith – a faith, unlike any other, that is founded on historical events and eye-witness testimony?

This historical record, I submit… tells us the Real Story of Jesus and further demonstrates the truth of the Bible.