Why would all of these men accept persecution, suffering, torment and eventually death for a lie? I know that in my own life there is no way I could have ever endured what these men did without 100% conviction, knowing that I know, that I KNOW that in the end, the TRUTH and only the TRUTH would prevail!
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Are you saying everyone in history who has ever died as a martyr for refusing to denounce their faith was defending the truth? Even the Jews who refused to convert to Christianity and were tortured and burned during the Inquisition and the many other persecutions? Even Muslims? Even Catholics who were killed for refusing to turn Protestant after the Reformation? All of them believed in TRUTH? I guess that means no one really knows the TRUTH, including you. You may believe you know it, and you may be willing to die for it, but that does not mean it is TRUTH you are dying for. You are dying for your BELIEF, but not for TRUTH.