Chapter 5

Stephen was stoned and his head and nose were being broken, he said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

Saints were not able to go to the Most Holy Place in heaven without martyrdom (Rev. 6:9). If they did not go to the Most Holy Place, they were dragged to Hades. Christians who do not know about the spiritual world cannot understand it.

David was a prophet and a king of Israel. God loved him and he received the prophecy that one of his descendants would come to the Earth as Messiah. At that time, he knew that only the descendant who was supposed to be the priest of Melchizedek could save God's servants from Hades. So let’s take a look at his prayer.

He wrote, “you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay” (Ps. 16:10). Because he understood from his vision that nobody could avoid Hades without his descendant, he prayed for his own salvation.

Many prophets were killed miserably. When Jesus gave me my duty and I started God’s work, Jesus said, “See!” I saw a dead body thirty meters in front of me, but it was headless. “It is the dead body of Paul. Look, Paul gave his whole

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Chapter 5

life to me and he was finally beheaded.” I understood Jesus wanted me to work eagerly for him like Paul.

Fortunately, nowadays is not the time to be killed to go to the Most Holy Place in God’s world, so I am still alive. If I had lived in the time of Paul, I would also have been martyred. Jesus prepared a place in heaven where he could gather only the martyrs. That’s the Most Holy Place. It is not the kingdom of heaven. They will be judges and kings in the kingdoms of heaven (Rev. 20:4). The kingdom of heaven will be the place where the people will live after the final judgment by the Judges.

The prophets lived difficult lives and were finally killed with saw, fire or stones. They were killed but that is not because God hated them, but because God wanted to bring them to the Most Holy Place. So God gave the way to his beloved prophets. He gave them power and encouragement to endure these events. Why did God have to do that? Why did the prophets have to be tortured? I’d like to explain the reason by analogy.

In a war, let’s assume the enemy built a fortress and occupied the position. If we cannot win the war without destroying

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