Dead Heroes Project Continued: Luther & Edwards

Martin Luther

1483 - 1546

fought for truth with his pen.

5x7, pencil & acrylic on illustration board

Jonathan Edwards

1703-1758

strove to honor the Lord with every bit of his time and brilliant mind.

8x10, acrylic & pencil on illustration board

This illustration was based on his resolution,

"Resolved, never to lose one moment of time, but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can."

As he travelled to visit his parishioners, he would focus his mind to wrestle with and dwell on subjects in the Scriptures, following the thought through to some conclusion. He would associate the thought with a piece of paper pinned to his coat and write down the thought at home.

the martyrdom of polycarp

"For the fire, assuming the form of a vault, like the sail of a vessel filled with the wind, defended the body of the martyr roundabout; and it was in the midst of the flame not like flesh burning, but like bread being baked, or like gold and silver glowing in the furnace."

The Martyrdom of Polycarp, 15:2
a letter from the church in Smyrna to the church in Philomelium

The Book of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church

"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church" - Tertullian c. AD 150-229 (Christian father and apologist, alive during the 4th and 5th Roman persecutions, wrote "Apologeticus", 197 AD )

Despite efforts by the Roman Empire to snuff out the early Church & the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Christians martyred in the Roman colosseums for the peoples entertainment, the number of followers continued to multiply. If a sect could have been snuffed out within 200 years of it's conception it would have during the Roman persecutions. However the Gospel of Jesus Christ was, and is, unstoppable. The persecutions in Rome only served a fuel and fan to spread the Gospel like wildfire throughout the world.

This illustration was an effort to depict the ages of the Church that grew out of the deaths of the early Christians.

dead hero: andrew murray

a south african preacher/writer/evangelist.
an illness effected his throat and he couldn't speak for 2 years.
God used the time to teach murray about humility and His love.
he wrote hundreds of books in his lifetime.

my dead hero: c.h. spurgeon

1834-1892
known as the "prince of preachers"
influenced tens of thousands of souls
lived a life saturated by spiritual, emotional and physical sufferings--which resulted in periods of depression, or "heaviness" as he called it