Polycarp and Rony Tan

POLYCARP
Bishop Polycarp of the Church of Smyrna was caught by the Roman authorities for being a member of a cult called Christians, who refused to worship Caesar and other Roman idols, seriously undermining the peace and unity of the mighty Roman empire. (Note: Romans considered Christians to be atheists because they did not worship Roman idols.)

The proconsul was quite nice to Polycarp. He had considered Polycarp's age and tried to release him by persuading him to a deny Christ.

Proconsul:
Have respect to thine age, swear by the genius of Caesar; repent and say, Away with the atheists.

Polycarp:
Away with the atheists.

Proconsul:
Swear and I will release thee; - reproach Christ.

Polycarp:
Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never once wronged me; how then shall I blaspheme my King, Who hath saved me?

Proconsul:
Swear by the genius of Caesar.

Polycarp:
If thou supposest vainly that I will swear by the genius of Caesar, as thou sayest, and feignest that thou art ignorant who I am, hear thou plainly, I AM A CHRISTIAN. But if thou wouldest learn the doctrine of Christianity, assign a day and give me a hearing.

Proconsul:
Prevail upon the people.

Polycarp:
As for thyself, I should have held thee worthy of discourse; for we have been taught to render, as is meet, to princes and authorities appointed by God such honor as does us no harm; but as for these, I do not hold them worthy, that I should defend myself before them.

Proconsul:
I have wild beasts here and I will throw thee to them, except thou repent

Polycarp:
Call for them: for the repentance from better to worse is a change not permitted to us; but it is a noble thing to change from untowardness to righteousness.

Proconsul:
I will cause thee to be consumed by fire, if thou despisest the wild beasts, unless thou repent.

Polycarp:
Thou threatenest that fire which burneth for a season and after a little while is quenched: for thou art ignorant of the fire of the future judgment and eternal punishment, which is reserved for the ungodly. But why delayest thou? Come, do what thou wilt.

Polycarp was burnt on Saturday, the 16th of Nisan.

RONY TAN
It was reported on 9th February 2010 in the Straits Times that the Internal Security Department (ISD) has called up Pastor Rony Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism after receiving complaints about online video clips that show him making insensitive comments about Buddhism. This had threatened the peace and unity of the small Singapore Republic. Following his interview with ISD, Pastor Rony Tan posted the following statement on the church’s website, apologising for his insensitive remarks.

Urgent Message From Pastor Rony:
"I have received a number of emails from people who have been saddened and hurt by the testimonies of an ex-monk and an ex-nun. I realized that my presentation and comments were wrong and offensive. So I sincerely apologize for my insensitivity towards the Buddhists and Taoists, and solemnly promise that it will never happen again.

When we have received those emails, we immediately removed the video clips from our website. I urge those who have posted those clips on the YouTube to remove them as well.

After reading the frank views from those emails, I was also prompted to tell my members not only to continue to love souls, but also to respect other belief and not to ridicule them in any way, shape or fashion.

Let’s put our goal to build a harmonious Singapore a top priority."

Pastor Rony Tan is still the pastor of Lighthouse Evangelism as at today.