Room 2 - Modern Saints

Post date: Sep 15, 2011 4:3:3 AM

As we step through the entry, the "Mettle Detector" sounds, asking us to check for a list of keys posted outside the doorway.  It is a fitting entry to this room.  A sign gives us the scriptural definition of a “saint” as any follower of Christ.  But many of the saints in this room have been called to service above and beyond the average. 

The focal wall includes men like Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Jim Elliot, Pete Flemming and Ed McCully.  Those five men were martyred in Ecuador, trying to reach a nearly extinct tribe called the Aucas (naked savages).  There is a large wooden model plane, like the one used by the men to explain their need of a landing strip to the tribe.  The pictures and video explain what went wrong. We are astonished to find that Nate Saint’s sister, Rachel, and Jim Elliot’s wife, Elizabeth, eventually succeed in bringing both the gospel and life to the tribe that murdered their family members.  A quote from Jim Elliot’s journal reads: 

 “He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

 We see a pictures of Eric Liddell winning races and being lifted up by his companions at graduation.  But we also read his words to a dinner party in honor of his Olympic achievements, when, to the astonishment of those present, he announced that he was on his way to China, where he will eventually die in a Japanese prison camp. 

 "It has been a wonderful experience to compete in the Olympic Games and to bring home a gold medal.  But since I have been a young lad, I have had my eyes on a different prize.  You see, each one of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris, and this race ends when God gives out the medals."

There are displays of some of his letters and other documents, even a chemistry book he wrote from memory for the students in the prison camp. 

There are current examples too.  There are illustrations and data on Persecuted martyrs from across the globe – bombings, beatings, stabbings, shootings, incarceration, intimidation and the passing of oppressive laws. 

As we leave the room, we are confronted with the question, “What can one saint do?”  Another display gives a graphic tally of people changed through the efforts of one man in urban Philadelphia who started a Sunday School class for a group of boys.  One of those boys is Dallas Seminary professor, Howard Hendricks.