Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. James 1:12
Choo Ki-Chul (1944)
“I’ve gone the road I’m supposed to go”
Choo Ki-Chul, a church pastor in Pyongyang, Korea, was strongly opposed to shrine worship, which was a big issue in the Japanese-controlled country. From a non-Christian family, Ki-Chul had chosen to follow Christ after studying at the Christian Ohsan Academy and hearing the teaching of Kim Ikdoo.
He expressed his views about shrine worship with restraint. The authorities did not imprison him at first, since the Japanese constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, but in August 1939 he was arrested after preaching boldly that shrines were idolatrous. His children and elderly mother cried greatly, but his wife remained firm. She prayed that the Lord would help him to “be strong and of good courage to the end, and be offered up as a sacrifice on the altar of the Korean Church”.
Ki-Chul was tortured and beaten several times, remaining in prison for six years. Although his wife was ill, she visited him the day before he died. On his deathbed he said to his wife, “I’ve gone the road I’m supposed to go. Follow my steps. Let’s meet in heaven.”
He died at 9.30 pm on 13 April 1944. One of his sons did indeed follow in his footsteps, both in his firm faith and in his death, for he was martyred under the Communists.
Lord, we pray for your church in every part of the world, the great family of which we are a part. We pray for those who are denied freedom in their religious beliefs, for those called to the suffering of imprisonment, and for those few who are called to martyrdom itself. May their courage set faith alight in other lives.