Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me… My times are in Your hands. Deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me… Christ’s followers triumphed over Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (Psalms 23:4, 31:15; Revelation 12:11)
Note: This post was updated in 2026 and is an excerpt from the class “Christ is Everything to His Followers.” Also used in pastoral care, counseling, and prison ministry. My update is based in part on the article “Perpetua and Augustine the African: Suffering and Sainthood” by George Woudhuysen in the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 19, 2025.
Perpetua’s Story
The Scriptures above remind me of Vibia Perpetua (180-203 AD), a young woman of faith in Christ. Perpetua was 22 at the time of her martyrdom, married and well educated. Her mother was a Christian, and her father was a pagan. Perpetua was a new follower of Jesus, not yet baptized, when she was imprisoned. She and fellow believers suffered together in Carthage (modern-day Tunisia, North Africa) because of their allegiance to Christ.
Jesus is, and was, and always will be God’s Son. But at God’s right time, He came down and added on humanity, to become the unique God-man. Then Christ lived the life we failed to live, died the death we deserved to die, and rose from the grave to save us from our sins and bring us back to God. Jesus’ claims challenged the Roman Empire and the imperial cult’s assertion that Caesar was the divine “son of god.”
In 202 AD, the Roman emperor Septimius Severus prohibited conversions to Christianity. Perpetua, Felicitas (her servant), and other new believers were jailed and sentenced to die. Perpetua kept a journal, documenting the Lord’s care for her in prison, just as the Lord sustained Joseph in Bible times (Gen 39:2–23). Perpetua declared, “The dungeon became a palace to me, and I would rather have been there than anywhere else.” In that depressing place, she enjoyed sweet spiritual fellowship with the Risen Jesus and His people. She learned to be content in Christ, even in the hardest of circumstances. Perpetua is an example for us.
Philippians 1:20-23 Now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.
When Perpetua’s father begged her to deny Jesus, she said: “I cannot call myself any other than who I am, a Christian.” While in chains, Perpetua waited on Christ, no matter what. Whether she lived or died. Whether her imprisonment ended in release or martyrdom. When she realized that she was going to die, she accepted Christ’s hard providence for her, even though it was not what she wanted.
On the evening before their martyrdom, the believers celebrated the Lord’s Supper, focusing on Christ’s historic death and resurrection for them, His present upholding them, and their future home in glory with Jesus. Then, approaching the arena, Perpetua sang Psalms in the strength of the Holy Spirit. She died, trusting Christ, even as the crowds mocked her and her fellow believers. Perpetua and Felicitas were beheaded, and the others were killed by wild dogs.
Jesus said. “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die. And whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
James, the Lord’s half-brother, declared, “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)
Christianity Grows
Woudhuysen reminds us that in Perpetua’s lifetime, Christians were a tiny and sometimes persecuted minority, but after the conversion of Emperor Constantine in 312 AD, the Roman Empire came under Christian rule. Around 350 AD, North Africa became “the Bible Belt” of the late Roman West, marked by intense Christian devotion and intellectual advancement. By God’s grace, that environment produced Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis (354–430). better known as St. Augustine, the greatest and most influential theologian in the Western tradition.
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32)
No one terrifies us since we have set our faith on Jesus. For though we are beheaded, and crucified, and exposed to beasts and chains and fire and all other forms of torture, it is plain that we do not forsake the confession of our faith. The more things of this kind happen to us, the more there are others who become believers, by Christworking through His Holy Spirit. (Justin Martyr [c. 90-165 AD])
Justin was tried, together with six friends, by the urban prefect Junius Rusticus, and was beheaded.
Early Christian theologian Tertullian of Carthage (c. 160 – 225), also from North Africa, asserted, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. He meant that brutal persecution and execution of Christians did not destroy the Church of Jesus, but instead caused it to spread and grow. The bravery of martyrs inspired new converts to follow Christ the Risen King!
Christ Preserves All His Followers
Job lived during the days of Abraham and suffered in ways different from those of Perpetua. Yet he trusted in the same Lord as she did and said:
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see Him with my own eyes–I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27)
The Old Testament says similar things in various places:
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt… Your dead shall live. Their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!.. I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O My people, You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves… God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me… He will revive us after two days. He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him… He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. (Daniel 12:2; Isaiah 26:19: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 49:15; Hosea 6:2; Isaiah 25:8)
Perpetua’s faith in Christ was very strong, but that’s not the biggest lesson I learned from her. My faith is often weak and wobbly. Thank God, Perpetua and all true believers are delivered by our strong and perfect Savior! Jesus saves us all through this life and brings us into the next world to come to be with Him forever.
Perpetua’s example reminds me of the Apostle Paul’s words before his martyrdom:
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8)
Readiness to die for Christ leads to readiness, eagerness, and intention to live in service to Him now.
For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord. And if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. (Romans 14:7-9)
We live by faith, not by sight… So we make it our goal to please the Lord, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. (2 Corinthians 5:7,9)
Note: Perpetua’s story was adapted from Christian History, Issue 37.