9 Bible Verses about Prophets, Lives Of

And why need I say more? For time will fail me if I tell the story of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, and of David and Samuel and the Prophets; men who, as the result of faith, conquered whole kingdoms, brought about true justice, obtained promises from God, stopped lions' mouths, deprived fire of its power, escaped being killed by the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put to flight foreign armies.read more.
Women received back their dear ones alive from the dead; and others were put to death with torture, refusing the deliverance offered to them--that they might secure a better resurrection. Others again were tested by cruel mockery and by scourging; yes, and by chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tried by temptation, they were killed with the sword. They went from place to place in sheepskins or goatskins, enduring want, oppression and cruelty. They wandered across deserts and mountains, or hid themselves in caves and in holes in the ground.

Which of the Prophets did not your forefathers persecute? Yes, they killed those who announced beforehand the advent of the righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become--

"Blessed are you when men shall hate you and exclude you from their society and insult you, and spurn your very names as evil things, for the Son of Man's sake. "Be glad at such a time, and dance for joy; for your reward is great in Heaven; for that is just the way their forefathers behaved to the Prophets!

"Blessed are you when they have insulted and persecuted you, and have said every cruel thing about you falsely for my sake. Be joyful and triumphant, because your reward is great in the Heavens; for so were the Prophets before you persecuted.

In illustration, brethren, of persecution patiently endured take the Prophets who have spoken as messengers from the Lord.

"Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you repair the sepulchres of the Prophets and keep in order the tombs of the righteous, and your boast is, "'If we had lived in the time of our forefathers, we should not have been implicated with them in the murder of the Prophets.' "So that you bear witness against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the Prophets.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou who murderest the Prophets and stonest those who have been sent to thee, how often have I desired to gather thy children just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not come!

Alas for you! for you repair the tombs of the Prophets, whom your forefathers killed. It follows that you bear testimony to the actions of your forefathers and that you fully approve thereof. They slew, you build. "For this reason also the Wisdom of God has said, 'I will send Prophets and Apostles to them, of whom they will kill some and persecute others,'

But as God tested and approved us before entrusting us with His Good News, so in what we say we are seeking not to please men but to please God, who tests and approves our motives. For, as you are well aware, we have never used the language of flattery nor have we found pretexts for enriching ourselves--God is our witness; nor did we seek glory either from you or from any other mere men, although we might have stood on our dignity as Christ's Apostles.read more.
On the contrary, in our relations to you we showed ourselves as gentle as a mother is when she tenderly nurses her own children. Seeing that we were thus drawn affectionately towards you, it would have been a joy to us to have imparted to you not only God's Good News, but to have given our very lives also, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brethren, our labour and toil: how, working night and day so as not to become a burden to any one of you, we came and proclaimed among you God's Good News. You yourselves are witnesses--and God is witness--how holy and upright and blameless our dealings with you believers were. For you know that we acted towards every one of you as a father does towards his own children, encouraging and cheering you, and imploring you to live lives worthy of fellowship with God who is inviting you to share His own Kingship and glory. And for this further reason we render unceasing thanks to God, that when you received God's Message from our lips, it was as no mere message from men that you embraced it, but as--what it really is--God's Message, which also does its work in the hearts of you who believe. For you, brethren, followed the example of the Churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judaea; seeing that you endured the same ill-treatment at the hands of your countrymen, as they did at the hands of the Jews. Those Jewish persecutors killed both the Lord Jesus and the Prophets, and drove us out of their midst. They are displeasing to God, and are the enemies of all mankind;