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Ultimately, the terrorists had their way. In 1996, seven monks, including de Chergé, were taken away, held hostage for two months, then beheaded. This brutal incident, however, became a tipping point in the war of Islamic radicals against Algeria's government—a war that had cost perhaps 100,000 lives—by turning the majority of Algerians against the radicals. Mainstream Muslims called for an end to the violence. Today the monks are honored as martyrs throughout Algeria.

Even more recently, we have seen Protestant missionaries martyred in places like Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen. "There are no final proofs for the existence of God," Rabbi Heschel said in his 1966 speech. "There are only witnesses." And the most convincing witnesses follow Abraham in looking beyond this violent world to a "city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God."

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Abraham Heschel's book, The Prophets, is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.

Previous Yancey columns for Christianity Today include:

Forgetting God | Why decadence drives out discipline. (Aug. 30, 2004)

Discreet and Dynamic | Why, with no apparent resources, Chinese churches thrive. (June 28, 2004)

Doubting the Doomsayers | Thank God not everything they say is true. (April 30, 2004)

Cry, The Beloved Continent | Don't let AIDS steal African children's future. (March 04, 2004)

The Colonizers | The best preachers have challenged earth to become more like heaven. (Jan. 16, 2004)

The Leprosy Doctor | Paul Brand showed how to serve others sacrificially and emerge with joy. (Oct. 23, 2003)

Going It Alone | We should take heed when much of the world says it distrusts us. (July 2, 2003)

God of the Maggies | In broken sinners, Jesus saw not their past but their future. (April 25, 2003)

Perestroika of the Spirit | In Russia, the vocabulary of faith needs interpreters. (March 5, 2003)

Jesus' Sword | Longing for peace in tumultuous times. (Jan. 7, 2002)

Guilt Good and Bad | The early warning signs. (Nov. 11, 2002)

God's Funeral | What will keep faith from nearly disappearing in America? (Sept. 3, 2002)

Sheepish | Feeling autonomous and proud? Then ponder the lives of sheep. (July 2, 2002)

Servant in Chief | Jimmy Carter's journey from the White House to building houses.(May 28, 2002)

Why Do They Hate Us? | How to turn the Baywatch syndrome into the Jesus syndrome. (March 27, 2002)

Honest Church Marketing | We enhance our 'image' by offering the world a realistic picture of faith. (October 24, 2001)

Compassion Confusion | We should serve the needy even when it has bad political consequences. (August 28, 2001)

Yancey's Where is God When it Hurts, Special Edition, Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church, and his latest book, Rumors of Another World, are available on Christianbook.com.

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November 2004, Vol. 48, No. 11