Eighty-Six Years and Not Once Forsaken

In February of 155 AD, Roman soldiers came for Polycarp, the aged bishop of Smyrna. He was eighty-six years old. A student of the Apostle John himself, Polycarp had spent a lifetime shepherding believers through persecution, famine, and imperial hostility. Now the arena crowd was demanding his death. The Roman proconsul offered him a simple way out: "Swear by Caesar.…