Keep Praising God!

[394 words] The town of Antioch on the Mediterranean Sea was an early center of Christian ministry. This was the church that sponsored Paul and His pioneering outreach to the Gentiles. During the third century, the beloved Christian Babylas, was martyred. His body was buried in a grove by the Orontes River. His burial place was the former site of a shrine to the pagan god Apollo. In the fourth century, the emperor Julian came to power. Julian was a pagan and wanted to steer the empire back to the pagan gods. Part of his strategy involved sprucing up pagan worship centers – like the one on the banks of the Orontes River. For that to happen, Babylas’ body had to be removed (it would not do for such a notable Christian to be buried on a pagan god’s temple site). Julian ordered the exhumation. It is said that when…