Thomas The Apostle

By Lester Grant

     Thomas was known as Didymus.  The word means “twin”.  Whether he had a twin sister or brother we do not know.  He was a native of Galilee and a fisherman by trade.  The few Bible references we have about him seem to signal him out as a questioner.  Some want to label him a “doubter,” but I personally see him more as a practical man wanting facts for his beliefs.  This makes Tom special to me.  I like to have the facts about a thing before I accept it.
     In John 14, Jesus is really drawing a picture of heaven and making things seem unreal…so Thomas just asks for more facts:  “How can we know the way when we do not know where you are going?”
     Let me ask you, if you had been in Thomas’s shoes and saw the Lord crucified as He was, without any appeal, then someone told you He had been raised alive…what would your first response be? Not so much doubt as common sense, right?
     He was a very dedicated apostle.  When Jesus was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, they all warned Him about how the people would probably kill him.  When Jesus would not be stopped, old Thomas said, “Let’s go with Him and die” (John 11:16; See also John 14:5; 20:25.).
     There was an apostle movement eastward and some reference is that Thomas was in Babylon and then to India .  The Brachmans pursued him and while he was in prayer they ran him through with darts, stones, and dispatched him with a lance.  His burial place was Mylapore , India , now a suburb of Madras .  He is supposed to have been buried in one of the churches he established.  He was a fearless apostle and an establisher of churches.  I have been told many signs of his work still exist in India .  Thomas, as did all the apostles, held true to the fact that the Church was, and is, the most vital institution in the world, and if we are to hold to the apostle’s teaching, we must emphasize the Church also.

- via THE SOWER, a weekly publication of the Arthur Church of Christ, Arthur, IL. Ron Bartanen, who serves as minister and editor, may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://www.arthurchurchofchrist.com