But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the image which you have set up.
All Commentaries on Daniel 3:18 Go To Daniel 3
Cyprian of Carthage
AD 258
They believed that they might escape according to their faith, but they added, “and if not,” that the king might know that they could also die for the God they worshipped. For this is the strength of courage and of faith, to believe and to know that God can deliver from present death, and yet not to fear death nor to give way, that faith may be the more mightily proved. The uncorrupted and unconquered might of the Holy Spirit broke forth by their mouth, so that the words which the Lord in His Gospel spoke are seen to be true: “But when they shall seize you, take no thought what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.”
