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EXCERPT:

Beheadings In The Last-Days

In the Book of Revelation, chapter twenty, the Apostle John sees a particular company of people. John gives us a very brief synopsis of what he sees. He is specifically describing the future end-time Martyrs:

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Revelation 20:4

I’ve dwelled on this verse many times. The Bible says that in the last-days, beheading will specifically be the primary method by which people will be martyred. They will be killed specifically for their “testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God.” It is a strange picture to try to imagine. Is the Bible implying a worldwide resurrection of guillotines in every town square? What exactly is the Bible inferring will occur that will result in a worldwide standard of using beheading specifically, as a means of executing Christians? As I have tried to envision the nature of the end-times and what they will look like, I have often wondered about this verse. There are other passages that are very similar to this one. They also speak of a future persecution and a global trend of executing Christians for their faith in Jesus:

Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. Matthew 24:9

Here Jesus warns His disciples that they will be hated and ultimately put to death as a result of their identification with Him. But then there is a prophetic expansion on this prediction. Jesus says that “you will be hated by all nations because of me.” Jesus specifically predicted a global element to this future persecution against Christians. This next verse gives us even further insight:

All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. John 16:1-4

In this passage from the Gospel of John, Jesus is initially speaking to the disciples outside of a strictly end-time context. He first warns the disciples that in the days ahead they would see his followers put out of the synagogues. This prophecy came to its fullest expression after what became known as the Bar Kochba rebellion in 132-135 A.D. It was during the Bar Kochba rebellion that the final separation of church and synagogue took place. Bar Kochba was a false Jewish Messiah. He was supported and endorsed by the highest level of the rabbinic authority at the time, the renowned Rabbi Akiva. As a result of Akiva’s support, Bar Kochba was authenticated as Messiah in the eyes of the Jewish people. When Bar Kochba led the Jews in a rebellion against Rome, any Jew who did not participate was viewed as a traitor to the Jewish nation. The Jews who were followers of Jesus however, who before this time, still regularly participated in the synagogue services, could not support a rebellion led by someone whom they knew to be a false Messiah. As a result the Jewish followers of Jesus were expelled from the synagogues en masse and Jesus’ prophecy was fulfilled in the second century.

But in the second part of this verse, Jesus is speaking of the end-times. “In Fact”, he goes on to say, “the days will come when your persecutors will do far more than merely expel you from a synagogue; they will literally kill you.” But the most bewildering and intriguing aspect of this verse is the next portion of Jesus’ statement. He says that those who kill you will literally think that in doing so, they are offering a service to God. It is this portion of the verse that is key. How could someone in today’s world literally think that God demands the killing of other human beings simply because they believe differently? It’s such a completely foreign concept to most modern western minds. It is not, however, a foreign concept to history. Both Islam and Christianity – both Catholic and Protestants, are guilty of this very thing, murdering those who are perceived to be heretics from the only true religion. Jihad, the Crusades, the Inquisitions – all fit the bill of murder for and in the name of God. One thing is for sure, an absolutely necessary ingredient in any such bloody exchange would have to be a firm conviction that God is on one’s side and that He commands such executions. It is impossible to imagine any belief system or philosophy on the earth that could carry out such a thing other than a well-established world religion. While totalitarian regimes are certainly capable of such a thing, this verse specifically says that the ones who carry out these executions will believe themselves to be serving God in doing so. No, the system that carries this out will be a religious system that views itself as the earthly steward of some form of global divine government. It must view itself as God’s only organization or community on the earth. Only such a scenario can account for the actions that we read about in these verses.

In summary then, when we compare these three verses we get a very specific picture of what end-time persecution and martyrdom will look like. Firstly, it will be global. Secondly, it will necessitate a belief system that views itself as having a divinely appointed governmental role on the earth. Thirdly, it will involve the specific method of beheading as its primary method of execution. So we have a global religion that will view itself as a divinely appointed system on the earth authorized by God to behead those who refuse to join. As we are about to see, in terms of religious systems that exist in the earth today, only the religion of Islam fulfills these requirements.

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http://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/JR/Future/ch14_end_time_martyrdom.htm