Persecution can include harsh behaviors such as torture and murder, ultimately leading to martyrdom. In the early church, Saul of Tarsus was involved in persecuting Christians, which reached the point of murder and dragging people off to jail. Persecution runs along a wide range of hostile actions, from saying mean and false things, to shunning, stigmatizing, denying rights and freedoms, exile, burning homes and businesses, to imprisonment, injury, torture, and finally death. Mankind excels in the ways of sadistic treatment of their fellow human beings.

The Romans perfected crucifixion as a brutal form of capital punishment, adopting it from the Greeks and Phoenicians, while the Babylonians, Persians, and Assyrians also practiced similar methods, including impaling. In Jesus' time, crucifixion was deemed so horrific that it was reserved for slaves, the worst criminals, or enemies of the state, with Roman citizens typically spared and beheaded instead for capital crimes. The Jews regarded it as a most repugnant form of death, marked by intense pain and gore, often prolonging agony for days unless the victim had been severely beaten or scourged beforehand. To heighten its deterrent effect, crucifixions were frequently conducted along public highways or highly visible locations, serving as stark warnings of the consequences for defying the state. Bodies were usually left to decay or be consumed by scavengers, a grim sight Jesus likely witnessed during His travels through Galilee and Judea, knowing He would one day endure the same fate.

Some of the greatest heroes of faith were allowed the painful experience of going through torture or being killed in tribulations and persecutions. Can we not add to these 11 of the 12 apostles? Were they not men of zeal and integrity, reflecting the very character of God? Some who were certainly not by any appearance at all Laodicean are going to lose their lives as martyrs, as witnesses for God in the coming tribulation. It might be God's purpose His calling for some to be martyred even though they are zealous spiritually. Others whom God also prepares will be martyred during the tribulation along with others who did not prepare.