Consider this, with current events in mind.
And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Devilish old Herod had John the Baptist beheaded, and James, the brother of John;
...And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. (Acts 12:2)
It is Satan's favorite way of execution..
