HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, October 4, 2025 – I saw a video yesterday featuring a middle-aged woman bragging about her children being martyred. In her view, because the children had purposely been put in harm’s way in a war zone and had been killed as a result, Paradise was their guaranteed reward. The woman also mentioned that she hoped her two newly born grandchildren would likewise soon be killed. I’ve seen other videos with other women boasting the same thing. I find them deeply disturbing and can only wonder what Child Protective Services would have to say about this parenting style.

Martyrdom is baked into religious zealotry. Killing for your beliefs and dying for your beliefs (often both at the same time) are hallmarks of a deep-seated faith, but not all faiths are God-seeking, not all faiths are good. Moreover, there’s a difference between actively seeking martyrdom and submitting to it when it’s thrust on you. People who actively seek to be martyred (or actively seek for their children to be martyred) are not well people. This statement needs no explanation. Likewise, a belief system that encourages martyrdom either through killing or suicide (or both simultaneously) is not a healthy belief system. This statement also needs no explanation.

Actively and publicly pursuing martyrdom and expecting a heavenly reward for it is like the man who stood praying at the front of the temple, boasting loudly about his sacrifices so that everyone would see and hear him. Jesus says that man already has his reward (worldly attention and accolades) and God won’t be adding to it.

There was once a Christian theologian who taught that every believer should pray to be martyred. He exhorted his adherents not only to train for certain death but to actively engage in pursuits that would lead to their martyrdom. This is not an accurate take on the Gospel message. In the end, the theologian died at home not from being martyred but from ill-health brought on by an earlier stint in jail.

To my mind, preaching the pursuit of martyrdom is preaching another Gospel. God doesn’t ask us to purposely pursue martyrdom. Nowhere in scripture does Jesus say we should actively seek to be killed to fast-track our way Home. He says it may be necessary to endure persecution and imprisonment, but he never tells us to seek out persecution or purposely do things to be arrested and imprisoned. He himself only put himself in the position to be arrested and imprisoned (and tortured and killed) because it was “his time” and God had specifically directed him to do so. This scenario is entirely different from people who encourage and actively pursue martyrdom as a way of life.

God will never ask you to kill for your beliefs, though he may ask you to die for them. Like your court defence (should you ever need one), martyrdom is not something you should plan in advance. If it comes on you as a test, God will direct you at the time while also strengthening you to “endure to the end”. This is what Jesus taught us and so this is how we should approach martyrdom. We do not train for martyrdom, we do not actively seek out martyrdom, we do not encourage others to actively seek out martyrdom, and we do not pray to be martyred. The theologian who died at home of ill-health rather than being “gloriously martyred” (as he’d hoped and prayed) is a cautionary tale.

Again – God would never ask us to kill for him, though he may one day ask us to die for him. That we should be prepared to die for our belief is part and parcel of what it means to be a born-again follower of Jesus. We shouldn’t romanticize martyrdom, but we should be aware of its possibility, if only to know that, if and when it happens, we should continue to lean entirely on God.

But actively pursuing martyrdom? That’s not God’s Way. Human sacrifice is the domain of the Father of Lies, and he has zero jurisdiction over the allotment of heavenly rewards. Which means that while the devil may well sell you a ticket to Paradise, he can’t deliver on it, so buyer beware.