The first follower of Jesus to be martyred for his faith as a Christian was Stephen in AD 36. His defense of his faith before the rabbinic court enraged his Jewish audience, and he was taken out of the city and stoned to death. His final words were a prayer of forgiveness for his attackers (Acts 7:60). After this, all but one of Jesus’s disciples were martyred, with each one dying violent deaths for their faith. Further persecution of Christians continued throughout the centuries, including a fate of torture and death for many believers. Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary estimated that more than 70 million Christians have been martyred over the last two millennia, more than half of which died in the 20th century under fascist and communist regimes. One million Christians were killed between 2001 and 2010 and about 900,000 were killed from 2011 to 2020. Even in the “progressive” state of the world in AD 2025, Christianity is among the most highly persecuted faiths across the globe, with growing persecution and violence each year, including in Western nations, many of which were initially founded on Christian values but have since backslid. The murder of Charlie Kirk, an outspoken Christian and conservative, and the violent attack on a Church, both in September of 2025 in the USA, shows the “developed nations” are not exempt from the violent persecution of Christianity. This prophecy was fulfilled after the martyrs of Jesus’s direct disciples and continues to come true with each passing year.
See St. Stephen via Britannica and Persecution of Christians via Wikipedia and Christian History Timeline: Persecution in the Early Church via Christian History Institute and Islamic State: Egyptian Christians held in Libya ‘killed‘ via BBC and World Watch List 2025 via Open Doors and Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, says she forgives man accused of murder via The Guardian and September 28, 2025: Michigan church attack via CNN.