Now, think about this. How many Christians have actually died by having their heads cut off? Numerous Christians have been tortured and then shot to death, or hung, or burned at the stake.

Why single out those who have been "beheaded"?

Many statements of the Book of Revelation, unlike the Epistles, are definitely allegorical. Notice below:

The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. (Revelation 9:1—NIV)

Stars do not carry keys and they are many, many times larger than our planet. So we know Revelation 9:1 is allegorical. There are several such examples of allegory in the Book of Revelation.

From our point of view, the reference to "beheaded" is allegorical and refers to the kind of death to which we have been referring. The greatest battle we have, when we decide to "die in the Lord," is with our mind. It is the mind Satan attacks when he sets out to deceive us.

The true servants of the Lord are blind and deaf to the world. They see what God is doing and hear what God is saying. They have died to the impulse to judge other people. Like their Lord, they judge as they hear from God. If you imagine waiting to hear God's judgment before you start evaluating people is not a real "beheading" you haven't tried it.

It is appointed to people to die once and after this be judged. If we are willing to reckon we have died with Christ and been raised with Christ, God will then begin to judge us. We refuse to live according to our adamic nature. We pray and keep on pressing ever closer to Jesus so our adamic nature might be rendered powerless and our new born-again Divine nature might prevail.

We continue on in this path, dying and living; being judged and having our sins forgiven and rendered powerless, the life being removed from them by God's very Presence. We never cease but are found at the time of our physical death walking in continual turning away from sin and embracing Jesus.

The Lord will accept absolutely nothing less than this from the candidates for the first resurrection, the resurrection out from among the dead.

The choice is yours. The ball is in your court. You are not going to be raised at the time of the Lord's appearing just because you took the "four steps of salvation." You have to present your body a living sacrifice. You have to take up your cross and follow Jesus. You have to count every achievement of your life as garbage that you may gain Christ. You have to learn to live by the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

Having done all, stand in faith. When the Lord comes He will remove every vestige of sin and self-will from you, fill you with Divine Life, and give you an immortal body.

The first resurrection was the mark toward which the Apostle Paul was pressing with all that was in him. He invites you to join him in reaching for the prize, the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus.

All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (Philippians 3:15,16—NIV) (from Once To Die)