Last week, gunmen from the Islamic sect Boko Haram attacked the Church of the Brethren in the village of Atagara in northern Nigeria, killing two and torching the church on their way out. Over several days, the terrorist group killed dozens in the same region and forced hundreds to flee. In the northeastern city of Potiskum, thirty-one people were murdered over a three-day period recently, and a church was burned. On October 21, most churches in Potiskum cancelled Sunday services. Boko Haram terrorists have killed more than a thousand this year, nearly three thousand since their surge began in 2009. They’ve left dozens of churches in ruins.
Few readers of First Things are cowering from Boko Haram, but we aren’t on the sidelines. In John’s Apocalypse, martyrdom has a dramatic political impact, and the church as a whole has a critical role in its success. When the Lamb opens the fifth seal early in Revelation, the souls of the martyrs cry out, “How long O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood?” They are told to wait for the rest of the martyrs to be killed. Near the end of Revelation, those prayers are answered as the blood of martyrs makes the harlot city so drunk that she topples over. When prayers are joined with martyr blood, the Lord knocks over predatory regimes.
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