Colombian authorities on Tuesday uncovered a mass grave containing the bodies of six men and two women, indigenous evangelical Christians who went missing in April. The tragic incident indicates the great vulnerability many Christians face daily around the globe, especially poor Christians in the Amazon rainforest. It also signals to us, as Jesus said, that we are living in the end times.

The Christians had been summoned by agents of the Armando Ríos Front, an offshoot of the Marxist guerrilla organization Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Armando Ríos Front produces and traffics cocaine, extorts locals, and engages in armed confrontation with both national security forces and a rival guerrilla, the National Liberation Army (ELN).

The Armando Ríos Front implausibly accused the Christians of plotting to launch a new ELN chapter in the local department of Guaviare. After their disappearance, Armando Ríos first denied summoning them, then warned their families to stop looking for them and “consider the case to be closed.” Authorities discovered the grave after they captured a guerrilla in May, whose phone held photographs of the Christians and their murder.

The Christians had become leaders in their local communities after fleeing from violence in their native region of Arauca, further north. BBC notes with unusual insight that “Religious leaders and social leaders are often targeted by armed groups in Colombia which do not tolerate any other authority than their own.”

Indeed, these Marxist radicals certainly do not recognize God’s rightful authority, or else they would not simply murder people made in his image. They are, as God once said of the Babylonians, “guilty men, whose own might is their god!” (Habakkuk 1:11). And they can certainly expect to meet with an appropriate punishment.

But when will that punishment come? This same question comes after the fifth seal is opened in John’s Revelation. “The souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne” cry out from under the altar, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Just a little longer, came the reply, “until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been” (Revelation 5:9-11).

Jesus himself predicted this to his followers. “Wars and rumors of wars … are but the beginning of the birth pains,” he said (Matthew 24:6, 8). “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9).

“A servant is not greater than his master,” Jesus explained elsewhere. “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me” (John 15:20-21).

In other words, although the fate of these Christians may seem tragic from an earthly point of view, it is not hopeless. Jesus predicted that wicked men would persecute his followers and put them to death. He promised that “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). So, because “they loved not their lives even unto death” (Revelation 12:11), these Christians remained in the center of their Lord’s will, even if it was not their will to do at the hands of godless guerrillas.

These Christians conquered even in death. They are now freed from sin and its power, united with the Lord. They have now realized what still-living Christians eagerly hope for. The Evangelical Confederation of Colombia (CEDECOL) recognized this reality in their statement on the news. After asking for prayer for the families and justice from the national government, they recalled Jesus’s pronouncement of blessing for the persecuted, “Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10).