In ancient Israel many of the prophets were killed as a result of their religious assignments —from God. Even soldiers were sent out to fight against idolatrous “uncircumcised” and logically some died for example Jonathan, the son of king Saul. These soldiers were said to be fighting the wars of Jehovah and there was no miraculous salvation for everybody all of the time.
Jesus also died as a result of his mission and his ministry and so did the Apostles. They could have avoided their lives being cut short. And later on Christian converts were persecuted and put to death. In fact Jesus warned that Christians should expect persecution. So, we have all these Bible examples of religious people that died for their religious beliefs. Should these religious people have chosen to die for their religious beliefs?
There is a distinction, however, between: A clear command from God or from his proxy JC ( and delegates:)“We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” “Fear not those that kill the body but cannot destroy the soul.” and an interpretation, belief or view of what a scripture means or how it applies —subject to error.
So when a person reads the Bible today, how would he know for sure what a Bible verse means or applies that GOD requires him to die for a religious belief ?
We need to distinguish though a religious belief that is a command from God that must be obeyed even when threatened with death ( given that such commands exist) and the right to practice and identify with a religion whatever your beliefs are for example in Russia the government comes along and goes after the JW for their religious practices and JW as a people are not going to stop practicing their religion or identifying as JW. And this is different because an individual would not want renounce his religious belief and practices and identity and they look to God for their existence and they are going to do what they feel is right whether or not they are being forced to stop,