What About Those Who Are Left?
What About Those Who Are Left?
I have been speaking of a special forces, a group of Christians who will be resurrected, or changed (if they still are alive on the earth when Jesus appears), and then caught up to the staging area in the air.
At the staging area will be the Lord Jesus, the army of angels, and the white war stallions. When the trumpet sounds, the two armies from Heaven, the saints and the angels, will descend and attack the forces of Antichrist.
The reason I speak of a special force of Christians is that we are so apostate in America that the standard set by the Apostle Paul appears to be limited to a special warlike group who will be caught up to the staging area in the air.
The truth is, this "special" group may be nothing more than genuine disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason they are seen to be "special" is that the average church-attender in America is so far below the standard set by Paul.
Consider the following:
Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:17-21)
"Keep your eyes on those who live as we do." Whom can we of today keep our eyes on?
I believe the passage above describes the average church attender in America and Europe. I hope I am mistaken. What do you think about this?
For so long we have preached the traditions of human preachers and teachers, that we have come to accept a very watered-down gospel as being the Word of Christ. It is not. It is apostasy.
It is true that we have had our David Brainerds, our "Praying Hydes," our Oswald Chambers, and numerous other saints, most of them unknown, who have been true disciples of the Lord Jesus and models for us. These have met the standards set by the Apostle Paul.
But the majority of church-attenders are as Paul described above: " Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things."
There were such "Christians" in the first century, and there are such "Christians" today.
They "accept Christ" and then live as any "unsaved" person, supposing that God sees them through Christ, and any moment now they will be caught up to a mansion in Heaven.
Today I am blowing the trumpet. I am proclaiming to those in America and Europe that we are in deception with our lawless grace, our unscriptural "rapture," and our "mansions" in Heaven.
God did not call us out of the world to lounge about in the spirit world in a mansion. God called us out of the world so we could be prepared to bring justice to the nations of the earth.
He will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope. (Isaiah 42:4)
The verse above tells us of the responsibility of the Servant of the Lord. The Servant of the Lord is Christ—Head and Body.
After years of ministry the Apostle Paul was seeking to know Christ, to gain Christ.
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:8)
Today, if someone says "I accept Christ," we tell him that he now is a new creation and on his way to Heaven; that God sees him or her through Christ; that any moment he will be "raptured" to Heaven to watch Jewish evangelists attempt to preach Christ during the reign of Antichrist.
When we read the New Testament we will find nothing like this—nothing whatever! It is the teaching of people who are seeking their own glory and wealth. It is not even sensible.
Yet we go on day after day announcing these fables. The "believers" often are not new creations. They cannot be distinguished from the world. They have not been changed because they have been taught that no moral change is necessary. They have been saved by "grace," you see.
This is nothing more nor less than spiritual schizophrenia!
The believers are hoping, they say, that the Lord Jesus will appear from Heaven in our time. But if He does, there will be very few who are ready to walk with Him in white. There are very few who are prepared for this first resurrection. The majority are living in deception.
Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. (Revelation 3:4)
Of the great church in Sardis, only a few of the members are fit to be members of the Royal Priesthood. We can be certain that they will not be included to appear with Christ and receive an incorruptible resurrection body.
A person whom the Lord judges to not be worthy to wear the white robe of the Royal Priesthood will not be part of the heavenly Jerusalem; for the heavenly Jerusalem that is coming to the new earth is composed of the members of the Royal Priesthood.
Pleasing God is simple and pleasant if we are willing to surrender all of our idols. But it is not possible if there is someone or something we are clinging to!
We can see what is taking place in the world. God's judgments are on the nations, including the United States. Moral and physical chaos are on the horizon. Only those who are living by the Life of the Lord Jesus Christ will stand in that hour!
What does it mean to live by the Life of Jesus? It means to set aside our own life such that our thinking, speaking, and behaving are continually being referred to the Lord Jesus; that we may have His wisdom and strength in all matters.
To live by faith in Christ is to walk with the Lord Jesus at all times, and to look to Him continually for the solution to every one of the multitude of problems that confront us.
Are you living that way? Am I? Nothing less than complete union with the Lord Jesus Christ is required of each person who claims to be a disciple of our Lord.
Can you see from this definition how few people there are who are prepared to go with Christ at His appearing?
So perhaps I am incorrect in referring to the people who are ready for Jesus' coming as a special force. Perhaps they merely are the true Christians.
Let us think for a moment about the church-attenders, as well as the people of the nations of the earth, who will not be prepared for the appearing of our Lord. I have thought about this quite a bit.
What does the Scripture say?
For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.
That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. (Matthew 24:38-41)
But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.
The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:48-51)
Some today are teaching that the one who is taken is the wicked individual. I can see how they have come to that conclusion.
But if we look back just a little we see that it is the true Christians who are taken and the others left behind.
And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matthew 24:31)
I think it is plain that those who are gathered are the Christians whom Christ has found worthy to be joined to Him.
It will be painful for those Christians who have not prepared themselves to go in to the marriage festivities.
Later the others also came. "Lord, Lord," they said, "open the door for us!" "But he replied, "Truly I tell you, I don't know you." (Matthew 25:11,12)
I prayed one time for a little girl. The Lord said to me, "I don't know her."
That really set me back. I thought the Lord knew all little girls.
Come to find out, her babysitter had told her about Jesus and she wasn't interested.
Later that year she became interested in the Lord Jesus and the Bible.
I did not know of her change of attitude.
When I prayed for her again, I felt that this time the Lord was hearing me.
I hope I never hear Jesus say, "I do not know you." How do you feel about this?
For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (I Thessalonians 5:2,3)
I would assume from this that destruction will come suddenly on every person who is not prepared to join with the Lord Jesus at His appearing. How do you feel about this?
It can happen if we, after having been filled with God's Spirit, begin to live a worldly life. If we do, we gradually will begin to lose the Presence of the Spirit of God in our life. Our "light" will go out!
I realize today that many are teaching that once we have the Spirit of God we never can lose the Spirit; never lose our salvation. I expect this teaching has caused many who would have been true Christians to lose what they had been given in the beginning. It is terribly unscriptural, being against both Testaments!
"But if a righteous person turns from their righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked person does, will they live? None of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness they are guilty of and because of the sins they have committed, they will die." (Ezekiel 18:24)
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)
It is not true that the world will continue as before, after the saints go with Jesus at His appearing.
But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:29)
Those who teach the unscriptural "rapture" sometimes present a scenario in which cars are crashing into each other because the drivers have been "raptured."
But that does not fit the verse above, does it?
I think the next passage deserves our careful consideration, because I believe it is taking place in our day. The Spirit of God is asking us Christians to confess and turn away from our sins, with the help of the Lord Jesus. It is the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish Day of Atonement.
As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear. (Matthew 13:40-43)
There are some facts that should be emphasized.
First of all, this deliverance from the bondages of all sins and self-will is to take place "at the end of the age."
Right now we are approaching the end of the Christian Era.
Second, the angels (messengers) of Christ will remove from His Kingdom "everything that causes sin and all who do evil."
When everything that causes sin and all who do evil have been removed from Christ's Kingdom, then "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." What does this tell us about the current doctrine of "imputed righteousness"?
The passages that I am presenting at this time (written above) seem to be not in agreement with much of my writing that states the saints who go to meet the Lord are special forces taken from the whole Church, and the remainder are treated as immature "sisters" who will be brought to maturity, during the thousand-year Kingdom Age, while residing in the heavenly Zion.
The passages above allow only for two kinds of people—the righteous and the wicked.
However it can be seen that there are any number of passages that support the concept of a "firstfruits," indicating that they are not the entire harvest. I have explained all of this in the first section of this present essay, titled "The Special Forces."
Of interest here are the two marriages of the Lamb, the first at the beginning of the Kingdom Age; the second at the beginning of the new heaven and earth reign of Christ and His saints:
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God's holy people.) (Revelation 19:6-8)
And then the second account:
I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. (Revelation 21:2)
I think one can notice the difference. The early one is characterized by the fact that the bride made herself ready. She had clothed herself with the fine linen of righteous works.
In the second marriage, the one at the beginning of the new heaven and earth reign of Christ and His saints, the bride was beautifully dressed. Nothing is said about making herself ready, or about righteous acts. Perhaps she was dressed by others.
Therefore it is my point of view that the first marriage has to do with what the New Testament refers to as a "firstfruits to God and the Lamb," and I speak of as "special forces."
These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless. (Revelation 14:4,5)
The bride of the second marriage also is beautifully dressed. It is my thought, and I explained this in the first half of the present essay, that she was helped to maturity by God's firstfruits, following the eighth chapter of the Song of Solomon.
I still am not certain what takes place with the immature Christians when the firstfruits go to be with the Lord Jesus at His appearing.
At first glance it appears they are thrown into the fire. This does not fit the clear teaching that the Church will be divided temporarily into a firstfruits and then the balance of the Church.
Perhaps these are the people who are "sealed," about whom I know nothing. I am also uncertain about the great multitude who came out of the Great Tribulation.
"Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." (Revelation 7:3)
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. (Revelation 7:9)
If the Spirit of God chooses to explain to me who the sealed people are and who the great multitude are, and God enables me, I will write down that understanding for God's people.
For the time being, I believe God wants us Christians of the twenty-first century to understand that we now are in days of preparation for the horrors and marvels that are ahead of us.
The Lord Jesus Christ is ready to accept us as part of His own Being when we are willing to set aside our self-will and turn away from our sins. He will enable us to accomplish both of these deliverances if we request it of Him.
To proceed in the customary American casual Christian church membership, not diligently following Jesus and using for the benefit of the Kingdom the talents He has given us, is to risk weakness in the coming days of moral and physical chaos, and to be among those to whom Jesus says, "I never knew you."
He has given us the present time in which to prepare. He will help us at every point if we keep calling on Him and obeying Him.
To not take advantage of the present spiritual opportunities would be the worst kind of folly, and will lead to a dreadful future.
So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:28-30)
Who wants to be a "worthless servant"!