Friday, December 17, 2021
As we embark on this three-week discovery of finding God’s safety and provision at the start of the great tribulation occurring 3 1/2 years into the tribulation, as true Christians it’s imperative that we know and understand our identity. From antiquity to now, true believers are the special chosen people of God, undivided, and are one body, united in Christ, for God does not change.
Dispensational theology teaches that unbelieving Jews are yet God’s chosen people. That’s a lie against God in Christ who redeemed every believer by faith in His atoning shed blood at Calvary making believers true Jews. “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Rom. 2:28–29). This is confirmed by God saying that “YOU are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:9–10). So that you might know the truth about unbelieving Jews, God said “Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie – indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you” (Rev. 3:9). [Emphasis added]
But there was an ancient time when national Jews were God’s conditionally chosen people as stated at Exo. 19:5–6. But the time came when God said of those ancient Jews “that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, [spiritual adultery; harlotry with wicked nations] I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also” (Jer. 3:8). In truth, God divorced ancient, unbelieving Israel for her rebellion, idolatry and harlotry, and has NEVER remarried her! What God did, however, was to continue the calling of true Jews through Christ “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29). God never changed His mind that true Jews are “His own special people” who “are now the people of God”. It’s a false teacher who says that unbelieving national Jews are yet God’s special chosen people, for they’re not!
Secondly, “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). Upon believing God, He changed Abram’s and Sari’s names to Abraham and Sarah. And “To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it” (Rev. 2:17). [Emphasis added] Likewise, when anyone becomes a true believer he’s given “a new name” which will be disclosed in the eternal glories of heaven with God in Christ. But now, in our current earthly habitation it’s important to discern that we’re descended from Abraham’s wife, Sarah, “the free woman”, [see Gal. 4:21–31] and not from Hagar, “the bond woman”. That truth makes us “heirs [with Abraham] according to the promise”, who “waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). Likewise, the Spirit says to believers, “here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come” (Heb. 13:14).
Furthermore, since, “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” through Sarah “the free woman”, we are likewise the seed of Isaac, Abraham’s son of promise, and also of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. And now, the Spirit speaking specifically of the end-time tribulation and reign of Antichrist, said “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer. 30:7). Knowing then that, in Christ, we are “Abraham’s seed”, we are also Jacob’s seed, “and heirs according to the promise”. But dispensational teachers deceitfully assign “the time of Jacob’s trouble” to unbelieving Jews and not Christians! But truth reveals that, true Christians are true Jews, and we are “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). Therefore, by inheritance of the promise “the time of Jacob’s trouble” is the time of the believer’s trouble! And for those who actually believe God, and watch for the appointed time, and “are counted worthy” (Luke 21:36), God makes a way “to be saved out of it”, meaning to be saved out of the great tribulation, when “the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they [angels] should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days [3 1/2 years]” (Rev. 12:6,~14).
The importance of true Christians understanding that they are intrinsically of “the free woman” cannot be overstated, because it’s God’s promise to every believer that he or she is eligible to find the escape to God’s safety and provision. But because the corrupt and spiritually crippling dispensational pre-trib rapture disallows the truth, many Christians don’t even know that God made available to them a plan of escape when Antichrist “causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, [when] no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:16–17). Rather than believing the testimony of Christ, millions have been led to believe that they have nothing to be concerned about, that Jesus’ end-time teaching was intended for unbelieving Jews and not the Church. Therefore, it’s nearly impossible to have a meaningful, biblically-based conversation about the end-times and gathering of God’s elect. Most people in the evangelical church don’t even want to hear about it, because they’ve been promised a pre-trib rapture. In this context the Spirit said, “An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests [or pastors] rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?” (Jer. 5:30–31). [Emphasis added] Many Christians are more in love with the truth-denying pre-trib rapture than with God in Christ!
Christ gathers His elect “Immediately after the tribulation” (Matt. 24:29–31). But that doesn’t deter false teachers who by church traditions make “the word of God of no effect” (Mark 7:13). The result is that many Christians are ignorant of God’s mid-trib provision that otherwise could keep them through the great tribulation, but instead they’ll be unprotected and openly hunted by Antichrist and slaughtered. The great tribulation will confirm God’s Word, that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6), no thanks to false teachers! And please note: when believers suffer being hunted by Antichrist and killed during the great tribulation, they will NOT be suffering the wrath of God, but the wrath of Satan, who has at that point been cast to the earth having great wrath “because he knows that he has a short time” (Rev. 12:7–12). God’s wrath will NEVER be upon believers, not even in the great tribulation, because God’s wrath is reserved for “the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8). True believers are none of those things, therefore God’s wrath does not come upon His elect, even the elect who are ignorant of His safety and provision for 1,260 days. You must never, ever confuse God’s wrath, with Satan’s wrath, nor the wrath of his Antichrist!
Marlin J. Yoder
