Friday, September 3, 2021
The world is besieged by a tyrannical, medical, authoritarian rule, the proofs of which are too numerous to detail here. City, state and national leaders now mandate COVID-19 vaccinations with insidious reprisals for non-compliance. And fear of those reprisals has infected people to the point that many forfeit their God-given right to resist. Proud leaders think people are unqualified to make their own life and health decisions. This is the fourth beast-kingdom’s preemptive strike to acclimate the world for much worse to come. In that context, present-day reprisals foreshadow the authoritarian rule by which Antichrist gains global control, when, eventually “You won’t be able to buy, sell, or trade without the vaccine.” (Israel National News) It’s medical tyranny!
Considering authoritarian rule, church leadership has been practicing a lesser version of that rule for many years. Let me explain. To a large degree, subjects of the church have suffered reprisals for teaching and defending the testimony of Christ for the end-times and His return to gather His elect “Immediately after the tribulation” (Matt. 24:29–31), just because Jesus’ teaching opposes the church’s dispensational pre-tribulation rapture. Other truths could be shared to demonstrate that oppressive rule, but I won’t get into that here. But the point is that for fear of reprisals many Christians have become so acclimated to an authoritarian rule by church leaders, that neither do they resist the authoritarian rule being foisted upon them by elite globalists, and that’s a receipt for spiritual disaster. On both fronts they’ve been trained to believe what they’re told. Now this.
Many people have had jobs that were but stepping stones to a next and better job. Their plans and goals are for something better, more rewarding. The first job we all had was likely not the job of our dreams, and in our euphoric expectation of something better we look forward to the last day of our current job to move on to something much better. This is natural. God created us to be fruitful and multiply, to be productive, and to use wisely the talents He gave us. That truth, physically and spiritually, is seen in Jesus’ Parable of the Talents at Matt. 25:14–30. In studying that carefully we see the value the Master places on sowing His talents to produce even more.
For true Christians, regardless of station attained in this life, we too, with euphoric expectation look forward to the last day, because we know that something much better awaits us. Yes, even an eternal position and everlasting life with God and His Christ! But not before the last day. The last day is the day in which we transition from this corruptible flesh to incorruptible. It’s only at the last day of this age when the seventh, the last trumpet will sound “and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:52), when “the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16). This is “the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:4–6); “at the last day” (John 6:40, 44).
A very defining conversation about the resurrection occurs between Jesus and Martha, the sister of Lazarus, at John 11:17–27 after Lazarus died. In her grief Martha said “Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died” (11:21), to which Jesus responded “Your brother will rise again” (11:23). Martha was obviously keenly aware of Jesus’ teachings on the resurrection from John 6, because she said to Him “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (11:24). That “the last day” means the last day of this age is beyond dispute and can’t mean seven years before the last day which is a prerequisite for a pre-trib rapture! Regardless of these proofs, dispensational ministers having a contrary spirit find the audacity to argue against Christ and persuade millions to believe their pre-tribulation rapture narrative. Consequently, most of the church expects to be snatched off the earth before Antichrist is even revealed and that they’ll miss the seven-year tribulation. That unbelief will produce a great offense, see Matt. 24:10.
What we as Christians do, believe and teach, must be held in view of “the last day”, when “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). Imagine coming to that day having taught opposite of what Christ plainly taught as the truth, and as a result many fall away in offense! Here, I refer you back to Jesus’ Parable of the Talents to the servant who buried his talent rather than putting it to work to produce a harvest of truth. To oppose Jesus’ teachings is to bury the talent, the gift He’s given us, which leads many to bury the talent given them. Is this not why God said “let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment” (James 3:1)? “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matt. 13:9, 43). Do we listen to men or Jesus Christ?
Theological dispensationalism opposes the truth on many fronts; in part, limiting “the elect” of Matt. 24:29–31 to those who come to faith in Christ during the tribulation. Pre-trib teachers call them “tribulation saints”, which impossibly divides the “one body” (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 10:17; 1 Cor. 12:12, 13, 20; Eph. 4:4; Col. 3:15), into indivisible groups, for over a dozen references to “the elect” in the New Testament refer to both believers of the apostle’s day and our present day who remain until the last day. All believers are “one body” and are completely indivisible from those who come to faith in Christ during the tribulation because “there is no partiality with God” (Rom. 2:11). And yet, dispensational teachers want us to believe that God is partial, and shows partiality to us over against those who endure the seven-year tribulation and rule of Antichrist. Frankly, that’s not only an untenable but ungodly way to hold the Scriptures. The resurrection rapture occurs at the last day when the “one body” of all true believers, from all ages “shall be caught up together with them [the resurrected righteous dead] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17). So, what’s the response of the organized church to its hullabaloo of a pre-trib rapture vs Christ’s post-trib rapture teaching? Reprisals for defending the Lord Jesus!
Any who oppose the pre-trib rapture tradition to teach what Christ taught about the resurrection rapture, face reprisals. Options are limited. The teacher can stop teaching what Christ taught, or leave the church in order to teach. That authoritarian rule silences Christ. It puts fear into people who blindly believe traditions rather than the testimony of Jesus; fear of being excluded; fear of losing notoriety or position; fear of being separated from the organized church. That fear largely rules in both the organized church, and in educational, private, corporate, military and religious sectors for citizens’ God-given rights to reject foreign substances from being injected into their bodies, specifically meaning COVID-19 vaccines. On both fronts these authoritarian rules share the same mandate to control people with reprisals for non-compliance, and both oppose the truth.
Everything occurring in the world today, natural and man-made disasters, authoritarian controls, right is wrong and wrong is right, international and domestic conflicts, the Great Reset, the New World Oder, wars, the UN 2030 Agenda, COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and much, much more is in preparation for the last day, and only what we do for Christ will precede us into eternity. And I pray for those who profess faith in Christ, yet do not find faith to believe, teach, and hold fast His end-time testimony.
Marlin J. Yoder
