Friday, July 15, 2022
The signs of the end-times fill the world. America is being destroyed by the Biden regime and globalists. The world is being plunged into chaos, hatred and division. Klaus Schwab’s Great Reset is destroying societies, individuality, freedoms, monetary systems, national security, education, and much more. It’s the reviving ancient Roman Empire, the fourth beast-kingdom of Dan. 2:40 and Dan. 7:7. No one can stop it. That seven-year kingdom will be headed by “the man of sin…the son of perdition” (2 Thess. 2:3). And it’s always been my prayer and goal to help lead as many as will believe the truths of Christ before it’s too late, because He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). And Jesus clearly said that “he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13).
Today, many professing Christians are blindly obedient to governments and churches who do not have in mind biblical end-time truths because they’ve been taught to obey the crushing dictatorial and normalized rule of Satan’s fourth beast-kingdom. That wicked kingdom wants nothing more than the allegiance of every human being, and in that process the physical death of billions, indeed, a massive depopulation agenda. “Dependency on them, the government and its corporate partners, for our very existence. For food, for travel, for money to pay the bills, they want us to come on bended knee to the government and its corporate partners, waving our vaccine passport in hand and showing we are obedient little serfs willing to prostrate ourselves to the “new normal,” which is Satan’s kingdom based on total control over all human activity.” (Source: leohohmann.com). Violence, lawlessness, and the blatant disregard for the well-being of humanity by the majority of government leaders and lawmakers is creating an eternal death trap. And it’s a shame that many organized church leaders lack the Godly love and courage to call out officials to warn believers.
Since June of 2007 I saw these days coming. It was then the Lord burdened my heart with teaching the end-time testimony of Christ. Many mocked me for departing from the pre-trib rapture tradition of men, but a few actually believed Jesus’ testimony and prepared. But answering the question “Who are the elect?” should help any undecided believer cherish Jesus’ testimony that He gathers His elect “Immediately after the tribulation” (Matt. 24:29–31), and not before as Dispensational’s false, ear-tickling pre-trib rapture teaches. Because pre-trib rapture authors, preachers, teachers and their followers desecrated the pure Word, Prov. 30:5–6, they have thereby written themselves out of the tribulation protections otherwise afforded by the pure Word. Do you know who the elect are? It’s only one people group, not multiple groups as Dispensationalism wants you to believe; “the elect” are all born-again believers who hold and maintain faith in Christ till the resurrection of the dead “at the last day” (John 6:40, 44, 54) when the Lord Himself descends from heaven.
Jesus said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels [the angels of Matt. 13:41–43] with a great sound of a trumpet, [the same trumpet of 1 Thess. 4:16] and they [the angels] will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:29–31), [my emphasis]. “Are you one of Christ’s elect?” Do a Bible search for “the elect”, and if by faith you believe on the Lord Jesus, then God identifies you as “His elect”. Read Matt. 24:31; Mark 13:27; Luke 18:7; Rom. 11:7; Col. 3:12; 2 Tim. 2:10; Titus 1:1; and 1 Peter 1:2, because all of these passages speak of “the elect”.
You can read the premier rapture verse from 1 Thess. 4:16. But in this verse there is no mention whatsoever of when “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven” for the resurrection rapture, the gathering of His elect. But what is important as you read this verse, is to correlate it with Peter’s first sermon wherein he said by the Holy Spirit that, “He [Christ] must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:21 NIV). Now, any student of the Word knows that God does not restore everything until after the tribulation, otherwise there would be no seven-year tribulation. Therefore if Christ must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, then He, Christ, will not descend from heaven for the resurrection rapture until after the tribulation of those days, which altogether agrees with the testimony of Christ that He gathers His elect “Immediately after the tribulation” (Matt. 24:29–31), [my emphasis]. God couldn’t have made these truths any more clear.
But creators of traditions of men do not want us to believe the truth is that clear, because fearful men, inspired by the fear of man, love to make theology complex, assuring us that understanding the end-time gospel requires their academic acumen. The Dispensational heresy of the pre-trib rapture began in earnest with John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) who had an epiphany that believers would not suffer the tribulation, but would instead be snatched off the earth in one of multiple raptures before the tribulation even begins! Darby immediately garnered a great following. And why not? Imagine, his deception just excoriated massive amounts of end-time Scriptures given for believers’ benefit! Rather than “let God be true but every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4), believers are deceptively released from concerning themselves with troubling end-time passages by ancient prophets and apostles. How freeing for those having escaped Catholicism’s murderous grasp! Here was a new theology that freed them from the perils of end-time tribulation. But very few considered the violent destruction Darby wrought against the testimony of Christ and His Holy Spirit. That’s also just how ancient Israel’s religious elite desecrated God’s pure truths, please see Jer. 5:30–31.
When one comes to the point of believing Christ without fear of the tribulation, one is then ready to discover the amazing promises of God to keep you during the last 3 1/2 years of great tribulation, the last half of the tribulation that begins by Antichrist mandating his mark of the beast. The Holy Spirit said “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29), which makes you part of the “freewoman” Gal. 4:21–31, and of Rev. 12:6 and 12:14. Christ gathers His elect on a day after the tribulation, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matt. 24:36). Just as God had a place of safety and provision for Noah and his family, and for Lot and his family, so too God already made available the same for we who face the last 3 1/2 years of great tribulation. But it requires sincere, discerning preparation, and then also to be “counted worthy to escape” (Luke 21:36), which means we must be living a holy life, wholly committed to the Lord Jesus Christ in both word and deed.
Darby and his followers are fearful of the tribulation, and passed on that fear by conjuring the pre-trib rapture rather than believing Jesus’ promise to keep us “from the hour of trial” (Rev. 3:10), during the great tribulation. Lastly, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). For some, fear will perish in the crucible of trial, for others fear is purged by true faith in Jesus Christ.
Marlin J. Yoder
