Friday, May 23, 2025
The value of researching and learning the truth is an understatement as many, many people are compromised, often for the love of money. It’s difficult to find truth because “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). We do well to remember that. Most people think truth comes from those they perceive as qualified to tell us the truth. Yet, it’s unsettling the ease with which those perceived as being truthful are without question handed their authority to tell us things. And we’ve done it most of our lives without discerning what’s really the truth.
For example, for most of our lives the FDA told us that food from grocery stores and restaurants is safe. The DOE told us our children are taught right in public schools. We believed mainstream doctors had our best interests. We believed what came from a Christian pastor’s pulpits because, surely, he’s trustworthy. We believed our laws protected citizens, that the DOJ, FBI and police departments were free of bias. We believed court’s decisions were based on honesty, truth and justice. We believed our government when it told our nation we had to go to another killing war. And on and on it goes. Why? Because our culture taught us to believe all those things, because we assume what comes from a perceived higher authority must somehow be the truth. People were taught and trained to unquestioningly believe and trust those in higher authority. Not good.
But real truth reveals that, we now know that much food from grocery stores and restaurants is not safe and causes many illnesses because our foods are processed with many cancer-causing toxins. We now know to a large degree public schools produce poor results, even graduating illiterate high school students. We now know that many doctors are compensated for keeping people addicted to big pharma drugs. We now know that the DOJ, FBI and police departments can be just as crooked as the criminals. We now know the gospel of Christ has been greatly compromised, watered-down and made culturally-friendly, virtually emptied of conviction and repentance. We now know that our government got us into many endless wars which enriched only the military industrial complex and satiated the blood and money lust of those in charge. We now know that many courts are just as corrupt as the criminals they sentence. We now know that it’s totally unwise to take for granted and assume that what we’re being told is the truth. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim. 6:10).
Most people want others to investigate the truth. Yes, even Christians in the church have fallen into this trap, because they assume that what comes from the pulpit is the truth without studying the Scriptures for themselves to see if what is taught agrees with the Son of God in this crooked and perverse world. Jesus Christ said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). I wish to God that people in the organized church would believe that Jesus’ testimony applies to them for the end-times. But that unbelief is the result of believers being told what to believe by those perceived as qualified pastors and Bible teachers. Jesus said “know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Jesus is the truth.
From time to time I reacquaint myself with some of America’s most prominent end-time Bible preachers and teachers. I did so again recently and on YouTube watched two high profile and very influential ministers with massive numbers of followers as they expounded on their pre-trib rapture narrative. One man was short and fat, the other was tall and slender. It was spiritually sad to watch how they would avoid the testimony of Jesus from numerous passages from the Bible in order to sell their narrative, persuading by their conjectures and assumptions. The cameras would pan across the audience and many loving that ear-tickling word and power-point display smiled and eagerly but ignorantly nodded their heads in agreement with thunderous applause. It was just sad to watch thousands of people believe a man instead of Christ who died to set them free from the bondage of unbelief. The witness of Christ was forced into exile as truth fell to the ground.
So today I ask you this simple but very important question: “To whom do you go for the truth?” Jesus died and rose again that you and I would believe Him. Christ is the all-knowing truth. He said that He gathers His elect “Immediately after the tribulation” (Matt. 24:29–31). If we trust and believe Him, then we will also prepare to endure to the end as He taught at Matt. 24:13. We cannot allow ourselves to be like the five foolish virgins of Matt. 25:1–13, unprepared to endure to the end of the age. This is why preparation unto endurance in Christ’s truths is now very vital.
If we exchange the testimony of Jesus Christ for the time of the end and gathering of His elect for another message, then we absolutely must ask ourselves this: “Am I really one of His elect?” Here’s why, even though the majority said they believed God, 5/6 of ancient Israel perished in unbelief outside the Promised Land because they didn’t really believe God’s word. And that devastation will replay at the end of this age. We have that assurance because the Holy Spirit said “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, ‘See, this is new’? It has already been in ancient times before us” (Eccl. 1:9–10). And from the NT God warned about the example of ancient Israel saying “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11).
Again, “know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Jesus Christ is that truth, not preachers and teachers who have taken up the mantle of the false epiphanies of the man John Darby, who, by claims that disenfranchise Jesus Christ as the truth, made the promise the church would not be on earth for the seven-year tribulation, but that it would be raptured pre-tribulation. One cannot find that nonsense anywhere in the word of God. It’s hopeless. It’s simply a feel-good and ear-tickling message that has garnered hundreds of millions of dollars of mega-wealth for many preachers and teachers willing to exchange Christ’s “difficult way” for an easier way to heaven. Jesus said “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7:13–14). Our road is not easy.
From my Letter of May 2, 2025, let me give you a jump start to learning the end-time truths. Study these Scriptures for yourself. Free yourself from the pre-trib rapture traditions of men, “making the word of God of no effect” (Mark 7:13). Hold fast the testimony of God’s Son. And importantly here, ask yourself “Am I one of Christ’s elect?” If you answer “yes”, then you must know that you will be gathered to Christ in the resurrection rapture as detailed at Matt. 24:29–31; John 5:28–29; John 6:40, 44, 54; John 11:24; Matt. 13:24–30; Matt. 13:36–43; Matt. 25:1–13; Mark 13:24–27; Acts 3:18–23; 1 Cor. 15:51–52; 1 Thess. 4:15–18; 2 Thess. 2:1–4; Heb. 9:28 and Rev. 11:15–19. In these Scriptures and many more there’s no discord and you will not find evidence of a pre-trib rapture. These Scriptures and more, taken in context to the gathering of “His elect” are the testimony of Christ and His Holy Spirit. Please have faith and knowledge in God’s word to know that the pre-trib rapture occurs literally nowhere in the Bible. The pre-trib rapture is errantly the epiphany of John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) who would not be content with the “it is written” testimony of God in Christ that the church must endure to the end of the age. That truth unsettled Darby’s faith, so he opened his spirit to receive a deceptive message that silenced the testimony of God’s Son, a primary aim of Satan since Christ’s resurrection.
News headlines reveal that hatred and wickedness increase now daily. Antisemitism continues to explode as do wars and rumors of wars. And the love of many has grown cold. The world wants peace and safety, but sudden destruction awaits. The gospel of Christ has been compromised by many pastors and teachers more in love with the culture than Jesus Christ. “See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matt. 24:6). It’s my true belief that “the man of sin … the son of perdition” (2 Thess. 2:3), Antichrist, is now among us, just awaiting the right moment to reveal his temporal Dan. 9:27 peace plan “with many for one week”, meaning seven years. And he’s coming “according to the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2 Thess. 2:9–10).
Here’s an important question: “Have you received the love of the truth?” Here’s why that’s so important. Many people readily confess that they believe “in” Jesus, but Scripture teaches that “Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (James 2:19). The most important question is, “Do you believe Jesus Christ?” because “he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36b). We must discern this in light of 2 Thess. 2:10. The people who believe the pre-trib rapture don’t believe Jesus for the resurrection rapture for they were told to believe the testimony of a man by ministers entrusted to defend traditions of men.
The first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation will be filled with fantastic deceptions, while increasing prohibitions of Christian freedoms. There will be increasing attacks on religious Jews and true Christians because we are true Jews, Rom. 2:28–29. Are you and your loved ones prepared to face that onslaught? At mid-tribulation comes Antichrist’s crushing blow that forces the world to receive his mark or number in order to buy and sell, Rev. 13:16–17. This is when true believers, knowledgeable and discerning of God’s end-time word, Luke 21:36, find their escape, similar to Noah and his family and Lot and his family, because they actually believed God’s testimony. Is believing the truth of Christ’s end-time word and gathering of His elect too much to ask of God’s people? For many it’s in fact too much as it was for ancient Israel, but for we who love and trust the Son of God “know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
Special note. I’ve written thefridayletter.com for 18 years and may discontinue from its weekly basis. While there’s no new biblical end-time revelations, the seven-year tribulation is imminent, not the rapture. I can only pray that you and your loved ones are prepared to face that awful time in the grace and love of the Lord Jesus. We owe Christ our life every day. For your comments or questions contact me at marlin@thefridayletter.com. Thank you for sharing in this ministry.
Marlin J. Yoder
