In verse 21 of the focal chapter we find Jesus addressing both the ministers and their congregations. Here He warns that before His return times will become so horrendous that children will turn in their parents and parents their children for being believers in the Biblical God. During the Tribulation Period believing in the God of the Holy Scriptures will carry a death sentence.
In verse 25 Jesus warns us that during that 3 1/2 year time of terror those who were not taken to the Lord’s place of safety will suffer like no people have ever suffered. There will be people who will come to believe on Christ during that time and will pay for their decision with their lives. As the world treated the Master, so it will treat the Master’s household (spiritual family). Just as they accused Him of having a demon, they will do the same for those who come to believe in Him during the Tribulation Period. Many church people, finding themselves in a virtual hell on earth will realize that they have been deceived, will repent of their error and turn to the Lord. Their decision will have deadly consequences for them.
Those who escaped the Tribulation but have Law-breaking loved ones can hope that they will turn to the Lord if they live long enough to experience that terrible time. Those who died prior to that time will be resurrected later and be given an opportunity to know, believe and obey the Lord. Read The Three Resurrections. Key word–Three.
In verses 32 through 42 the Lord is speaking directly to the billions of people who would call Him their Savior from the founding of the New Testament Church until His return to earth. So far over 2000 years have past. The signs of the times indicate that His second coming will take place in the near future. At that time He will resurrect His Very Elect who will join Him in the air, then follow Him down to the Mount of Olives and into Jerusalem where He will establish the Kingdom of God from which He and His holy saints will rule, first the earth for 1000 years, then the entire universe forever. Read The Kingdom of God. Key word–Kingdom.
Let it be known that prior to the beginning the Tribulation period God’s true saints will be severely persecuted. The world will hate us. We are not told specifically why this will be the case. I believe that the world’s hatred of God’s true saints will be caused by the stark and obvious differences between them and the world around them, which will include professing Christendom. I believe that during that trying time we will be above; they will be beneath in every respect. We will be the head; they will be the tail. We will need nothing; they will need everything. Read Deuteronomy 28. Our witness (the Word of God–His sword) will reveal to the world why these differences are being manifested for all the world to see. For this reason the world will hate God’s true saints. A time will come when God’s Word will not be available on earth. The Bible will be outlawed. People will “run to and fro” in search of His Truth but will search in vain (Amos 8:12). Life will become so deadly for God’s people that they will be forced to leave their home countries. At that time Christ will take them to His place of safety where they will live in comfort and plenty while the world around them explodes into World War III, aka The Tribulation Period. Understand this: WHAT YOU HAVE JUST READ IS MY BELIEF CONCERNING THE PRE-TRIBULATION SITUATION. I DO NOT CLAIM TO HAVE ANY SPECIFIC REVELATION CONCERNING THAT TIME PERIOD.
Beginning with verse 32 Jesus describes the life of His true church beginning with His death and lasting until the beginning of the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord–3 1/2 years of terror, destruction and death for all who failed to obey Him during this life.
In verses 32 and 33 Jesus talks about confession, which involves both verbal and nonverbal communication. We confess either God or Satan in everything we do, say, think, what we wear, where we go, what we read and watch, how we spend our leisure time, whose spiritual laws we obey, etc. The world around us takes note of how we live–how we “walk.” Read First John 2:6. We either confess Christ or deny Him in everything we do in this life. There is no middle ground., no mixing of masters. He makes this clear in these verses, stating that the totality of one’s walk/life is one’s “confession” or “witness” relative to Him. Our eternity depends on our “confession”/”witness.” Read Luke 10:16 for another of Christ’s statements relative to our “confession” of the Godhead. Here He uses the word “despise” relative to our belief in and obedience to Him–our confession/witness to the world around us.
In verses 34-40 the Lord’s Words take us deeply into the Holy Scriptures and reveal what most church people refuse to accept. His sword lays bare the false walk that characterizes the counterfeit church’s version of the Christian walk where peace and harmony reign. Such is not the case in God’s world as this and other passages reveal.
By His own admission, Jesus did not come to bring peace to the earth (vs 34). He came wielding His Sword that identifies and separates the righteous from the unrighteous, spiritual contenders from religious pretenders, sheep from goats, Christ’s true friends and brethren from His false friends and brethren. Read John 15:13,14 and Matthew 12:46-50. A state of spiritual warfare exists within professing Christendom. Those within Satan’s Catholic/Protestant Religious System are aware that they are at war. However, they are warring, not against Satan as they suppose, but against God, as this website has proven repeatedly. Satan’s false flag religion has worked superbly for almost 2000 years. His prophets have done a marvelous job at diverting salvation seekers away from the God of the universe to the god of this world who has blinded the religious masses and kept them from the true light of God’s Gospel (2 Cor. 4:4).
God, through His Word/Truth/sword, separates His people from those whom Satan has deceived into believing they are His (God’s) people. Satan’s church has divided herself into two conflicting bodies, one of which has divided herself into hundreds of mini-bodies. Each cult claims to be the only true church and its doctrines the only doctrines God wants to be spread throughout the world. However, God says there is only one church. All other “churches” are Satan’s counterfeits. Read God is a Segregationist. Key word–Segregationist.
In verses 35-39 Jesus directs the subject of spiritual warfare into family life. He did not come to bring peace between parents and children, in-laws, extended family members, friends and acquaintances. Recall that Jesus said that the entire world will hate anyone who obeys Him. He meant what He said. We who are truly bought with a price are more often than not forced to choose between loved ones and God. Jesus describes this agonizing choice as taking up one’s cross and following Him. Those who do will live eternally with Him.
Does the above describe life in the Institutional Church? No, far from it. But it does describe life in God’s church. All others have embraced “another Jesus” (2 Cor. 11:4)–actually “other Jesus'” as Paul warned about in Second Corinthians 11:4–and obey their various “perverted gospels” (Gal. 1:6-9). Each group (denomination, faith, etc.) views all others as Christian, but not as Christian as they are. The manage to get along. Not so among God’s people. As I once stated to a group of people, I am the most hated man in Athens, Texas. No one disagreed. My own family adamantly rejects me on the spiritual level. But I am in good company. Jesus’ brethren were embarrassed by Him. At one point they told Him to leave the area where they lived (Jn. 7:3-5).
Those who receive (embrace) God’s true saints are in fact receiving Him. As Luke 10:16 tells us, those who reject His disciples’ Words prove that they despise His disciples, their Words, Jesus Himself and His Father. The world hates those who believe and obey the Holy Bible. The worldly church loves its own words but hates God’s own Words. When the end-time persecution of God’s people takes place, it will be the Institutional Church that will lead the charge. It will be the universal Catholic/Protestant Church, led by the “false prophet” (Rev. 16:13; 19:20; 20:10) who will persecute God’s people and blame them for the unsolvable problems that will have engulfed the world.
Let us take up our cross, sell out to the Lord, enter his strait (difficult) gate and walk His narrow (restrictive) way to His kingdom (Mat. 7:13,14). This is possible only by obeying His Holy Scriptures, which automatically separates the believer from the world and the worldly church. Only a few, Jesus said, would have the spiritual spine to do this. Let us be among that tiny group. L.J.
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