Part Three: Who are the elect?

The tribulation saints. The “Antichrist” will make war against them. They will be persecuted. They will be killed. According the rapture cult, this will occur after the church of Jesus Christ has been caught up to Heaven. If they are not Christians, who could they be?

Is the believer not the elect?

(Craig Portwood)

This teaching of a rapture prior to the tribulation does indeed become a thorny issue. If the born again believers are indeed caught up into Heaven before the Antichrist persecutes those described as "the elect" of God, there must be found a patch to cover the doctrinal presented by these stubborn verses which run counter to the rapturists view.

To find a way around such difficulties, those who teach an escape from the tribulation to come have been forced to play word games, creating their own definitions to continue to sustain their delusion. Such a soloution has been devised and is accepted by the mainstream believers as though it were fact.

The elect

Mark 13:24

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

Given the overwhelming amount of scriptural evidence that there will indeed be a trampling of God’s people during the great tribulation, those teaching that the church will avoid persecution in this time need to find someone on which such oppression can be leveled. Without so much as a scintilla of supporting scripture by which their doctrine can be supported, they have found a convenient scapegoat, the people commonly called the Jews.

That the modern church both claims to love the Jews and at the same time relegates them to this unenviable position is indeed curious. None consider the fact that the majority of these people reject Christ as their Messiah, nor do they question the lack of Biblical sustenance for such a position.

Did they miss the memo? It would seem as though these mainstream Christians accept such ideology because it is more convenient to embrace than is the concept that they must suffer persecution for the sake of Christ. Plainly stated, they refuse to read their Bibles because the truth contained therein is unpleasant.

They are not all Israel, which are of Israel

The myth of the distinction between the seed of Abraham and the children of the promise has been the source of much controversy. The idea that God’s will distinguish between them at the end of the age has no support in the Bible.

Although commonly assumed to be the apostle Paul, we have no distinct identification of the author of the book of Romans. Nonetheless, it is clear in context that the individual exhorting the Romans in this book is of the people Israel.

Romans 9:1-5
  

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

In this discourse, it is revealed that God does not distinguish between those of the seed of Israel and those who have been elected to salvation.

 
Romans 9:7
  

Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

This meaning of this verse might be a mystery if not for the following verse which puts everything into context.

Romans 9:8

That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

This verse plainly ties the believers in Christ to God's people Israel. If God makes no distinction between those who are of the seed of Israel and those who have inherited God's promises to Israel, why should those who teach the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine do so?

Romans chapter 11 goes even further to suggest that the “elect” have obtained that which “Israel” has not:

Romans 11: 5-7
 

Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.

God made this known in chapter 11 of the book of Romans:
 

And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

Given the aforementioned scriptures, are we to assume that God will rend from the tree, the “wild” branches which have grafted on? Would not both the Children of the promise, be raptured with the children of the seed? The obvious answer is that where the tree goes, so go the branches. God has joined them together.

What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

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 © 2010 Craig Portwood

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