Testify or Flee?
By Dene McGriff
Deception abounds in the Christian world. Mixed messages make it totally confusing to the average Christian. For example,
· Will we rapture at any moment? If so, let’s not fret it. We’ll be gone before the going gets rough.
· Should we buy food, guns and a cabin in the woods somewhere and hunker down?
· Should we leave America/Babylon so we don’t burn up with her?
· Or should we stand as a strong testimony of the overcoming life of Jesus no matter what our fate?
We discuss the issue of the rapture in detail in other articles so we are going to deal with just one point here. Proponents of a pre-tribulation rapture argue that “we are not appointed to wrath.” (I Thess. 5:9) God isn’t going to pour out his wrath on his saints. And that is absolutely true as so eloquently presented by Marvin Rosenthal in his book “The Pre-Wrath Rapture”. Those who hold the pre-tribulation rapture position fail to understand the difference between tribulation, persecution and suffering at the hands of the enemy versus the “wrath of God poured out on the world.” The church has never been spared suffering at the hands of Satan and the world. In fact, the Lord says “that in the world ye will have tribulation but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.”(John 16:33)
Historically, the true church has been at odds with the world and persecuted by it. In fact, we are told that more Christians have suffered for their faith in the last 100 years than in the past 1900 years (notably in third world countries). Only in the safety of the western world do we somehow have the idea that we can’t be touched by persecution. The pre-tribbers are hard pressed to explain the fact that there are saints throughout the Book of Revelation other than to call them converted Jews or “tribulation saints” (those saved after the rapture). The thing they can’t explain is just what we have done to merit this removal and why the new “tribulation saints” deserve to receive the brunt of the tribulation and we don’t. We are certainly no better, or no different other than they are other than the fact that we were “saved” sooner than they were.
The problem is that they don’t understand that the church will feel the wrath of the enemy, but not the wrath of God. The church is taken out prior to the outpouring of the wrath of God. In Revelation 14, there is the picture of the church being harvested and the “great wine press of the wrath of God” is poured out in Revelation 15 and 16.
But even before that, where judgments are poured out on the earth the true saints receive a seal on their foreheads which protects them from judgments. ” Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” (Rev. 7:3) “And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” (Rev. 9:4)
There is a new heresy that says that Christians in Babylon, which they define as America, must heed the call of Revelation 18:4 to “come out of her, my people that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues.” According to proponents, if they don’t physically leave they can lose everything including their salvation. What’s wrong with this picture? First, they don’t recognize that the influence of “prophetic Babylon” will extend throughout the entire Western World so there is no where to go to escape. Second, they don’t understand that this is another reference to the rapture where the church is called “up and out” prior to the wrath of God being poured out.
The idea that Christians have to change locations (e.g. move from the U.S. to Canada or Mexico) to escape God’s wrath has no Biblical basis. Daniel never left Babylon. He was “IN” it but not “OF” it. “But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission of the officials that he might not defile himself.”(Daniel 1:8) It is a question of inward separation, not running away. Daniel was tried in the fire, thrown to the lions and protected all the way. We don’t need to fear the tribulation. God will be with us in the fire.
We are not called to flee but to testify. “And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them and overcome and kill them. And their dead bodies will like in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. And those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days… and after the three and a half days,the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who were beholding them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “come up here.” And they went up into heaven in the cloud and their enemies beheld them.” (Revelation 11:7-9, 11-12)
There you have it. We testify for the last three and a half years in the great city. We don’t flee it. And even if we are killed, the breath of life from God comes back in us and there you have the glorious rapture! “COME UP HERE” shouts the Lord. Matthew 24:29-31 has the same chronology, “But immediately after the tribulation of those days…they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And he will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather His elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other.” As we shared in an earlier blog, the words “testimony” and “witness” come from the root word “martyr”. The ultimate testimony of the saints of God has always been their declaration that their home is not in this world but in a heavenly city whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:16)
Revelation 12:11 summarizes it all for us. Memorize it. Hold it close to your heart. “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives even unto death.” We have a glorious hope set before us and God is not asking any more of our generation than He has of true saints down through the ages. Don’t flee, but testify with your life and death.