Salvation free Discipleship costly

 I believe it’s important to maintain the distinction that salvation (everlasting life) is free but discipleship is costly. 

Concerning salvation, Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God, who it is who says to you, ‘give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. …the water I shall give to him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”   (John 4.10,14)

 Concerning discipleship, Jesus said,  "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.  And whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”  (Luke 14.26-27

I also think it gets confusing and creates doubt of salvation if the degree of commitment that discipleship requires is believed to be guaranteed by salvation. 

 

I would say that the resources or assets of salvation are necessary to meet the degree of commitment that discipleship requires, but it's not guaranteed one will fulfill it.  This is according to the terms Jesus required and not just in the general sense of being a pupil following a teacher, but that general sense was probably all it was for some or many who followed Jesus.

I believe Jesus put it at a level that one would need the assets of salvation to have the ability to fulfill it. 

Jesus had disciples who were not saved, but the requirements were such to weed out those who did not believe, because salvation really needs to precede the kind of disciple Jesus wanted.  

I don't seek to disciple unsaved people, because of what is required.  Salvation makes discipleship possible but not guaranteed. I would evangelize before I would disciple a person, because of what is required. 

"Apostasia" (the "falling away") is not the Rapture

"Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [Day of the Lord] will not come unless the falling away comes first..."  2 Thessalonians 2.3

The "falling away" in this verse is the Greek word "apostasia" which could also be translated "departure."  Our English word "apostasy" comes from this word.   

The "apostasia" will precede the Day of the Lord.  The Apostle is saying to these people that that "Day" has not come because the Apostasia must come first.  The concern is that if the Day of the Lord had come, then they missed the "gathering together" to Christ, if they understood that gathering as the "rapture" and the Day of the Lord as coming after that, being the time of God's wrath upon the earth.

The apostasia has been normally understood as it is translated in most translations as a "falling away" or “rebellion” in some spiritual sense, such as from the faith or sound doctrine.   Later in the chapter, the Apostle writes: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle."  This statement would support the idea of a falling away, if they did not "stand fast and hold the traditions" they were taught.   A falling away could be translated "departure," if understood as a departure from the faith or sound teaching.  

A few have tried to understand this apostasia as a physical (spatial) departure and not a spiritual one.  They have tried to promote the idea that this apostasia is the rapture itself.  By doing this, they can place the Day of the Lord at an earlier time in the scheme of things.  They can also place the rapture at or before the time when they think the revealing of the "son of perdition [destruction]" takes place, which is the other thing that must occur before the Day of the Lord.

I saw a poll taken in a discussion group recently where it was asked if the apostasia is the rapture, and quite a number believed it was.  Are they taking this view because it supports their view of end time events?

The word apostasia only appears twice in the New Testament.  The other time it is used is in Acts 21:21 "but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs."

The word "forsake" translates apostasia.  This is written concerning the Apostle Paul, being accused of teaching Jews among the Gentiles to forsake Moses.  This is about a departure from certain customs, just like the Thessalonians were exhorted to stand fast and hold the traditions, for a forsaking of them would be an apostasia.  It would be best to understand apostasia by how it is used elsewhere in Scripture.

The word apostasia appears in the Greek translation of the Old Testament and is used in the sense of a spiritual kind of departure.   Joshua 22.22b, 23 reads: "if we have transgressed before the Lord before by apostasy, let him not deliver us this day, and if we have built to ourselves an altar so as to apostatize from the Lord our God."  2 Chronicles 29.19: "and all the vessels which king Ahaz polluted in his reign; in his apostasy, we have prepared and purified."   Jeremiah 2.19: "Thine apostasy shall correct thee, and thy wickedness shall reprove thee and see, that thy forsaking me has been bitter to thee, saith the Lord thy God."  

Alan Kurschner, a prewrath rapturist, quotes pretribulation rapture scholar Paul Feinberg: “If one searches for the uses of the noun “apostasy” in the 355 occurrences over the 300-year period between the second century B.C. and the first century A.D., one will not find a single instance where this word refers to a physical departure.”  

Kurschner also points out, “The classical Greek Liddell and Scott lexicon lists the primary meaning of apostasia as “defection, revolt”; and “departure, disappearance” as a secondary meaning. The only example of this secondary meaning of spatial departure is found five centuries later after the New Testament. It is sloppy and simply fallacious to read back not only an obscure meaning but one that is five centuries after the New Testament!”

The uses of Apostasia in the scriptures is not for a physical departure but a defection or spiritual departure.  And there are all the occurrences between a period of 300 years of which the word is not used for a physical departure.  The overwhelming evidence is that apostasia in 2 Thessalonians 2 is a defection, a spiritual falling away. 

 A falling away is something the Scriptures warn about within the church and something the church has anticipated in the last days.  First Timothy 4.1:  “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will  depart   from  the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons…”  Second Timothy 3.1-5:  “3:1  But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:  2  For men will be lovers  of themselves,  lovers  of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  3  unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,  4  traitors, headstrong, haughty,  lovers  of pleasure rather than  lovers  of God,  5  having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

Mark of the Beast's Eternal Consequence

There are a number of speculations about what this “Mark” may be which will be implemented during the time that most (futurists) identify as the “Great Tribulation.” 

 

Probably most futurists—those who believe that most of the book of Revelation is yet future—anticipate the Mark will be possible because of modern technology.  

 

I hear many Christians seemingly fearful that they may take the Mark unknowingly.  They seem to think they could lose their salvation if the Mark is involved with an implanted chip or something in a vaccine.   

Whatever this Mark will be, I don’t see how it could work that way.  Whatever it is, or however it works the most troubling part of it all is the consequence associated with having it. The consequences associated with it is what I find to be the most disturbing.

 "He causes all… to receive a  mark  on their right hand or on their foreheads,  and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the  mark… And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the  mark of his name." 

(Revelation 13.16-17; 14.11 NKJV)

 

Revelation reveals that to have the Mark seals one’s eternal fate.  I have heard that Dr. John McArthur takes the view that one can still be saved after they take the Mark. (I’ve read this by others but haven’t heard him say it.)  He has received a lot of criticism for that claim, and rightfully so, according to Revelation 14.   

Whatever one may think the Mark may be or how one thinks it works, there’s something about it that if you have it on your forehead or right hand, your eternal fate is sealed.  

 

A friend suggests the number 666 can be used by those who are wise enough (computer software programming savvy?) to generate an encryption key to decipher the code to hack /break the Beast’s system, so they can buy and sell without coming under the eternal condemnation of having the Mark—ok, fine, but why does having the Mark seal one’s fate?

I can only conclude that whatever the Mark is, and however it actually works, it must involve a state of mind or conscience that has become so hardened to the truth of God’s way of salvation, which is through faith alone in Christ as Savior from sin, that they have reached a point of no return:  those with the Mark will be those kind of people.  

I do think there will be those who will not take the Mark who are not believers in Christ, just because it doesn’t get implemented worldwide or for other various reasons.  I believe there will be many who were not believers in Christ who do not take the Mark, who will become believers in Christ after the great tribulation and after the rapture of the church, and some of these will be Jews who come to Christ in faith at His coming.  

 

I think that to take the Mark of the Beast involves a state of mind or conscience that has become so hardened to the truth of God’s way of salvation, which is through faith alone in Christ as Savior from sin, that they have reached a point of no return in their consciences: those with the Mark will be those kind of people who will suffer the consequence of eternal torment from God.  Taking the Mark will be like reaching a point of no return.

Kept from the “hour of trial”

 "Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the  hour   of   trial  which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” Revelation 3:10 NKJV

 

The promise to keep this church of Philadelphia in Asia Minor from the “hour of trial” is believed by many, if not most futurists, as yet to be fulfilled with future believers in Christ, since that “hour of trial” has not yet come “upon the whole world.”  

Who is this promise for, and what is this “hour of trial” and what does “keep you from” mean?   

One’s views about end time events will influence the understanding of these things.  

If one believes the rapture is in view, and the "hour of trial" is the 70th week of Daniel, they may ignore the conditional part of the text that says: “Because you have kept my command to persevere," because what if a believer does not persevere?  This is more a problem for pretribulationists.  They must assume that all believers persevere.  Yet even those who are not pretrib rapturists, such as prewrath rapturists, and believe the hour of trial is the day of the Lord, they would have the same problem with conditional statement, because do all believers persevere?

Ithas been demonstrated by some to grammatically apply to the previous verse (verse 9) the conditional statement, and it should read: “…indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you, because you have kept My command to persevere.”   If one believes the “keep you from” is the rapture, then the conditional statement doesn’t become a problem as to whom the promise applies or what the promise is, in that the rapture requires one to persevere.   Of course, some may believe that believers have to persevere or they are not saved or lost their salvation.  But placing the condition on verse 9 solves that problem, whatever one's rapture view is.

I think many have just kind of ignored the implications of the condition, or they believe that if the church as a whole is in view, then they all meet this condition somehow—which could be problematic, depending on the understanding of perseverance.   I don’t have a problem with moving the conditional statement to verse 9, but I wonder if it fully removes the idea of condition from verse 10, since the promise was only stated to the Church of Philadelphia and not the other six churches addressed, and if Christ was doing something for them because of their conduct in verse 9, the promise in verse 10 could still be due to their conduct recognized in the conditional statement.  And if this “hour of trial” did not happen in their time period, and is yet future, then the application of this promise can be to a future church of similar conduct.

 

I tend to think this promise of “keep you from” is not talking about the rapture, and I tend to think the “hour of trial” is not the “Day of the Lord,” but “great tribulation” that Jesus spoke concerning in the Olivet Discourse (eg. Matthew 24.1), and Revelation 7.14 says a great multitude (of obviously saved people)  come out of it. 

If Pretribulational rapturists believe it is about the rapture of the Church (removal from the earth), they would say the “hour” is the 70^th Week of Daniel (Daniel 9.27) as the Day of the Lord (the 70^th Week being the last 7 years before the Second Coming of Christ being designated as “tribulation” and the Day of the Lord)—and removing the conditional statement would be a good thing, because the rapture is not just for the faithful Christians, unless you believe all Christians persevere and salvation guarantees such. 

Prewrath Rapturists may say the “hour” is the Day of the Lord, but they place it near the end of the 70^th Week of Daniel and this is consistent with their view that the rapture happens at the end of great tribulation but before the Day of the Lord—removing the conditional statement would be the same issue as to all believers must persevere. 

Posttribulational Rapturists (rapture comes at end of 70^th week and Great Tribulation) and some Prewrath Rapturists may see the “keep you from” as a kind of protection during the time of great tribulation and not a physical removal from the earth as in the rapture.

Though the conditional part of Revelation 3.10 may apply to verse 9, the promise of Verse 10, to be kept from the hour, is to a church of a certain approved character and conduct.  I don’t believe the rapture is conditional to the faithful only, and I don’t think salvation guarantees the faithfulness of believers.  But whether the conditional part of verse 10 belongs to verse 9 or not, it seems the promise of verse 10 is to those who have persevered.  

In Jesus’ prayer for his disciples in John 17.15, he says:  "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should  keep  them from the  evil  one.”   This prayer  seems to be about a kind of protection.  The words “Keep” and “from” are seen used by Jesus in Revelation 3.10.  The keeping from in John 17.15 are with reference to “the evil,” the word “one” is added.  It’s similar to the part in the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6.13: “And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil [one.]”  The prayer is for deliverance from the “evil.”  I tend to think that there is a promise of some sort of spiritual protection for the believer during the great tribulation. 

The Great Tribulation will be a very difficult time for believers, because of severe persecution and the degree of evil deception going on.  Revelation 13 speaks of the persecution of that time by the one called the “beast”:  “7  It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.  8  All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  9  If anyone has an ear, let him hear.  10  He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the  patience  and the faith of the saints.”   Notice the reference to “the patience and faith of the saints.”

 

The temptation and deception of that time will be very great, and the choices people make will be of eternal consequence (it’s the “hour of trial”), as Revelation 14 says: “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives [his] mark on his forehead or on his hand,  10  "he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.  11  "And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."  12  Here is the  patience  of the saints; here [are] those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”   Notice again the reference to the patience of the saints-those who have “the faith of Jesus.”

 

The following may more specifically apply to the time of the early Church, but it has application to the end times as well, because there are similarities between the persecution of the early church and the time of the end:  “16  "You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put [some] of you to death.  17  "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  18  "But  not   a   hair  of your head shall be lost.  19  "By your patience possess your souls.” (Luke 21)   Notice the possessing of your souls by patience—this patience is a trust in God, no matter how bad it gets.  And the proverbial saying about not losing a hair of your head is not speaking about physical loss, but it’s a figure of speech, that God has possession of you, and you need to trust and obey him.  God will give you the ability to stand during that evil time.  Jesus appears to be referencing the words of the book of Micah:  7:“6  For son dishonors father,  Daughter rises against her  mother ,  Daughter- in - law  against her  mother - in - law ;  A man's enemies [are] the men of his own household.  7  Therefore I will look to the Lord;  I will wait for the God of my salvation;  My God will hear me.”

 

So I tend to see the promise in Revelation 3:10 as that of a kind of spiritual keeping from during the great tribulation.  It’s not a promise of physical removal, but a kind of deliverance from the evil of that time.   I think there can be still some difficulties with this view when it comes to the unfaithful believer and the mark of the beast.  I don’t think there is a guarantee that a believer won’t fail, so I’m not sure about that situation.  Removing the conditional statement from verse 10 and applying it to verse 9 doesn’t fully solve the problem, because the promise to the Philadelphia Church as a representative church of the end times would indicate it is for those of a certain character, not the whole church automatically.  However all this works out, it still seems the promise is not about the rapture but a spiritual kind of keeping from/ deliverance during great tribulation. 

If the keeping from is from the "Day of the Lord" according to the "prewrath" view, then it would be a keeping from the trumpets and bowls.  This then would support the view it is the rapture, because the prewrath view has the rapture before thoses things.  It could be said that the Church of Philadephia was kept from the trumpets and bowls because it is in heaven now, but so are all the other churches who didn't get this specific promise.

From a more post-trib view, the rapture would not be required, even if the "hour of trial" is specifically the trumpet and bowls, since the believer would still be on earth during those things, if those things are the more specific "test" to come upon the world.  probably a more common view of post-trib is that the second half of the 70th Week is both great tribulation and the trumpets and bowls (which I would still place near the end of the Week).

Of course there is some variations about the trumpets and bowls as to where they appear in the 70th Week.  I think it is common to place the bowls in the extra days (found at the end of Daniel chapter 12) after the 70th Week in the Prewrath view.   There may be some who have a view that places the rapture after the trumpets but before the bowls--this may be a hybrid prewrath, post-trib view.  I don't know if any prewrathers place the bowls within the 70th Week.

Actually, I'm more post-trib in my views, so even if the "hour" is the trumpets and bowls,  I can see this keeping from as referring to them, even in a physical sense, because there will be protection for those who don't have the mark of the beast.  In a post-trib rapture view, the Day of the Lord is mainly the second coming of Christ and not the trumpet and bowls.

Another concern is the words of Christ as in Luke 21 about being watchful concerning the "day" that is coming, so as to be "worthy" to "escape" what is to come and to "stand" before the Lord:  "³⁴ "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. ³⁵ For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶ Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." Luke 21:34-36

This text looks like it could be about the same thing in Revelation 3.10.  The "snare" on the "whole earth" sounds close to "the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth."   

The requirement to be worthy is troublesome, since if the rapture is in view, then it would seem one must qualify for it, unless the conduct and watchfulness is just used to identify believers by what should be characteristic of them.  What about believers who are not being watchful, and living as they should?  In First Thessalonians 5, the Apostle Paul does talk about how the Day of the Lord will come like a "thief" and the believer should not be asleep but awake, but even if he is asleep: "that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."  But Paul's words seem to connect with Luke 21 with reference to the unexpectedness of events and the need for the believer to be watchful.

Could a believer be unwatchful leading up to the trumpets and bowls, or is it more likely he is unwatchful leading up to the great tribulation?   

What is the "escape" the worthy believer is to experience?  Is it physical removal, as in the rapture?  Or is it some spiritual kind of deliverance in which they are kept from the evil?  And what exactly would that be?  He doesn't succumb but perseveres.?  Luke 21 does speak of  "stand before the son of man."  Could it be how one is spiritually going into the "trial" and "snare" will determine how they will persevere successfully and be able to stand before the Lord in approval?   Could it be the Philadelphian Church  was the kind of church that could persevere through the trial and snare that the great tribulation would bring?  And this is applicable to believers who may actually enter great tribulation?

But if the Day of the Lord is particularly in view, and from a prewrath understanding, then it would seem the rapture is what is in view.  But then there are prewrathers who believe the great tribulation is in view, and so a kind of protection would be in view.

Revelation 3.10 and Luke 21.34-36 will remain to be difficult to fully sort out.  And one will argue it according to their understanding of the rapture, whether pretrib, post-trib, or prewrath, and what the "hour of trial" is.