Time's Up

Time's Up!

In Luke 4:16-21 Jesus read a prophetic section of Isaiah (chapter 61) and closed by saying, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Very few believed Him, but can you imagine the joy of those who did? Jesus had announced that the promised Messiah had come, and that He was that One. Israel had waited for centuries; had longed for deliverance and had watched their families grow old and die waiting for Messiah. False Messiahs had arisen, false movements had come and gone, and still the true Messiah did not come. Until Jesus.

We have waited for two millennia for Jesus to return. False Christs have come and gone. Many of these false messiahs are still with us gathering followings. According to Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:24 the deception of false Christs and false “second comings” would be legion near the end of the age. From the Jesus of the Western cults to Maitreya of the East, we see our Lord’s words taking flesh all around us. Now, globally, many in the body of Christ are becoming increasingly aware of His imminent return.

Those who have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church have moved beyond business as usual and are living in expectancy and vital hope of the soon coming of our Lord. In the church in China and in the pan-Arabic block countries, for example, these awakening believers are many, in the West there are very few. Most in our nation when confronted with the possibility of His soon return are quick to remember, and point out, the sincere but obviously premature hope of our Lord’s “imminent coming” portrayed in books such as 1980’s Countdown to Armageddon (Hal Lindsay) or 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be In 1988 (Edgar C Whisenant). The 90’s came but Armageddon did not; neither did the rapture. As a result of works like these, and many others, a large number of Christians have become complacent and skeptical.

It was inevitable that there would be a generation of Christians for whom the reality of Christ being “at the door” would be true, but few in this generation believe that time is now. Our skepticism may seem reasonable to many, but it is also extremely dangerous at this point in the history of the church.

Why would I (or anyone) claim to be certain that this is the time as over against, say, five years from now, or ten . . . Hasn’t every generation thought theirs would be the last? If they did believe Christ was coming in their generation they were obviously wrong. As a side note, both Paul and Peter knew as they grew older and gained increased comprehension of God’s plan that the Lord would not return in their lifetimes (2 Tim. 4:6; John 21:18-19 cp. 2 Pet. 1:13-14).

Second, if the rapture of the church is near, very near, then it’s imperative we understand what the rapture is and what it is not. We will include a discussion of this and seek to gain an understanding of certain passages which I believe have not been clearly explained in our churches.

So, allow me to attempt to build the case that what is coming upon the world is not just another in a series of historical upheavals; not another WW1 or WW2 followed by peace and reconstruction. This is the final conflict. The only peace that will come will be that which comes with the Prince of Peace at His return (except the false, and temporary, peace of the antichrist at the beginning of Daniel’s 70th week.)

Knowing whether or not we are in fact living at the end of the church age is not optional for us; this realization is actually a command (1 Thessalonians 5:1-7). The “sons of light” know their generation; those who are asleep do not. God never brings about judgment in the earth without first telling those who will listen (Gen. 6:13; 18:17; and, of course Israel’s prophets). Acts 13:36 shows David’s unique understanding of what God’s will for him was in “his own generation”

This is true in every age. Those in tune with the Lord are aware of both the general will of God for all generations as well as the unique features of God’s movements in their generation. In church history, for example, if we were living at the time of Martin Luther, our prayerful support of the recovery of justification by faith would have incorporated us in with those who were pursuing not only God’s will for all of us, but also God’s specific will for that unique time in history.

If we were living during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, God was moving powerfully in world evangelism. If we were alive at that time, and had ears to hear what the Spirit was saying to the churches, our heart would have been consumed with missionary passion. If we lived during the time of John Darby and the Keswick Conferences, we would have been involved in another recovery – the recovery of the doctrines of the church as distinct from Israel, of greater understanding related to prophetic revelation, and the heavenly calling and nature of the Body of Christ. Each generation is unique and serving God according to His will in our generation should be the goal of every disciple of Christ.

Now, we are in the final generation; at the end of that generation. If, for example, my interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 5:1-7 is correct, we are commanded to know what our time is. Other generations, other believers in the past, have known their generation spiritually. Spiritual interpretation is the single most vital ability needed in our church today. If ever there was time in the history of the church not to be unaware, not to be asleep, this is that time. As T.A. Sparks puts it,

Prophecy is spiritual interpretation. . . It is going beyond mere events and happenings. It is the interpretation of everything from a spiritual standpoint; the bringing of the spiritual implications of things before the people of God and (helping) them understand the significance of things in their spiritual value and meaning. That was and is the essence of prophetic ministry. . . There never was a time when there existed so extensively the need for a voice of interpretation, when conditions needed more the ministry of explanation.

Let’s look at the rapture for a few minutes. Please read 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18. This is a familiar passage. We all know that the church, at some point in time, will be “caught up to meet the Lord in the air”. I know many of us intellectually believe in this event, but it seems so unreal, so fantastic and futuristic that a genuine openness to believing that it could be soon eludes us. However, since it is God Who has promised this, it will happen just as He said it would. There will be a generation of Christians who are “caught up” to Him; and some in that generation will be awake and aware – they will know the time is very near because God will have revealed it to them. It is His way to reveal His plans to His friends (cp. John 15:15 w/ Gen. 18:17). God will reveal but will we listen? In every generation some have ears “to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Rev. 2:7; 2:11; 2:17; 2:29; 3:6; 3:13; 3:22) and some do not.

Some simply follow general principles of scripture in a religious life-style; others have an intimate relationship with God that allows for the addition of specific understanding and of the scriptures applied to their time – to their generation.

As one author put it,

The question (of the second coming of Christ and of how this world will end) is not one of mere curiosity, still less an intrusion into regions we are forbidden to tread. The distinction which our Lord draws between the servant and the friend is that "the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth," while He told His disciples, as friends, all things that He had heard of His Father (John 15: 15). In the same discourse He promises to send "the Spirit of truth," the Comforter; to show them "things to come" (John 16: 13). Indeed, the very thought that the constant references to the future scattered through the sacred writings are not meant to be understood, carries its own refutation. And, as if foreseeing the spirit of unbelief and indifference which characterizes the present time, the Holy Spirit has, in the introduction to the Apocalypse, the most distinctively prophetic portion of the New Testament, pronounced a special blessing on those "that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein" (Rev. 1: 3).

While, moreover, it is admitted that the interpretation of prophecy may be attempted in a frivolously inquisitive spirit, are not those who turn a deaf ear to its promises and warnings themselves guilty of the same irreverence which they censure in others? For the object of prophecy is to unfold God's purposes with respect to the glory of His Son, whom man has refused, but whom God has exalted, and to whom every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess. In the contemplation of this theme, He invites His chosen ones to share. And who are these chosen ones? Are they mere lookers on? No, thanks be to God, we who believe in Jesus are His fellow-heirs — all things are ours. God invites us to look at the inheritance He has Himself prepared for us in joint possession with the Son of His love. And surely, as in the enjoyment of that inheritance, the "first-born," in whom we have our acceptance, will be the one object of our worship and delight, so in its contemplation now, our brightest thought should be that we are gazing on the portion prepared for Him who alone is worthy "to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." To study prophecy with any more trivial object is to lose sight of this glorious end. But, on the other hand, to neglect it as unprofitable, because it does not contribute to our personal salvation, is a piece of selfishness derogatory to the claims of Christ, and unworthy of the condescending goodness of God in thus taking us into His own counsels.

We need to look at the context of the rapture and dissect the word “remnant” which Paul uses (i.e. we who are alive and remain – lit. “alive and survive”, 1 Thessalonians 4:17). I will try to give a brief summary of the principle here. In 1 Thessalonians 4:15, 17 the KJV, and many other versions, translates “perileipomai” as “remain”. Though partially correct, this translation leaves us with a very limited understanding of the extensive history and meaning of this word. It should be translated “survive” or the “surviving ones”: (Note: Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary summary in the Appendix). Here is an overview of the way this concept is used in the Bible:

Survivors of a catastrophe (e.g., as Lot survived Sodom).
A group of non-Israelite survivors (e.g., "the remnant of Edom”, Amos 9:12)
Israelite survivors of the Assyrian invasion in 721-718 BC.
Jewish survivors of the Babylonian invasion in 585 BC.
The remnant of Jews who returned to Judah from Babylon.
The remainder of physical Israelites and Jews after the Great Tribulation.

There is an obvious pattern in the Holy Spirit’s use of this principle: Perileipomai refers to a small number of people who survive a catastrophic event which has killed the majority of this same group. As Isaiah put it,

Except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been like Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. (Isaiah 1:9).

It’s always a small number among a larger population. The majority is destroyed while the remnant, by God’s grace, escapes. The rapture is not simply a convenient air-escape in times of calm waters; it is an escape in times of intense fire.

As we near the end of this age and the coming of our Lord, the church (globally) will come under the fires of persecution and chaos (much of the church around the world is already in this fire). The chaff will be burnt off, the gold will be refined. The surviving ones (“perileipomai”) will be “caught up to meet the Lord in the air”.

Following the destruction of the lukewarm church and the “catching up” of the remnant, the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit will be removed (2 Thessalonians 2:7) to make way for the revelation of the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:8) and his subsequent rise in power to begin his seven-year rule before the return of Christ to the earth when He will destroy His enemies, bind the Adversary and establish His millennial reign.

In his comments on the end times in 1 Peter 4:7ff, in vs. 17 Peter writes, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God. . .” Judgment begins with us (the body of Christ). Then it will spread to the nations during the tribulation period in fulfillment of the prophecies related to Daniel’s 70th week (Revelation chapters 4-19). What judgment comes to us? God purifies His people to prepare them for the completion of the fullness of His will (1 Peter 1:5-8). This happened at the end of the Exodus generation when, through testing, Caleb and Joshua comprised the faithful remnant and were ready to enter Canaan, the rest were destroyed (Exodus 14:1-29).

Judgment begins at the house of God. God has brought the fires of persecution to over three fourths of the world. Millions of our brothers and sisters in Christ are now in the midst of testing and suffering. They are being refined, matured, and strengthened. It’s now time for the church of the West (Europe and the United States) to join them.

As Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:4, there will be some who will not be taken by surprise at the global, fiery preparation of the Body of Christ for the rapture. There are some who will be awake, they will see it coming; but most will be asleep. Those whose eyes are open make up the “remnant” (surviving ones) of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. When Paul writes, “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up . . .” he is speaking of those whom God has protected during this trial and are allowed the privilege of deliverance by being snatched from this earth by God’s gracious rescue of His faithful remnant – the deliverance of 21st. century Joshuas and Calebs.

Here, then, is the picture. The world is caught up in a demonic frenzy of hatred for God’s people (see “Black Awakening” documentation in the Appendix). The West will be sharing the suffering of the believers in other countries. Persecution is expanding globally. The so-called free world is decreasingly free. Martial Law may have been declared in the United States. Extermination camps may even be in operation (some anticipate this). The lukewarm are destroyed in fulfillment of the prophecy Jesus gave in Revelation 3:16 (“spewed out”, a term of judgment – akin to the “sin unto death” spoken of in 1 John 5:16 and paralleled in the history of God’s dealing with His people in 1 Corinthians 10:1-11; especially note vs. 11). The rapture is a deliverance of God’s faithful, suffering remnant – pulling them out of fire into the arms of their Father. Those who are asleep will be destroyed (1 Corinthians 10:10; Ex. 14). Those who are spiritually awake, whose ears are opened, will be protected and will be raptured.

Paul gives another warning of a different nature in 2 Timothy 3:1, 8. The “perilous times” Paul warns us of in these passages involve the rise of activities in the end times similar to that of Jannes and Jambres. These were the magicians of Pharaoh who withstood Moses (i.e. Exodus 7:8-13). We need to notice the nature of their resistance to the truth. The mode in which “Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses” was simply by imitating, as far as they were able, whatever Moses did. What Moses did, they could do, so from an objective observer’s viewpoint, there was no significant difference. A miracle is a miracle. If Moses wrought miracles to get the people out of Egypt, they would work miracles to keep them in; so what’s the difference?

In addition to direct persecution, the satanic resistance to God’s testimony in the world “in the last days” is offered by those who, though they imitate the effects of the truth, have “the form of godliness,” but not “the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5). People like this can do the same things, adopt the same forms, use the same theology, phraseology and profess the same convictions as others. If the true Christian feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, teaches the scriptures, defends sound doctrine, witnesses to the lost, engages in prayer, sings worship songs, etc. the imitator can do every one of these things. Again, this is the special character of the resistance offered to the truth “in the last days” – this is the spirit and work of 21st century “Jannes and Jambres.”

Only spiritual discernment can distinguish the imitation from the real. External observance alone cannot separate the two (Hebrews 5:14; Matthew 13:24-29).

The whole assembly stood there with the greatest reverence before this highest Majesty and most powerful Inspirer of awe, before which the greatest of souls becomes so little as to be almost nothing. And if we had not bee witness to the movement of the body during this event, the raising of hands during the song and prayers, and the expressions of humility – and if we had not heard the beating of the hearts before this immeasurable grandeur – we would have thought ourselves transferred to another life; to heaven. And, truly, we were at that hour in another world; the world of the Spirit. We were in the house of God, in God’s immediate Presence, and all with lowered heads and humble tongues and voices raised in prayer and praise, (were surrounded by) weeping eyes, awestruck hearts and pure thoughts of intercession.

This recounting of a worship experience, seemingly real and substantive, occurred in the early 1900’s. Muhammad Labib al Batnuni recorded this narrative of the spiritual impact of the Islamic Ka’aba.

What if such an event was held in a Christian church (on a Sunday morning) and instead of being saturated with Islamic forms and words, was instead saturated with Christian forms and words? Would we know whether we were dealing with the Holy Spirit or with the spirit of Jannes and Jambres which Paul prophesied would come to the church in the last days? Though contextually I believe Matthew 24 is referring to the time of the great tribulation, the principle of Matthew 24:24b (potential deception of the elect) remains true in all ages, as evidenced by Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3:1-8 and 1 Timothy 4:1.

As you go through the sites, articles, and writings in the appendix (especially the scriptural articles and essays) and as you pray for God to show you what is happening, you may come to a conclusion similar to the one I’ve come to. If so, what must our response be? Prayer, diligent study of the scriptures (some specific recommendations are in the appendix) and survival by God’s grace.

Which leads to my final appeal: What we do next cannot be “Christianity” as we’ve known it. As Jesus said, to be his disciples we will need to fully deny ourselves and follow Him. It must be all about Him – His leading, His revelation, His protection, and guidance. We must lose ourselves in Him.


Appendix

This first section is information on the launch of a global demonic element in the coming persecution (there is also a series of Black Awakening videos on Youtube).

Secrets of the Black Awakening – Part OneSecrets of the Black Awakening – Part TwoSecrets of the Black Awakening – Part ThreeSecrets of the Black Awakening - Part Four

Some comments from a pastor in N.Y.,

The Church in the west for the most part, is asleep to what is coming upon her! Someone needs to keep sounding the warning-trumpet, first to believers, the body of Christ, to awaken from our spiritual sleep (Isa. 58:1 w/ Joel 2:1;15-17 w/ Eph. 5:14 w/ Rev. 3:14-22) and then to unbelievers (1Pet. 4:7 w/ 17-18).
In view of these solemn end-time realities which we as believers will be soon facing, we need to daily seek God in His Word and worship Him both personally and in our corporate gatherings (Heb. 10:23-25). God has made abundant provision for His overcoming-remnant in this last generation just as He has in previous generations (Isa. 10:20-23). It is time to earnestly seek the Lord (Hos. 4:6a w/ 6:1-3 w/ Jer.. 9:23-24)! The Church Jesus is building remains indestructible (Matt. 16:18 w/ Lk. 6:46-49). The high-priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 17 will be answered with finality by God the Father for the confirmation and consummation of the "testimony of Jesus" through a believing-overcoming-remnant in this last generation (Rev. 1:2;9). It should be noted in this context that many of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world are currently in the fires of intense persecution and suffering. This same reality is coming upon the west.
The everlasting God is on His throne and His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom which will not pass away! (Psa. 9:7-10; 10:16-18; 29:10-11; 102:12; 103:19; 145:13; Lam. 5:19; Dan. 4-5; Rev. 1:4-8). Please look up these scriptures and take your stand upon this TRUTH.
There is coming the eschatological day of visitation (1Pet. 2:12), first upon the church (1Pet. 4:17 w/ Heb.12:25-29 w/Rev. 3:14-22), then upon Israel and the nations (Rev. 6-19).
In view of this coming day of visitation, I appeal to you dear saints to prayerfully consider these wonderful life-giving-hope-inspiring messages given by Mr. Sparks (T. Austin Sparks). These messages are full of end-time realities that will build you up in the Lord. God has used this brother's deep insights into the Heart and Purpose of God to encourage and mentor us here at Morning Star throughout the years. Watchman Nee and others like Bakth Singh of India esteemed Mr. Sparks as a spiritual father. I fully concur with this assessment! These messages are not yet posted on the http://www.austin-sparks.net/ web site.
Remember, God will have a prepared people ready for His return for His Church in the same way He had a prepared people ready for His first advent (Lk. 1:15-17w/ 2:25 &36 w/ Heb. 9:28). We are living in the days when the bride of Christ must awaken from her slumber and prepare herself and be ready for her Bridegroom to take her home to be with Himself BEFORE the coming day of wrath (Rev. 19:7 w/ Eph. 5:27 w/ Heb. 12:14b w/ 1Thess. 1:10; 5:9 w/ 2Thess. 2:13-14 w/ John 14:1-3).

There are additional readings I would recommend you take time to look over. First, is this excerpt from G.H. Pember’s work, “Earth’s Earliest Ages”

The Days of Noah By G.H. Pember
Extract from Earth’s Earliest Ages by G. H. Pember
© Kregel Publications, 1975, Ch. 8 & 9, pp. 127-148.
http://www.amcbryan.btinternet.co.uk/noah-pember.pdf

And I strongly recommend the following reading – it is life-changing!
http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/all_things_in_christ.html

We have only a few years left before the world breaks out in chaos and destruction designed to pave the way for the rise of antichrist’s kingdom (sometime during that chaos, the church will be snatched away).

As David Wilkerson recently warned:

An earth-shattering calamity is about to happen. It is going to be so frightening; we are all going to tremble – even the godliness among us. For 10 years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires – such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.
There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting – including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God's wrath. . . God is judging the raging sins of America and the nations. He is destroying the secular foundations.
The prophet Jeremiah pleaded with wicked Israel, "God is fashioning a calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh, turn back each of you from your evil way, and reform your ways and deeds. But they will say, It's hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart" (Jeremiah 18:11-12).
In Psalm 11:6, David warns, "Upon the wicked he will rain snares (coals of fire) … fire … burning wind … will be the portion of their cup." Why? David answered, "Because the Lord is righteous" (v. 7). This is a righteous judgment – just as in the judgments of Sodom and in Noah's generation.
What shall the righteous do? What about God’s people? First, I give you a practical word I received for my own direction. If possible lay in store a 30-day supply of non-perishable food, toiletries and other essentials. In major cities, grocery stores are emptied in an hour at the sign of an impending disaster.”

Would it change the way you viewed life, the way you lived in the present, if you knew (not just “speculated”) that we only have a few years left before these things happen – that we really are that near to the end of the church age, the beginning of antichrist’s false millennium, the great tribulation, and the establishment of the kingdom of Christ? What would you tell your church or your family?

This isn’t just another run for a speculative “Countdown to Armageddon”. This time it’s real.

Time’s up!

____________________________________


Finally, if you are interested in going into more detail regarding the “remnant”, the following is from Baker's Evangelical Dictionary on “Remnant Theology”

Remnant

Leftovers or remainders, whether of daily food (Ru 2:14,18), food at the Passover (Le 7:16,18), anointing oil (Le 14:17), or even and especially people who survive a major disaster. A remnant of people is what is left of a community following a catastrophe (e.g., Noah's family after the flood, Gen 6:5-8:22; Lot's family after the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, Gen. 19 those who remained in the land after the deportations of 597 b.c., Ezra 9:8; Jer 24:8; 52:15; those left behind under Gedaliah, Jer 40:6, 11, 15; or the Jews who came out of exile Ezra 9:8, 13; Zech 8:6, 11-12). Terms for remnant in the Old Testament derive from six roots and occur some 540 times (forms of Heb. sr, ytr, plt, srd; Gk., leimma, hypoleimma, loipos, kataloipos). Remnant, frequently in the sense of residue or refugee, takes on theological hues when it becomes the object of God's address and/or action.
Sociologically the remnant could be described variously as refugees, a community subgroup, or a sect. Canonically one may find language of remnant in the Pentateuch, in historical books (e.g., of groups subjugated or not yet subjugated), in the prophets, and in the New Testament. Historically, an illustration of remnant are the seven thousand in Israel who in times of apostasy of the Ahab/Jezebel era had not defected from the Lord (1 Kings 19:9-18). Theologically, remnant language clusters in several Old Testament books, the authors of which lived at some hinge point in history: Isaiah (37:31-32) and Micah (4:7; 7:18) near the time of Israel's collapse; Jeremiah (11:23; 50:20) and Zephaniah (2:7-9) near the time of Judah's fall; and Paul near the time of the emergence of the church (Rom 11:5). Remnant language is associated with both judgment and salvation.


Remnant and Judgment

The language of remnant in announcements of judgment was used to emphasize the totality of the judgment—whether of non-Israelites or Israelites—so that no trace, no remnant would in the end remain. Obadiah, whose book targets Edom, asserts, "There will be no survivors from the house of Esau" (v. 18). Damascus will become a ruinous heap, and the remnant of Syria will cease (Isa 17:3). Most conclusive is the statement against Babylon, which combines the ideas of reputation (name) and remnant, perhaps as an idiom for total destruction: "I will cut off from Babylon her name and survivors (sa'ar)" (Isa 14:22; cf. 2 Sam 14:7). For Israel especially language of remnant was also invoked to disabuse any who might consider themselves exceptions to the predicted casualties. Should there be temporary survivors of a catastrophe, such as Nebuchadnezzar's siege, they would ultimately not be spared (Jer 21:7). Such news of total destruction was evidence of God's determination to proceed in judgment, but the news was intended to persuade vacillating persons to spare their lives by defecting to the Babylonians (Jer 21:8-9).
The name Shear-Jashub ("a remnant will return, " Isa 7:3), often thought to be seminal to the prophets' thought on remnant, is, even in context, ambiguous in meaning. Did the expression portend misfortune, or did it convey that all was not lost? The expression, "a remnant will return, " when applied later to Israel, became, even if marginally, a message of hope (Isa 10:20-23; 37:31-32; = 2 Kings 19:30-31).

Remnant and Salvation or Deliverance

Oracles of salvation may follow immediately on the heels of announcements of judgment, and paradoxically, both entail a remnant. In Amos 9 the destruction is said to be total (vv. 1-4, 10b); still there is a glimmer of hope: "I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob" (v. 8b). One frequent proposal at reconciling these opposites is to resort to the theory of editorial splicing, which softens the severity of the message but does not deal with the theological dissonance. A more acceptable answer takes God's justice into account. God will destroy the sinful kingdom—not a territory, but the aggregate of wicked leaders. All these shall perish. But not all the populace is equally guilty, and while the pious do not escape the effects of the destruction, God in his justice spares them; they become the remnant. Paradigms for wholesale destruction in which some are nevertheless spared exist in the story of Noah's family in the flood and Lot's escape from Sodom.
Since acceptance with God is not based on merit, one dimension of remnant theology is its message of God's grace (Isa 1:9; Amos 5:15). Judgment, whereby all is destroyed, is not the last word. Beyond judgment is God's readiness, because of his loyal love, to continue with his people. It is too mechanical to think of wrath and grace within God vying with each other for the upper hand, but given that hypothetical scenario, the message is that God's grace triumphs in the end.
The remnant is future-oriented. What prospects has the remnant that becomes, as in the exile, the carrier of God's promise? The prospect was for the exiles to be gathered together and to return to the homeland (Jer 23:3; 31:7-9; Micah 2:12-13; 4:6-7). The exodus from the exile, like the exodus from Egypt, was accompanied with miracles (Isa 11:11-16). The solution to the tension between God's earlier unchangeable promise and Israel's sad history lies in the remnant. Those returning with Zerubbabel (Hag 1:12, 14; Zech 8:6, 11, 12) and those returning at the time of Ezra (Ezra 9:13-15) regarded themselves as that remnant. Isaiah had graphically depicted the Assyrian takeover with the image of God cutting down the tall trees and lopping off boughs with "terrifying power" (Isa 10:28-34; NRSV ). Equally graphic was to be the recovery as "the outcasts of Israel" and the "dispersed of Judah" would be gathered together. Also, there would emerge a shoot (remnant?) from the stump of Jesse (Isa 11:1). Upon this shoot, customarily interpreted as the Messiah, rests the sevenfold spirit (vv. 2-3a) with the promise that he would rule in righteousness (v. 5). The eschatological picture of the cessation of all hostilities among humans and among animal leans on the existence of a remnant. In the prophet's mouth, remnant language for Israel is hope-engendering.
The remnant was the recipient of other promises: granting of pardon (Mic 7:18-20); God's everlasting love (Jer 31:2); taking root (2 Kings 19:30; cf. Isa 37:31-32); removal of enemies and becoming established like a lion in the forest (Mic 4:7-9); the Lord's promise to be a garland of glory for the remnant (Isa 28:5-6); and a grant by God for the people to possess all things (Zec 8:6).
The texts announcing salvation for the remnant raise the question of the relation of the remnant to its base group. Jeremiah addresses this question for his situation: God's future lay with those who had been taken to Babylon (the good figs), not with those who stayed in the land (the bad figs, Jer. 24). The Qumran community saw itself as the "remnant of thy people [Israel]" (1QM14.8-9; cf. CD 2.11). Paul clarified the relationship between the remnant, those who accepted the gospel, and the larger body of unbelieving Jews, by noting: (1) that the remnant represented the ongoing activity of God with the chosen people, "a remnant chosen by grace" (Rom 11:5) since it is the spiritual Israel; (2) that the function of the Jewish remnant, to which are not attached the Gentile believers, is to serve as a vehicle of retrieval or recovery for the larger Jewish community; and (3) that the exclusion of the larger is for a limited time (Rom 11:11-32).
One might ask, of course, how it is that God holds with the remnant, which is usually the small rather than the large body, the minority rather than the majority. Where is God's ultimate triumph? One answer is to examine the larger sweep of salvation history. The story of the primeval history was discontinued in favor of the election of Abram, a remnant, so to speak, from the larger group. Similarly the New Testament story discontinued the story of mainstream Israel and related the story of the faithful remnant. This remnant, however, received from Jesus a mission that was world-embracing (Matt 28:18-20). The remnant was called to redemptive activity. The Book of Revelation depicts, as does the primeval history, a great diversity of people, people now in God's presence. The remnant has accomplished God's purpose. Questions on the order of majority/minority may be misplaced. By God's measure, more on the order of righteousness, his triumph is not in doubt (Zep 3:11-13). The doctrine of the remnant is in part that failure of a larger body will not impair God's purposes.
Because the criterion is not ethnicity but righteousness, the Scripture applies "remnant" language to peoples other than Israel. In a pivotal text Amos speaks of a remnant of Edom, interpreted by James as referring to all humankind, which will come under the saving umbrella of David (Amos 9:12). Philistines, like Judah, are envisioned as a "remnant for our God."