THE TIME OF SALVATION

There is much disagreement about just who must endure to the end and who must suffer tribulation.

Yes, Jesus did send the apostles first to the non-gentile cities unto the Jewish people of Israel (Mat 10:6). But was the message different for the Jews than for the Gentiles? God (Jesus) is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). He, however, gave the Jews first chance, even knowing that He would be rejected. If the message was for Jews alone, then would this message even apply to Christians; “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven”? (Mat 10:32).

Jesus did not come to only save the Jews but “men.” The “whosoever” is the same whosoever as in John 3:16. Jesus knew so many Jews would reject Him that the apostles must go on their way until they had exhausted their opportunities among the Jews (Mat 10:23). There is, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephes 4:5), so why would there be another salvation?

The message was always for everyone, and that was the same one message. Paul wrote, “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly” (Rom 2:29). Therefore, the Christian is a ‘Jew inwardly.’

The message from Jesus was always to everyone. Christians were also the ‘chosen’ and ‘peculiar” people (1 Pet 2:9). Gentiles were not just foreign races but pagans whose God was another God. For instance, Simon — the Canaanite — was likely not a Jew by genetics but by choice. The gospels applied to that non-Jewish man as much it did the Jewish apostles.

Now consider the following passages in light of those things: 

²¹ Brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. ²² And ye shall be hated of all men for my Name's sake: but he that endures to the end shall be saved. ²³ But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, “You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. (Mat 10:21-23)

 Jews of Israel will not be persuaded before Jesus comes again. Jesus already knew that when He said those things, so the message was not meant only for the Jews but “he that endures” whether it be Jew or non-Jew. The word ‘he’ is not specific (peculiar), so it was not only for the peculiar of the Jewish nation but also the peculiar of the Christian ‘nation’ — the Church.

The passages apply in general, and so does the entire book of Hebrews as well for that matter!

Christians, not just Jews, will be persecuted and face tribulation. “Brother against brother” is also terminology for people in general. For the Name, ‘Jesus,’ those who are Christians shall be persecuted, not just the Messianic Jews.

Furthermore, “He that endures to the end shall be saved” references His Name sake, or Christians. Jews will not be persecuted any more or any less for the sake of Jesus. He, in general, who endures to the end shall be saved. Not necessarily now or even tomorrow, but in the end. The question is, Just when is the end? Those who endure persecutions in the world. That either ends with death or with the coming of Jesus for the living and those who were in Christ before they died.

“And He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mat 24:31). The ‘elect’ are not just the Jewish people but those of all Christians who are of the gens of Christ. The ‘elect’ are not just the Jews but those who are Jews inwardly and whose God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There will be tribulation and Christians, as Jesus said, must overcome that tribulation. That places doubt about the pre-tribulation rapture as well as when is the soul saved?

Speaking of the mercies of Jesus Christ, it is written: 

⁵ Who (Christians) are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: ⁷ That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: ⁸ Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: ⁹ Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. (1 Pet 1:5-9)

 The ‘elect’ are both Jews and Gentiles who are chosen. That includes everybody but the angels that rebelled who were not chosen!

Salvation is to be revealed at the end of time. Christians are kept by faith until the end except for those who rebel against God. The “end of your faith” is the “salvation of your souls.” It is the souls of mankind that are saved and live forever in new incorruptible flesh. The old flesh dies and is never saved.

Salvation is the termination of faith for those who endure the tribulations until the end, called “manifold temptations” and “tried by fire” in those verses.

The doctrines of men are tricky; That it takes only five minutes of faith to suffice is a cunning doctrine. Faith must endure to the end, and the end of faith is either rebellion against God, death, or the rapture — “the appearing of Jesus Christ” — for the Christians. Therefore, the salvation of the soul is indeed at the second coming of Christ, but His coming in the sky long before He comes to reign.