How Do You Know For Sure That The Elect in Matt 24 Are Not Israel And It Is The Tribulation Saints?

Who Does The New Testament Call As Elect? Is It Israel Or The Tribulation Saints?

Question: How do you know for sure that the elect in Matt 24 are not Israel and it is the Tribulation Saints? Who does the New Testament call as Elect? Is it Israel or the Church saints or The Tribulation saints?

Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful and glorious name above all names!

First of all, we know for sure that 'the elect' are those Tribulation saints of the end of end times that Jesus spoke about in Matt 24 because, we see the contextual evidence of who He has spoken about, and also who is he speaking about in that chapter. Let us delve in to it!

Here it is, "22 Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. 24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. 29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matt 24:22, 24, 29-31).

Notice the reference to "the elect of those days," those days are a reference to God's people who are alive when these things take place. Those days refer to "the tribulation of those days" which in detail is described by Jesus in Matt 24:21, saying, "there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be".

So those who will be present during the Great Tribulation will be called the Tribulation saints, as the Church will be Raptured just before the Great Tribulation will start (Rev 3:10). I believe that the Church will be Raptured anytime after the Mid-point of the Daniel 70th week of 7 years time (Dan 9:27).

The elect are chosen in the election of God, means, God chooses the time and place and people who are going to be saved, but we humans are those who need to choose when we are chosen by Him, as the decision is given in our hands. Those who choose to respond to the call of God are the ones who become the chosen of God. So many may be called, but only the few who choose God in their life by saying yes to Jesus and no to their own selves become the chosen of God. Praise the Lord!

The word "elect" comes from the Greek word eklektos and referred to those whom the God of Israel "chosen out, selected; in NT chosen as a recipient of special privilege, elect, Col. 3:12; specially beloved, Lk. 23:35; possessed of prime excellence, exalted, 1 Tim. 5:21; choice, precious, 1 Pet. 2:4, 6".

The original "elect" was Israel, for they were God's chosen people. However, due to Israel's sin and rebellion, only those chosen out of Israel and out of the pagan "Gentile" nations were God's "elect". Not all people (whether "Jew" or "Gentile") were God's elect (chosen). Only those He chose were saved and redeemed. God chooses those who choose Jesus and choose to repent of their sins to be saved. Let's keep this in mind and remember that God is sovereign. His choices ALWAYS trumps our own desires, yet if we make a godly choice, God honors it for eternity ahead through providing salvation. In other words, God sees our needs and comes towards us first, we then seek Him by confessing our sins and accepting Jesus as our Savior and Lord next. Thus we become God's choice. Hallelujah!  


So who are the elect according to the New Testament, Is It Israel or The Church?


Here are some verses that use the word "elect" or "election".

We see in 1 Peter 1:2, the believers who are saved and are part of the Church is called the "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied."

In 2 Peter 1:10, again Peter the apostle clearly says to the believer to make their election of God sure, by being obedient to the Word of God within the assembly of the Church, by saying "Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and Election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble." This proves that in God's election, the Church of the New Testament are considered the elect, chosen person by person individually by God according to their faith. Praise the Lord! 

Again the word elect is used three times in Matthew 24:22, 24 & 31, which clearly shows that the Church saints because they were Raptured before the Great Tribulation of those times according to the promise of God (Rev 3:10), those left behind offspring of the Church were the only ones will be present during the Great Tribulation (Rev 12:17; 14:12, 13), and therefore the elect present will be those Tribulation saints present at that time, these will have the courage and faith before Antichrist to not receive the mark of the beast and will even be ready to die and be martyred for their faith which will make them inherit the thousand years Millennial rule to become priest in their physical body, to reign from this present old Jerusalem for a thousand years time (Rev 7:9-17; 20:4-6). Hallelujah!

Further in Romans 9:11, we see the truth of how Israel is not the elect for the past two thousand years time, as the Church has taken it from them, "(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls)". God's election is not based on whether we choose God or not, but it is the fact that God has chosen us and want us to choose Him wisely and become the recipient of all His blessings through the obedience of faith (Rom 1:5 16:26).

In Romans 11:4-5, we clearly see that a remnant Israelites who are saved, who will have faith to overcome unbelief will be always be present in every generation, as apostle Paul revealed it in the following way saying, "But what does the divine response say to him? 'I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.' Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace." But these remnant was part of the Church until half way in to the Daniel 70th week (Eph 2:11-15), in which God will seal them and separate them before the Great Tribulation starts to keep the remnant of Israel according to His promises previously made through the prophets (Rev 7:1-8; Isa 1:9). Here the separation again happens after the Church time gets over and done through the Rapture for the Glory of God, and again God is going to turn towards Israel when Jesus comes to the earth at His Second Coming (Isa 14:25-26). But in-between itself, God sees the left behind offspring of the Church as the Tribulation saints to reward them physically by making them live in their physical body from the Old Jerusalem to reign as priest for a thousand years time, but at this time he sees the remnant Israel as the first-fruit of those who are separated for the Millennial Kingdom work of rebuilding the nation of Israel again (Rev 12:17; 14:12-13; 20:4-6). Hallelujah! Where will the Church be at this point of time, it will be in the new heaven and new earth (2 Peter 3:13), and will be part of the armies in heaven to take the assignment of fixing the old earth to make it become like it was before Adam fell in to sin (Rev 19:7-8, 14; 2 Peter 3:13; Php 3:21; Rom 8:18, 19). Hallelujah! Glory!

Finally, in Romans 11:7 we see God revealing through Paul the apostle about the elect when he said, "What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded." He was speaking about a elect from the nation of Israel who were all a part of the Church, but the rest of the Israelites have been blinded for the past two thousand years time. When the Church is raptured, the elect of Israel who know Jesus Christ will come out of it as the servant of God to work with both Elijah and Enoch, by being sealed by God and kept right through out the Great Tribulation, and also help them enter in to the Millennial rule of Jesus and the Church physically, to multiply and fill the nation of Israel during the thousand years time. Praise the Lord!

So who are the elect of God in Matt 24? It will neither be the Church, nor the remnant elect of Israel at that point of time, as they (i.e.) 144000 from all the 12 tribes, will be separated and sealed by God to become servants of God during the Great Tribulation (Rev 7:1-8). But they rather will be the offspring of the left behind of the Church in all nations, who will be the Tribulation saints, who will mostly inherit the Millennial kingdom as priest to reign through martyrdom, but some of them may enter the Millennial Kingdom of God physically to multiply and fill the earth for His Glory in all nations (Rev 7:9-17; 20:4-6; Matt 25:31-46)! Hallelujah!

Much Blessings...

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