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Continuing our discussion from part one, following are some additional verses which clearly demonstrate how the Apostles and Disciples of the First Century were truly enduring much persecution from their own unbelieving Jewish brethren, from the Roman authorities, and from people in other countries where they took the Gospel message. As we learned in part one, this was all in addition to the great tribulation they endured during those last seven years of the violent, bloody First Jewish-Roman War, when they were forced to flee into the mountains and hills surrounding Jerusalem, in order to survive until the Lord's promised return.

"For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God."


"And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing."


"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other mens matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf . . . Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator."


"I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them . . . And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time."


"And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people."


"And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed."


"I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."


"I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life . . . I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth."


"And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."


"And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."


"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."


"And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth."


"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."


To reiterate a point I made with you in part one, everything I have shared with you up to this point is fully backed, not only by the Holy Scriptures, but in fact also by the actual historical record as well. If you have doubts about anything I have stated here, you can easily conduct research of your own in order to confirm it. You will discover that both the historical and the Biblical record fit together like a hand in a glove. They complement and confirm each other. As such, by this time, and in light of the plethora of evidence I've provided here, you should have a pretty clear understanding regarding what Jesus meant when He said "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."

In other words, you should know and fully understand by now that the Lord spoke and directed those words to His actual followers who were present at that time, and that Jesus was telling them what they would have to endure in the coming decades as they preached the Gospel, and as the hostilities between Rome and Israel grew stronger and louder. As we've seen, those hostilities ultimately culminated in the First Jewish-Roman War, which resulted in the total destruction of Jerusalem and the temple compound, and the need for Jesus' followers to flee into the mountains and hills in order to survive the last seven years of that ordeal.

That is what the Lord was explaining to the Disciples during His Olivet Discourse. He was basically telling them "Look, if you manage to survive all of these things, if you flee to the hills and mountains as I have instructed you, and endure all of these terrible events, you will be safe." As you have no doubt noticed, I in fact said "safe" and not "saved". There is a good reason for that. Quite simply, in all three verses we examined in part one where we find the phrase "shall be saved", the original Koine Greek word from which "saved" is translated, is "sozo". ‭Pronounced sode'-zo, it will interest you to know that according to Thayer's Greek English Lexicon, the primary meaning of this word is to save, keep safe and sound, to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to rescue from danger or destruction.

So perhaps you are wondering exactly how the Lord's followers of the First Century were kept safe and rescued from danger and destruction. If so, actually, I already told you in part one. However, if you are interested in reading a much more detailed, Scripture-packed explanation, then I invite you to read my seven-part series called "Jesus Christ's Return: Have We Been Deceived?", which you will find listed at the end of this same series.

Now we come to the issue which motivated me to write this series in the first place: the memes which are floating around on Facebook -- and possibly elsewhere -- which use "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." The problem is that either due to their ignorance, or possibly intentionally in some cases, a lot of modern Christians have misunderstood what the verse really means. As I explain in a few other articles such as "Fight Against Futurism", as well as in the aforementioned "Jesus Christ's Return: Have We Been Deceived?" one huge reason why this is happening, is because they erroneously embrace the theology known as Futurism.

Without going into a lot of detail, being as I already offer a full explanation in the articles I just named, the primary error of Futurism is that it takes ancient, already-fulfilled prophecies, and advances them to our current time, as if they have not yet been fulfilled. In other words, they change the time frame. Trust me, my friends, I totally understand where the Futurists are coming from, because as I point out in the aforementioned series, I likewise believed in Futurism for about forty-two years of my adult Christian life, until the Lord opened my eyes through a more careful study of the Scriptures back in 2011-2012.

I was totally dedicated to the Futurist doctrine. Furthermore, I preached it with zeal. I believed exactly as many Futurists still believe today. I was absolutely convinced that the Lord would return during my lifetime. Sadly, that illusion slowly began to fade away over thirty years ago, and by 2011-2012, I was fully convinced that I had been deceived and was in fact wrong. Friends, that is the problem with not having a strong foundation in God's Word, and naively accepting the words of others, whether they are a street preacher, or some popular pulpit preacher, or a famous Christian book author, or even a Christian movie maker.

The second thing that some Futurists do to take Bible verses out of their correct context is to change the audience to whom a verse or group of verses is being directed. In other words, when a Futurist sees "ye" or "you" in certain verses, instead of understanding those verses to being spoken or written to specific people who were alive during ancient times, they erroneously assume that the verses are actually directed to us Christians living today in our current time.

This is precisely what they do with "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Even though I have clearly shown you that Jesus was speaking to His followers of the First Century, Futurists claim that Jesus is speaking to us today through that verse. But that is not even the worst of it. We've clearly seen how Believers of the First Century had to endure all kinds of persecution from the unbelieving Jews, from the Romans and from nonbelievers in other nations as well. That was all in addition to making it alive through the seven-year First Jewish-Roman War. So, clearly, Jesus was talking about remaining safe from a lot of life-threatening physical dangers.

However, in addition to believing that the aforementioned verse is speaking to us today -- even though that is not the case -- Futurists also distort the meaning of that verse by insisting that it is really referring to spiritual Salvation. In other words, believing in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ in order to receive forgiveness, and merit Eternal Life. This is a common error with many modern Christians. Sadly, the minute they see the word "saved", they automatically assume that it is always referring to Eternal Salvation. However, as we have now seen, that is simply NOT always the case. Being saved can also refer to being saved -- or more appropriately, rescued -- from a particularly bad or dangerous situation.

This same problem occurs with the related word "savior". It too is not always referring to Salvation and Eternal Life in the Bible. If you doubt that this is so, please consider the following three sample verses in which the word is referring to either God Himself saving the Israelites out of a rather dangerous situation, or to a hero who the Lord raised up to save the Israelites from their very real, physical enemies:

"(And the LORD gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime."


"They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea."


"And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them."


So, tell me then. Are you convinced that in the Holy Bible, the words "saved" and "savior" are not always or necessarily referring to spiritual Salvation and Eternal Life through our faith in Jesus Christ? Now, to be very clear and upfront with you regarding this issue, according to Thayer's Greek English Lexicon, the process of Redemption, Salvation and acquiring Eternal Life is indeed the secondary meaning of the Koine Greek word "sozo". The way the lexicon explains it is rather strange, in my view. It says "to deliver from the penalties of the Messianic judgment‭, to save from the evils which obstruct the reception of the Messianic deliverance‭." Yes, that is quite a flowery mouthful, isn't it?

However, in the verses we have been discussing in the Gospels, as I just said, Jesus isn't talking about spiritual Salvation. He is talking about being kept safe from very real, physical danger. If you carefully examine those three key chapters -- Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 -- you will plainly see that Jesus is not talking about the necessity of believing in Him in order to be saved and merit Eternal Life. He is speaking prophetically regarding actual, physical, historical events which occurred within a few decades of His return to Heaven.

When the Lord IS talking about our spiritual Salvation, He makes it very clear. For example, consider this verse where the Koine Greek word "sozo" is also used. It's plain to see that it is making a connection between belief in Jesus and Salvation, and contrasting it with not believing and thus suffering damnation:

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."


The Apostles do the very same thing. When they are referring to spiritual Salvation, they make a clear, direct connection to the necessity of having faith in Jesus Christ. Consider these well-known verses where the Koine Greek word "sozo" is likewise used:

"And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."


So, I hope you understand the difference between how Jesus used the word "saved" in Matthew 10, Matthew 24 and Mark 13 to mean being safe from a physical danger, and how the word is used in many other verses to mean Salvation and Eternal Life.

Now, because certain Futurist-leaning Christians advance the events of the aforementioned three chapters up to our current time, and assume that they have not happened yet, and because they likewise believe that the "he that shall endure unto the end" verses apply to Believers today, and lastly because they assume that the word "saved" in those specific verses really refers to spiritual Salvation and not simply to physically being safe from some form of danger, they then proceed to make their gravest error of all. Do you know what that is?

Quite simply, they either knowingly or unknowingly convert the doctrine of Salvation by God's Grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ, into a doctrine and religion of works. How do they do that? First, by erroneously believing that those verses are Salvation-related verses. Second, by believing that there is something that we must do ourselves in order to keep ourselves saved -- meaning endure to the end -- as if we somehow saved ourselves from the beginning. In other words, they add a condition, or additional requirement, to God's completed Salvation plan. Can you see the foolishness of embracing such wayward thinking?

The simple truth of the matter, as many of my readers already know, is that we can no more save ourselves, than we can keep ourselves saved once we are saved. Either our Salvation is a complete work of God's Spirit and Grace, or else it is not. Full stop. Period. As the Apostle Paul writes in several of his Epistles, it is either one or the other. Our Salvation is either the product of God's Grace and Mercy, or else it's the product of our own legalistic, self-righteous works. This is a core tenet of our Christian faith. Please consider the following group of Bible verses:

"And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work."


"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."


"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;"


So even though these Christians are grossly misinterpreting what Jesus meant by the "he that shall endure unto the end" verses, by so doing, they are in effect saying that unless we endure and persevere in our Christian faith to the very end of our physical lives, then we simply won't be saved. We will at some point lose our Salvation. Based on their very misguided understanding, we must personally fight to keep our Salvation. We must work to maintain our Salvation.

Even though Jesus said "It is finished" as He hung dying on a Roman cross, apparently, it was not really finished according to these folks. We still have to do our part to help God to keep us saved. Jesus' horrific suffering and blood Sacrifice was not quite enough, and the Divine Agreement which had been made between the Father and the Son was not actually quite strong enough or lasting enough to keep us saved. It is as if Jesus' blood atonement was just a little bit short of making the Divine Agreement really stick. Thus, we have to endure and persevere unto the end to really guarantee our Salvation. We have to add a touch of our personal works to the Salvation formula. That seems to be what these folks are suggesting, in my view.

In short, contrary to the plain truth which is revealed in the Scriptures which state otherwise, they are in fact denying that we Believers are sealed for eternity by the one-time sin offering of Jesus Christ, as we read in the following group of Bible verses:

"Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."


"In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."


"And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."


"Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin ONCE: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God."


"But this man, [Jesus] because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did ONCE, when he offered up himself."


"But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in ONCE into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."


"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now ONCE in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself . . . So Christ was ONCE offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."


"By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE for all."


"For Christ also hath ONCE suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:"


By denying that we are sealed for eternity thanks to Jesus' one-time Sacrifice on the Cross, they are in effect saying that God the Father is not really able to save us fully and completely on His own. There is still a loop hole if we do not endure unto the end. It is a flawed agreement. However, this is simply not the truth. The Scriptures make it clear that God the Father is the only One who CAN save us, and who can KEEP us saved. Consider the following verses:

"So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears UNTO HIM THAT WAS ABLE TO SAVE HIM FROM DEATH, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec."


"THERE IS ONE LAWGIVER, WHO IS ABLE TO SAVE AND TO DESTROY: who art thou that judgest another?"


If God the Father was able to save Jesus from physical death if He had so desired it, surely He can save us, and keep us saved, from eternal spiritual death as well, even if we at times may fall short of the mark. God is more than able to keep that eternal seal from ever being broken. Why? Because as we have already seen, our Salvation was never based on our personal efforts or works anyway. Saying that we have to endure first as those misguided Christians believe, is in fact a personal human effort. However, consider this group of Bible verses. When these verses say "any man" and "no man", I am pretty sure that includes ourselves as well:

"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, NEITHER SHALL ANY MAN PLUCK THEM OUT OF MY HAND. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and NO MAN IS ABLE TO PLUCK THEM OUT OF MY FATHER'S HAND."


"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT."


". . . for he hath said, I WILL NEVER LEAVE THEE, NOR FORSAKE THEE."


"If we believe not, YET HE ABIDETH FAITHFUL: he cannot deny himself."


Please go to part three for the conclusion of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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