Dear BAGBR Churches,  

Matthew 24: 15, 22 “Therefore, when you see…but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” 

Jesus gives two sermons on the mount: the Mount of beatitudes in Galilee (Matthew 5-7) and here, on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.  The first “Mount” sermon calls the church to live out their faith in the daily life experiences so that we will be salt and light and advance the Kingdom.  The second “Mount” sermon is a call for believers to live out their life through seasons of great adversity and persecution and to persevere.  Down through history different generations have seen many “daily”—or normal—days of service and equally many difficult days of service.  Perseverance and endurance are required in order to focus on the gospel, keeping to the mission, v. 14.  The church has never been insulated from the sorrows and tragedies of life, war, and suffering, and no generation should act as though they are a select or elect group that will be immune from such times as these. 

If our eschatology is more about escape than endurance, then we will have a tendency to abandon the  mission and not reach the nations.  It is clear with the wording—“when you see” and “for the sake of the elect”—it is being emphasized that the work and mission continues in the most difficult of days.  Our faith is not just one that gets us through daily challenges, but rather, and even more so, it is the faith that perseveres and endures and advances the mission in the face of life’s greatest challenges and obstacles.  Our theology must emphasize a daily/obedient walk AND a walk that goes through the fires of tribulation unflinchingly, faithfully, obediently!

In  Christ,
Tommy Middleton

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