Jack Van Impe News letter July 23, 2012: Received July 29,
2012
Who are the “elect” of Matthew 24:22?
“Posttribulationists (those who believe the Church of Jesus
Christ will endure the terrible period of the Tribulation) like to use this
verse-“Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved:
but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22)-saying
this passage proves the Church will remain on earth because we are the “elect.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. Many do not realize that God has two
elect groups on earth. There is the Church (see Ephesisans 1:4, 1 Peter 1:2),
but that is not the group referred to in Matthew 24:22. How do I know this?
Isaiah 42:1 speaks of the Jews as God’s elect. (Jack Van Impe).”
It floors me how someone can claim fifty years or more of
Bible study, memorize all the verses and yet don’t know their Bible. It’s
either that or a blatant attempt to deceive you. Unfortunately in our “Post
Modern” world this type of behavior is prevalent. In the paragraph above Mr.
Impe unequivocally states that Isaiah 42:1 speaks of the Jews as God’s elect. I
am sorry Jack that could not be any further from the truth. In the next paragraph
of his news letter Mr. Van Impe states: “It’s important at all times to keep
the biblical text in context.” I agree Mr. Impe and it would be nice if you would
follow your own advice. Isaiah 42:1 is not referring to the Jews as the elect
but of Jesus (as the elect) and the inclusion of the Gentiles under Him (the
new covenant). The verse says that God is delighted with his elect (Jesus) and
that He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Matthew 12:17-21 quotes
Isaiah almost word for word and there is no way that it can be mistaken or
taken out of context. It is certain from Matthew 12 that Jesus is the elect
spoken of not the Jews.
Isa 42:1-4—Behold my servant,
whom I uphold; mine elect, [in whom] my soul delights; I have put my spirit
upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor
lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruise reed shall he
not break and the smoking flax shall he not quench: He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in
the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
Matthew 12:15-21—But when Jesus knew [it], He withdrew himself from thence: and great
multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; and charged them that they
should not make him known: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
Esaias (Isaiah) the prophet, saying, Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my
beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and He
shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, or cry; neither shall
any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall He not break, and
smoking flax shall he not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory. And
in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
I hope that you the reader can see that Mr. Van Impe was
wrong in this case. I had a friend say to me “well, maybe he made a mistake.” I
can’t agree that he did or even entertain the idea. When a writer creates a
written work that person reads and edits it before giving it to the world. If
Mr. Van Impe did make a mistake then why didn’t he catch it before sending it
out? No, there was no mistake made, the pretribulationist have to promote a
division of God’s elect (Jews and Christians) for their theory to hold up.
There is no division and God has not done away with his promise to the Jew’s He
just renewed the contract to include the Gentile nations which in turn makes
all believers Jew or Gentile part of the whole house of Israel i.e. the seed of
Abraham.
The reason I am pointing this out is because I want you to
see how easy it is for someone to slip in a verse or two and tell you it means
something totally different than it does. This is how we come to be deceived. As
a Christian it is our duty to study the word for ourselves. If I didn’t study
scripture I probably would have taken Mr. Impe at his word and I would have
been deceived into believing the word elect means the Jews in Isa 42:1 a verse
chosen by Mr. Impe to enforce the pretribulation rapture theory by dividing the
Jews from the Christians.
God does not have two elect groups on earth He has only one:
those who follow him. Christ came to this earth to be a sacrificial Lamb for
the whole world: Rom 2:10—But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that
worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:, there are no
divisions under the New Covenant (Jesus); “there is no
respect of persons with God (Rom 2:11).
Hebrews 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
Hebrews 8:6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
KJV
www.blueletterbible.org
8 comments:
Hello again Gail,
I have spent most of my spare time today trawling through your blog site.
I remember watching Mr Impe on God TV about eight years ago, not long after I became a believer.
He 'impressed' me with his rapid fire delivery of Scripture, especially the eschatological verses.
I thought this man was the real deal!
But the truth as you have discovered, is that he had just that; a very good memory, and in worldly terms he is a very intelligent man.
I learnt this because as a result of coming to faith I pulled my daughter out of the state education system and put her into a parent co-operative Christian School (Pentecostal Charismatic!!). I worked there for one day a week as a monitor, and I would be asked to oversee Scripture memorisation (nothing wrong with this per se)but of my own volition I would ask them what these verses, or certain words meant, and they couldn't answer, they just memorised the words.
I learnt much from God TV and Revelation TV in those days, which is how I came to hear about Bob Mitchell's Shofar Ministries. He was on a 'Pre vs Post trib debate, and he kept repeating that the pre trib rapture couldn't be expounded from scripture! I used to think he was a heretic! The light bulb went on about 18 months ago that pre trib is false.
I still checkout Shofar and sometimes comment, although he does seem to have a lot of weird stuff on there! Including pre trib ministries....
God bless
part 1
Hi Colin,
“I have spent most of my spare time today trawling through your blog site.”
I’m thrilled that you have. Like I said I look forward to your feedback. I thought to myself the other day that it would be nice if you seen my blog and here you are: God is good! The reason being is that any comments I’ve ever seen from you have always been straight up and in line with the way I think. The reason you came to my mind is because I’ve been on the DTW site for the last few days and I’ve seen some of your post. I have a few posts in the comment section of “When will the rapture happen.” I used my first name, Daphne, so John C. wouldn’t know who I am. Him, me, and Sue had a little run in a year or so ago on Bob’s site because of my beliefs. I told them that when they pass along the information of a pre-trib rapture they were spreading lies. I didn’t say it that way but close enough. Needless to say that didn’t go over very well. Sue called me a Trojan horse and they both agreed I was the heretic. Then I asked some question about the book of Enoch and Bob answered it and then he was a heretic. Oh well, I still pray for them to come to the truth about the rapture when it comes to mind.
Yep that Van Impe can really roll em out in a hurry and one would think that after fifty or sixty years of him doing that he would know a little bit more about what those verses mean. I guess he is probably like those people at your daughter’s school: more concerned with memorization than understanding what is being memorized. I’ve been thinking lately that I need to memorize some verses. I know a few but if it ever comes to the point that they take away our Bibles it would be good to know a few more.
I am so glad that you found the truth about the pre-trib rapture. It makes me very happy when I hear someone has come to the truth on that. So many people seem to think it doesn’t matter what point of view you have about it, but I for one believe it does matter. The Bible is not to be interpreted the way you (generally speaking) want to interpret it. In regards to other passage in the Bible you will hear people say, “You may get a different understanding than me, we all see it different.” No, we are not supposed to get a different meaning from the same text: we are supposed to be of the same mind! There is only one truth!
Rom 15:6—That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Cr 13:11—Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
Phl 1:27—Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
Phl 2:2—Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Part 2
My story about the pre-trib rapture goes like this:
Since I was a child I have always trusted in the Lord. My daddy started teaching me about God at a very young age. From as early as I can remember (age 3) he would tell me that if I ever had a problem God would take care of it. All I needed to do was open my Bible and the Lord would show me what I needed to know. He also made it known to me how important the truth is. As I grew my daddy would tell me things like: the whole world will be queer before Jesus comes and there could come a day in our lifetime when they break down the door and tell you they are going to kill your daddy if you don’t deny Christ. You tell them to go ahead and kill me because if you deny Christ you will go to Hell; without question my daddy didn’t believe in a pre-trib rapture. I always believed my daddy (He has been with God for eleven years now) until I got older and seen the “Left Behind” movies and was introduced to the pre-trib rapture belief. I saw the movies in a time of my life when I wasn’t living right. I was saved and baptized at the age of thirteen but I fell away about two years later. I still talked to God and trusted Him to take care of me but I didn’t even try to live right for a very long time. Anyway, several years ago I began to get closer to the Lord and started telling everyone that Jesus was coming at any second to get us in the rapture.
Well, I guess that was a no-no, because God began to show me different, every time I randomly opened my Bible it opened to 2 Th 2 and every time I put the TV on the Christian channel there was 2 Th 2. Well, I couldn’t help but read it and hear it but in the back of my mind I kept thinking how could that be? All those men proclaiming the pre-trib had been studying the Bible and preaching for thirty to fifty years they had to know what they were talking about. My daddy had told me different all my life but he was bad to drink and I was sure he hadn’t had near the study as these other men. Who would you think would know more about the Bible: a drunk or many Bible scholars? Most people would choose the scholars but as I said before my daddy taught me the value of the truth so I set out to find it and I have been studying almost every day since then for hours at the time. I found the truth about the pre-trib and many many other truths. Thank you Jesus!
Part 3 (I don't know how this got to be so long :)
“I still check out Shofar and sometimes comment, although he does seem to have a lot of weird stuff on there! Including pre trib ministries…”
Yea, I almost fell off into that alien stuff. I even purchased a DVD from Bob. It is so easy to become fascinated with stuff like that. Thank God I realized the dangers pretty quick and stepped away from it. I believe the last days are all going to be pretty much the norm until we see Jesus. What I mean by that is there has always been antichrist, wars, famine, false teachers, earthquakes and persecution. The only difference is that it will be on a much larger scale. We are already seeing the increase of all those things and it gets bigger every day.
Matthew 24:38—For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark
2 Peter 3:3—Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
I just want to mention before closing that I meant no disrespect toward my daddy by saying he liked his drink: the truth is the truth.
Now I’m going to go get me some sleep while you read. I’ll be back with you around 2 or 3:00 PM your time.
Have a blessed day!
Gail,
Very, very interesting! I did send a mail off to you. I had tried before, but when I click on your link, it goes onto outlook express, and because my account dropped away years ago, nothing gets sent! Then finally I managed to get the right dash or gap between Gail and Green. I am so slow and awkward with my IT skills, I can't even edit my own blog page!
I sometimes wonder why I have been burdened (is that the right word?) with the understanding that I have. The 'Blessed hope'(Titus 2.13) Is Jesus Christ NOT the rapture! So logically the second advent has to be a crisis of such magnitude and a doctrine of earth shattering importance!?
There is a purpose to everything! Several years ago, I had the revelation, that IF the bible is true then LOGICALLY! NOTHING ELSE MATTERS?!
Subsequently I have, as you no doubt realise, that there is no such thing as a nice or loving way of telling someone that they are deceived! It hurts them. But then we shouldn't be surprised, the Saviour Himself was rejected by His own. At no point in my life as a believer did I want to believe in a pre,mid or post trib rapture, you understand, JUST THE TRUTH!
I just wonder how many teachers out there, even if they begin to suspect pre trib is false, wouldn't recant because of the fact that they have sold books etc?
This wicked teaching called Dispensationalism rips the heart out of the gospel. I always spell it with a capital D in order to elevate it as a religion.
Sorry to hear about your father. I came from a broken family, my father was in the Navy, a serious drinker as well. Being Scottish I followed after him in that respect. I could easily drink a bottle of malt whisky, 50% proof plus in an evening and think nothing of it. I just stopped clean about seven years ago, and now just have a glass of wine with my evening meal. Praise God.
The days are dark indeed, but after these dark days a glorious new day WILL come after the darkest night of Israels history.
Pre trib tell us that we will be in glory while Israel are going through great tribulation!
2 Samuel 23.4 speaks of that soon coming day!
'..a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.'
God bless you sister in Christ
Gail,
I often miss your comments because I sometimes find it hard navigating around the place!
Maybe you can fine tune it somehow? If only I could give you advice in this matter!
Colin, Just to let you know I'm working on my reply to these comments. They are coming shortly.
Hi Colin,
Thanks for the condolence I miss my daddy every day but I do have the hope of seeing him very soon!
1 Th 4:13 and 14—But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him.
Growing up in home with heartache and pain was a blessing to me. It wasn’t at the time, mind you, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world! I thank God for the hard times; had it not been for them I wouldn’t be the person I am today. Through it all I learned patience, kindness, understanding, and most of all forgiveness. As a matter of fact I learned how big God’s forgiveness was just a few days before my daddy died (one of the hardest things I ever lived through!). Just before he went in the hospital, never to come home again, I was over at his house visiting and he said to me, “Honey, I have done so many bad things in my life.” I said to him, “Daddy you have done a lot of bad things to me and I forgive you, I’m sure God does too. Just ask Him for forgiveness and believe He has forgiven you and everything will be alright.” That was the day I realized that if I could forgive all the pain and anguish my daddy had put on me all those years how much more God forgives. Hallelujah! God is Good!
I understand about the drinking I’ve done a lot of it myself but haven’t had anything to drink in five or six years now: just decided one day I didn’t want it. Thank God! I need to start having me a little glass of wine with my dinner. You know the Bible tells us not to drink water but to have wine for the stomach’s sake and infirmities (1 Th 5:23). Like you said everything has a purpose: even wine!
You are right, when we tell someone that they may have a misunderstanding when it comes to the Word, or anything else for that matter, they do have a tendency to get upset about it and some if not most get downright indignant. I’m not like that I appreciate correction, especially by God. If more people would accept, rather than challenge correction, the world would be a lot better off.
Well…I see I’m rubbing off on you. You used that word “logical” a couple of times in the one comment (-smile!-).
There’s not a lot I can do to fine tune my blog but I can help you to never miss a comment again! When you have written a comment and get ready to click the “Publish Your Comment” button make sure you have checked the little box under your name where it says “Email follow-up comments to (your email address) that will send all comments posted to a particular article straight to your email account. You only have to check it one time per article. There… problem solved!
Not to fret about outlook express, I don’t have that service either. It is set by default from blogger to use that system. I got your email and will be replying soon! At least from now on you won’t have any trouble sending me an email (-smile!-). I should be in your email address book, if not I will be after I send you an email.
I have found in life that the more questions we ask the more knowledge we gain. I was told once (probably by my daddy: he was a wise ole drunk! –smile!-) the dumbest question that could ever be asked is the one we don’t ask. So, from then on I ask.
I hope the info about the comment situation helps. As far as IT knowledge goes I have learned some of what little I know from trial and error but for the most part from asking the World Wide Web a whole lot of questions (-smile-).
And God bless you brother!
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