Matthew 24:9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.
Matthew 24:13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

As I was growing up in the church, as many of you may know, I fell in with a teaching that caused me to read this as a paradox, a set of verses that introduced confusion in my mind. I understood Matthew 24 to be describing the end of days for the Body of Christ on the earth, just before the pretribulation rapture. 

As the passage progresses into verse thirteen, the end is spoken of and if the believer endures to the end, he will be saved. But back in verse 9, believers are being put to death. 

If they didn’t make it to the end, will they not be saved?

It just didn’t make sense for me, and, as a paradox is wont to do, it took me outside of my usual way of thinking.

I suppose some of my confusion was self inflicted, in that I associated the end with the rapture, which thought I have come to abandon. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am not abandoning the teaching of a rapture, but simply understand it differently than before. 

The one who endures to the end will be saved. Two discussion points are needed when we hear that phrase.

What is the end? And what did the Lord mean when he spoke of being saved? 

Since He was talking to His disciples the message they heard was one which was directly applicable to them in their future ministry.

• They would be delivered up to tribulation (trials)
• They were put to death
• They would be hated by all nations for His name sake
• Many would fall away from the faith
• Many would betray and hate one another
• Many false prophets would raise up as these disciples preached the gospel and planted churches.

In the midst of all this turmoil and persecution, all the lawlessness, betrayal, hatred, disappointment, all the struggle, pain and opposition, these preachers are being challenged to stay the course, to endure. To “endure” does not allow for a specific time period to be inserted into our thinking. To endure simply means to continually be faithful, to be faithful in every circumstance until there is no more opportunity to be faithful. 

When will there be no more opportunity to endure? 

The end. 

That last day when endurance in this life for Him has been completed and we see Him face to face. 

The message was general to these men for there was much to be learned for these preachers. Many of them at this time were still anticipating a time when Jesus would overthrow the Romans physically in battle, not in the manner they would learn of later, through the conversion of individual hearts into a new and living way, into the Kingdom of God.

The message was hard, but it is a general gospel truth that must be applied to each of our lives. It is not to be pigeon holed into a tiny part of history that may happen in the next few hours or days or weeks or months or years or decades or even centuries. 

We know not when He will appear to take us home, but we have opportunity to be faithful today. Let us not forget that, and that the “end” for both you and I will be in His time, and at His pleasure, and may be much earlier than the future day of the rapture.

Be faithful today, endure to the end, and love the Lord. He is good!

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