Is There Too Much Emphasis on Getting the Bride Ready?

We have all read the scripture that says, "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7).  And we are often encouraged to make the changes in our lives we need to make so we can be saved.

It is good to place a certain amount of emphasis on these things.

But making ourselves ready and getting into the kingdom of God - being personally saved - can be overemphasized.

This can be overemphasized at the expense of doing God's work for the benefit of others, especially getting the true gospel and the Ezekiel warning out to all the nations of Israel before the great tribulation begins so that the people know that God was fair to warn them while they had time to repent - to warn them about things they are doing that they do not know are wrong.  To properly repent and turn to God and have faith in God and accept Jesus Christ as personal savior, the people need to trust God.  That trust, and the salvation that results, is made more difficult if people are plunged into the punishment of the great tribulation for doing things God never warned them about - things they think are right because God never sent them a message telling them they are wrong.  They will feel they never had a chance to escape the punishment and that God is unfair.  This will make their repentance and salvation more difficult, and thus, less likely.  Millions may go into the lake of fire as a result.

This situation is not the same as in the first century.  Our time is unique.  The existing generation is part of this age of man when Satan deceives the whole world, yet will live into the millennium.  In that millennium, salvation will be opened to all.  Satan will be put away.  All will be called to salvation.

That means that the messages we preach to the public will be heard by millions WHO WILL BE CALLED.  They may have limited understanding and belief now, but that will change in their lifetimes.  After Christ returns, Satan is put away, and these people are called to salvation, many will be able to remember what we told them.  Our message to them now will be part of their calling and preparation for conversion in the millennium.  That has never been true before.

We are instructing the first generation of the millennium.

Should our primary focus be on helping these people be saved by getting a message out to them or on saving ourselves?

One focus is inward and the other is outward.

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it" (Mark 8:35).

Notice Christ said, for the gospel's sake.  That sounds like an emphasis on the outgoing work of helping to save others through the message of the gospel and the Ezekiel warning, not an emphasis on the inward-focused work of getting ourselves ready so we can be saved.

I want to paint a hypothetical scenario to help illustrate this, and I will ask, what would you do?

Imagine that you are attending a Church of God fellowship you regard as spiritually strong and faithful.  You respect the leader.  He is a good speaker, he shows love towards the membership, and he is honest with the scriptures.

Now imagine that the work of preaching the gospel is being done, not only by your own fellowship, but by many Church of God fellowships.  It seems that Christ has opened the doors and the gospel is going out with ever-increasing power to millions, like it did when Mr. Armstrong was alive.  Every week that goes by thousands more people hear the truth for the first time, and many are responding.  All the tithes you and others pay, all your offerings, all your prayers for the work, seem to be producing good fruit week by week.

You are working and have an income and are joyful to be helping to get the message out.

But even while the work of the Church is doing great, conditions in the world are horrible.  The United States is terribly weak and on the edge of collapse.  Europe has become militarily the strongest power in the world.  Conflict between America and Europe is near the breaking point and war can break out at any time.  We are in a severe drought and food shortages are beginning.  It seems obvious that the tribulation is almost upon us.

More than that, it is the time of the year for fleeing.  It is the spring.  We cannot know the year but we can estimate the time of year when the tribulation will begin.

Everyone in the Church of God is anticipating a call to flee to a place of safety very soon.

Then one day, your pastor, the leader of the fellowship you attend, the man you greatly respect, has a special announcement.  He says that God has told him it is time to flee, the great tribulation will soon begin this year.  Maybe he had a dream or a vision.  Maybe God communicated with him some other way.  But the command goes out - we are fleeing now.

Everyone in your group is getting ready to flee.  Things are getting organized.  But all the other COG fellowships are not fleeing.

You know something about the place of safety.  There will be no Internet.  There will be no post office.  You cannot work from home in the place of safety.  You cannot contribute to the preaching of the gospel and the Ezekiel warning.  Going to the place of safety means the end of your being able to send money or help get the message out.  One or more other COG fellowships is not going to the place of safety and they are still doing the work.

And while the work has been increasing, there are still millions yet to reach who have not heard our message.

Any fulfillment of prophecies that directly tie in with fleeing, such as the abomination of desolation, is not 100% clear.  Maybe those prophecies have been fulfilled or maybe not, depending on how you interpret events. But the leader of your fellowship is clear.  The time to flee is now.

The two witnesses have not been made known yet.  Maybe there are a couple of individuals who seem like they would be the ones.  They will be given miraculous power at the very beginning of the great tribulation, after the Church has fled to a place of safety.

That is the scenario.  Here is my question.

Will you go?  Will you obey the pastor of your fellowship and go to the place of safety as he tells you?  Or will you stay behind, risking going through the horrors of the tribulation if your pastor is right?

If you go, your contribution to getting the true gospel and the Ezekiel warning message out to those who have not heard it yet will come to an end.  Fewer people will hear the warning.  But if you stay, you could be buying a lot of suffering and martyrdom not only for you but for your family also.  And if you are weak, you may cave in under duress and torture and sin rather than die for the truth and end up losing your salvation.

And even at this late date, the message can make a difference to those who hear it.  Some may respond positively, even in a few days, even as the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah and escaped punishment (Jonah 3:1-10).  God may spare them from the worst of the suffering and bring them into the millennium.  The message can still make a difference.

Maybe your pastor is wrong.  Maybe his dream was not from God.  "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).  

You want to respect God's government.  You want to obey authority (Hebrews 13:7, 17).  But you don't want to stop helping others while there are still a lot of people to warn.

What would you do?

For myself, I cannot say for sure what I would do in the future.  I have free moral agency, but I cannot make tomorrow's decisions today.

But as I consider this scenario now, I am inclined to think I should stay and continue to contribute to the work while there is still work to do, while there is still the opportunity to help others be saved.  I think that is what God would want me to do.  Not to try to save myself.  To try to save thousands or millions of others.

Paul can be an example.  He said in a certain place that he might be willing to be accursed from Christ, to lose his salvation, for the sake of saving others.

"I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh" (Romans 9:1-3).

Yes, we should make ourselves ready.  But should that be our primary focus? Or should our first priority be doing God's work of getting the message out to help the salvation of millions?

What is your focus?