A Doctrine for Cowards

[Protestant]

Scripture warns that certain people will never enter New Jerusalem:

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. [NKJV]

For years the only group of reprobate which had me perplexed were those called ‘cowards.’

It wasn’t until I seriously investigated Church history that I began to discern a pattern:

For centuries upon centuries true Christians were often placed in the extremely 'uncomfortable' position of either standing strong for the Lord and His eternal truths, resulting in loss of property, loss of freedom and loss of life, or capitulating to the demands of the enemy by renouncing their faith for that of their enemy.

Guess which the majority chose?

And guess which group is seen in Heaven?

When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held…..Then a white robe was given to each of them….

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands…..

These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

Not one coward is seen in Heaven.

Not one capitulating coward who escaped tribulation.

All the saints seen in Heaven ultimately stayed faithful to their Lord despite the very real threat of persecution and death.

This they did by the grace of God and the power of His might.

They were the called, the chosen out and the faithful.

They, like Paul, would rather die than take the coward’s way out.

Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

Today’s professing Christians have miraculously discovered an ‘escape clause’ in the Scriptures.

They, unlike 2,000 years of Spirit-born Christianity before them, have discovered a ‘legal loophole’ which saves them from tribulation.

It is called ‘The Pre-Tribulation Secret Rapture of the Church.’

It is, in reality, a doctrine for cowards.

Scripture unequivocally declares that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God.

Jesus solemnly prays against a pre-Trib Rapture: I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

‘The Pre-Tribulation Secret Rapture of the Church’ is a lie.

In truth, there are no cowardly Christians in Heaven who escaped Tribulation.

 

[DHK]

Posted by Protestant;
Scripture warns that certain people will never enter New Jerusalem:

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. [NKJV]

For years the only group of reprobate which had me perplexed were those called ‘cowards.’

So give us your testimony. How much blood have you spilt for the Lord Jesus Christ? What kind of persecution have you faced? Tell us how you have been martyred for his sake? This is what you have been writing about.
How do you consider your ownself worthy to enter the kingdom?

 

[prophet]

So give us your testimony. How much blood have you spilt for the Lord Jesus Christ? What kind of persecution have you faced? Tell us how you have been martyred for his sake? This is what you have been writing about.
How do you consider your ownself worthy to enter the kingdom?

They will shed my blood one day, if I live to see the Tribulation.

 

[OldRegular]

They will shed my blood one day, if I live to see the Tribulation.

A New Century of Martyrs: Anti-Christian Intolerance

Crosswalk.com News Channel –

On June 6, Martin Burnham, an American missionary, died in a battle between his Islamic kidnappers and Filipino troops sent to rescue him. Burnham, thus, becomes the newest member of what the Te Deum, an ancient hymn, calls “the white-robe army of the martyrs” — an army that, according to a recent estimate, is a staggering 70 million strong.
But what’s even more staggering is that, according to the same estimate, 45 million, or two-thirds of all Christian martyrs, died in the twentieth century. These estimates are contained in a new book, The New Persecuted: Inquiries into Anti-Christian Intolerance in the New Century of Martyrs. It’s written by an Italian journalist, Antonio Socci. The estimates are derived from sources such as Oxford’s World Christian Encyclopedia.

Many of the martyrs died in places like the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. But there are others, lesser known places where Christians were killed for their faith, like Turkey, where 1.5 million Armenian Christians were murdered.
And the killing continues. Socci estimates that an average of 160,000 Christians have been killed every year since 1990 in places like Algeria, Nigeria, Sudan, and Pakistan.

Socci writes that the “global persecution of Christianity is still in progress but in most cases is ignored by the mass media and Christians in the west.”
What’s not being ignored is his book, which has many critics up in arms. For writing about persecution and identifying Islamic extremism as the “main danger” to Christians worldwide, Socci has been accused of promoting anti-Islamic prejudice and other transgressions. Other critics question Socci’s figures, saying that many of those he’s calling martyrs died in “conflicts that had little to do with religion.”

Even if Socci were off by two-thirds — and I don’t think he is — that still leaves 15 million martyrs this past century, more than enough to warrant the label “persecution.” How many Christians have to die before the world takes notice?
Others argue that by portraying the twentieth century as a century of massacres, Socci diminishes the significance of the Holocaust. But as Ted Olsen of Christianity Today noted, talking about the millions of Christians killed for their faith doesn’t diminish the evil of the Holocaust anymore than noting “the millions who died during Stalin’s purges.”

What’s really bothering many of Socci’s critics is the idea of Christians as victims instead of victimizers. Like commentator Tommaso Debenedetti, they see the book as part of a “right wing plot” to “deflect accusations of intolerance” away from Christians.

For some of these critics, even if there is persecution, Christians had it coming. That’s why Olsen is right when he asks, “How long until people start arguing that the murder of millions of Christians worldwide isn’t that big a deal because of the Crusades and Inquisitions?”

Well, Martin Burnham’s death is definitely a big deal, as are those of other Christians who have died for their faith. For the sake of our suffering brethren, we must arouse public opinion and the power of civilized governments against all Christian persecution: the kind that prompts the killing and the kind that prompts the willingness to turn a blind eye.
http://www.bereanpublishers.com/a-new-century-of-martyrs-anti-christian-intolerance/

 

[TCassidy]

Context, context, context. The "cowardly" are those who through fear did not "overcome" by the blood of the Lamb.

Their fear of fleshly consequences kept them from coming to and trusting in Christ for eternal life.

 

[DHK]

Scripture warns that certain people will never enter New Jerusalem:

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. [NKJV]

For years the only group of reprobate which had me perplexed were those called ‘cowards.’

The KJV is still better here:

Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Fearful stands in opposition to "overcomer".
1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

 

[Rippon]

The KJV is still better here:

Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Fearful stands in opposition to "overcomer".
1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

Most English translations use a form of the word coward.

Why would the word 'fearful' alone stand in opposition to overcomer?

 

[pinoybaptist]

Scripture warns that certain people will never enter New Jerusalem:

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. [NKJV]

For years the only group of reprobate which had me perplexed were those called ‘cowards.’

It wasn’t until I seriously investigated Church history that I began to discern a pattern:

For centuries upon centuries true Christians were often placed in the extremely 'uncomfortable' position of either standing strong for the Lord and His eternal truths, resulting in loss of property, loss of freedom and loss of life, or capitulating to the demands of the enemy by renouncing their faith for that of their enemy.

Guess which the majority chose?

And guess which group is seen in Heaven?

When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held…..Then a white robe was given to each of them….

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands…..

These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

Not one coward is seen in Heaven.

Not one capitulating coward who escaped tribulation.

All the saints seen in Heaven ultimately stayed faithful to their Lord despite the very real threat of persecution and death.

This they did by the grace of God and the power of His might.

They were the called, the chosen out and the faithful.

They, like Paul, would rather die than take the coward’s way out.

Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

Today’s professing Christians have miraculously discovered an ‘escape clause’ in the Scriptures.

They, unlike 2,000 years of Spirit-born Christianity before them, have discovered a ‘legal loophole’ which saves them from tribulation.

It is called ‘The Pre-Tribulation Secret Rapture of the Church.’

It is, in reality, a doctrine for cowards.

Scripture unequivocally declares that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God.

Jesus solemnly prays against a pre-Trib Rapture: I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

‘The Pre-Tribulation Secret Rapture of the Church’ is a lie.

In truth, there are no cowardly Christians in Heaven who escaped Tribulation.

so since you are speaking of heaven, I presume you mean the eternal heaven in the eternity in which the eternal God dwells, which Scripture says is attained only BY THE MERIT OF JESUS CHRIST'S WORK for and in behalf of His people.
On this board, I've seen people declare salvation (eternal) to be by grace PLUS AND MINUS NOTHING.
Which to them means the sinner's faith is added already along with his faithfulness, all lumped up into one roll called grace.
Now, YOU, also want to add BRAVERY.
My, my, the Savior must be scratching His head up in His throne, and telling the angels to prepare a special place for you for discovering what He hid from others.
That not only, and solely, is His blood the agency by which His people are to make their robes white, it is also THEIR blood added into the mix.
My goodness.
Don't you see at all that redemption and salvation IS NOT ABOUT YOU, WHAT MAKES YOU TICK, AND ALL THAT NARCISSISTIC JIVE YOU JUST SPOUTED AND PASSED ON AS THEOLOGY ?

 

[pinoybaptist]

It's easy to talk bravery and willingness to lay one's life down for the sake of the Lord from behind a computer in the comfort of one's home, or office, in a land where no one persecutes you to death for simply being a Christian, and where you're free to start your own religion and cast your net into the sea of gullible people, like Jim Jones did.
I'd like to see you ACTUALLY go out to, say, SAUDI ARABIA, with a Bible openly in your suitcase, and if for some reason you do get past their customs and Muttawas (religious police) to go and start an underground believers' meeting like some do.
Talk is cheap.
While I do not believe in missions, as interpreted today, I have respect for people like one member on this board who went to Japan at a time when the culture there was strange to him and the land was hostile to foreign 'devils' and Christians were tiny, tiny, tiny minority.
In my own country, one guy I know, 5'0" tall, and decidedly hunchback, with pronounced nearsightedness, followed his conviction that he was being called by the Lord to start a ministry smack in the middle of a district where the majority were Muslims just a few doors down from a mosque.
I don't know if he is still there, but, there is courage.
Does our member who is in Japan, and this dwarf of a hunchback, think it is their own innate courage that gave them give their all to their Savior ?
I doubt it, very highly.

 

[DHK]

Most English translations use a form of the word coward.

Why would the word 'fearful' alone stand in opposition to overcomer?

Fear of committing themselves to Christ; fear of being saved; fear of the consequences of salvation, etc.

God has not given us (believers) the spirit of fear but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind.

Whosoever is born of God overcomes the world. Those that are saved and live by faith are overcomers in opposition to those who are the unbelievers and fearful.
One must remember that all the characteristics in Rev.21:8 describe the unsaved, not the saved. I also looked at a number of translations. They are split about half and half. IOW there are about half that use fearful.

 

[kyredneck]

Wow, I guess that clinches it for these two:

And after these things Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took away his body. And there came also Nicodemus, he who at the first came to him by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Jn 19:38,39

 

[DHK]

Wow, I guess that clinches it for these two:

And after these things Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took away his body. And there came also Nicodemus, he who at the first came to him by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Jn 19:38,39

What are you talking about. As far as I know they are already in heaven.
Look at the context. The Millennial Kingdom has taken place and come to an end. Satan made an uprising and is now in the Lake of Fire where the Beast and the False Prophet are. In Rev.20:11-15 the Great White Throne Judgement has taken place where all the unsaved has been judged. There are no unbelievers left.
Now it is speaking of the New Jerusalem.
God reaffirms that in spite of what has just taken place at the Great White Throne, these kind of people, which describe unbelievers will never enter in.

Nicodemus was not "fearful" in the sense he was afraid to trust Christ. He did trust Christ. That is why he was at the cross, taking the body of Christ, at the tomb, helping to put his body in the grave. That was a dangerous place for him, particularly for him (having been a member of the Sanhedrin), and now taking part in the burial of the body of Christ. It took a great amount of courage to do what he did.

 

[OldRegular]

One thing I know, God will bring all His "chosen ones" to salvation in Jesus Christ, period!

 

[Yeshua1]

So give us your testimony. How much blood have you spilt for the Lord Jesus Christ? What kind of persecution have you faced? Tell us how you have been martyred for his sake? This is what you have been writing about.
How do you consider your ownself worthy to enter the kingdom?

Interesting that prophet wants to have the Cowards refer to Christians, yet all of the others named are the unsaved!

Think the point here is that cowards will be brought to life by the trials of life, that they are those who were never among us and with us, as the Bible makes it quite clear that the Lord Himself shall bring us thru our trials, as jesus Himself stated that in that hour of trial and testing, the Holy spirit within us shall empower and enable us to overcome,,,

Stephen, I am sure, did not see himself as just getting killed off without any fear or any emotions, but in that time, God granted him His peace and power to stay faithful unto death!

 

[just-want-peace]

‘The Pre-Tribulation Secret Rapture of the Church’ is a lie.

Totally agree; I believe it will be anything BUT secret!!:applause:

 

[Gerhard Ebersoehn]

One thing I know, God will bring all His "chosen ones" to salvation in Jesus Christ, period!

Amen!

"God knows who are his."

 

[SolaSaint]

I'm wondering where the originator of this post is at? I hope you are reading some of the awesome replies here and you come back and repent of what you have claimed. I don't know if you have faced any persecution but I surely hope I have courage if ever confronted by the enemy trying to take my life. Sir---it is very dangerous to call someone a coward when you have no idea what they are being exposed to. I will eagerly await your reply. :thumbs:

 

[Protestant]

Nicodemus was not "fearful" in the sense he was afraid to trust Christ. He did trust Christ. That is why he was at the cross, taking the body of Christ, at the tomb, helping to put his body in the grave. That was a dangerous place for him, particularly for him (having been a member of the Sanhedrin), and now taking part in the burial of the body of Christ. It took a great amount of courage to do what he did.

Excellent answer!

 

[Protestant]

The Leaven of the Secret Rapture

Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy……And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

The very purpose of the recently invented ‘Pre-Tribulation Secret Rapture of the Church’ doctrine is to give the ignorant and naïve (false) assurance that they, out of all the millions of previously persecuted, tortured and murdered Christians, will ultimately be exempt from fighting the good fight of faith against Antichrist and his forces.

I would be the hypocrite had I remained silent when the leaven of the Secret Rapture theory was being promulgated as Gospel truth.

Anyone who has studied the history of eschatology knows that the Secret Rapture theory was unknown in the professing Church until the 19th century.

And for good reason.

There is no scriptural or historical warrant to believe such a fiction.

The Scripture quoted above is yet another proof that Jesus has never suggested that a certain ‘privileged and favored’ group of elitest Christians living 7 years before the end of the Age will be taken out of the world, thus avoiding trials, troubles and tribulations to come which may very well lead to their death.

Instead, Jesus admonishes His disciples to hold fast their faith in the face of death because killing the body is but a small thing compared to spending eternity in Hell.

Jesus then reiterates the importance of being His faithful witness.

Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: but he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.

Those cowards who deny Jesus due to fear of men will be denied by Jesus at the Judgment.

To those cowards Jesus will say, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

 

[DHK]

Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy……And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

The very purpose of the recently invented ‘Pre-Tribulation Secret Rapture of the Church’ doctrine is to give the ignorant and naïve (false) assurance that they, out of all the millions of previously persecuted, tortured and murdered Christians, will ultimately be exempt from fighting the good fight of faith against Antichrist and his forces.

I would be the hypocrite had I remained silent when the leaven of the Secret Rapture theory was being promulgated as Gospel truth.

Anyone who has studied the history of eschatology knows that the Secret Rapture theory was unknown in the professing Church until the 19th century.

And for good reason.

There is no scriptural or historical warrant to believe such a fiction.

The Scripture quoted above is yet another proof that Jesus has never suggested that a certain ‘privileged and favored’ group of elitest Christians living 7 years before the end of the Age will be taken out of the world, thus avoiding trials, troubles and tribulations to come which may very well lead to their death.

Instead, Jesus admonishes His disciples to hold fast their faith in the face of death because killing the body is but a small thing compared to spending eternity in Hell.

Jesus then reiterates the importance of being His faithful witness.

Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: but he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.

Those cowards who deny Jesus due to fear of men will be denied by Jesus at the Judgment.

To those cowards Jesus will say, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

This entire post is a total non sequitor in reference to the rapture, where it is in reference to the Great Tribulation, (pre, mid, post), if it is, etc. It is totally irrelevant, and has nothing to do with the rapture whatsoever.

It does have to do with persecution however.
The basic premise of the Bible in reference to Christian living is:
"All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
That has nothing to do with end times, eschatology, etc., nothing at all.
Believers throughout all ages have suffered, suffer today and will continue to suffer. That has nothing to do with the Great Tribulation to come, nothing to do with the Rapture, nothing to do with anything eschatological whatsoever.

Please don't confuse your daily walk and those things associated with it, to things pertaining to the end times.