“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” (Matthew 10:22 KJV)
Some are teaching that Jesus is telling us today that a person can lose salvation if they do not believe until their death or until they are raptured. With so many passages showing the opposite to this, such a teching cannot be the case. I am not really sure how such a teaching can be justified unless they take just this one verse out of the context in Matthew 10 and then they make it a doctrine. No doctrine of truth can be made from just one verse, ever! Without proper context being used one verse can be shown to mean anything, including the opposite if the verse’s actual meaning. Doing such is a very dangerous practice and leads people astray about the very foundational truth of the Gospel Of Grace through Christ crucified.
Apostle Paul tells us otherwise,
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also AFTER THAT YE BELIEVED, YE WERE SEALED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE, Which is the EARNEST of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14 KJV)
“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby YE ARE SEALED unto the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30 KJV)
By the Holy Scriptures of the Bible, look what took place when a person believes on Christ and His once for all (Hebrews 10:10) blood atonement for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD (1 John 2:2). Jesus said the person becomes BORN AGAIN (born from above) in The Spirit when they believe on Christ alone for salvation in John 3 and He explains how a person becomes born again in verse 14-17 and then makes a simple straight up statement that,
“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18 KJV)
Other passages as well, such as 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, show us that a believer in Christ has become a NEW creation in the Spirit and has become the very righteousness of God, IN CHRIST. That is, it is GOD who MADE a believer righteous in our Spirit, our core being. In Colossians 2, we see that a believer’s Spirit was placed on the cross WITH CHRIST 2000 years ago and died WITH CHRIST and already rose again WITH CHRIST. And that a believer is COMPLETE IN CHRIST.
This all happens immediately when a person believes on Christ. So this ‘enduring to the end’ must not be about The Bride Of Christ in the dispensation of grace that we now live within. And if we look closer at the context, it is not.
In the very first verse of Matthew 10, we see Jesus giving power to the disciples to send them out to preach the Gospel to the people. The message of the Kingdom Of God.
“And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.” (Matthew 10:1 KJV)
Then Jesus sent them and in these next verses we see something of significant for the context of verse 22,
“5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 10:5-7 KJV)
Look at verse 6 here. Jesus sent them to who? To THE LOST SHEEP OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. Jesus does not have the Church age believers in mind here. The Church Age has not even begun as He did not yet go to the cross. He is addressing the Nation of Israel in specific. He sent the disciples out in pairs. Jesus tells them what will happen to those who reject them and their message in verse 14 and 15,
“14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. 15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha IN THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT, than for that city.” (Matthew 10:14-15 KJV)
Now that is pretty serious right! Now let us ask did this happen to those places that rejected them yet? No. NOT YET! Jesus mentions ‘the day of judgement’ and so Jesus has now switched to talk about the Jews and Israel during the future End Times starting in verse 16.
In Matthew 10:21-22, Jesus is now talking about the End Times, long after His resurrection as we now know living on this side of the cross, 2000 years later. But His prophecy is still going to come to pass. Again, it is a prophecy not for The Church, The Bride of Christ; it is a prophecy to affect the House of Israel and we can see clearly He is talking about the rule of Antichrist in the Tribulation Period.
Look at Jesus’ prophecies about His 2nd Coming event where He will land His feet on the Mount of Olives and rule on Earth for 1000 years. Jesus describes the signs of His Second Coming at that future time in Matthew 24 and 25. In Matthew 24 Jesus states this about that future time,
“9 THEN shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:9-13 KJV)
Well well.. doesn’t that sound familiar to what Jesus is saying to them in Matthew 10? Let’s compare directly ,
“17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; 18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. 19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. 21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. 22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” (Matthew 10:17-22 KJV)
Now we can see the truth about verses 21-22 in Matthew 10. Jesus says the exact same thing. So this enduring unto the End is for the Nation of Israel and all who will believe that the Antichrist is not Christ, who do not worship the Antichrist and accept his mark without which no one will be able to buy nor sell. The Antichrist will be seeking to kill all who reject he Mark in worship of Antichrist. Even many Jewish people will accept the Antichrist as the real Messiah, as they rejected Christ 2000 years ago and are still looking for the Messiah. We see this in the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25 (no, this is NOT about the Rapture of the Church!). Unfortunately many Jewish people will think the Antichrist is Messiah come but he will be the false Messiah, imitating Jesus Christ to deceive them.
Many times when Jesus talks to the disciples, He extends the answer forward to the Last days for the End Time Jewish people to read and heed His warnings. That is what we see here in Matthew 10. In our current Church Age, the dispensation of God’s Grace, a believer is saved eternally from the very moment of salvation, and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, just as the passages I mentioned at the start of this article show. Not just these but many many more passages of Apostle Paul as well, clearly show this.
After Church Age believers are Harpazo Raptured, and snatched abruptly off the planet to Heaven, those left will be facing The Seven Year Tribulation Period as the Prophet Daniel foretold. With all believers taken off the Earth, the indwelling Holy Spirit went with them. These Church Age believers are the only thing holding back the Antichrist and when gone, the Antichrist will do his bidding (2 Thessalonians 2:7).
To those living in the Tribulation Period, the Holy Spirit will be operating as during Old Testament times, and those who come to belief on the true Christ and refuse the Mark of the Antichrist in worship, will not be indwelt by the Holy Spirit as The Bride of Christ is today. They are not the Bride of Christ from our current dispensation. They will have to endure the persecution of the Antichrist and refuse the Mark of the Beast until their death or Christ’s Second coming to start His 1000 year Kingdom age on Earth.
Matthew 10:21-22 in no way refutes the Eternal Security Of The Believer in our current dispensation which Apostle Paul called The Dispensation Of God’s Grace in Ephesians 3:2.
