Now, in order to ignore the clear teaching of Jesus Christ in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and
Luke 21 about the timing of when the rapture will take place, those who believe in a
pre-tribulation rapture have to twist the meaning of the word elect because, of
course, the Bible talks about in those passages a trumpet sounding Jesus Christ
coming in the clouds and gathering together the elect from the othermost
part of earth to the othermost part of heaven. And in order to say, well that's
not the rapture, they have to come up with a different definition for the word
elect. Because if you look up every single time the word elect is used in
the New Testament, it is always referring to believers. And sometimes it
is even specifically referring to believers that are Gentiles. Let me
give you some great examples of how the word elect is used. In Colossians chapter
3 verse 11 the Bible reads, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision
nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in
all. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of
mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. So there Paul is
speaking to the Colossians who are Gentiles and telling them to put on as
the elect of God this, that, and the other. And so he is calling the
Colossians the elect. But not only that, he said in the verse before that
there is neither Greek nor Jew in Christ. There is neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision. Put on therefore as the elect of God, this and that. Now
whenever you see a therefore in the Bible, I heard one person say it, that when
you see a therefore you need to see what it's there for. And whenever you see
a therefore it's referring you to something else that's already been said.
So he starts out by saying in verse number 11, there is neither Greek nor
Jew. There is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision in Christ. So therefore
you, Colossians, can put on these things as the elect of God. Another
great example is in Romans 11-7 where the Bible says, what then? Israel has not obtained
that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded.
Well if Israel and the elect were the same thing that wouldn't make any sense
because he says that Israel has not obtained it, the election has obtained it. So those
are obviously two different things. He said specifically to the Thessalonians. And
of course the book of 1 Thessalonians is a great book on Bible prophecy and about
the rapture and the tribulation. He says to them, knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. So he says that the Thessalonians are elect, he says that
the Colossians are elect, Romans 8 is very clear that those who've been
justified by the blood of Jesus Christ are elect. Elect means the saved. And so if
we then go back to Matthew 24 with our proper definition, we see that Jesus
Christ is coming in the clouds, a trumpet is sounding, and he's gathering the saved.
Same thing in Mark 13, same thing in Luke 21. How do you ignore that? How do you
explain that away? You can't unless you change the meaning of the word elect. And
that's why I would encourage you to look up every single time the word
elect is used in the New Testament. It's very consistent. The elect are
believers, the elect are the saved, whether they be Jew or Gentile. Read Colossians 3
11 and 12.