MUST WE “ENDURE” TO GO TO HEAVEN?

Matthew 24:13 says, "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." The elect are those saved DURING the Tribulation. By NiteOwlDave Niteowldave@gmail.com Some wrongly believe that to gain Heaven requires two things: 1. Repent of our sin, and believe and put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for paying our sin debt in full when He shed His blood, died, and rose again from the dead; 2. Endure in this faith in Christ until we die. Failure to stay the course but fall into sin disqualifies us. Only the first part applies today. A believer in Christ, this side of the Rapture, is permanently sealed and is Heaven-bound. Critics of eternal security – once saved, always saved – point to Matthew 24:13 which states, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” They say the implication is that if we drift away from our faith in Christ and die in that state, we will be rejected from Heaven and wind up in Hell. As with all Scripture, to understand the meaning of the above verse we must understand the context of this verse - to whom, when, and why it was said – to grasp the meaning. Matthew 24:13 is referring to the physical bodies of new believers who survive the terrible persecution of the upcoming seven years of Tribulation.  Many will be martyred then, but some will certainly live to the end.  The "enduring" has to do with physical preservation, not spiritual preservation, and should not be applied to present-day Christians who may fear the least little sin could jeopardize their chances of making it to Heaven. Also called the “elect” in Scripture, those who “endure” are a specific group of people who accept Christ as the promised Messiah. Since Tribulation believers are not “sealed” by the Holy Spirit, as we are today, they are saved spiritually by resisting for the duration of their lives. It will be a tough seven years. The Bible says many will be killed for their faith in Christ. The Tribulation believers must never bow to any likeness of a demonic false power. They must endure until Christ returns to earth with His church.  Matthew 24:9-13 says, “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me.   At that time, many will turn away from the faith and betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear to deceive many people. "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Unlike those who accepted Christ as their personal Savior and went to Heaven when they died, or were recently living and raptured to Heaven, this generation of new believers in Jesus as the Messiah must endure terrible persecution until they are rescued from hiding.  Mark 13:30 says, "This generation (the generation of Jews hiding in the wilderness) shall not pass away till all these things be done."  The word "generation" has nothing to do with a period of time but rather to a particular group of people. In this case, it is the Jews who escape to the wilderness at the midpoint of the Tribulation.   Matthew 24:7-8 speaks of this Tribulation time: "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." This is the context in which Jesus spoke in Matthew 24:13 concerning enduring unto the end, i.e., those who escape the woeful hardships of the Tribulation period. Matthew 24:22 sheds further light on what the word "endure" really means. Matthew 24:13 adds, "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Again, the elect are those saved during the Tribulation. To claim that "endure," in Matthew 24:13, applies to salvation flies in the face of Romans 4:5, which says a man's faith is counted for righteousness. Faith not endurance is the essence of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The very moment that the vilest person comes as a guilty sinner, believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness, his salvation is complete as far as Heaven is concerned.” Growing in grace is an entirely different matter, which has no effect on one's salvation.