REMNANT

SOME PEOPLE claim there are only a small number of true believers. They claim most people sitting in a Church are Christian in name only. They say God has a secret Church and it's not yours. Only one or two here or there belong to God's secret Church. God alone knows. You don't. They call this secret group the remnant. Only the remnant will go to heaven.

COUNT ON this. The guy who thumps on you is sure he belongs to the remnant. He's not sure about you. When Jesus comes back, he says, the name-only Christians will be left behind. For what? To be tortured and to thank God for it. If not, to die and burn.

THIS IS his take on the tribulation. The secret believer escapes in the remnant. Humanity is crushed in the tribulation. When will the tribulation happen? Oh, he says, it'll start next year, in 3 years, 10 years, at the end of the decade. One thing's for sure. It won't happen today at 12 noon.

DO THE math. From 4 millennia of salvation history, Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, 2 millennia of Christianity, and 100+ billion human beings, only 200 people will make it to heaven. What is this? Science fiction? Space colony? What?

IT'S NOT heaven. It's a moonscape. A moonscape is not a theology of grace but a theology of evil. The deity in this wilderness is not God but a back-stabber. You can't see me, but I'm going to get you. All of you. If it's not God, who is it? It's twisted human opinion.

WHAT DOES the theology of grace say? God is generous. Grace is generous. Heaven is generous. Heaven is not now and never will be a clique or cabal. Heaven is now and always will be a multitude. The number 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 7:4 is 12 multiplied by 12. The biblical number 12 is a way of saying totality, fullness, and completeness according to God. Go look for yourself.

TWELVE TIMES twelve means a number that no human mind can count or comprehend--the total, full and complete tribes of Israel's children. The number 144,000 is followed by another multitude: "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!'" [Rev 7:9-10] Remnant? Hardly.