Who are these Elect people in the Tribulation?

A great question was laid before me after my latest sermon from Matthew 24.  The question had to do with verse 22.

Matthew 24:22  “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

The question went something like this, “Verse 22 says that the elect people of God will be in the Tribulation.  Christians are God’s elect, so doesn’t this verse say that Christians will enter into the Tribulation?”

I think there are three things we can say that will put us on the right track. 

First, the description given to these people, “the elect”, does not answer the question.  When the Bible speaks about elect people, it is speaking about only one unique distinction about them; that God has eternally decreed to make them his own.  That is one awesome reality concerning those people.  But it isn’t the only reality about them.  They could be men or women.  They could be Jews or Gentiles.  They could be slave or free.  They could be of the new covenant church or of the covenant people of the Jews.  We need more information to find out who these elect people are.

The second thing we can say is that the context of Matthew 24 doesn’t give us much more information about who the elect are.  There are only two possible hints.  The first hint is that Jesus is talking to his Jewish disciples who were thinking about a Jewish temple and a Jewish kingdom.  We have a very strong Jewish context to begin here.  The other hint is even less certain.   Jesus says in verse 14 that the gospel will be preached to the whole world and then the end will come.  This doesn’t tell us if anyone responds, but there is at least the possibility that people from different nations will respond to the gospel during the Tribulation and thus prove to be God’s elect.  But all of that is happening in the tribulation.  It doesn’t tell us if people who respond to the gospel before the tribulation will be there.   

So, we still don’t have our question answered.  Is it possible that Christians living today could enter into the tribulation?  All Matthew 24 tells us is that there will be elect people in the tribulation and of those elect people, elect Jews will most certainly be there, with the possibility that those of other nations will be saved by preaching that happens during the tribulation. 

Therefore, the final thing we have to say is that the answer we are seeking must be found outside of Matthew 24.  We have to turn to other places in Scripture that speak to end times issues.  This is the difficult nature of end times study.  There is no single chapter or book that gives us the full picture.  We have to piece this together from all the testimony of God’s Word in order to weave a clear understanding of what is going to happen.  A difficult task, indeed!

In order to satisfy some of your desire for an answer to our question, let me give you a little direction.  I believe that the rest of Scripture shows us that there is a clear and distinct break between God’s plans for the Jews and God’s plan for the church.  God made very precise promises, having to do with an earthly kingdom, to the Jews.  These promises have not been fulfilled.  But when the Jews rejected the Messiah, they were temporarily set aside.  The Old Testament with its various covenants has been put on hold.  Paul goes into this with much detail in Romans 9-11, especially chapter 11.  From the moment of the cross, God initiated a new program, an unexpected program called the church.  Right now the church is the center of God’s program.  The church is the mystery (unforetold in the OT) that Jews and Gentiles are made into one man in Christ (Ephesians 2:15).  All ethnic, sexual, and societal distinctions are set aside in regard to salvation (though not in regard to roles and callings).  Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

But God has not abandoned the promises he made to the nation of Israel.  He is faithful and he will do what he said, “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans. 11:29).  When God again turns his attention to the Jewish nation, it will be a time for purging out unbelievers and bringing wrath upon a rebellious world.  None of this has anything to do with the church.  God did not make land promises to the church.  God did not make protection and prosperity promises to the church.  That was all to the Jewish nation alone.  Therefore, the church has no reason to be in the Tribulation.  This is why I believe other Scriptures (outside of Matthew 24) speak of the church being raptured out of the earth before the tribulation.