SELECTIVE RAPTURE AND "NOT A HOOF LEFT BEHIND."

 

Repeatedly, when the subject of Selective Rapture has come up of late, the reply has been "There shall not a hoof be left behind."  The manner in which this Scripture is quoted is meant to leave us in no doubt that this is the death-blow to Selective Rapture.  We readily admit that there is a sound of finality about the quotation, if indeed it can be made to refer to Selective Rapture; but does it?  The quotation is taken from Ex. 10: 26 (context 24-27) and refers to God's contest with Pharaoh.  The latter is now willing to let the Israelites leave Egypt on condition that they leave their flocks and herds behind.  To this Moses replied: "There shall not a hoof be left behind."  This was God's answer to that stubborn ruler.

 

When our friends quote to us, "There shall not a hoof be left behind", they mean us to understand that not a single believer will be left on earth after the Rapture of 1 Thess. 4: 15-17 has taken place.  So ignorant are they of the teaching of the New Testament on this subject that they do not know that all referred to in 1 Thess. 4: 15-17 had already been left behind when the Firstfruits were raptured before the Great Tribulation commenced, Rev. 12: 5, 14: 1-5.  Furthermore if they would only look at Ex. 10: 26 and its context (24-27) they would quickly discover that Ex. 10: 26 can at best only be made to apply to the New Birth of a believer, when he departs from the World (Egypt).  When the time came for the Israelites to enter Canaan - answering to the Rapture - "ALL the Hoofs" were left behind, except the feet of Joshua and Caleb.  These two, of all the millions [of the accountable generation] that left Egypt, alone trod the sacred soil of Canaan, for they followed the Lord wholly.

 

We wish to remind our friends that it was the purpose of God that all the Israelites who left Egypt should and could enter the Promised Land.  They sadly failed because of prolonged unbelief and disobedience.  Only two Overcomers entered the land, the rest having been left behind in the Wilderness; and these things are especially recorded to warn [regenerate] believers of the present Dispensation that they should not fail to enter the Heavenly Canaan (of which these were a type.) through unbelief, ignorance and laziness.

 

It is our Lord's desire that all believers should have part in the First Resurrection.  He who knows the end from the beginning has made it perfectly clear that the majority will repeat the grave blunder of the Israelites who were behind in the Wilderness.  Thus we find that Ex. 10: 26 instead of being a death-blow to Selective Rapture proves it up to the hilt.  It further proves that those who use it in the above manner "wrest this Scripture" to their own undoing, 2 Peter 3: 16, for it teaches the very opposite to what they intend it to teach.  This ignorance is unfortunately met with in regard to the whole subject of the Lord's Second Advent.

 

The Jews of old said within themselves, - "We have Abraham to our Father,-" therefore every blessing that God can bestow is sure to us regardless of any condition.  We know that through their vain conceit they missed God's wonderful Salvation.  Even so, there is a large section of present day believers, who boast of their standing in Christ, assuming that sharing the Throne of Christ, and a part in the First Resurrection, is a dead certainty as far as they are concerned, yet being totally ignorant of the fact that these blessings will never be theirs unless they fulfil the conditions that God has attached to them.

 

Eternal Life is the Free Gift of God to all believers, but part in the First Resurrection and Reigning with Christ on His Throne is only promised to, and obtained by, Overcomers.  They are not a Free Gift, but a Reward to whole-hearted devotion to Christ; "for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints," Rev. 19: 8 R. V.

 

I am sewing, sewing day by day

A dress in time I shall display;

I want to make it fit and fair,

This dress my soul will have to wear;

And every day and passing minute,

I'm putting common stitches in it.

 

If the reader desires to be a Caleb, he will have to be prepared to stand alone amidst the very people of God.  He will have to go further and deeper into this subject than popular Periodicals and Preachers will take him.  If he desires to go more fully into this matter, we recommend him to read carefully and prayerfully the writings shown on this website; written by aged and deeply taught servants of God, who had no other desire but to glorify their God and help their brethren.

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