The Revelation of Jesus Christ 109 out-~£ the mouth of the Lord-i~ going to take the very atti tude toward the Gospel of the kingdom that it takes toward the Gospel of the grace of God now. No, the great multitude John saw will not be composed of professing Christian nations who rejected the Gospel of grace. and then accepted the Gospel of the kingdom. It will be made up of "all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.. who are now the so-called heathen nations. God says, speaking through the Apostle Paul. and re ferring to those who will be living on the earth when the Anti christ appears-those who have rejected the Gospel of grace and have been left behind when the church is taken away- " ... they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delu sion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be judged ( R. V.) who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.. (II Thess. 2: 10-12). It is a serious thing to harden your heart against God. It is a serious thing to hear the Gospel of the grace of God and reject it. If the church were translated today, those who have heard the qospel and rejected it would be ushered into the great tribulation period. and the delusion of the Antichrist would be their portion. The company which John saw was not a company of pro fessing Christian nations who later accepted the Gospel, but it was composed of the heathen nations; that is, of heathen peo ple who will hear the message of the kingdom in that day: They will be the millions of China, India, Africa, and the islands of the sea. After the church is gone, God will put into the world His witnessing body, 144,000 Jews. They will preach, not the Gos pel of the grace of God, but the Gospel of the kingdom. Theirs will be an exhortation to "repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand... Their message will not be fruitless; as a result of their preaching, there will be a great multitude which no man can number, out of the nations of the earth. It is that multi tude which John saw, and which he was told came out of great tribulation. But I would have you remember that if the Lord Jesus Christ returned today, and took out of the world His church, those who would be left behind-and everyone who has not
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