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The word translated as “remnant” in Scripture refers to those who remain, the last portion of a group. It is used throughout the Bible to refer to the survivors. For example:
Joseph told his brothers, “God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (Genesis 45:7 NIV84).
Through the prophet Isaiah, God tells King Hezekiah, “Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors” (2 Kings 19: 30, 31 NIV84).
And Ezra describes the 50,000 who returned to Jerusalem after the 70-year captivity by saying, “O LORD, God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant” (Ezra 9:15 NIV84).
The remnant of God have always been those who remain, who are left. Revelation also describes a remnant, a people who survive the final events of Earth’s history and are found faithful when Jesus returns—and Satan hates these people:
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (12:17 KJV).
No doubt, Satan hates the remnant, the final group of faithful people who are on the Earth when Jesus returns. All the world is his—except these faithful few.
But who are these end-time remnant? The woman is the bride of Christ, the faithful, the true church, the righteous, so the remnant would be the final generation of God’s faithful on Earth at the time of His second coming.
Revelation also gives two identifiers of these faithful remnant people: They “keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” But what do these identifiers mean?
Some Christians have found insight from the angel’s response to John found in Revelation 19:10:
I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (NKJV).
So, the end-time remnant are those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus, and this testimony of Jesus is “the spirit of prophecy.” But what does that mean?
Some Christians have suggested this is the special gift of prophecy, God’s prophetic gift as given to Daniel, John, and all the Bible writers. They look for an organization that uplifts and promotes God’s commandments and also has manifested within it an individual (past or present) with the prophetic gift.
But is this the best and most accurate understanding of these passages? Is it the most reliable way to determine who the end-time remnant people are?
For instance, if there was a denomination that values and teaches obedience to all ten of God’s commandments and also had an individual within it who people agree was blessed by the special gift of prophecy, would that mean that by joining that group and becoming a member of that denomination, one is now part of the remnant of God?
Two thousand years ago, the Jews were God’s special chosen people, blessed by Him with multiple individuals with the prophetic gift and who enthusiastically promoted all ten of God’s commandments. But did that mean being a member of that group ensured that the person was on God’s side? Would being a leader in that group mean one was a member of God’s team? Not according to Jesus, who told those leaders that they were of their father the devil (John 8:44).
So, I do not think one can be part of God’s end-time remnant people by merely joining a denomination. I think the remnant are those who are described in Hebrews 8:10 as having God’s law written upon their hearts and minds, are loyal to Jesus, and are giving the testimony that Jesus gave.
Consider another translation of what the testimony of Jesus is:
The dragon was furious with the woman and went off to fight against the rest of her descendants, all those who obey God’s commandments and are faithful to the truth revealed by Jesus (Revelation 12:17 GNT).
The remnant are those who obey God’s commandments and are faithful to the truth revealed by Jesus, the testimony that Jesus gave:
“For the truth that Jesus revealed is what inspires the prophets” (Revelation 19:10 GNT).
The Bible is telling us that the testimony Jesus gave is the same truth that inspired the prophets; it is the same truth revealed through all 66 books of the Bible. And the remnant of God will be inspired by that same Holy Spirit to give the same testimony, the same truth, that Jesus revealed in His life and which all the prophets were inspired by and testified to in their writings.
And what is the testimony that Jesus gave? He said,
I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me (John 5:36 NIV84).
And what did Jesus say His work was that He came to testify about? He proclaimed,
I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. … I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world (John 17: 4, 6 NKJV emphasis mine).
Jesus revealed the truth about God. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. Jesus came to destroy the lies of Satan and win us back into intimate love and trust with the Father. When Philip asked Jesus to tell them about the Father, Jesus answered:
Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words [testimony] I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves (John 14:9–11 NIV84, emphasis mine).
Jesus’ testimony is the truth about God, and the remnant of God will give that same testimony. The apostle Paul agrees with this, informing us that the central issue in the war is the knowledge of God; he then explains that those who are on God’s team will use the divine weapons of God to demolish all the lies and falsehoods about God that operate in hearts and minds and keep people captive to a false system of belief and trapped in sin:
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3–5, emphasis mine).
We demolish the lies of Satan by embracing and promoting the testimony of Jesus, the truth about God that has inspired all the prophets, that the Father is exactly like Jesus in character, a being of infinite power who is equally gracious and values nothing higher than our freedom, because God is love and love exists only in an atmosphere freedom.
And what did Jesus reveal about law and justice? Jesus revealed God’s law is design law, the laws built right into the fabric of the cosmos and govern our very existence and life, like the law of gravity, laws of physics, health, and the moral laws. We cannot have health while violating the laws of health—even if we pray for good health. Every one of Jesus’ parables teaches design law.
The remnant of God are the end-time people who return to worshiping God as Creator. They reject the lie that God’s law functions like Roman law, imposed rules that require legal enforcement through inflicted punishments. They understand all of God’s laws are design laws and that love can exist and operate only in an atmosphere of freedom. And they see Jesus as the perfect revelation of the character, methods, principles, and living law of God all throughout His entire life, but especially when in the most abusive and unjust actions. Human beings tortured and killed Him, yet He would not use power and might to stop the injustice. Why? Because love cannot be obtained by force, by command, by external power, by intimidation, by punishment! Love is obtained only by love. Thus, the testimony of Jesus is that God is love, and this testimony is what inspired all the prophets, like Zechariah, who wrote:
“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the LORD of hosts (4:6 NKJV).
This is the testimony that Jesus and all the prophets have given: God cannot get love, trust, loyalty, faithfulness, and friendship from people by using imposed rules with inflicted punishments, like the ones that sinful humans use.
God’s ways are not our ways; God’s laws are not our laws (Isaiah 55:7–9; Jeremiah 33:25). They are the laws reality functions upon, and breaking them injures the lawbreaker and will result in death unless healed by the Creator. The end-time remnant of God are those who return to Creator worship, embrace the truth about God’s law, have His living law written upon their hearts and minds, and give the same testimony about God that Jesus and all the prophets did.
The end-time remnant people of God are identified by their having characters like Jesus; they give the same testimony about God that Jesus did, both in word and deed, for they practice the law of God in living the truth in love and leaving others free. They refuse to use the power of the state; they refuse to use coercion, force, intimidation, economic sanctions, or any other means of external power and pressure. They are the remnant, the ones who survive the assault of the man of sin, the ones who refuse to embrace the imposed-law legal systems of this fallen world, the ones who are like their Creator in character, method, and principle. These are the remnant—they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death (Revelation 12:11). They would rather die, just like their Savior did at the cross, than use the methods of force to protect themselves. They are like Daniel and the three worthies who trust their lives to their Savior.
I invite you to choose to be part of the remnant of God—to reject the lie that God’s law functions like human law and, instead, to return to Creator worship, to be in awe of God and “give Him glory” because the hour in human history has come for people to stop judging God to be like a Roman dictator and accept the testimony of Jesus that God is exactly like Jesus revealed Him to be, to embrace the truth that all God’s laws are design laws and, thereby, worship the Creator, “worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water” (Revelation 14:7).
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