He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.—Revelation 13:10
Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus—Revelation 14:12
Though the saints in the time of the end are viciously attacked by the Antichrist and his minions they patiently (steadfastly, constantly) endure. Believers are to accept persecution and suffering and endure by trusting and depending on Jesus to see them through. When I think of suffering like that my soul shrinks in fear. Would my heart remain faithful in the midst of that kind of suffering? My comfort here, as in everything else, is in the word of God. Our God loves us with an everlasting love and has drawn us to Himself in lovingkindness. The Bible tells us that His grace is sufficient and that when we are weak, He is strong. He is our sufficiency. Our victory is NOT of us. It is of Him. This is called the doctrine of endurance which assures all believers that they will never lose their faith. Those who are truly born again will continually endure, right up to the end, in obedience to His truth, come what may. Why? Because He is the One that preserves them through. God, by His own power through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, keeps the believer forever. This AWESOME and COMFORTING truth is spoken in Ephesians 1:13-14. Believers are “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession, to the praise of His glory.” Believers are eternally secure because God is eternally faithful.
I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. (Jeremiah 32:40, ESV)
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." (John 10:27-30, ESV)
But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matthew 24:13, ESV)
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:4-5, ESV)
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6, ESV)
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.—Romans 8:31-39
