In this study we mentioned three particular groups comprised of both good and bad individuals who would enter the great tribulation period:

1) The Great Company

2) The nation of Israel

3) The world of mankind

In regards to the first group, the Great Company class (a spirit begotten class, who felled to make their calling and election sure, who felled to fulfill their sacrifice) we found that the Lord would cause them to enter the great time of trouble that they might through great tribulation (trouble, anguish, sorrow) wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb which they had allowed to become contaminated through the neglect of their covenant and their contact with the world.

This class has existed all throughout the Gospel age, but here at the end of the age a rather large segment of them are to be found, most of these mere spiritual babes still trapped within the walls of Babylon while others lie outside in the wilderness condition. Some (the few) of these who have escaped Babylon are more or less acquainted with the truth and have traveled side by side with their more faithful brethren (these in type represented by Elisha who traveled with Elijah), however they have not proven faithful to their covenant, thus it is the Lord’s intention not only for their own well-being but likewise for the sake of the worlds (to settle accounts) that they enter the great time of trouble, there to meet their fate either in victory or in Second Death (the good and the bad).

This class will most likely endure only the first stages of the great tribulation, the last of them meeting their fate shortly after the opening of the seventh seal and the half hour in which there is to be “silence in heaven” (Rev 8:1; See Part 23 of this study), just prior to complete destruction of Babylon when she is to be utterly burned with fire (Rev 18:8), releasing the remainder of this class still trapped there.

Even now there are many of this class who are awakening from their slumber to find that, “The Harvest [the time of special favor] is past, the summer is ended [winter has come], and we are not saved” [not saved with the chief or great salvation, the salvation to which we aspired]. Jer 8:20

Keep in mind that this is a prophecy WRITTEN IN ADVANCE OF ITS FULFILLMENT, the harvest is not yet complete, but soon, very soon it will come to an end, and the door will be shut, and all opportunity to belong to the bride of Christ will be gone forever. (Matt 24:10; Ezek 44:1)

Very soon now there will come a time, when the Church, “the salt of the earth” (Matt 5:13) will have all passed beyond Vail, and without this preserving element, society will quickly decay, and THEN “The night shall come when no man can work” (John 9:4), when all opportunity to work in the dispensing of truth will be halted.

This will most likely take place during the “Hour of Trial or Temptation”, when the nominal systems in conjunction with “the workings of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (2 Thess 2:9) will have deceived all of Christendom into believing that these wonders are the works of the Lord.

The Lord’s faithful, the last of the feet members of the body this side of the vail will be the first and most vocal to point this deception out, and as a result of their faithfulness they will, like John the Baptist be silenced and put to death. Once the Church has gone beyond the Vail the last of the Lord’s faithful followers the Great Company Class (that is those having knowledge of the truth, specifically knowledge that the Church is complete and gone beyond the vail) will give its final testimony.

We will take a closer look at this testimony in our next post.