In history God has several times raised up a remnant, which is faithful to him, and has used that remnant to begin a new group of his people. The multitude, which has gone into false doctrines and false practices, and away from God, is cut off from God. That multitude, though, has tried to get back its position with God.
At the great flood of Noah, God cut off the large multitude of people and began again with a small remnant, Noah, Noah's wife, his three sons and their wives. "And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:" Genesis 8: 18
"Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." I Peter 3: 20
Then in I Kings 19 during the time of the apostasy of Ahab and Jezebel, God told Elijah in I Kings 19: 18, "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him." God had preserved a remnant even in the time of the apostasy of Ahab and Jezebel.
In Romans 11: 4, as part of his statement on a remnant of Old Covenant Israel accepting Christ, and becoming members of the elect by grace, Paul quotes I Kings 19: 18. Paul says that in the remnant, God did not cast away all his people. But as Romans 11: 17-20 say, God did cut off all of Old Covenant Israel which were in unbelief, who rejected Christ.
Again in the Babylonian captivity of seventy years as judgment for falling away into false doctrines and practices the multitude of Old Covenant Israel was left in false doctrines and in captivity while a remnant was sent back to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, Jeshua and Ezra to began Old Covenant Israel anew.
When Christ appeared in human flesh and went to the Cross, God fulfilled the prophecies of II Kings 21: 13, Isaiah 29: 16, and Jeremiah 18: 1-6 to turn Jerusalem (Israel) upside down and to make Israel again "another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it." And in Acts 10 God used Peter to bring the Gospel to Cornelius, a non-Jew, and his people, beginning the fulfillment of the prophecy of Hosea 2: 23 to make a people who were not before the people of God, the people of God. In other words, non-Jews were to be brought in to Israel reborn in Jesus Christ.
This cutting off of the multitude who were following the false doctrines as leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16: 6, Luke 12: 1), and beginning a new Israel in the remnant of Romans 11: 5 was a major transformation of Israel from the Old Covenant which operated in the physical to a New Covenant which operated in the spiritual. That which was physical under the Old Covenant - physical bloodline from Abraham, physical circumcision, a physical temple building, physical animal sacrifice, etc - was all done away with as shadows (Hebrews 10: 1, Colossians 2: 17). That which is in the spiritual - in Christ Jesus - became the substance.
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Colossians 2: 16-17
Paul uses soma (translated as body) to mean that which is substance, which is spiritual. The shadows of the Old Covenant were merely pointers toward the coming of Christ who brought spiritual life to those who took on his mind. "I am the way, the truth, and the life..." John 14: 6
"My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." Galatians 4: 19 "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:" Philippians 2: 5
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." II Corinthians 5: 17
"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12: 2
When Christ is formed in you, you begin to be changed so that your consciousness is raised up to a higher level in Christ. You know things you did not know before. "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" Ephesians 2: 5-6
But false doctrines keep Christ from being formed in you, so that you remain in the spiritual condition of the natural man of I Corinthians 2; 14, who does not discern the things of the Spirit.
The remnant of Israel began that transformation in Christ brought about by the Holy Spirit in the First Century. The multitude of Old Covenant Israel rejected Christ and did not want their religion turned upside down (Acts 17: 6). They were cut off. They continued in Christ rejection as Talmudic Judaism.
New Testament prophecy indicates that the same kind of reduction of the multitude to a remnant will happen again in New Covenant times, as the remnant holds on to the testimony of Jesus Christ while the multitude is off into false doctrines.
The Reformation can be seen as a restoration of the Gospel of Christ by a group of people who were a remnant in the beginning, though the restoration was not complete and the Reformers held on to some of the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church.
"And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." Revelation 18: 23
The light of Christ and his doctrines is the light of the candle which has gone out in Babylon, which is metaphoric for the falling away from sound doctrine of II Thessalonians 2: 3-7. The true voice of Christ the bridegroom (Matthew 9: 15, Matthew 25: 1, 5-6) is not heard in Babylon, which represents the multitude in false doctrines after the remnant has left it, just as Talmuic Judaism condinued as a false religion after the remnant of Romans 11: 5 accepted Christ and was not longer part of the Christ-rejecting multitude.
Revelation 18: 23, in metaphoric language, says Christ at some point in time will no longer be in the churches.
Babylon in the New Testament - Revelation 17 and 18 - is a re-enactment of Babylon in Jeremiah 50 and 51, and some of the statements in Jeremiah 50-51, are quite similar to what is said in Revelation 17 and 18 and can be applied to our time.
"And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird......4. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
5. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." Revelation 18: 2, 4-5
"Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Come out of the multitude which is in false doctrines where Christ no longer lives.
"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you," II Corinthians 6: 17
"And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
16. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
17. 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." Revelation 12: 14-17
Revelation 12: 14-17 is the story of the metaphoric woman and her seed the remnant going out into the metaphoric wilderness, outside the churches, and away from the multitude. The flood that the dragon casts out of his mouth represents his inspiring the many false prophets of Matthew 24: 11 - and II Peter 2: 1-3 - to deceive the multitude into following false doctrines. It is a flood of lies. The remnant is seen in Revelation 12: 17 as having the testimony of Jesus Christ - out in the wilderness, "without the camp," as Hebrews 13: 13 says.
"I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD.
13. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid." Zephaniah 3: 12-13
"And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads..........And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
4. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
5. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God." Revelation 14: 1, 3-5
This remnant is raised up spiritually in Christ; he is in them. This is what standing with Christ high up on Mount Sion means. There is something new that is given this remnant. They sing a new song, though they also have the testimony of the Gospel Christ gave in the First Century.
"These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. " This throws a lot of people who want to see it literally. Yet it is an important revelation in metaphoric language. The woman of Revelation 17: 1-6 represents false religion, and she is not limited to any one false religion, but all of them, and in the New Covenant time she is Christianity after the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3-7.
The remnant is outside of the church system.
The remnant of israel does not do iniquity,nor speak lies, and they are not deceptive; they have no guile, an old English word meaning deceptive.
So, there is a conflict between the multitude, who are in false doctrines, and the remnant which holds on to the doctrines once delivered to the saints, though they sing a new song.
"For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come." Jeremiah 51: 33
In the threshing floor, those deceived by the huge number of false prophets of Matthew 24: 11, II Peter 2: 1-3 and Revelation 9: 14-9, are separated from those not deceived, who come to the knowledge of the truth. Those who are deceived by the false prophets and their man made doctrines, are under the indignation of God of Isaiah 26: 20. This is a time after the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3-7
begins in the modern timeline. And that beginning is not future as the dispensationalists say.
The threshing floor is where the wheat is separated from the chaff, that is, where those who have come to the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2: 4, II Timothy 3: 7, III John 1: 4) are separated from those who have not come to that knowledge and resist the truth, though they may think they have been born again by procedures which do not change them from the state of the natural man to spiritual new creatures.. What is the cause of people not coming to the knowledge of the truth? It can be that the Lord has not given them ears to hear the truth, and that they have been deceived by the false prophets, the priests and preachers, into believing false doctrines and the re-defined and reduced Gospel taught by these guys.
In the threshing floor, those deceived by the huge number of false prophets of Matthew 24: 11, II Peter 2: 1-3 and Revelation 9: 14-9, are separated from those not deceived, who come to the knowledge of the truth. Those who are deceived by the false prophets and their man made doctrines, are under the indignation of God of Isaiah 26: 20. This is a time after the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3-4 begins in the modern timeline.
Those who have come to the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2: 4, II Timothy 3: 7, III John 1: 4) are separated from those who have not come to that knowledge and resist the truth, though they may think they have been born again by procedures which do not change them from the state of the natural man to spiritual new creatures.
II Timothy 3: 7-8 says in the last days when perilous times come that people will be "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth...so do these also resist the truth..." A mark of being in the multitude in false doctrines after the falling away is that they resist the truth, and as II Peter 2: 2 says they speak evil of the way of truth.
The remnant found in Revelation 12:17, who have the testimony of Jesus Christ, and are outside of Babylon, not inside the camp of apostasy, but out in the spiritual wilderness (Revelation 12: 6,14), help to separate the wheat from the chaff in the threshing floor of Jeremiah 51: 33. "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." Revelation 12: 17
"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
15. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining." Joel 3: 14-15
Toward the end of the age the conflict between the multitude and the remnant will be for many a valley of decision (Joel 3: 14), where those who have not come to the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2: 4, II Timothy 3: 7) are in a low place spiritually still have the opportunity to come to that knowledge and come out of false doctrines and out of the multitude into the remnant.
