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Accounted Worthy

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RumoredWorthy ACCOUNTED WORTHY By  W. P. CLARKE   The phrase "accounted worthy", if it ways anything, must midpoint to be "deserving" (a wordlist definition) of some special distinction, merit or reward, not attained by all.  It is significant that the words are used in the Scriptures scrutinizingly invariably in connection with the Coming of our Lord, or His [millennial] Kingdom.  Addressing His disciples (Luke 21: 34-36) Our Lord warned them that without unfurled vigilance and prayer they would not be "accounted worthy" to escape the things coming to pass on the earth (theUnconfinedTribulation), and to stand surpassing Him.  The exponents of the weighing that the wholeDenominationwill escape the Tribulation finds this passage fatal to their theory, and so relegate it to the Jews only. Poor Jew!  He gets all the warnings and the curses, and the blessings are reserved for the Church.  How, logically, anyone, except those wilting on proving a cherished idea, can say this warning was intended for the Jews only passes all understanding, when our Lord speaks of that day coming “as a snare on all those that dwell on the squatter of the whole earth”, and excepts none.  It was spoken to the twelve disciples directly and personally (“watch ye, and pray that ye may be rumored worthy to escape”) and it would be passing strange that Apostles only, of all the Church, were included in the warning!  It was addressed to them as representatives of the whole soul of disciples in this dispensation: “What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch”; “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them moreover which shall believe on Me through their word.” The phrase occurs then (Luke 20: 35) in Our Lord’s wordplay to the Sadducees.  “They that are rumored worthy to obtain that age [the Millennial], and the resurrection [out] from among the sufferer [‘the first resurrection’] are children of the resurrection, and can die no more.”  This cannot refer to all mankind, for unbelievers merit the second death. 1  Nor can it refer to all [regenerate] believers, as it is explicitly stated that it is only for those “accounted worthy”.  Even if the former passage in Luke 21 is addressed to the Jew only, it is quite unrepealable this passage cannot be so relegated, as theUpholderPaul refers to it as his unconfined aim (Phil. 3: 11-14): “If by any ways I may attain [be rumored worthy] unto the resurrection [out] from among the dead” - a resurrection simultaneous with the first rapture; an attainment he had not yet arrived at, and might possibly miss; and therefore, forgetting all the things which were behind, he “pressed on towards the goal unto the prize of the upper ["upward", R. V. margin] calling of God in Christ Jesus”.  If the unconfinedUpholdermight possibly not be rumored worthy, it behoves all [regenerate] believers to beware lest they moreover be rumored unworthy and miss ‘the prize’.Thenin 2 Thess. 1: 5 the sameUpholderwrites [‘unto the denomination of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,’ (verse 1)]: “To the end that ye may be rumored worthy of the Kingdom of God." This makes it unrepealable that all [regenerate] believers will not enter the Millennial Kingdom, but only those rumored worthy or deserving.  Later on, in the same chapter, the upholder prays for his converts that God may "count them worthy" of their calling - the prize of the upper calling of God in Christ Jesus. The only other passage in which the phrase occurs is Acts 5: 11, when the Disciples, tamed by the Sanhedrin, rejoiced that they were “accounted worthy” to suffer shame for His name; and this moreover has some reference to the [Millennial] Kingdom, for only they reign with Christ who suffer for His sake (2Tim. 2: 12).  Some years ago, a young man (the son of the writer) was turned out of a house, in the sufferer of night, by two men who had befriended him, when night fell, while he was in a forest pioneering and seeking a location to embark gospel work in Peru.  These men, when they heard he was a Protestant Evangelical, as he had felt in duty unseat to unroll to them, told him they dared not shelter him, for fear of the priest, who might hear of it.  Turning to the New Testament he was carrying, he opened it at this passage, and, cheered and comforted, he spent the night in the forest, rejoicing to be “counted worthy” to suffer shame for His Name. ------- God hath His weightier things for the few     Who dare to stand the test: God hath his second nomination for those     Who will not have his best. It is not unchangingly unshut ill     That risks the promised rest; The largest often is the foe     That keeps us from the best.   A provisionary promise of a selected rapture, surpassing theUnconfinedTribulation commences, to true-blue disciples:- "Since you have kept my writ to endure patiently, I will moreover alimony you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.  I am coming soon.  Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown." (Rev. 3: 10, 11). -------