In a recent issue of my pastor’s newsletter, The Grace Journal, he wrote, “One of the great proofs of the inspiration of the Scripture is that it records the failures and blemishes of its heroes, their weaknesses as well as their strengths. Mere human authors would hardly do so as openly and consistently as do the divinely inspired Scriptures.”

Take Noah and Lot, both of whom were preachers of righteousness and serve as illustrations of Israel’s future situation during the Tribulation.

“You know Noah and Lot were not exactly paragons of virtue,” says my pastor, Richard Jordan, in a study I have on tape. “You remember how Noah, in Genesis 9, called upon by the Lord to speak for the Lord as a prophet, had spent the night before like a drunken sailor? He’s known as the first drunken sailor.

“And Lot. . . Well, those two girls of his, you know where they wound up in the cave in Genesis 19? They wound up in incest, and two of the most wicked opponents the nation Israel ever had came from Lot’s incestuous relationship with his two daughters.

“So these two weren’t the greatest paragons of virtue by outward appearance, and yet you know what they did? They heeded God's Word. You know who Jesus Christ deals with in Luke 17? A bunch of folks (the Pharisees) who are only interested in the outward, and then there's a bunch of publicans and sinners who aren't paragons of virtue, but they believe God's Word. And if they believe God's Word, they'll get through.”

The Apostle Paul warns in II Thess. 2: 10-12 that for those who do not receive “the love of the truth, that they might be saved. . .God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Jordan explains, “You see God gives truth, and when people don't want the truth, the lie comes in and which one do they pick? When people choose the lie it's because they love the lie, not the truth. It's not because God pre-fixed them where they couldn't do differently.”

The New Testament books of Hebrews, I Peter and James are written to motivate Israel’s “little flock” of believers to endure during the Tribulation. II Peter, I John, II John, III John and Jude are written to instruct them so as not to be seduced by the people who will be trying to deceive them away.

Hebrews 10:38-39 warns, “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

Jordan says, “See the choice before these people? They can draw back from the truth, from the faith, or they can endure. Now if you go to Luke 17, you’ll see Jesus Christ apply that principle with two illustrations.”

Jesus Christ assures in Luke 17: 26-33, “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

“They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

“But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

“Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

“In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. “Remember Lot's wife.

“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”

As we know, Lot’s wife disobeyed God’s order not to look back as her family fled the burning city of Sodom and, as a result, she was turned into a pillar of salt.

"Lot’s wife took off lickety-split out of Sodom with Lot and her girls and then doubt came into her mind about whether she really wanted to leave her china, and the drapes, and the house, and the pictures, and the reputation and the friends,” explains Jordan. “And she stopped, and she turned around for one more look. What'd that verse in Hebrews say? When you draw back, you draw back to perdition. God’s saying, ‘Don't be one who is lured back.’

“Remember in Numbers 11 how it talks about the ‘mixed multitude’ out of Egypt that ‘fell a lusting.’ Even as a young believer that passage really impressed me. They came out of Egypt and they hadn't been into Canaan yet. They didn't know what the corn of Canaan tasted like. They'd never eaten corn.

“But they had leeks, onions, cucumbers and garlic back in Egypt, and they'd had up to here with the manna. Evidently manna didn't cook up so good. Just white bread. You get tired of that. To eat the same thing every day for 40 years—I'd get tired of it. I'd get tired of it after 3 days.

“But they let their minds go back to where they used to be. All they had was faith to claim the new land. And you know where they wound up? God found out who the mixed multitude was. He said, ‘There's a mixed multitude in Israel. I brought you out to bring you in. Who am I going to bring in? The believers. How am I going to find them? I'm going to let them sit out here in the wilderness—we'll find out who's going to endure and who isn’t.’ ”