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Third Part Left in the Land (God’s Elect Left in the World-Not the Churches)

By Chris McCann
March 20, 2020

Zechariah 13:8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

Some, as usual, would say this is talking about God's judgment on the churches and not on the world. But that's not possible.

Notice, that God says the "third part" (representing the elect) are "left therein". If the land mentioned in verse 8 is the church and not the world, this would conflict with and go contrary to many other Scriptures wherein God commands His people to come out of the churches (Matthew 24:16, Luke 21:21). God did NOT leave His elect people in the churches but commanded them to come out.

Therefore, the "land" mentioned in Zechariah 13:8 must be the world and not the church. Since God commanded His people to leave Judea (the corporate church) and go to Babylon (the world) they remain in the world while the judgment transitioned from the churches to all inhabitants of the earth on the date of May 21, 2011. And there they stay while two thirds (.666 the number of man) are cut off-they themselves endure the spiritual flames all the way through to the very last day.

By the way, the Hebrew word (#776) translated as "land" in Zechariah 13:8 is a word that is also translated as "earth" over 700 times in the Old Testament, including Genesis 1:1 where it says God created the heavens and the earth (#776). So, there's no problem in understanding that through the use of this word the entire world is in view and not the corporate church.