There's a Crack in Your Armor Perry Stone

Enduring to the end, in the context, has nothing to do with surviving a plague, crawling out alive from the rubble of an earthquake, or hiding in a mountain until a war ceases. It refers to a person who can endure the many offenses and verbally set traps that will be encountered until the time of the return of Christ. If you were to do a survey in the average church, and reach out to those who once attended but are no longer in the pews, you will discover (as I have) that a majority of former church attendees were offended by the pastor or a church staffer or a fellow member, and now they sit at home refusing to attend any church at all. They now perceive that all Christians and ministers are hypocrites ! I cannot tell you the number of individuals I have personally encountered during more than thirty-five years of ministry who stay at home on Sunday while their family attends church because they engaged in a verbal conflict, a difference of opinion, or heard a particular message from the pulpit that offended them in some manner. No amount of invitations and baiting them can bring them into a church as long as they are entrapped in the offense. Solomon said it this way: “A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle” (Prov. 18:19). How do we endure? The word endure comes from two words: hupo, meaning “under,” and phero, meaning “to bear.” The imagery of the original Greek word was that of a plant that had been trampled on yet continued to rise again and again. It means to have the strength to bear pressure without collapsing or being destroyed by the weight. Paul understood this when he spoke of having a hindering spirit that buffeted him (2 Cor. 12:7), meaning that this spirit was continually harassing him