After my research project on the Church as  the Mystical Body of Christ, I was led to a sequel of thoughts on a concept I hear articulated often, but am not sure is understood with much universality.  As more Catholics have been let down by the Church Hierarchy and have witnessed the world chaos of the last two years, I have heard many men claim to be “part of the remnant”.  What does that mean?  If I asked 10 different men what is meant by “remnant”, I think I would get 10 different answers.  

For some, I believe they mean that they are the “real Catholics” that are staying faithful while others apostatize, to varying degrees of formality.  I believe others express the term as if simply meaning they are some of the sane ones left while the rest of the world goes crazy.  Still others are quite specific.  I have heard straight up Sede Vacantists identify as the remnant of the Church  They mean that they are those watching as the “Neo-Catholics” drift further and further away with the modernist movement and from the “fullness of the faith” found in their style of traditionalism.  The popular podcast and website brand, “The Remnant” presently has 200,000 plus subscribers on Youtube.  There are a lot of Catholics out there identifying as “part of the remnant”.  But what does it mean?

I cannot speak for any one man who identifies as a member of the “remnant”, but I believe there is value in historical and Biblical analysis to better understand how one could use this powerful word.  If we look at parallel moments in history, we find that the word is called for in the most dire of situations, and that being part of a “remnant” entails a lot of responsibility.  

Are you part of the remnant?  And more importantly, are you up for it?…

1. Hezekiah and the remnant

To understand how Hezekiah, the just king of Judea, used the word “remnant”, we must analyze the context.  To do so, we must go back to King Solomon.  For all of his misdeeds, the reign of Solomon marked Israel’s zenith, at least in terms of worldly relevance and fame.  Israel was an independent nation with a formidable army, a king known throughout the world for his wisdom, and a temple (finished in 960 BC) that drew the awe of monarchs from around the world.  

When Solomon died, Israel was soon split up by rebels who did not want to serve Solomon’s son, Rehoboam.  The ten tribes of the north became the Northern Kingdom of Israel (otherwise known as Samaria), while Judea (Judah) existed independently with their temple in Jerusalem.  The kingdoms subsisted independently of one another until 722 BC, when the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered.

The second book of Kings is quite frank as to how and why Israel was conquered.  Though both kingdoms experienced various reigns of derelict kings over that 200 plus year interim, Israel typically had worse kings and did not have as many occasional righteous kings to help preserve their culture, natural means of survival, and, most importantly, God’s favor.

After years of Israelites disobeying God’s laws, kings placing idols in the temple, and many even “consigning their children to the fire” (Moloch worship), Israel was morally and physically weak enough to be easily conquered by Sennacherib and Assyria (2 Kings 17).  With the northern kingdom conquered, what was left?  

A remnant.  The last tribe, the southern Kingdom of Judea was in a better position to resist the conquest of Senacharib and the Assyrians.  This is partly because they were ruled by a righteous, practical, and diligent ruler, King Hezekiah.  2 Kings introduces King Hezekiah thus,

     He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father
     had done. He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the   
     Ashe'rah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until
     those days the people of Israel had burned incense to it...He trusted in the LORD the
     God of Israel; so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him,
     nor among those who were before him.  For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart
     from following him, but kept the commandments which the LORD commanded
     Moses. (2 Kings 18:3-6, emphasis added)

Scripture reserves praise like that for only the greatest of figures.  Hezekiah has been highly revered for 2700 years by Jews and Christians alike for two reasons: 1. When he became king, he first got his spiritual house in order (literally, he drove out the idols from the temple) and 2. he got his physical house in order and adequately prepared the Jews for a siege from Sennacherib and the Assyrians.  

He did the latter by digging a 1/3 mile tunnel directing waters from the Gihon Spring away from the besieging Assyrian army and toward a pool inside Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 32:30).  The tunnel was dug from two sides by men with copper axes.  It was a marvel for its time, and it is a testament to the foresight and the leadership of King Hezekiah.   

Nevertheless, Hezekiah worried for Jerusalem’s fate, as evidenced by the message he sent to Isaiah in 2 Kings 19: “This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth…  lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left” (2 Kings 19:3-4, emphasis added).  

Hezekiah saw these last Jews, the last of the twelve tribes of Israel, holding out desperately against the Assyrians as “the remnant”.  And Hezekiah did everything within his power to ensure that they remained a faithful remnant, that they trusted in God’s protection, and that they did everything physically necessary to ensure survival.  

Isaiah responded to him, saying,

     Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with
     which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in
     him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall
     by the sword in his own land… And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall
     again take root downward, and bear fruit upward; for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a
     remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.” (2 Kings 19:6-31, emphasis added)

Holy Scripture tells us that angels soon destroyed the besieging army.  Historical critics typically dismiss this and give all the credit to Hezekiah.  But we know better.  God answered the prayers of Hezekiah and his people while also blessing the physical work they did to prepare against impending doom.  That remnant was afforded another 100 plus years of freedom because they were spiritually and physically prepared.

What a parallel to our current time.  With threats to our Church and out nation, we are a people and a Church besieged.  You may be using the word “remnant” in a similar way in which Hezekiah and Isaiah used it.  If so, then be prepared to defend your position as people who will survive  the current siege of our nation and our Church.  Do you have it in you to help keep us, the remnant, safe both spiritually and physically?  

If you identify as “part of the remnant”, and you believe it is a realistic mission to save your country and keep the Church above ground until God puts the devil back at bay,… then, like Hezekiah and his subjects, you have a lot of praying, fasting, and working to do.  Get to it or level up within it, member of the remnant!

2. Ezra and the remnant

That remnant may have held firm against Sennacherib, but Jerusalem and all of Judea still met its sad fate at the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in 586 BC (2 Kings 25, Jeremiah 52).  The Babylonians, who destroyed the temple and hauled the Jews away in chains, were brutal conquers.  The writer of Psalm 137 refers to them as “tormentors” as he solemnly states the famous words, hence commemorated in the famous hymn: “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept , when we remembered thee Zion” (Psalm 137:1).  Perhaps you have already been weeping for your own country or for the New Zion, the Church, in our own time.  

As tragic as the era of Babylonian captivity was, the Jews were liberated within the century.  In 539 BC, the Persian King, Cyrus the Great, conquered Babylon.  He not only allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem, but he allowed the reconstruction of the temple.  It was completed in 516 BC.

Though the Persians were kinder rulers than the Babylonians, these were not glorious times for the Jews.  With a heavy heart, the prophet Ezra laments over the sorry state of his people ever since they had lost their independence and their freedom.  He says:

     And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garments and my mantle   
     rent, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God, saying:
     O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities
     have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From
     the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt; and for our iniquities we,
     our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the
     sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as at this day. But now for a brief
     moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant, and to give
     us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us
     a little reviving in our bondage. For we are bondmen; yet our God has not forsaken us in
     our bondage, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to
     grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us
     protection in Judea and Jerusalem. (Ezra 9:5-9, emphasis added)

Many who are living through this day foresee a scenario where America will not be saved, and the Church will exist almost entirely underground.  In such a scenario, perhaps a remnant will live to see some restoration of order, albeit in a broken and practically unrecognizable version of our native land.  New flags will fly in that future generation and we will be worshiping in new, but much smaller and more modest churches again.

If this sort of scenario comes true, like the parallel scenario lived by those Jews who returned to Jerusalem, then being part of such a remnant will entail much suffering.  It is reasonable to expect what Ezra spoke of: pillage, death by the sword, captivity, and utter shame.  But even such a fate, if those part of today’s remnant earn a brighter day for their children tomorrow, will give God glory.  And if it is His will, then being part of such a remnant is a glorious call to accept.  But understand that the call to action you must now face is this: get ready to suffer.

3. St. Paul and the remnant

Finally there is St. Paul’s use of the word remnant.  Which is the most epic.  In Romans 9 and Romans 11, he speaks of a remnant that will be saved by their acceptance of the New Covenant.  Throughout Romans, St. Paul elaborates on how Jews and Gentiles alike shall find salvation in the New Covenant.  

In chapter 11 he says

     Do you not know what the scripture says of Eli'jah, how he pleads with God against
     Israel? "Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have demolished thy altars, and I alone
     am left, and they seek my life." But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself
     seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Ba'al.’ So too at the present time
     there is a remnant, chosen by grace.” (Romans 11:2-5)

In Romans 9 he states,

     Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the
     sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved; for the Lord will execute his
     sentence upon the earth with rigor and dispatch." (Romans 9:28-29)

Here Saint Paul is speaking about the remnant that will be the Church at the end of time.  It will be made up of Jews who have accepted the salvation of Jesus Christ (see CCC 674 on the conversion of many Jews at the end times), and of course “the wild shoot” (Rom 11:17), the Gentiles whom God extended salvation to in the establishment of the New Covenant.

I strongly encourage you to read CCC 674, which addresses this phenomenon of conversion that will happen at “The glorious Messiah’s second coming”.  See its references to Romans 11 while you are at it.  The next three sections cover the “the final trial” “before Christ’s second coming” (675), the “Antichrist” (676) and the fulfillment of the kingdom at the end of the world, “not by a historic triumph of the Church… but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil” (677).   

I never thought I would witness so many people believe that they are in some way part of this remnant; those who will remain faithful at the end of the world.  But as the days go on, our conversations are indeed becoming more and more apocalyptic.  Which is fine, as long as we remember that our Lord told us “it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:7).  

For living in times like this should remind us that no matter what we believe we mean when we say that we are “part of remnant” at this time, our calling as Christians, and more specifically as Catholics is always to be ready for the end as well as our individual ends.  Is there value in observing the signs and assessing whether the end times are soon?  That we may be part of that remnant?  If observing just how real the current evil in this world is helps you keep watch and stay sober (1 Thess 5:6), then I think there is.  

Regardless, no matter if we are called to save America, to prepare a future generation for a better tomorrow, or to get ready for the end, our mission remains the same as it has been for the last 2000 years: prepare spiritually first and physically second.  Help to sanctify  and grow the remnant with all the evangelical powers you have.  Use these radical times and their amazing opportunities for grace to stay on fire for His greater glory.  The remnant has much to prepare for, but with God’s grace, we will be ready.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.

God Bless,

Gadfly