RFC: Tribulation Rapture, Matt 24

Matthew 24

22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. […]

29 “Immediately after the distress of those days “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’[b]

30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.[d] 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it[e] is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

[…] 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Because of the apocalyptic language and end-times references, while much of this could refer primarily to earlier times (I’ve heard that argument) it reasonable to add this to this list of end times descriptions, especially since you referenced parts in your sermon.

First, the timeframe is a time of distress. The days are shortened for the sake of the elect, specifically their very survival. Watching will help us be ready. And therefore, there must be something to watch.

Here is an event where no one knows the day or the hour, but the Lord considers it important for us to be able to tell when it is near, so we are given guidance. This does not contradict the necessity of us being ready for him when he comes at such an unexpected hour, and in fact is meant to help us.

Immediately after you have major cosmic events, then you have the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, followed by the peoples of the earth mourning when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, which is already reminiscent of Acts 1. The Son of Man comes with power and great glory. He will send his angels, again, with a loud trumpet call. And at this time he gathers his elect from the four winds (living saints on earth, presumably) and from all over heaven (dead saints).

The context of Matt 24 is heavy with judgment. In fact the whole theme of being prepared is more fully flushed out in the three parables of Matt 25 which end in the final, end-time judgment separation of sheep and goats.

You now have this short theme discussing a taking away in judgment, similar to Noah’s day. I think MacArthur was the first to clue me into the possibility that those taken away (as in a rapture event) aren’t in fact the saved, it’s the ones left behind.

And therefore we’re told to keep watch because we don’t know the day or the hour. But in this case, we are specifically told about prophetic events including a massive time of distress that would kill everyone unless God shortened it, which precedes cosmic events, which precedes the apocalyptic coming of Christ and usher’s in final judgment language.

We are also told that when we see these things, we will know it’s near. So we are supposed to recognize the signs when they happen, and when we do it will make a difference in our lives. If a rapture happens suddenly, preceded by nothing, this instruction is useless for the people it’s directed to.

So this may not be useful as a rapture passage anyway, if those “taken away” are for judgment, but if Christ’s return in the clouds is one in glory only, then this precludes a prior rapture.

In 1 Thess 4, we go to meet Jesus in the air in the clouds as he comes down. When he comes down in the clouds, in Matt 24, all the people of the world mourn. In Acts 1, his first return to his people is via these clouds.

This seems to suggest then a consistency where when Jesus does not return to the world until after the Tribulation is completed (Rev 19-20) and at that time you have the “changing” and “resurrection” events fully and properly for the Church. Christ takes us while he is in the air, returning, but he doesn’t stop his descent to set up the kingdom of earth.


Objection 1:

Matthew 24. Verses 1-2 speak of the destruction of the Temple (presumably the one that took place in 70 AD). After that, Jesus speaks of the events leading up to His return to earth (the Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation period). Yes, this is parallel to the Acts 1 reference. The "elect" here are those referred to in Revelation 7 above. They get saved due to the worldwide preaching of the gospel that takes place during the Tribulation, as mentioned in v. 14. When Jesus says "you", He's referring to the nation of Israel. This is the focus of Matthew's gospel, and it was Jesus' specific focus at the end of chapter 23 leading up to the discourse that begins in chapter 24. He was warning Israel (and the nations that would experience the Tribulation), not the Church. 1 Thessalonians 4 must be a different (and prior) event, since there He takes the elect to be with Him (to the Father's house, as in John 14); they leave the earth. Whereas in Matthew 24, He returns to the earth and begins the judgment of the nations followed by the Millenium on earth. The U-turn theory {{DJP: i.e. we go up to meet Christ and then immediately return to Earth with Him}} doesn't make sense, and doesn't fit the other biblical data.

As for the destruction of all the unbelievers when Christ returns, see His judgment of the nations in Matthew 25:31-46. Yes, there will be unbelievers during the Millennium, but they are apparently born to believers during the Millennium. In fact, there will be so many of them that Satan, after being released at the end of the Millennium, will enlist them in one final battle against Christ [Rev 20:7-10].

And yet, history records that early Christians did take this warning seriously and fled to the hills and were spared the Roman destruction that rained down no Israel.

So, here the argument is made that this information is primarily directed to the people living during the Tribulation who are not necessarily the elect. I can see this. But we still haven’t proven at this point that there are no elect living at this time. In fact, those distressful days prior to the Lord’s coming are shortened for the sake of the survival of the elect who evidently live at that time. V32 starts several parallels for those days of distress, that precede the Lord’s coming. If we take them, as written in the chapter, to come after the Lord’s coming which is then a pre-tribulation rapture, then you have to deal with all the obvious signs to the world that are supposed to be not-actually evident yet at the rapture and that’s another headache with less than satisfying explanations (my opinion).

So, we’re left with another explanation applied to this passage, but I don’t think we’ve proved what we need, which is that the Church is absolutely taken up prior to the tribulation. We have to explain who these elect are, these believers are at this time, but without indication that they are absolutely distinct.