Rapture of church in matthew 24 debunked?

Does Matthew 24:35-41 refer to the Rapture of the Church as some teach?

By Brother Zephaniah

05/02/2023

The Rapture of the Church in Matthew 24:29-41 Debunked? Slide 2

The basic comments on this view are:-

1. Matthew’s Gospel was written to prove that Jesus Christ is King of Israel.

2. Written long after the Epistles like the Gospel of Luke and Acts it was giving “the history” of what had happened at the beginning. This explains why the Gospels and Acts are considered under the Canon as “New Testament History.”

3. The dividing line between the Testaments from Hebrews 9:17-19 is the Resurrection. It is noteworthy that Jesus Christ’s teaching ministry was strictly to Israel (Matt. 15:24).

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Angels Gathering the ElectIn Matthew 24:29-31, Jesus Christ was speaking to Jews (the disciples) who were living under the Old Testament. He mentioned the Jewish temple (Matthew 24:15), and Daniel's 70 Weeks prophecy and "those who are in Judea" (Matthew 24:16), and the Jewish Sabbath (Matthew 24:20), and then He described the Second Coming and the gathering of the “Elect." The entire context of these statements seems to be Jewish in nature, and Jesus' audience of the disciples would have interpreted "his elect" as being the nation of Israel as the only "elect" group of people on earth at that time was the nation of Israel. After the Church was born we still see the Apostles assuming that only the Jews were the "elect," because they were shocked when God granted salvation to some Gentiles (Acts 10:44-11:18).So all of the evidence seems to show that Israel is “His Elect" in Matthew 24:29-31, not the Church.

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Rapture of the Church in verses 31 – 41?Matthew arranged his Gospel by topic and not by chronology, a characteristic of Luke’s Gospel.

If we compare scripture with scripture we see that the same text is in Luke 17:26 – 36 given in answer to the demand of the Pharisees of when the kingdom would come.

In that portion of scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ was answering the Pharisees therefore it is highly unlikely that he referred to the Rapture of the Church (a mystery hidden with God that was revealed to the Apostle Paul).

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Why the various positions taken by good Bible Prophecy teachers?From my study of Bible Prophecy and search of the truth over several years as a sheep, I have concluded that the answer to that questions lies in:-

1.Varying Definitions: The Tribulation, Great Tribulation, Persecution of the Saints are not defined the same way.

2.Scriptures: that are used to support the position arrived at are different.

3.Other Prophecy Passages: like Daniel 7 are used to define the structure of Matthew 24 before the passage is interpreted.

4.Position Taken: These Teachers take positions as pre-Trib, pre-Wrath, etc. As a result they are (in most cases) no longer open to review their position.

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The Best ApproachThe best approach in my view is to recognize the following key issues and from the second arrive at the correct interpretation:-

1.Matthew wrote his Gospel according to Topic and NOT chronology. As a result, his writings are like a puzzle that must be correctly put together to arrive at the correct translation.

2. The Writers of the Bible did not write in a linear logical way that we are used to in Western Culture reading and writing. The majority of the writers like Matthew wrote using “circularity” as outlined in the following slide.

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The writings of the authors of the Bible were NOT distinguished by Upper or Lower case Letters, paragraphs, punctuation, numbering/bulleting and other literary devices we commonly use. They wrote in a circular way instead. Circularity (called Chiasmus) is depicted diagrammatically as shown below:- A’ A

B’ B

C

The resulting structure would be:- 1. The Overview: A – B,2. The Main Thought : C3. The Details: B’ – A’

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The advantages of this method was:-

1. The Word witnesses to itself and it would be easy to check that the scriptural passage as written was complete and correct/accurate.

2. The main thought/focus of the Writer could be determined, and

3. The details section would expand/explain what was covered in the overview.

ParallelismSometimes two passages would be written with a parallel relationship. There would be no central thought/idea/focus.I am now convinced that without a knowledge of the Chiastic Structure, it is very difficult to correctly interpret Bible Prophecy passages.

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The Chiastic Structure of Matthew 24:1-51 is shown below:-A And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples .. thrown down. B And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto

him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

C And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; ..

D When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) … except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

C’ Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, .. as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

B’ Immediately after the tribulation .. the sign of the Son of man .. see the Son of man coming .. he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect. ..in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

A’ Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord .. gnashing of teeth.

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The summarized Chiastic correspondence is:-

Chiasms A, A’. The Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples in Chiasm A correspond to the servants and their lord in A’.Chiasms B, B’: In Chiasm B, the disciples ask the three questions: When shall these things happen, What shall be the sign of thy Coming and of the End of the World? In Chiasm B’ the answers are given (see the Sign of the Son of Man, Son of man Coming in the clouds and Angels gathering Elect [The End? More on this later] This happens after the Great Tribulation. Verse 29.In Chiasms C, C’ the admonition of the Lord is to take heed because of the False Christs and False Prophets that shall arise, etc.The Centre of the Chiasm [Focus] is the Great Tribulation. Matthew 24:15-22 which shall be cut short.

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The Interpretation – Chiasms B and B’The Overview: Matthew 24:1-14.

Matthew 24:3, “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

The Details/Explanations: Matthew 24:23-51

Matthew 24:30-31, “And then shall appear the Sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

So when does the gathering of the Elect happen?

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The gathering of the Elect from the chiastic placing must of necessity occur at the Second Coming (which incidentally is visible) of the Lord and therefore cannot be referring to the Rapture of the Church?What other Bible passages support this conclusion?Matthew 13:39, “The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.”

Matthew 13:47-49, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just..”

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Use of Original LanguagesI am not an expert on origional languages. The following is from Strong’s Concordance / available Bible Software.

“Gather” versus “Rapture”What did the Lord Jesus Christ mean when He said that His angels will "gather [episunago] his elect from the four winds?"

The Rapture will certainly be a "gathering" in which Christians will meet together with Christ in the air, but the Greek word for "gather" which Jesus used (episunago) is never used in the Bible in reference to the Rapture. Instead, the Greek word harpazo (which means "catch (away, up), pluck, pull, take (by force)," according to Strong's Greek Dictionary) is used in reference to the Rapture, indicating that Christians will all be "caught up" off of the earth to meet Christ in the air.

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The Greek word for "gather" in Matthew 24:29-31 is only used for earthly gatherings of people. In addition to Matthew 24:31, here are all of the other places where that Greek word is used: 1 Kings 18:20, 2 Chronicles 20:26, Zechariah 14:2, Matthew 23:37, Mark 1:32-34, Luke 12:1, 13:34.

Scriptures referring to a scattering to the four winds include:-"Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations. …I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds. Therefore …and a third I will scatter to the winds …sword." (Ezekiel 5:8-12)"Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north," declares the LORD, "for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven," declares the LORD. "Come, O Zion! Escape, you who live in the Daughter of Babylon!" (Zechariah 2:6-7)

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The Timing of the Rapture of the Church

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The Rapture Marks the Start of the Day of the Lord?Those who teach a pre-Wrath Rapture say (quoting Mr. Charles Cooper), “Therefore, as one compares the six seals to the events outlined in the Olivet Discourse, one quickly sees that the rapture must occur after the Seventieth Week of Daniel begins, after the mid-point of that same Week has begun, and after Satan/Antichrist’s persecution of the Church is cut short (Matt. 24:22) when the sign of the eschatological Day of the Lord and the parousia of Christ is given in the sun, moon, and stars.”My Comments1. From Revelation 12:6 and 14 the Great

Tribulation is the persecution of the Woman Israel [NOT THE CHURCH] who flees to protective Custody of 1,260 days. This persecution is cut short as per Matthew 24:22.

*NB The Woman will need time to flee *

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I think that the diagram presented in an earlier slide showing the various timings of the Rapture of the Church may not be accurate. The 70Th Week of Daniel is going to occur during a Jubilee Period with 2550 days [1,260 + 30 (additional month) + 1260 = 2,550 days.]

The midpoint is a period of 30 days which gives sufficient time for the Woman to flee into the wilderness from the persecution of the Dragon. Revelation 12:13-16.

* This is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) that he will be saved from / The Great Tribulation where those in Judea MUST flee to the mountains. *

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2. The Antichrist is given power to rule for 42 months [last half of Daniel’s 70th Week] which coincides with the time that Israel is in protective custody. From Revelations 12:17 and Daniel 7:21,25 he wages War on the Saints [Remnant of the Woman’s Seed “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”] and they are given into his hand for 3 ½ years.

3. Joel 2:31 says clearly that, “the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood BEFORE the great and terrible Day of the Lord come.” This is confirmed by Joel 3:14, “Multitudes and multitudes in the valley of decision for the Day of the Lord IS NEAR in the valley of decision, ” which refers to the Nations gathered in the Valley of Jehoshaphat for Armageddon.

NB.The Great Tribulation and War on the Saints are two different and separate events. The Great Tribulation is cut short [Matthew 24:22] but the War on the Saints is for a period of exactly 1,260 days/3 ½ years [Daniel 7:25; Revelation 12:17].

The Rapture of the Church in Matthew 24:29-41 Debunked?05/02/2023

Slide 19

What saith the Apostle Paul?1.The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3 indicated that

the Church was a mystery hidden with God from the foundation of the World. That mystery was revealed to him. Ephesians 3. The future destiny of the Church must therefore be contained in his Epistles in 1 Cor. 15, 1 Thess. 4:13-18, 2 Thess. 2:1-3 which were written decades before the Gospels.

2.In his writings on the Rapture, the Apostle Paul indicated that Christians are going to be changed “in the twinkling of an eye,” (cf. Two women... one will be taken, another left from Matt. 24.) and “mortality puts on immortality” at the Rapture of the Church.

Question? “Would Angels be needed to “gather” the translated, immortal Christians?”

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The Multitude from the NationsRevelation 7:10,13-4, "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;“ … And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.“The multitude come out from Great Tribulation which starts at the Abomination of Desolation and ends BEFORE the opening of the 6th Seal as per Matthew 24:15, 29. * Is this referring to the Rapture of the Church? Note that it fulfills the conditions of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-7.*

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ConclusionThe Rapture of the Church is a mystery which though revealed to the Apostle Paul [1 Cor. 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:16-17] still requires the Holy Spirit to enlighten the understanding.

See Ephesians 1:18.

This explains why some Bible Teachers claim there is “no secret Rapture.”

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Rapture of church in matthew 24 debunked?