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The
Sign of the Son of Man
Although the parables
discussed in the previous
section are fairly easy to understand, Jesus also taught about
the rapture in even plainer terms.
In the great prophetic 24th
chapter of Matthew, the Lord spoke about the events that will occur just before
he returns.
In the last week before he
was crucified, Jesus taught his disciples about the rise of the Antichrist, the
future persecution of the believers, the Abomination
of Desolation, and even about the horrors of the Great
Tribulation.
In Matthew 24:29, he then goes on to tell them
about the sign of the Son of Man:
“Immediately after the
tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not
give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken.
“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.” Matthew
24:29-31
Just as in the previous prophecies we looked at concerning the
Return of Christ, the Lord says that the gathering together of His people will
be done through the actions of angels.
However, in this passage He
also adds some important details to his original teachings.
Christ says that all the
tribes of the earth will actually see Him
coming with great power and glory.
At this same time they will
also hear Him, because the event is said to be heralded by the great sound of a
trumpet.
This entire description seems to run diametrically against the
popular view of the rapture as being a secret and rapid disappearance of
Christians at the end.
Christ’s prophecies here seem
to imply that the gathering together of believers (i.e., the “elect”) will not
occur until He returns at the actual event of the Second Coming.
A merging of the rapture with
the Second Coming is certainly logical, since what is typically viewed as the
Second Coming would really turn out to be the Third Coming if a prior secret
return occurred first to remove only the believers.
There are some people, however, who try to explain away this
prophecy by saying that the Lord really wasn’t referring to the true rapture in
this prophecy, but was directing His words solely at the Jews or at the
so-called “tribulation saints.”
Those that espouse a secret
rapture event to remove all Christians prior to the rise of the Antichrist or
the terrible events of the end will say that Christ’s prediction in these
verses actually is referring to a second gathering of believers at the
end.
According to this view, these
people are supposedly those who come to believe after the rapture has occurred
and the Antichrist has arisen.
Especially people who hold to
the pre-tribulation or mid-tribulation positions are forced to explain this
passage as a secondary gathering of only Jewish believers at the Second Coming —
otherwise it would completely prevent the possibility that the pre-trib or
mid-trib theories are true.
However, as we will soon see,
this is simply not tenable considering the plain prophecies given by Jesus and
other prophets in the Bible.
Even more significant is how the Lord dates this occurrence with
respect to its relative positioning or timing among the other major events of
the end.
He
says right in the beginning of the prophecy that this entire sequence of events
including the gathering together of the elect will not occur until “after the
tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29; emphasis mine).
Could it be that Jesus
predicted in easy to understand language the precise timing of the
rapture? It certainly appears that he did.
However, nowhere in this chapter does Jesus imply that the Jews
are to be the sole recipients of His words.
Rather, in this entire
prophecy of the last days He is teaching about the general conditions that
would occur worldwide just before he returns.
Furthermore, trying to
separate Jewish believers from gentile believers in this way is simply not
scriptural.
Paul taught that all
believers regardless of whether they are Jewish or gentile are made to be one
through Christ (Ephesians
2:14-18).
It doesn’t matter if a person
is Jewish, Italian, Chinese, American, or whatever background; if an individual
repents of his sins and turns to Christ in faith he or she becomes a member of
the family of God and his national heritage or ethnic background no longer
matters.
In reality, nationalities
mean nothing to God; and in the age to come where the followers of Jesus will
have immortal bodies and live in paradise they will mean nothing to us as well.
It is obvious that the Lord is talking here about the gathering
together of all believers
when he returns and not just one select group.
He describes the rapture in
such a way that it’s simply not possible to call it a “secret” event, nor even
a “disappearance”.
In fact, in this one
description we find conditions that are considerably different from anything
usually put forth by the popular teachings of today.
According to the details Jesus gives us in this prophecy we can
now add the following points to our list of characteristics concerning the
rapture (see previous sections for the first three characteristics):
4. It will occur after the tribulation.
5. All the world will actually see the Lord coming and the
angels gathering his people.
6. The angels will be sent forth with a great sound of a
trumpet.
Some people have also tried to imply that the Lord was wrong in
his teaching on this subject, or at least he didn’t have all the information
necessary to fully prophesy about it.
Sometimes I even hear it said
that his disciples were later given the complete picture of the “secret” rapture
that Jesus couldn’t see.
This kind of thinking is
foolishness. The Lord of the universe is the one who originally gave
insight to all the prophets concerning the future — including his
disciples.
Just because He lived as a
man when He taught these things doesn’t mean He was devoid of understanding or
limited in knowledge.
In fact, contrary to what
some have believed, the disciples actually taught about the rapture in the very
same terms that Christ did.
Not only did they keep the
terminology and relative chronology of events the same, but their words also
add important details concerning another major aspect of the rapture, namely
the resurrection of the dead.
End Times Truth is about warning people
that the Coming of Christ is near and that we are living in the last days just
before His Return. During our lifetime, Bible predictions concerning the Second
Coming have been fulfilled exactly as they were described thousands of years
ago. Jesus said that we could know that his coming was near if we watched
world events and compared them to what was predicted. As the prophecies
come true before our eyes, we know that we are getting closer to the end.
While it is true that the world is heading toward a judgment day, individuals
can escape through knowledge of the truth combined with repentance and faith in
Christ.
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