This is an excerpt from a project I am working on. I thought I would post it online for my readers.
Matthew 24:36-44
“But of that day and hour knoweth
no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.
And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man. For as
in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall be the
coming of the Son of man. Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken, and
one is left: two women shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is
left. Watch therefore: for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh. But know
this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was
coming, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be
broken through. Therefore be ye also ready; for in an hour that ye think not
the Son of man cometh” (ASV).
(Parallel passages: Mark
13:32-37; Luke 12:39-40; 17:26-30, 34-36[i];
21:34-36)
If you go back to chapter eleven,
Noah and Lot, you can read again what I wrote there about why the day and hour
of the rapture of the church is similar to the days of Noah and the days of
Lot. What I wrote there is not the traditional perspective that the church
usually hears but nonetheless the likenesses are similar. The generation of
both Noah and Lot had strikingly similar social environments like the
generation that witnesses the end of the church-age—this generation is the
final generation of the church-age, because the generation that witnessed the
rebirth of Israel on May 14, 1948 will also witness the Messiah’s second
appearance on the very last day of the seven-year Tribulation Period
(Matt.24:32-34; Mk.13:28-30; Lk.22:29-32).
Noah’s escape from the Great Flood
is usually thought of as an event symbolic to the rapture of the church. Noah a
righteous man, compared to the people of his generation, was without blemish;[ii]
he was a man that was in communication with Yahweh (Gen.6:9). His relationship
with Yahweh is symbolic of the body of Christ. The church is sanctified in
Christ and called to be holy (1 Cor.1:2), the church is to be without spot or
wrinkle, holy and without blemish (Eph.5:25-27). Noah was warned that Yahweh
was going to judge the earth because of its corruption by its inhabitants, the
Lord said he would establish a covenant with him so that Noah and his family
could escape this judgement by building an ark, and when finished they were to enter
it (Gen.6:13-14, 18). Because God has established a covenant with the body of Christ,
he promises a way of escape for the church by snatching us out of the world (1
Thess.1:10; 4:16-17) before he judges the world for its disobedience (Rom.2:5;
5:9; Eph.5:6; Col.3:6). The flood came once the ark was built that saved Noah
and his family, they escaped the wrath of God that came upon the inhabitants of
the earth at that time. The rapture is coming to snatch away the body of Christ
before God releases his wrath upon the inhabitants of the earth during the
seven-year Tribulation Period.
The rescue of Lot and his family
out of the city of Sodom by the two angels before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
can also be compared to the rapture of the church. The rapture of the church is meant to redeem
the body of Christ out of the world before the wrath of God will be released upon
the inhabitants of the earth (Gen.19.1-25; Rev.6-19). The apostle Peter said
that Lot was a righteous man, who was sickened by the perversion of the people
of Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Pet.2:7). He may have been the person that cried out
to Yahweh about the lascivious behavior of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah
(Gen.18:20-21). Lot is a picture of the body of Christ, Sodom and Gomorrah is a
picture of the world in this generation; the last days of the church-age.
Both Noah and Lot were warned by
Yahweh and his angels of the impending judgement that was to come upon the
people of their respective generations (Gen.6:13; 19:12-13), and likewise the
body of Christ living in the final days of the church-age have been warned
through Scripture of the forthcoming judgement about to occur upon the
inhabitants of the earth during Israel’s seventieth-week period. (Rom.2:5; 5:9;
Eph.5:6; Col.3:6; Rev.6-19).
As I pointed out in chapter
eleven, this passage and the parallel passages above do not refer to Christ’s
second appearance at the end of Israel’s seventieth-week period. Some people
believe that and just cannot move off that error. To be fair to these people,
Luke 17:22-24 & 31-33 do refer to the Tribulation Period, the time period
after the church is raptured. There is a mixture of both Tribulation and pre-Tribulation
information blended together in Luke chapter seventeen which could make it
confusing to some people. It is the same in Matthew chapter twenty-four as I
wrote in chapter thirteen, where there is a mixture of pre-Tribulation
information (Matt.24:4-8, 32-51), and Tribulation information (Matt.24:9-31). In
Luke chapter twenty-one there is also a mixture of pre-Tribulation information
(Lk.21:9-10, 29-36), and Tribulation information (Lk.21:8,11-28). In Mark’s gospel the mixture is as follows; pre-Tribulation
information (Mk.13:7-8, 28-37), and Tribulation information (Mk.13:5-6, 9-27).
How do I know that Matthew
24:36-44 above, and the parallel passages that accompany them refer to the
rapture of the church and not the Lord’s second appearance into the world to
redeem Israel? I know because of what these passages clearly prophesy. These
Scriptures say that when the day and hour of the Lord’s coming occurs no one
will have precise knowledge of its timing, nobody will know the exact day and
hour this event will occur (Matt.24:36,42,44; 25:13; Mk.13:32-33,35;
Lk.12:39-40)[iii].
But at Christ’s second appearance the bible predicts the exact day that it will
happen. It will happen on the final day of Israel’s seventieth-week period, on
day 2,520. I mentioned in chapter nine how long Israel’s seventieth-week period
will be to the day, and on the last day Israel’s Messiah will be anointed by
the Jewish people that make it through alive to the end (Dan.9:24). I wrote in
that chapter that on day 2,520 of the
seventieth-week period, Jesus Christ will be seen dressed in a garment dipped
in blood as he comes out of the eternal realm on a white horse ready to judge the
fallen angels and their earthly followers (Rev.19:11-15). On this day he
appears a second time to the nation of Israel to present himself as their king,
this is why they then anoint him this time as is prophesied, unlike the first
time he presented himself as their king and instead they rejected him (Lk.19:28-43,
44).
In chapter seven I wrote that Jesus presented himself as their king right
on the very day prophesied by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel
(Dan.9:26a). On day 173,880 of Israel’s sixty-ninth week Israel’s religious
leaders rejected their Messiah, they cut him off.[iv] That
was Palm Sunday, the week he was crucified. Just as Israel’s Messiah’s first
appearance was prophesied correctly to the day, so also is the day of his
second appearance to Israel is prophesied correctly to the day. To have
knowledge of the precise day of his second appearance one must understand that
Israel’s seventieth-week begins the day the Antichrist forces Israel and the
Palestinian government to sign a covenant (Dan.9:26b-27a). From the day Israel signs
the covenant with the Palestinian government there is a total of 2,520 days
until Judah then anoints the Most Holy, their Anointed One. But the day and
hour of the rapture of the church is not prophesied to the day, only the season
of this event is prophesied as I have already written. This is why the church
was warned before it was even born to be alert, watch and pray, because it does
not know the hour it will happen. The church is to keep watch and not be found
sleeping (living a worldly lifestyle) when the rapture of the church occurs.
Because the church does not know the day and hour of the rapture, we have
to be careful not to be like the world, living a life of intoxication, being
overpowered by the troubles of this life, in other words acting as the world
does, because the rapture will happen all of a sudden without an immediate alert
signal giving the church a five-minute warning to get ready to be snatched out
of the world. There will be no emergency alert sound off on the Christian’s
mobile phone to snap the sleepy Christian out of his worldly behavior just
before the trumpet sounds. Therefore, we must be ready beforehand and work continually
at being like our God, walking in righteousness and true holiness (Eph.4:24). We must work at being imitators of God so that
we can walk in love (Eph.5:1-2). The rapture will affect everyone that is alive
at the time it occurs because the seven-year Tribulation Period is then approaching
(Lk.21:35). The person that believes in Jesus Christ must pray that he will be
ready when the rapture occurs so that he will escape the Tribulation Period.
The Christian must watch for the rapture to happen and pray that he can stand
when he meets the Lord in the air (Lk.21:36).
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[i]
Some Greek manuscripts omit verse #36
[ii]
[iv] If
you need to; go back and read chapter seven again to get understanding of the seventy
weeks decreed upon the nation of Israel.
