End Time Scriptures

Last week we looked at this fascinating thing that we call the “Rapture,” or the catching away of the Church, ending the Gentile age that we call the Church age. This will usher in the end of time as we have known it. Very important times we are in! Wars and rumors of wars, kingdom against kingdom, famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. Sounds like the evening news on secular TV.

But all this just leads up to the rapture or catching away of the Church, and this is what I want to talk about today. This passage I just quoted is in KJV of Matthew 24:6&7. Jesus is the one who spoke those words, and much more to his disciples as they left the Temple, and they wanted Him to see how marvelous the Temple was built.

Jesus looked at it and said to them that not one stone would be left standing on top of another. This shook them up, and as they walked together they came unto the Mount of Olives, where they gathered around him again, and asked him for some inside information as to when he should become the Messiah and deliver them from Roman oppression, and set up the Jewish nation once again, and without end this time.

Today I want to discuss all the scriptures that refer to the rapture; and we will start with a look once again at Matthew 24:27; “for as lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” This is also repeated in Luke 17:24, so once again we have two witnesses to establish this as doctrine to the Church. KJV

As I explained in my letter “In The Twinkling Of An Eye,” Jesus was setting the stage for how fast the rapture would take place. You can read it before you continue on with this letter if you have not read it before as it will help you understand what we discuss next.

Look at Matthew 24:31 as it tells us, “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.” I believe verse 27 is setting the stage for verse 31, and verses 28-30 are about the second coming of our Lord Jesus. The rapture is not the second coming, as the only ones who see Him are his Church.

Why is it separated? I really don’t know other than to say this is how God works. He knows we are date setters, and He said no one knows except Him. I am just writing down my thoughts, just as every commentator has done before me. Read it and decide for yourself. I will skip over the fig tree generation as I have just written about it in my blog, “Is Israel the Fig Tree of Matthew 24:32.”

Now the next scripture that I believe talks about the Church being raptured is in Matthew 24:40-42, “Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” The same verbiage is repeated by Luke in chapter 17:34-36; “I tell you, in that night there shall be two in one bed; the one taken, and the other shall be left. Two shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two shall be in the field, the one shall be taken, and the other left. “

I have purposely left out the words men and women as that is how the original Greek translation has it written. Why the KJV has those two words added is beyond me, as they really were not needed to make the verse more accurate, or easier to understand.

These two references to the rapture are so clear that it takes an education to misunderstand them. That is all the references that I know of in the four gospels. If you know of more please send me a message.

Now let’s go over to Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52. Here Paul is explaining to his readers that God will change their mortal bodies in the twinkling of an eye, he explains to them that they are not to be concerned or wonder what will happen to them in that day. “We shall not all sleep (die), but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed.”

Paul has given his readers the hope that they needed to carry on and be sure that God was in control, even to the smallest detail of their lives. I find it interesting that he uses almost the same wording that Matthew and Luke used explaining how fast it will happen. Matthew and Luke used lightning as they explained it. Paul used the words twinkling of an eye. I just love studying the word of God and it’s many exciting words that explain the gospel in the terminology of someone so long ago, before any of our more modern inventions and language that we use today.

What does the word twinkling mean? The Greek word is rhipe, 4493 is the number in Strongs Concordance, and it means= a jerk of the eye or in our modern times we say, as a blink of an eye, very fast, very quick sudden motion. Mr. Webster defined it as “a winking of the eye, the time required for a wink.

So we can see that whatever God will do to us in that instant will happen in the blink of an eye, we will be like Him, as He takes us all home in an instant of time. I for one can hardly wait for this to happen. Don’t get me wrong as I love this life on earth that I have, but all the things that can happen and does happen to us will be over in an instant of time, as He takes His children home to be with Him forever.

Next week we will try to close out this study on the rapture. I am sometimes a slow learner, and it takes me awhile to realize that most people will not take the time to read endless words from my pen. So I will try to keep all my future blogs to around one thousand words.

As always I want to remind you that you will make it, just don’t give up. See you next week as we study Gods word together.

In His Service As Kilted Priest