Nail #8

Evidence and proof negating the Pre-tribulation Rapture

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard Christians tell me, “No one knows the day or the hour” but no one has ever been able to tell me the verse, or the chapter that it was said - a few have guessed the correct Gospel (Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32). While that is true, they all believe that statement generally, not literally. Jesus spoke those words in context of the Olivet Discourse and He intended that to be understood literally, the day or the hour. We CAN know when His return (and the rapture) is near.  How can I say that with confidence?  Back up a few verses and look at 32 and 33

Matthew 24:32-33
32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

Jesus said we would KNOW that it is near. The word know is ginosko, the same word used many other times in the context of learning to know, acquiring knowledge, to understand. We will KNOW when His return is near - and He is not referring to hinting, suggesting, or guessing. We will KNOW when His return is near based on facts, not feelings. We will KNOW when His return is near based on biblical events that we will witness, not speculative synopses of biblical scholars.

Now remember, Jesus is talking to the apostles, the church fathers. He is teaching them, and later he said to teach the believers everything that He commanded them. So in effect, Jesus’s Words are recorded here for our, you and me, OUR instruction and edification. So when Jesus said “when ye shall see all these things,” what are “all these things” to which He was referring? EVERYTHING that He spoke of in Matthew 24:4-31! So, when WE Christians see “all these things” (all the events in the preceding verses) WE Christians are to KNOW (ginosko) that IT is near, even at the doors.

Now, what is the “IT” to which Jesus is referring?

Well, Jesus just spoke ALL of the preceding after being asked three questions by the apostles. Look at 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 apostles asked, “When shall these things be...” - which Jesus ignored in Matthew's Gospel, “...what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” First you have to realize that the apostles knew that His coming and the end of the world would happen at the same “event” - at His return (parousia - noun). The IT in verse 33 is the sign of His coming (v 30) and what is one of the first things He does at the sign of His coming (parousia)? Answer - The rapture of the church (v 31)!!!

Matthew 24:30-31
30  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.
31  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.

Bottom Line - Even though we don’t know, nor will we ever know, the day or the hour, we will see “all these things” and in doing so, we will know His return is near, even at the doors as Jesus said in verse 33.