Many prophecy teachers teach that “one taken” in Matthew 24 and Luke 17 is the rapture of the church. I understand why. It does bear a resemblance to the rapture. I myself have used them as types of the rapture. But it is a mistake to teach that these passage are directly addressing the rapture of the church. In this video I give five reasons why this “taking” is associated with Armageddon and the second coming, not the rapture of the church. And I show from the Bible what event at the second coming involves a fifty-fifty split of the ungodly and the godly.
1 Comment
Gregory Annett
February 8, 2024 at 9:50 amI don’t see how you can use the days of Noah to prove the pre-trib rapture, and then turn around and say that one will be taken is NOT the rapture, when it is in exactly the same pre-trib context of the days of Noah. How can this be a post-trib “taking”, when we have already demonstrated that the church was already taken at the beginning of the tribulation, and will return with Jesus at the second coming to rule and reign during the millennium? To look at it another way, what is to become of those who are left? Surely that makes no sense if we place this event in a post-trib context, because those who are left can’t be allowed to enter the millennium, as they are not saved. And those who are taken in a post-trib context, where are they taken to? They can’t be taken to heaven because the church just left heaven and is returning to earth with Christ. I would also say that “no man knows the day nor the hour” in v36 refers directly to the context of v35 which is the day when heaven and earth pass away. I really believe Jesus deliberately dropped this rapture reference in Matthew 24 as a kind of “prequel” to indicate to the Jews who are reading the Olivet Discourse now, that they too have the option of being saved and raptured, and that they are NOT predestined to go through the tribulation just because they have Jewish blood or are part of the modern nation of Israel. There is a small elect group of Israeli Jews today who won’t have to go through that meat grinder of the tribulation to find faith, and we know this is true, because there is a small Messianic church in Israel and around the world which remains faithful to their Jewish identity, but have also fully accepted that Jesus is the Messiah. These are what we call “completed Jews”. The Olivet Discourse is for them, and it’s both a warning and a promise. For those who DO get left behind, and DO go through the meat grinder, and read the Olivet Discourse DURING the tribulation, it is validation of the events that are happening around them, and of their destiny as tribulation saints, to be martyred, and find their faith and their salvation THAT way. That’s the only way I can understand this.