50 Days to Understanding the End-Times More Accurately - Day 23 - "Olivet Discourse": Armageddon or Rapture?
DAY 23 - “Olivet Discourse”: Armageddon or Rapture? - 2
As we prepare to compare, let’s review what is said of the “coming” spoken of in the “Olivet Discourse”.
“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 24:30-31)
“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.” (Mark 13:26-27)
In these “Olivet Discourse” passages we find the following information.
Jesus appears in the clouds, and sends His angels with a great sound of a trumpet to gather His elect.
Some will claim that the “elect” are the Jews of future Israel, but every other time “elect” is used to refer to humans in the New Testament, it is simply referring to believers (saints).
When we compare this information with the “Battle of Armageddon” return characteristics from Zechariah, we notice a difference.
Though Jesus was sitting upon the Mount of Olives when He gave the “Olivet Discourse”, He makes no mention of it at all, much less it splitting in half.
He could have easily cited such as evidence that He was not yet returned in verses such as this, “And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not:” (Mark 13:21).
If Christ added, “For the Mount of Olives is not split” after “believe him not”, it would be exponentially more difficult for false Christs to deceive the people.
Additionally, no angels or trumpet are mentioned in Zechariah 14:3-5.
Perhaps the most persuasive piece of evidence (besides Christ landing on the Mount of Olives and splitting it) would be that Zechariah states that He will come with “all the saints”.
“All” is a very important number.
There would be no need to gather any more unto Him, if they were already all with Him.
When we compare the 1 Thessalonians “rapture passage” to the event described in the “Olivet Discourse”, what do we find?
First, Christ is in the air in both passages, and believers are gathered together to Him.
Also, we read of “a great sound of a trumpet” in the “Olivet Discourse” and “the trump of God” in 1 Thessalonians.
Though only one angel is mentioned in the “rapture passage” (“with a shout, with the voice of the archangel”) and multiple angels (“then shall he send his angels”) in the “Olivet Discourse”, there is specific mention of angelic presence in each of these passages, which Zechariah does not mention.
You can look into this issue more for yourself, but based upon what I can determine thus far from Scripture, I am sure that you can reason why I believe that the coming mentioned in the “Olivet Discourse” appears to have much more in common with Christ’s rapture return than with His coming for the “Battle of Armageddon.”
Point #1: Similarities between the “coming” described in the “Olivet Discourse” and what we are told about Christ’s coming for the “Battle of Armageddon” do not seem to exist.
Point #2: Many similarities exist between the “rapture passage” in 1 Thessalonians and the coming described in the “Olivet Discourse”.
2+2=4
Thanks, @narrowminded
In case you missed them,
Introduction
Back Cover
1 : The Foundation
2 : The Tribulation
BONUS : A Biblical, New Testament Understanding of Tribulation
3 : The Seventieth Week of Daniel
4 : Not Appointed to Wrath
5 : Wrath vs. Tribulation
6 : The Day of the Lord
7 : The Lord Alone
8 : The Exaltation of the Antichrist
9 : Promises
10 : The Presupposition
11 : 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4
12 : The Revealing of the Antichrist
13 : Same Day - 1
14 : Same Day -2
15 : Hand in Hand
16 : Overtake You as a Thief
17 : Another Thief
18 : Not Knowing the Day or Hour - 1
19 : Not Knowing the Day or Hour - 2
20 : Not Knowing the Day or Hour - 3
21 : Ignorance
22 : "Olivet Discourse" : Armageddon or Rapture? - 1
It seems natural to assume that everyone is gathered to Him on His way to touch down.
"The dead in Christ" are "gathered from one end of Heaven to the other."
"Those who are still alive" are "gathered from the four winds" on the earth.
That puts everybody with Him when he touches down to split the mountain.
Doesn't leave much time to train the new forces for battle though...
We must get a Matrix-style download of new skills and knowledge "in the twinkling of an eye."
When He appears, we shall be as He is.
Loving your work here "Brother Narrow" and my apologies that I've been less than interactive, and that I'm not on this profile often enough to really keep up. Just wanted to pass on an encouragement to keep on Steeming and bringing good Christian work to the platform.
Thank you for that, and I am not so interactive myself, as I only login about once a day to post quick, but I am trying to catch up on responding to replies as they seem to be building up more quickly, which is good news, I guess.
I want to to also say that wait for each new "Day". Thanks for making this available. Please let me know when your book will be available. If you decide to self publish I can help. I have done it, see United States Founding Documents Collectors Edition .
Thank you for that. I was hoping that the daily installments of this devotional would be interesting and educational enough that people would want to follow along. I guess your reply means that you are ready for the next one, so I will post that shortly.