Hello,
John and Doves,
Brother Lewis, may I respectfully say that the passage
you refer to--Matt 24:40-41--
is a
record of the words of Jesus to His disciples in response to the
question,
"When
will these things be, and what will be the sign of Thy
coming?"
As
such, they are not the words of Matthew to anyone--let alone the Jew,
whether
believing or not, or dead or alive, etc.,
etc..
Now,
if any rapture happens at the time of Jesus' Second Coming, then it is a
sign, alright.
However, it does no one any
good.
Let's
see how this works. If you put a sign on a road that says, "BRIDGE OUT
AHEAD."
How
far back from the ruined bridge is it advisable to put the sign? Well, it
depends how
fast
you expect the traffic to be.
If it
is foot traffic, maybe 20 feet will do. If it is car traffic at, say, 45
mph,
you
probably want to put the sign back about 300 feet for a safe
stop.
The
world is hurtling headlong into the end of the 70th week of
Daniel.
Will
many be saved at this time? Of course. [See Ezekiel, chapter
18, for God's view of
salvation.] How far back should God put His sign
to "Repent, for the Kingdom of God
is at
hand!"? Well, tell you what, as in the movie, "Back to the Future,"
God has written
a
time-coded message. It was written back in the day as a warning
for our time.
It would be some lame or mean sign to say,
"Hey, Stupid, it's too late for your sorry
bum!"
No,
I'm sure to a moral certainty that Matthew 24:40-41 refers to the one and only
Rapture,
that
of the Bride of Christ, raptured from the midst of the world's
insanity, but before the
outpouring of God's wrath--and before the seven trumpet
judgments which announce that time.
The bottom line? "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in
all the churches
of the saints." I Corinthians
14:33
In
HaShem,
Mike
C.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Lewis Brackett (16
Feb 2011)
"Matthew 24 one
taken one left"
There is more than one rapture, one taking
away.
Matthew 24:40-41 is not the rapture of the church but
is the rapture of the evil people to hell at the time of the 2nd
coming.
You see, only the righteous are allowed to enter the millennial
kingdom.
Its all about context. Matthew is talking to the Jew in
the tribulation period here. The verses preceding Matthew 24:40-41
talk
about the 2nd coming followed by this next event.
Lewis
Brackett