Dear Jay,
 
This message is a sort of reply to your recent post about the end times. These comments are not my original thoughts but are paraphrased from Gary Keasler's book A Deeper Jesus which I would recommend to you and others interested in end times ideas spoken about in the Old and New Testaments.
 
In Matthew Chapter 24 and 25 we have description of what will occur in the end times. In Matt 24:3 the disciples asked "What shall be the sign of thy coming?" and "the end of the world?"
 
These two questions are answered in Matt 24:30 "the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" and Matt 31 "gather together his elect".
 
Reading further, we see a repetition of Matt 24:30-31 in Matt 25:31-32. Matt 25:31 "come in his glory" and Matt 25:32 "separate them one from another" shows more about when the elect are gathered. These verses clearly refer to the judgment of the nations at the Second Coming.
 
So then, what do the verses between Matt 24:31 and Matt 25:32 refer to?
 
They clearly refer to the rapture. The coming without a sign like in the days of Noah Matt 24:37 and the taking of one and leaving of another behind Matt 24:40-41 like a thief Matt 24:43-44 is descriptive of the rapture, not the Second Coming as described in Matt 24:30-31 and Matt 25:31-32.
 
Clearly then, the subject between Matt 24:30-31 and Matt 25:31-32 continues the subject of the rapture introduced in Matt 24:32, i.e., in the verses between Matt 24:45 and Matt 25:30, we have parables that tell us how we need to be doing so as to be ready for the rapture, not about some other unrelated topics such as social norms or a second infilling of the Holy Spirit. No, I believe they are about how to be ready for the snatching away at the rapture and the following Judgment Seat judgment of believers.
 
We need to read the parables given between Matt 24:45 and Matt 25:31 as instructions of how we should be acting and thinking to be ready to become the Bride of Christ. We need to confess all unconfessed sins for forgiveness and ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to continue working in us to do the will of the Father. Truly, "something wonderful is about to happen" (from the film 2010 about the monolith!) but it will not be the creation of another sun, but rather the return of the great and wonderful Son that already exists!
 
YBIC
 
Robert