Hi Jane

I will answer that for you.

 

As you know Jesus was talking to his disciples about when to expect the Second Coming. This in no way refers to the rapture of the Body of Christ. Remember Paul said the rapture(as it is referred to today) was part of the mystery God showed him.

1 Corinthians 15

⁵¹ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,⁵² In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.⁵³ For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:17

¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

 

The mystery is that the believers during this dispensation whom believe in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that he took our place at calvary for all our sins, will be taken up to meet Him in the air.

 

Now the Second Coming is different and that is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 24.

 

Matthew 24

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.

 

As you see above all the tribes on earth will see him. So the context is that Jesus is coming to the earth. He sends his angels to gather the "elect". These are Jews that are on earth or possibly the Gentiles who accepted Jesus AFTER the rapture. They would have had to come to Christ by way of the 144,000 Jews preaching and would have done and obeyed what God was saying through them. The Gospel of Grace is over and is not being preached during this time. He explains in the verses below how this happens

 

³⁷ But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.³⁸ For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,³⁹ And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

 

Notice above that the lost were "taken away". This is important because the next verse has been mis-quoted by so many people and mis-understood. People think the next verse is the rapture when it is not. You want to be "left behind" at this gathering.

 

⁴⁰ Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.⁴¹ Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

 

You see just as in the day of Noah the "non-believers" were taken away and the "believers" were left to populate the earth.

 

In Revelation 20

⁴ And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

 

⁶ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

 

This is the resurrection of the ones killed during the tribulation. This is NOT the rapture of the church. These will be priest and will minister to the ones Left Behind at the gathering in Matthew 24. The Body of Christ which was a mystery was raptured up prior to this time and will be "ambassadors" for Christ throughout the heavens. Our home is a heavenly home.

 

I hope this helps

thanks

Mike W