Matthew 24:

28.  For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

 

Hi Bruce, (didn't we do this once? Anyway...)

 

the first thing I would say on this verse is that Matthew wrote down the sayings of Jesus lumped together by subject and you cannot determine what exactly He meant by just reading it in Matthew but you can go over to Luke and gain that insight because Luke gave as part of his contribution for recording the events, he said he was writing the events "in order" chronologically.

 

Luke 1

 1.  Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,
 2.  Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;
 3.  It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,
 4.  That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.

 

So when we look at this same statement in Luke, we find that the disciples asked Jesus where those who were taken were taken to and this statement is Jesus' answer to their question.

 

Luke 17:

 30.  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
 31.  In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
 32.  Remember Lot's wife.
 33.  Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
 34.  I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
 35.  Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
 36.  Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

 37.  And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

 

This scripture has been interpreted to be describing the rapture of the church but I believe that is an error. Some have gone as far as suggesting that the body means that of our Lord and that we are the eagles gathering to feed on Jesus as a reference to communion or when Jesus said whoever eats my body it is the true bread etc. I believe that the scriptures answer this for us without the need to speculate at all.

 

The body in the Greek is a dead body fallen in battle and the eagles are actually "flesh eating birds". (Eagles hunt live prey and do not feed on dead bodies the way vultures, buzzards and crows etc. will.)

 

 

 

Revelation 16:

13.  And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
 14.  For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
 15.  Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
 16.  And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

 

Revelation 19:

 17.  And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
 18.  That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
 19.  And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

 

The evil spirits will go throughout the earth and work miracles to "rapture" people at random to this horrible "supper" (see how they mimic God instead of a rapture to the marriage supper of the lamb, it is a rapture to the supper of the great God. God sets before us a blessing or a curse.) This gathering will be sudden and random and whoever is taken and happens to be physically naked will show up on that battlefield naked and will be ashamed. This is not a phrase spoken by Jesus and should not be in red as it erroneously is in many red letter Bibles. This is about those who are naked when the unclean spirits rapture them, that's all.

 

Bruce, I know that you have an opinion already and I don't know if my interpretation is one that you are looking for or not. Don't know exactly what your position is but I think you have a post trib view for the time of the rapture.