Garry,

 

You wrote.........

 

Are the following scriptures describing the same event ?

Matthew 24:31 (KJV)

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.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (KJV)

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.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (KJV)

16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

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.

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My reply to you the other day was no that they were not the same event and that was incorrect......they are. They are all referring to the rapture of the church. Forgive me for any confusion I generated to you, David H. and any other Doves who may have read my reply. Yes indeed I believe they are the same "event'.

When I answered you in the prior post with a "no" I wasn't focused on the "event" itself as you had asked........ but was focused on and trying to make the distinction that there are two prospectives going on here Jewish and Christian (gentile). Two resurrections (raptures), a Jewish one and a gentile one happening at the same instant.

Background info........

Just for generalities in the new testament I believe one could say that what happens in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John during Christ's ministry was nearly all focused on the Jews and most of the scripture verses reflect on or at the Jews. So when you read those verses from those books assume you're a Jew to get the better meaning.

Then, starting in the Book of Acts at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent, and the gentile church was formed. From this point in Acts throughout the epistles of Paul and beyond......those verses of scripture are primarily directed at this new church... meaning us. And we as Christians should pay added attention to these verses.

 

So with this in mind, in 1 Cor.15 and 1 Thess.4 as you referenced...... Paul is talking to the new church (us) about events that will happen to this church ("body of Christ") in the end times scenario at the rapture.

In Matt.24 Jesus is talking to Jews about what will happen to Jews during the whole end times scenario and what they can expect at that time. Part of this, Matt.24 verse 31 does refer to the rapture happenings but from the Jewish perspective. Let me explain....

In verse 31 Jesus talks about ..."gathering together His elect from the four winds". (Remember He addressing the Jews) This is a reference to "the whole house of Israel"  that we find in Ezek.37. There we find that in the end times God gathers them. Them meaning.....all the descendents of Jacob that have lived during all these centuries.  

When does He gather them? I believe at the same combined resurrection (rapture) that we the gentile church are in. But only some of the resurrected Jews will receive their consciousness at that moment........the 144,000 as per Rev.7. The first fruits of His harvest. You can read about them in Rev.7 and Rev.14.

The hundreds of millions of other resurrected Jews as per Ezekiel form an exceedingly great army, two hundred million strong.....God's end time army. They are given their new spiritual bodies but the breath of life from the four winds that make them conscious has been put on hold as per Ezek. 37. There are four angels (Rev.7) that are tasked to hold back these four winds from blowing life back into these millions of resurrected Jews until God's purpose and timing is right.

These same four angels show up in Rev.9 that have been waiting for the right hour, day, month, and year. They have been waiting for a command from God to release the four winds to blow life back into this exceedingly great resurrected spiritual army.

The command is given, the four winds are allowed to blow, and this exceedingly great army of horsemen are now conscious and start their mission which is to kill a third of mankind or 2 billion people. The description of these horsemen is quite hideous and their methods of killing are as well...as per Rev.9.

The description of the exploits of these horsemen.....God's end times army....... is chronicled in Joel 2

Let's go there to Joel and see what the world will be facing from God's army. (coloring used to focus in on the applicable verses)

Joel 2:1-11

 

Blow the trumpet in Zion,

And sound an alarm in my holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;

For the day of the Lord is coming,

For it is at hand:

A day of darkness and gloominess,

A day of clouds and thick darkness,

Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.

A people come great and strong,

The like of whom has never been;

Nor will there ever be any such after them,

Even for many successive generations.

A fire devours before them,

And behind them a flame burns;

The land is like the Garden of Eden before them,

And behind them a desolate wilderness;

Surely nothing shall escape them.

There appearance is like the appearance of horses;

And like swift steeds, so they run.

With a noise like chariots

Over mountaintops they leap,

Like the noise of flaming fire that destroys the stubble,

Like a strong people set in battle array.

Before them people writhe in pain;

All faces are drained of color.

They run like mighty men,

They climb the wall like men of war;

Everyone marches in formation,

And they do not break ranks.

They do not push one another;

Everyone marches in his own column.

Though they lunge between the weapons,

They are not cut down.

They run to and fro in the city,

They run on the wall;

They climb into the houses,

They enter at the windows like a thief.

The earth quakes before them,

The heavens tremble;

The sun and the moon grow dark,

And the stars diminish their brightness.

The Lord gives voice before His army.

For his camp is very great;

For strong is the one who executes His word.

For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;

Who can endure it?

 

Do you have a picture of this in your minds eye? Two hundred million resurrected people from the lineage of Jacob who are now spirit beings impervious to death. They ride terrible ferocious fire breathing horses able to leap over mountains if necessary. They don't break ranks and devour with fire everything before them. And they are tasked to kill over 2 billion people. Hollywood would be dumbfounded trying to fulfill a production of this magnitude.

 

Can you imagine knowing this enormous army is going from country to country eradicating and killing most everything in its path and your country is next? This army needs no fuel, no rest, no transportation, no re-supply, no anything. Unimaginable horror on an unimaginable scale. Picture a huge fire breathing lawn mower that's hundreds of miles wide that is cleansing the earth with fire.

 

God said (prior to this) after opening the sixth seal that His wrath had come....who is able to stand? The short answer....No one.

 

Again, forgive me for the confusion I may have generated when I initially responded that Matt.24:31 did not refer to the rapture. It does most certainly but mostly the Jewish portion of it.

 

I'll again post below the article I wrote in April of 2012 for the Doves site that goes into much greater detail of the whole scenario.

 

Blessings.......John B

 

http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/apr2012/johnb43-1.htm