Our Lord's Great Prophecy, Part 62

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Matthew Chapter 24

VERSE 31 continued, “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

And he [the Son of man] shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet.” Since aTRUMPETis a message, “a GREAT sound of a trumpetis a prominent message.

TheANGELSof the Son of man are sent with a prominent message to gather together the electfrom the four winds,” “from one end of heaven to the other.” The elect are gathered from the four corners ofheaven,” from the entire heaven,” as it were, for a square with its four corners is a symbol of completeness.

Or it could be said that thefour windssignify the four cardinal points of the compass, again showing the whole heaven.” With the elect being gatheredfrom one end of heaven to the other,” the emphasis is on the four extremities, the entire ecclesiastical heavens.

TheTRUMPET,” which pertains to the message of truth about Jesus’ Second Presence, gathers the elect from different sectarian groups. Christians leave their respective denominations and are attracted to the Harvest message. They are extracted from the various branches of the spiritual or ecclesiastical heavens (the church nominal, Babylon).

Mark 13:27 reads, “And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.” Matt 24 stresses the two ends ofheaven,” whereas Mark 13 mentionsearthandheaven,” and thus provides further understanding.

Matthew 24 is talking about the nominal spiritual heavens (viz. “one end of heaven to the other”, this is lateral or horizontal), while Mark 13 emphasizes the vertical aspect.

In other words, the elect IN the nominal systems (in Babylon), who are nevertheless on a higher plane (being begotten of the Lord’s spirit, i.e. “housetop saints”), as well as those who are on the lower plane (those residing in the “field”, OUTSIDE of Babylon, outside the various systems in earth’s society), all of these are gathered during the Harvest.

When the two accounts are combined, the emphasis is not on the beginning of the gathering but on the completion or accomplishment of the gathering.

In connection with the gathering of the elect, there are various stages.

The call toCome out of her, my peopleis a gathering (Rev. 18:4). God’s people come to, and feed on, the Harvest message or thecarcass” (Matt 24:28). But that is not the end of the story. The Christian is called to come out of Babylon by or through the “Trumpet”, a message (present truth, the harvest message), but from this message, each is to make his calling and election sure.

When this happens, the Christian is gathered to the *barn condition; that is, he is fully harvested beyond the veil (Matt. 13:30). Therefore, the emphasis is on the accomplishment of the gathering in its entirety. The elect are gathered from one end of heaven to the other and from top to bottom—the gathering is a fully accomplished work.

*There is however another view as to what being gathered into the Lord’s barn consist of, rather than representing the condition of being harvested beyond the vail as Brother Shallieu suggest it simply implies the condition of security, of separateness from the worldly, and the worldly church, of being gathered to Christ, into oneness with him, in fellowship of spirit through the knowledge of the Truth. However as Brother Shallieu pointed out he is speaking from the finished picture.

Notice Verse 30. Chronologically, the fulfillment of Verse 30 regarding the “Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glorywill occur after Verse 31

This of course is dependent upon ones position on what particular tribulation period is being spoken of in Verse 29. If you believe as the Pastor taught that it refers to the 1260 years of Papal supremacy over the Church then the events of Verse 31 could work either way for as we have seen there are two separate aspects to Verse 30, viz. first the sign of the Son of Man’s Parousia (presence) being seen by the Lord’s fateful watchers, and then later or afterwards the sign of the Son of Man being made evident to the world in the clouds (trouble) coming upon the world. If you accept Brother Shallieu’s suggestion (a very distinctive possibility) that the tribulation is in reference to the Hour of Trial then of course Verse 31 would have to have occurred prior to Verse 30.

Brother Shallieu states, Verse 31 is a flashback. The apostles asked Jesus when his Second Presence and the end of the age would be. Verse 30 answers part of this question, the part pertaining to the “they” class (the tribes of earth, the world, the unbelievers), who will mourn when the fiery judgments (clouds of trouble) reveal Jesus. Verse 31 is saying that almost contemporaneously with the appearance of the sign of the Son of man in heaven, the elect will all be gathered. When he appears, we shall appear with him in glory (Col. 3:4).

Continued with next post.

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