Well, you should. Do I now need to present some defense to you to somehow convince you I'm being honest with you? Right! And you'd believe that?? See how this works? I'm a faceless internet writer, and I could tell you anthing. Yes, maybe I'm here to get a big ego boost no matter what it takes. Obviously we have that sort here.
I've heard lots of teaching on the rapture, including pre-trib, pre-wrath, mid trib (not so much this one), and post trib. Also those who teach no rapture (yes, there are some).
Some of the most interesting teaching I've heard came from Peter Goodgame
Not that I agree with everything he thinks. Pre-wrath rapture to me takes #2 spot behind pre-trib, but I think pre-wrath is not a fit to Scripture.
Just the same, I was in the process of becoming pre-wrath when I realized the conflicts.
I've studied this myself, quite independantly of any teaching. But enough about me.
Yes, this is one of the passages that convinced me that the rapture was not included in this prophecy. For one thing the Jews would never ever had understood "the chosen" to include gentiles who were not proselytes to Judaism. When Jesus said He's gather the chosen and the nations, well, IF you observe the "grammatical historical hermeneutic" (I do), then you would understand that Jesus was speaking of Isreal and the Gentiles, which is exaclty how His audience would have understood it.
The argument is offered, The disciples didn't always understand what Jesus was saying, and that's true, but I don't find any indication that they had some lack of understanding of the words He used, what they meant.
And this is just the beginning. When we realize that righteous gentiles are gathered after the chosen are gathered, then we have to ask the question, why weren't they in the first gathering, if it included the gentile believers?
When we see that the gentiles are being divided according to whether or not they cared for the needs of Jesus' "brothers", we have to answer, who are these "brothers" of Jesus? I'd answer, they are of course the Jews gathered in the first gathering. The sheep and goats are divided according to their relation to a third party, called Jesus' brothers.
So when the beast was trying to destroy Israel, those gentiles who have helped Israel will be declared righteous and will enter the kingdom. No one taught me this, I learned it from the Bible.
This is exactly what Joel prophesied also. And several other prophets have foretold Isael being returned to their land for good.
Then there is Revelation 7. I've never heard this taught by anyone else, but I see it plain as day in the Bible.
Revelation 7:3 KJV
Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
"the servants of our God" is inclusive, it means all of them. At this particular moment in history, before the judgments begin, there are exactly 144,000 of them, and they are all Jewish males. So I ask the question, what happened to the rest? The New Testament is replete with references that we are God's servants. So where did we all go?
God always maintains His witness in the world, maybe following the pre-trib rapture He seals 144,000, 12,000 from each of 12 tribes of Israel. It sounds like a good fit to me. "For it is the times of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it", I think is the quote. 70 sevens are determined for Israel. And now when there are no other "servants of God" in the world, God seals these that will be called "first fruits".
There is no explicit statement of rapture timing given in the Bible. Until Paul this was all hidden. Neither Jesus nor the OT prophets prophesied the rapture of the church. It was a mystery (musterion - something unknowable until revealed) until Paul wrote as God inspired him, the Apostle to the Gentiles.
This gathering in Matthew 24:31 is to me so clearly the gathering of Israel exactly as prophesied many times, and is to me clearly not including the church. Nor is the church able to be included in the sheep/goats gathering, to be judged according to their works whether or not they will enter the kingdom.
You don't need to be taught this, you only need to pay attention to all the details, and believe all of them. That's what I do, and that's how I've concluded the rapture is pre-trib.
Much love!
