Davy
Well-Known Member
Luke 21:36 KJV
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
Jesus didn't speak this to the church, which would have been through Paul, the apostle to the gentiles. Jesus spoke this to Israel, to whom He had been sent.
This is not a "rapture" passage, it regards escape, that is, to flee the things that will come to pass.
There is a manuscript variant here, some read, "and pray always, that you may have strength to escape all these things that shall come to pass".
In whichever way you read this passage, this "escape", "to flee", is an active voice verb, which means that the one referenced is doing the action.
In the rapture, those "in Christ" who are being "caught up", this is the passive voice, they are being acted up, not doing the acting. Grammatically, these cannot be the same. If they were, these verb tenses would agree.
Being caught up in the rapture is a matter of being "in Christ". Fleeing the things to come is a matter of being found worthy, or of having sufficient strength, again, depending on your manuscript.
The one enduring to the end shall be saved. Those in Judea flee to the wilderness! Pray that your flight not be on the Sabbath! Pray that you have the strength!
Much love!
Lord Jesus' Message of His Olivet discourse, which is what that Luke 21 chapter is, ain't just to the believers of the seed of Israel. Jesus was speaking to His Apostles while upon the Mount of Olives, which represented even then, the 'foundation' of His early Church (as per Paul in Ephesians 2 about that foundation).
So with the pre-trib rapture school's lie that Christ's Olivet discourse being only for or about Jews having been squashed as a lie, now one can actually read that Luke 21 Scripture and apply it to whom Christ meant it for, i.e., His Church.