29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 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.
32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. Matthew 24:29-35
Verse 29 above is parallel to Revelation 6:12-17 about the 6th seal.
Verse 30 is when every eye shall see Him coming on the clouds of heaven.
Verse 31 describes the gathering together of the elect. If the elect (chosen ones) includes the church then this passage either refers to the rapture and 1st resurrection or a gathering of the resurrected saints. The problem with the latter is in verse 34. Jesus spoke this parable to His disciples, not to the masses.
He said, " this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. "
So the obvious question is "Did Jesus make a mistake?"
Aren't Peter and the Apostles the foundation of His church?
They all died without seeing all these things that He spoke about, including the great tribulation.
So, we have to reconcile verse 34 to reality and history.
How can we understand the parable of the fig tree?
He couldn't have been talking about the generation long dead, but He could've been referring to the generation that sees all the signs. Or, since parables represent some spiritual truth, he could've been referring to one of two generations commonly mentioned in scripture, the generation of the righteous or the generation of the wicked.
All born again believers are the generation of the righteous as are all the saints. There are no second generation Christians. You must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. But there are many generations of the wicked. Jesus spoke this to His disciples, the foundation of the church, and there is no one righteous except by faith, so Jesus asserted that His church would by no means pass away "till all these things take place."
Apparently no one taught Jesus about the pre-tribulation rapture.