The End of All Things
(Part 5)
#184.05
The End of The World
(Matthew 24)
(Continued)
"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Matthew 24:3.
We had noticed in our previous study that what was said by Jesus and Peter, "the end of the world" and "the end of all things," was totally contrary to what is being taught across the globe as sound doctrine. Doctrines having little or no fact are placed in the foundation of beliefs, the entire structure is destined to eventually weaken and fall.
We also noted that although spiritual types and shadows can be seen in these verses , we should not overlook the obvious. The obvious in this case is that the literal, historical fact unfolded exactly as the apostle and his Lord said it would. There is no way, of course, we can take all the scriptures of the Bible in the literal sense; but when it is clear that they are speaking of such, we should oblige the authors of those words by believing them. And we should especially believe them when history shows so clearly that what they said has been fulfilled to the letter, and once we see this as fact, there is no reason to keep hoping and looking into the future for it. In reference to this point, Paul said: "But hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" Romans 8:24. In other words, when that which we had hoped for has arrived, why would there be a need to keep hoping for it?
For instance, a young man is told by his parents that he will someday meet the love of his life, he will marry her, he will have children by her, and hopefully, they will all live happily ever after.
And sure enough, Mom and Dad's prophecy begins to unfold: after knowing quite a number of fair maidens, he meets the one and only true love of his life. The first part of what he was told is fulfilled and he no longer has hopes of meeting the love of his life. Once they are married, the second part of his parents words is fulfilled, and he stops hoping on getting married. The scenario continues until every word is fulfilled, and there is no longer any hope left whatsoever, and this is, of course, not a bad thing. Hope is certainly a good thing to have; but the fulfilling of that hope is much better. And it should be the same with the words Jesus and Peter spoke about the end of the world, or age, and the end of all things being at hand, and afterwards progressing onward to greater things.
However, such is not the case when it comes to minds immersed in traditional doctrines; for even though the words of Jesus and Peter have been fulfilled, people are still hoping that those events will someday come to pass. This blind leading the blind thinking is no different than it was, and still continues to be, for the Jews. They were hoping and waiting a long time for the Messiah to come, and when He finally came, they could not believe it, or would not believe it, and they crucified Him to insure that they could continue in their hope that is not seen, hoping for the Messiah they had imagined him to be.
In the rejection of their own Messiah, they pled: "His blood be on us, and on our children" Matthew. 27:25. Their petition was granted!
Due to being blinded and hardened by their religious traditions they refused to cast down their imaginations. They are to this day hoping that their Messiah will someday come. We can easily see the error of their hope; the same error exists with those who are hoping and looking for the day of the Lord when He comes to catch them away, destroy the world, and bring an end to all things.
They who hope for this fail to see that "The end of all things being at hand" and "the end of the world" came to pass many centuries ago, and the end of all things and the end of the world was the end of the animal sacrifices, the end of the temple, the end of the priesthood, the end of the Jewish economy, and the end of the great city of Jerusalem. It was truly the end of that particular world! It was not the end of that religious belief; but it was the end of that religious belief system! It was the end of that religious age! It was the end of that aion! It marked the end of everything which pertained to the dispensation of the Law and the glory of that age. When Peter penned those words, the end of everything that had sustained and perpetuated the old order was literally at hand.
"And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you" Matt. 24:1-4. The Amplified makes it more clear: "...Tell us, when will this take place, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end (the completion, the consummation) of the age?" Matthew 24:3.
The words of Jesus in Matthew 24 were the beginning of the end of Jerusalem. He was prophesying the end of the old order of things, and the beginning of the new, and He was the focal point of that end. He was the beginning of the end of everything the Jews embraced as holy. Rituals and sacrifices were the center of the Jews' life. There was none like it in the world, and Jesus brought an end to it. He was the End of The World that caused all the tribes of the earth (the twelve tribes of Israel) to groan.
It has been supposed that all the tribes of the earth relates to all the inhabitants of Earth. However, contrary to presumption, all the tribes of the earth does not speak of all the nations and peoples of this planet. Nowhere in the Bible does the word tribe indicate a group or race of people except the twelve tribes of Israel. The Moabites were not called the tribes of Moab. Neither do we hear mention of the tribe of Sodom, the tribe of Egypt, or the tribe of Rome. It is simply foreign to scripture. Of the 313 times the word tribe(s) is used in the Bible, every case is in association with Israel. I have looked, but have not found any place where it is otherwise mentioned. In addition to this, when the word earth is used in the scriptures, it is not in reference to the entire planet. Earth is translated hundreds of times from the Hebrew word, erets, which speaks of a country or a specific parcel of land. Is often translated land and country, such as, the land (erets) of Israel, and get thee out of thy country (erets).
We would think it strange, and it would be strange, if these verses read: "The Earth of Israel" and "get thee out of the Earth." The Greek word for earth in the New Testament is g and is equivalent to the Hebrew erets. It is used 217 times and is translated as also land, country, ground, as well as, earth. The mind-set of the original text is that of the immediate local and surrounding areas. It conveys no thought of the entire earth, as it is for the church world today.
All the tribes of the earth who groan by no means signify every nation and nationality inhabiting Earth; rather, it is directed specifically to the twelve tribes of the land of Israel, and that groaning began with the destruction of Jerusalem. Their world came to an end that fateful day of the Lord.
Matthew 24 should have been a history lesson to everyone born after 70 A.D., but it hasn't been. Those who have been blinded by the tradition of the fathers, or who have much to lose by the truth, still read Matthew 24 as a prophecy. They gloss over plain spoken words and twist other verses to say things that are simply not true.
I suppose we can expect the average person to miss the hidden meanings contained in the vast wealth of Biblical scriptures, especially when symbols, signs, parables, and analogies are used, such as are contained in some of the verses of the chapter. But it is ironic, to to say the least, when doctors of religion do not understand these symbols, and especially fail to see the elementary things that are in clear view, and Matthew 24 is one of those elementary chapters of the Bible. And once the few symbols are understood, the words of Jesus are plain, they are straight-forward, they are to the point; therefore, there should be no mistaking what He said, but that has not been the case. They haven't seen but a smattering of God's truths. Such is the world of religion, both old and new.
Again, Jesus was asked when would the temple be destroyed, when would He be coming, and when would the end of the age come. In order to keep things in proper context we must note that the entire discourse of this chapter is related to those three questions of when: 1) when would the temple be destroyed; 2) when would He be coming, and 3) when would the end of the age come. We have already noted sufficient evidence that each of these three points were fulfilled in A.D. 70.; but we will note some additional points in order to satisfy anyone who may still be in doubt. For instance, Jesus made statements that should not be hard to miss. Herein all three questions are answered: "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved...." And, "IMMEDIATELY after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken," and "Verily I say unto you, THIS GENERATION shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away" Matthew 24:21-22, 29, 34-35.
Every word He declared came to pass exactly the way He said it would. The powers in the Israel's heavens were shaken with cosmic proportions that had never been. Everything was destroyed of that world. Jerusalem and the temple ceased from being the spiritual center of the world, and the new Center took its place; namely, the New Jerusalem from above (Gal. 4:6, Heb. 12:22, Rev. 3:12, & 21:2). and the temple of God not made with hands (1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19, 2 6:16, Eph. 2:21).
Immediately afterwards the sun was darkened -- the light of the law diminished. The moon ceased to give her light -- The office of the priesthood that reflected the law instantly faded away. And the stars of heaven fell -- the luminaries of those heavens, individual priests, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Sanhedrins fell from their lofty positions of authority to be no more. THAT HEAVEN AND EARTH PASSED AWAY, taking with them THE INHABITANTS thereof! The heavenly kingdom and dominion of Israel, as well as their powers and glory in the earth, ceased to be. Their glory ended. Every light that the Jewish nation knew was forever extinguished. The Old Covenant came to an end and was replaced by the New. Both the heaven of their spiritual authority, and the manifestation of that authority in the earth passed away. The kingdom of Israel melted like mount Sinai in the presence of the Lord! "The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel" Judges 5:5. THEIR GLORY VANISHED FOREVER -- FULFILLING THE WORDS OF JESUS to the letter! That nation will never rise again. God does not redo ages, he makes new ones.
The generation Jesus was speaking to saw the end of the old one come to pass. Remember? He said, "...this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" Matthew 24:34. Are there some who think not?
Let me ask this of the skeptics. If that generation passed as Jesus said it would -- do we have a 2,000 year old generation of people walking around today, and who are still waiting for Jesus to come and fulfill His prophecy of the world coming to an end, and the temple being destroyed? The answer is obvious. There is no such generation. The generation Jesus spoke of is gone! That generation is history! Nevertheless, there are countless professing Christians who are waiting for Him to come in the manner they erroneously presume, in the way they have been taught by pastors and church leaders they love and trust. These same people are also waiting for the world to end with everything burning to ashes; but courteously, they are not waiting for the temple to be destroyed. To the contrary, they are waiting for it to be REBUILT, so Jesus will have a place live when He returns. I do not hesitate to say that they are waiting in vain; for the rebuilding of the natural temple made with hands is converse to scripture! He does not nor ever will live in a temple built with hands: "...the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands...." Acts 7:48. (rf. also Acts 7:49 17:24 & Hebrews 9:11, 24).
The people of that generation saw the tribulation of those days. They saw the sign of the son of man appearing in heaven, they saw the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, they saw the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, and they saw the destruction of Jerusalem. They were eyewitnesses of seeing not one stone of the temple left unturned at the hands of Titus. They were there to see the angels, the ones God elected, who were drawn and gathered by His Spirit from the four winds. They saw the day of the Lord. They saw firsthand the son of man coming as a thief in the night and stealing away the riches of the Jew's kingdom. That generation saw Israel's world as they knew it come to an end.
"The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up" 2 Peter 3:10.
Volumes could be written on the subject of the day of Lord; but we neither have the time nor space in this short study to address the point at length. We will only note that in every case where the term, the day of the Lord, or the Lord's day, is used in the Bible, it has to do with judgment, and this was certainly one of those classic days of the Lord.
That generation lived to see the day of the Lord when the angels were sent with a great sound of a trumpet, and they gathered together His elect from The four winds. They were gathered from one end of heaven (spiritual power and authority) to the other Matthew 24:31. They saw the stars of the night lose their place in the heavens as guiding lights to those in the earth. That generation stood as a testimony to Israel losing its God-given authority, and everything the nation had worked for. Everything they had accomplished was burned up. Their WORLD came to an everlasting end. That AGE ended forever, and immediately afterwards God openly replaced it with a new world -- a New World Order, if you please, which is the Kingdom of God.
Although the Kingdom of God had been in progress since the advent of Jesus, that was when the old Kingdom ended completely, and the new one took reigns of leadership. Moreover, when the eyes of the people of the world are opened by being born from above, they will flood then New Kingdom's borders like the illegal aliens who are presently flooding the US border looking for a better life.
The first day of this New Age, of course, was the day Jesus was born in Bethlehem, while the last day of the Old Age, as Jesus had foretold, was the day that not one stone of the temple was left standing upon another. Both worlds/ages/aions, the OLD and the NEW, were intertwined for a short season. Jesus introduced the new age which was the benchmark of life, while men of age-worn religion insisted on keeping their deadly grip on what they had, especially their exalted positions, and the law which gave them their authority. It was all filled and overrunning with death, and they loved it. They loved darkness more than the light. They were rooted deeply in death and adamantly refused the gift of life. Therefore, in respect to the Jew's hardness of heart, God sent His elect to deal with them according the law that they loved and knew so well.
We may have often wondered why God would judge in such a manner; but in noticing Exodus 20:3-17 we can see the spiritual law of sowing and reaping in effect that fateful day of Israel's demise:
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
The Law itself had become a god to them.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
Their rituals and ceremonies had become engraved images to them, as well as priestly garments, phylacteries, ad infinitum. And they hated Jesus, God's Son, and killed Him.
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
They used the Tetragram or Tetragrammaton for His name, which are four Hebrew letters usually transliterated as YHWH (Yahweh) signifying the Hebrew name for God which the Jews regarded as too holy to pronounce. To them, they would neither write nor say Yahweh without believing they would be taking His name in vain. In doing so, they were taking His name and worshiping the tetragramaton, and, in effect, taking it in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.
They work tirelessly with their rituals, ceremonies, grandiose parading before the people. Therefore, they did not keep the Sabbath holy (sacred and clean, Heb).
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Their adultery was with the religious system, most of which was their own creation.
Thou shalt not steal.
They stole liberty from the people, making them slaves of religion.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
They hired false witnesses to testify against Jesus so they could kill him.
Thou shalt not covet.
They coveted the best seat. They coveted power and fame. They coveted recognition and acknowledgment as being unlike the publicans who came to the temple to pray (Luke 18:11).
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
They did not honor God their father and the Father of all (Eph. 4:6), else they would not have been guilty of breaking the preceding commandments, and especially the next one.
Thou shalt not kill.
They killed the prophets, women caught in adultery, God's firstborn Son, and His brothers born after Him. Their desire was to kill the entire family of God.
An Eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Matthew 5:38.
This was one of the alternate laws, commonly called the laws of Moses, that they also loved so dearly. Therefore, according to their own laws, and this one, an eye for and eye, and a tooth for a tooth -- they were judged. The corruption of the adamic head went all the way to the serpents tail, and the whole body reaped what it had sown with the heel of the Lord bruising the subtle head of that religious regime.
Some amazing warnings took place shortly before the heel was brought down and the reaping began. In one of the accounts of Rome's official Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, he states that several phenomenon appeared seemingly only to (1) amuse the people. We will read from his works and note some of those omens that amused them:
"Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as belied God himself; while they did not attend nor give credit to the signs that were so evident, and did so plainly foretell their future desolation, but, like men infatuated, without either eyes to see or minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to them. Thus there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole year. Thus also before the Jews' rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan,] and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time; which lasted for half an hour. This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes, as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it. At the same festival also, a heifer, as she was led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple. Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner [court of the] temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch in the temple came hereupon running to the captain of the temple, and told him of it; who then came up thither, and not without great difficulty was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publicly declared that the signal foreshowed the desolation that was coming upon them. Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month Artemisius [Jyar], a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the temple,] as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, 'Let us remove hence.'" (The Works of Josephus: The War of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 5, Section 3).
And a little more from the historian: The most horrific scene, one that left even the hardest of men reeling, involved that of a young mother killing and roasting her infant son. Josephus wrote that when several starving men smelled the cooking of meat, they rushed upon the woman and demanded to see the food she was hiding. She replied: "'This is mine own son, and what has been done was mine own doing! Come, eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself! Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for me also.' After which those men went out trembling, being never so much aftrighted at any thing as they were at this, and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately; and while every body laid this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this unheard of action had been done by themselves."(Book 6, Chapter 3, Section 4).
This is only a small fragment of the great tribulation that Jesus said would be coming at the end of the age: "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved....." Matthew 24:21-22.
The above accounts were only a few of several historical events of that great tribulation and signs of the coming of the son of man and of the end of the world. Signs of God's elect were seen coming upon Jerusalem that marked the beginning of the end of that age and the beginning of the new. While God's host of the heavens were disposing of the spiritual powers of Israel's priesthood, Titus was elected to dispose of them upon the earth, causing all the dispersed twelve tribes of the earth to mourn; for their world was coming to a fiery end.
The siege and destruction of Jerusalem was the negative side of God's elect coming from the FOUR WINDS -- taking one in the field, and one grinding at the mill. The positive aspect was the coming of the Son of man to THE OTHERS WHO WERE LEFT. Some were taken by Titus, God's elected sword, and severely judged. They were slaughtered, sacked, and had their appointed portion with the hypocrites, while those LEFT were excluded. The disciples of Christ were LEFT OUT of God's judgment. They saw the signs Jesus had told them to be looking for and escaped Titus' wrath by leaving before the siege of the city.
At the coming of the Son of man to that celestial body, those seated with Christ Jesus in the heavens were made rulers over all His goods; and this has been the case since that fateful day of God's visitation and the beginning of the New Age of Jesus Christ. We can see that the birth of Jesus was the Beginning of The End of All things pertaining to the world as the Jews knew it, and His coming in 70 A.D. finalized it. That is when the Lord came as a thief in the night, and the heavens of their glory passed away with a great noise (Grk. rhoizdon: a whir, whizzingly with a crash), and their elements (Grk. stoicheion: orderly arrangement) melted (Grk. lou: to loose, break up). The order of that day and age was loosened and broken up with the fervent heat of war, along with all the earth of their works 2 Peter 3:10. Everything was consumed to end the world wherein they had reigned supreme in the land of Israel.
Jesus said: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness" Matthew 23:27. The head of that nation, and all the way to the tail, had become corrupt and was no more than a stinking carcase -- food for eagles, breakfast for vultures, if you please. In so many words, He said that they would become fodder for those birds of prey and carrion: "For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together" Matthew 24:28.
Some, including myself, have thought and taught that Jesus was foretelling the manifestation of the sons of God, saying that where the eagles gather was the same as Romans 8:17-21. But not so. It speaks of the manifestation of the elect of God, as cruel and evil as they were, but not the manifestation of the sons of God. In light of plain truth and in the context of this chapter, there is no foundation of such a thought to stand on. The carcase was not referring to the sons of God, but of the dead body of Israel, and the eagles were not speaking of the eagle saints, or of overcomers who had passed in death to the other side, but of Titus and his army. Should we have an occasion to bring out the truth of the manifestation of the sons of God, let it be done with the scriptures that apply to the subject and leave these with the historical fact of 70 A.D. when those days were as it was in the days of Noah.
As The Days Of Noah Were
When the words of this heading are read, a lot of people's minds form images of what they think it says. To them it is generally a picture of the Rapture. But let me encourage all who embrace that thought to read these verses in context and hear as they plainly speak:
"But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage...and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And...there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 24:37-40 & 51.
Please consider the following parallels:
Who were eating and drinking in Noah's day before the flood came? The wicked!
Who were eating and drinking before Titus came? The wicked!
Who were taken away by the flood in Noah's day? The wicked!
Who were taken away by the flood of Titus in his day? The wicked!
Who were weeping and grinding their teeth in sorrow in Noah's day when the flood came? The wicked!
Who were weeping and grinding their teeth in sorrow in Titus' day when his flood came? The wicked!
Now, who were left, who were spared in the days of Noah when the flood came? The righteous!
And who were left, who were spared in the days of Titus when his flood came? The righteous, of course!
Let us set the record straight. The righteous were not taken in 70 A.D., and they will not be taken in a future rapture. These verses do not remotely suggest such a thing. But rather, Jesus was very clearly drawing a comparison between the two events of the flood and the destruction of Jerusalem. He was speaking plainly that in the same manner the wicked were taken by the flood, so it would be with the wicked in 70 A.D. And so it was! The wicked of that day were taken in judgment, while the righteous were left. They were spared the judgment of the son of man coming in the authority and power of God.
"As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" and the verses following it, is a passage of scripture that is a foundation for supposedly substantiating the rapture teachings. Many horrible sermons and stories have been fostered from the words Jesus spoke, and we could expose many of them as hype, as lies, as pseudo psychological jargon. However, we don't have the time, nor does space allow us to go into the sum of what has been conceived in the minds of men concerning this subject. Suffice it to say, the precepts of the rapture were birthed out of the minds of two Jesuit priests; namely, Francisco Ribera and Emmanuel Lacunza (rf. The Rapture Question free upon request). It was popularized by Edward Irving, John Nelson Darby, and C.I. Scofield in the notes of his Scofield Reference Bible. That which began as a Roman Catholic invention was then nurtured by the students and parishioners who sat under that teaching until it grew into the flood we see today. The doctrine has become so sealed in many people's minds that if fact conflicts with their theory, they will reject it. Nevertheless, in due season, and perhaps this is the season, truth will push back those overflowing flood waters and open the vistas of reality to those who seek it.
Let me say again, as it was in the days of Noah, so it was in the days of the great tribulation with Jerusalem. During the days of Noah, he went into the ark, closed the door, and the flood came. After this the wicked merrymakers were taken away -- not, and we repeat, not Noah! When the flood had run its course the man of righteousness set up a new kingdom (new beginnings). It was a new world, a new age never seen before upon the earth.
Therefore, when we read, "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be," we should be able to come to the same conclusion as any rational minded person and see that the ones taken at the end of the age were the wicked, and not the righteous. Also, as it was in the days of Noah, at the end of the flood, a new kingdom was set in the earth which was given into the hands of those who were not taken -- Noah and his family.
Two were in the field and one was taken and the other was left, and there were two grinding at the mill and one was taken and the other was left (verses 40-41). Never let it enter our impressionable minds that the ones taken are the righteous of God, or that this is referring to our day. Even if it was pointing to our day, the written word never suggests that God's plan for His mighty army of overcomers is to sound the retreat when the Lord Himself trumpets the charging, battle cry.
There is a common factor embedded in the Bible. It is of the victories enjoyed by God's people throughout all the past ages when they were endowed by His Spirit; and everyone of them conquered by advancing into the camp in face of their enemies. By no means did they overcome by running and hiding or flying away some where in the sky. For instance, the four lepers of Samaria set the Syrian army to flight by advancing straight into their camp. It was then that "...the Lord made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and noise of horses, even the noise of a great host, and they fled for their life." 2 Kings 6:24-33 & 7:1-8 (rf. Diet of Asses' Heads, Doves' Dung & Babies #52.93, free upon request). It is the same today, we conquer by advancing and not retreating. Never, and we repeat, NEVER do we pack our bags and withdraw from the enemy that we are called to destroy. When adversities come, terrible circumstances can overwhelm us, or sickness and death may hit our families like horrid tidal waves, and we are taken aback for season; but we are not destroyed. We may take timeout to rest, refresh, and gain strength -- but we do not retreat!
I know that it is a comforting thought to believe there will a catching away of saints just before the great tribulation hits, and it would not be easy to discard it as not being true. However, to continue embracing it will hinder one from receiving the light of truth in other areas; for light has no fellowship the darkness. It will also hinder one from becoming an overcomer. I was sharing these thoughts with a Baptist pastor's wife a few years ago, and her very sadly reply, "If there is no rapture, I have no hope." She thought I was telling her that the wicked were going to be raptured, since they are the ones Jesus said would to be taken. It is very difficult to change deep-rooted beliefs. Therefore, I am speaking as plainly as I possibly can, with hopes that there will be no mistake about what is being said in this short study.
In closing, let me say, if we should take the time to read Matthew 24:36-51, and read it very carefully, we would soon see that those taken were the same ones who were CUT ASUNDER, while the ones who were not taken were the faithful: "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give them meat in due season." (verse 45). Moreover, there is no reason to believe it is not the same today; for it is the same Kingdom as it was after the end of that world in 70 A.D. The faithful and wise servants rule over His household. The faithful ones are overcomers who have no desire to leave, but rather, to REMAIN right here on this great planet and rule over it in righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy ghost, and according to Romans 14:17, this is the Kingdom of God!
"And blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) is he who takes no offense at Me {and} finds no cause for stumbling in {or} through Me {and} is not hindered from seeing the Truth" Matthew 11:6 (Amplified).
To be continued...
Elwin R. Roach
1. But not everyone. The historian Eusebius recorded that the early Christians fled Jerusalem and found refuge at Pella beyond the Jordan river (Ecclesiastical History 3.5.3). Those who heeded the words of Jesus escaped the city in advance of the inferno and did not perish.
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