THE CLEAR SEQUENCE OF EVENTS PRESENTED
IN MATTHEW 24:21-31
1. THE GREAT TRIBULATION CUT SHORT BY THE LORD
“21For then there will be a great
tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of
the world until now, nor ever will. 22Unless those days
(that is, the days of the great tribulation,
3 and half years, which were originally decreed to Antichrist
to persecute the saints, cf. Daniel 7:25, 9:27, Revelation 13:5)
had been cut short (the
Greek word used here is koloboo, which suggests a literal amputation
of the days of tribulation. Mark 13:20 makes it clear that the
Lord is the one who shortens the days of tribulation),
no life would have been saved (which
literally means no flesh would be physically delivered);
but for the sake of the elect (or
the chosen of God in Mark 13:20, is a collective noun only appeared
in the New Testament that refers to church-age believers which
include both Jews and Gentiles, cf. Luke 18:7, Romans 8:33,
Ephesians 1:4-5, 2 Timothy 2:10, Titus 1:1, 1 Peter 1:1, 2:9,
2 John 1:1, 13, Revelation 17:14) those days
will be cut short (it is by the
mercy of God that these terrible days will be shortened so that
the faithful can endure to the end and be delivered by the return
of Christ, see below 1 Corinthians 10:13)”. (Matthew
24:21-22, emphasis and notes added)
SUPPORTING SCRIPTURE:
“God is faithful, who will not allow
you to be tempted (or literally,
to be tested, i.e. by the great tribulation) beyond what
you are able, but with the temptation will provide the
way of escape (in the case of the
great tribulation, the way of escape will be Christ’s
personal return to the earth to receive His own to Himself,
which is, the Rapture or Gathering of the saints, see Matthew
24:31 below) also, so that you will be able to endure
it”. (1 Corinthians 10:13, emphasis and
notes added)
2. THE SIGN OF THE SUN, MOON AND STARS
“29But immediately after
the tribulation (that is, after
the days of tribulation are cut short) of those days
THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE
ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky (the
Sign of Sun, Moon and Stars as prophesied throughout the Scriptures
signals the beginning of God’s wrath against the wicked
during the Day of the Lord Judgment, see supporting scriptures
below), and the powers of the heavens will be shaken”.
(Matthew 24:29, emphasis and notes added, see
also Luke 21:25-26)
SUPPORTING SCRIPTURES:
“9Behold, the day of the
LORD is coming, cruel, with fury and
burning anger, to make the land a desolation. And He will exterminate
its sinners from it. 10For the stars of heaven and their
constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will
be dark when it rises; and the moon will not shed its light.
11Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for
their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the
proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless”. (Isaiah
13:9-11, emphasis added)
“1Blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound
an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the
land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming;
surely it is near. … 10Before them the earth quakes, the
heavens tremble, the sun and the moon grow dark and
the stars lose their brightness. … 31The
sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before
the great and awesome day of the LORD comes (notice
that this verse was also quoted by Peter in Acts 2:20).
32And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the
LORD will be delivered (that
is, physically delivered or rescued); For on Mount Zion
and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape
(that is, escape from the coming wrath of
God. This is a profound Old Testament prophecy regarding the
protection of Jews and rapture of the saints at the beginning
of the day of the Lord), as the LORD has said, even among
the survivors whom the LORD calls.” (Joel 2:1,
10, 31-32, emphasis and notes added)
3. THE GLORIOUS RETURN OF CHRIST
“27For just as the lightning comes
from the east, and flashes even to the west, so shall
the coming of the Son of Man be (the
second coming of Christ will be visible to all who live on the
earth on that day. While all the natural lights are out, Christ
will be the only Light on that day) … 30And then
(that is, after the appearance of the sign
of the sun, moon and stars in the sky) the sign
of the Son of Man will appear in the sky (the
Lord Jesus will appear physically and personally in His second
coming, first to receive His own to Himself, then to judge the
world, details to follow), and then all the tribes of
the earth will mourn, and they will see the
SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power
and great glory (the second advent
of Christ is powerful and glorious because Christ is coming
with God the Father, the All Powerful and Mighty One of the
universe, see supporting scriptures below).” (Matthew
24:27, 30, emphasis and notes added)
SUPPORTING SCRIPTURES:
“Jesus said to him, ‘You have
said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you shall
see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER
(‘power’ refers to the All Powerful
One, which is, God the Father), and COMING ON
THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN’”. (Matthew
26:64, emphasis and note added, see also Mark
14:62)
“27Then they will see THE
SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory.
28But when these things begin to take place, straighten
up and lift up your heads (for
Christ is coming from above!), because your redemption
is drawing near (in the context,
this ‘redemption’ is no other than the physical
rescue or deliverance of the remaining saints that have survived
the great persecution by Antichrist. This is also called ‘the
rapture of the saints’. See below for details)."
(Luke 21:27, emphasis and notes added)
4. THE RAPTURE OF THE ELECT/SAINTS
“31And He will send forth His angels
with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL
GATHER TOGETHER His elect (that
is, Christ with His angels will gather or rapture His chosen
people, first the dead in Christ, then the living believers
on earth. Also notice that by removing the living saints from
earth, the Lord Himself literally cuts short the great tribulation
by Antichrist, and ‘renders him useless’, cf. 2
Thessalonians 2:8) from the four winds, from one end
of the sky to the other”. (Matthew 24:31,
emphasis and notes added)
SUPPORTING SCRIPTURES:
(Jesus said) “If I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you to
Myself (the promise of Christ to
return and receive, or gather together, His own to Himself),
that where I am, there you may be also.” (John
14:3, emphasis and notes added)
“15For this we say to you by the
word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain
(a better translation is: we who are alive
and survive) until the coming of the Lord,
will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord
Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the
dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who
are alive and remain (or, alive and survive)
will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
18Therefore comfort one another with these words”. (1
Thessalonians 4:15-18, emphasis and notes added)
“1Now we request you, brethren,
with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
AND our gathering together to Him
(notice here Paul used the same word
‘gather together’ as Christ in Matthew 24:31 to
refer to the rapture of the saints. The connective ‘and’
in this verse suggests that the coming of Lord Jesus and the
rapture of the saints are back to back events and can not be
separated from each other),
2that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed
either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to
the effect that the day of the Lord (notice
that Paul was using three terms: ‘the coming of Lord Jesus
Christ’, ‘our gathering together to Him’ and
‘the day of the Lord’ interchangeably in this passage.
Why? It is simply because these three events are back to back
and will happen on the same day, see the next chapter ‘The
Day of the Lord Judgment’ for explanations)
has come. 3Let no one in any way deceive you, for it
will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of
lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4who opposes
and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship,
so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself
as being God (Paul makes
it very clear that the return of Christ and rapture of the saints
will NOT happen until AFTER Antichrist is revealed when he takes
seat in the temple and demands the world’s worship. In
other words, the coming of Christ and rapture of the saints
will NOT happen until AFTER the beginning of the Great Tribulation)”.
(2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, emphasis and notes
added)
THE PARALLEL SEQUENCE OF EVENTS RECORDED IN REVELATION CHAPTER
6 AND 7
1. THE PLEAD OF THE SOULS OF THE MARTYRS FOR
GOD TO JUDGE THE EARTH DWELLERS AND AVENGING THEIR BLOOD
“9And when He (that
is, Christ Jesus) broke the fifth seal,
I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had
been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony
which they had maintained (notice
that these are the souls of the martyrs who were slain because
of their commitment to Christ during the great tribulation by
Antichrist. They don’t have resurrected bodies yet until
the first day of Millennial, cf. Revelation 20:4); 10and
they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How
long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging
and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’
(here the martyrs’ souls are asking
the Lord God to judge the people of Antichrist and avenge their
blood) 11And there was given to each of them a white
robe; and they were told that they should rest for a
while longer (the Lord didn’t
give them a direct answer but told them to ‘rest for a
while longer’. The subsequent 6th seal initiates the sign
of the Day of the Lord, which is followed by the Seven-Trumpet
Judgment. During the seven trumpets, the fifth trumpet lasts
five months [Revelation 9:5] and the seventh trumpet announces
the end of the 70th Week of Daniel and the reign of Christ on
earth [Revelation 10:7, 11:15]. Therefore, we can safely conclude
that the great tribulation is at least cut short by five months)
until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren
who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed
also.” (Revelation 6:9-11, emphasis and
notes added)
2. THE SIGN OF THE SUN, MOON AND STARS
“12I looked when He broke the sixth
seal, and there was a great earthquake (see
also Joel 2:10a); and the sun became black as
sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;
13and the stars of the sky fell to the earth (without
a doubt, this is exactly the sign prophesied by old testament
prophets and Lord Jesus as the sign of the Day of the Lord),
as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.
14The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up,
and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”
(Revelation 6:12-14, emphasis and notes added)
3. THE GLORIOUS RETURN OF CHRIST
“15Then the kings of the earth and
the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong
and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and
among the rocks of the mountains; 16and they said to the mountains
and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence
of Him who sits on the throne (that
is, God the Father, who is present at the coming of Lord Jesus
Christ), and from the wrath of the Lamb
(that is, Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of
God, sitting on the right hand of God and coming on the clouds
of heavens, see Matthew 26:64 and Mark 14:62); 17for
the great day of their wrath has come (the
phrase ‘has come’ in its original Greek meaning
denotes the beginning of an event. Thus verse 17 means the great
day of God’s wrath has just begun to come. Realizing this,
therefore, the earth dwellers begin to hide themselves and seek
death), and who is able to stand? (a
rhetorical question with certitude, which simply states: no
one is able to stand when the wrath of God comes)’”
(Revelation 6:15-17, emphasis and notes added)
4. THE RAPTURE OF THE SAINTS
“9After these things
(that is, after the 144,000 Jews were sealed
in Revelation 7:1-8) I looked, and behold, a
great multitude which no one could count (that
is, the raptured saints who include both the dead in Christ
of all the ages and the living believers on earth at the time
of Christ’s return, see below for explanations),
from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues
(this great multitude is composed of people
from all around the world, which confirms the notion that they
are the raptured saints or church), standing
before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed
in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands
(notice they are different than the souls
in the 5th seal: they have properly clothed physical bodies:
standing on their feet and waving palm branches by their hands!
They are no other than the raptured saints!); 10and they
cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation
(or literally ‘victory’)
to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’ …
13Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘These
who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where
have they come from?’ 14I said to him, ‘My
lord, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These
are the ones who come out of the great tribulation
(in other words, they have come out from
the period of the great tribulation. With this key verse, we
are left with no other options regarding the identity of the
great multitude – they are indeed the saints of present
and past ages raptured by the Lord Jesus Christ when He cuts
short the great tribulation by Antichrist), and they
have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb.’" (Revelation 7:9-10, 13-14,
emphasis and notes added)
