What Will Really Happen?

Matthew 24:1-51 is a prophecy describing the end-time events preceding Christ’s Return, and is often referred to as the “Olivet Prophecy.” Jesus describes a period when society becomes “as the days of Noah were” (Matt. 24:37). That time was “filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11), yet people were going about their daily business, pursuing pleasure and gain. This is when disaster fell on them.

People are again foretold to be so immersed in their lives that the Tribulation—called the worst time of trouble ever (Matt. 24:21)—will take the world by surprise. Jesus warned, “For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:35). Solomon added, “For man also knows not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time [the end-time], when it falls suddenly upon them” (Ec. 9:12).

However, the Bible also warns, “There shall come in the last days scoffers...saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers [the patriarchs] fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (II Pet. 3:3-4). Beware of those who scoff at all end-time prophecy.

Matthew 24:1-51 primarily deals with the final destruction of Jerusalem, possibly including a restored Temple. This destruction is referred to as “the abomination of desolation” in Daniel 12:11. (Notice Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14.) While many Bible prophecies have dual fulfilments, “the abomination of desolation” has three.

The first fulfilment occurred in 167 B.C., when Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanies offered a pig to the Greek god Zeus on the Temple altar in Jerusalem. The second fulfilment is a type of what Christ referred to in Matthew 24:15, when Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The third fulfilment—the main one—is now imminent!

Before Christ returns, armies will again surround Jerusalem. God’s people are warned to flee to safety (Matt. 24:16-22; Luke 21:20-27).

Matthew 24:16 states, “Then let them which be in Judea FLEE into the mountains.” At the third and final fulfilment, immediately before the Tribulation, God states in Revelation 12:14 that His people will literally flee. (To learn more about world conditions preceding Christ’s Return, read our article “What Is the “Abomination of Desolation”?” and our booklet Are These the Last Days?)

The coming Great Tribulation is real—as is God’s promise to protect His people. But, unlike the rapture theory, the Bible reveals there is a designated place ON EARTH—not heaven—where His Church will be safe during the three and a half (not seven) years of Tribulation. Matthew 24:1-51 also reveals that the surrounding of Jerusalem by foreign forces is the event that signals when God’s people should flee to safety—not be raptured away to heaven! (Part Two covers this in detail.)

Jesus was concerned for His people. He warned of what was coming, and of the need to escape invading armies and escalating war. He knew three problems would be apparent. First, those with small children, and especially nursing babies, would have particular difficulty escaping (Mt 24:19). Second, God’s people should pray that the time of flight not be in winter—meaning wintry conditions, because a related prophecy points directly to a wintertime flight. The third had to do with the Sabbath (Mt 24:20). Obedience to the sanctity of God’s seventh-day Sabbath—which God’s Church has always observed, and would therefore still be faithfully observing right to the end—could make flight more difficult.

Consider: Why would Christ instruct to pray concerning the time of flight if His servants were going to be supernaturally sucked away? Rapturists ignore this by incorrectly focusing on, “Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house” (Matt. 24:17;Mark 13:15). Such misrepresentation bypasses any need for personal responsibility!

Christ wants His Church prayerfully involved in their escape—not self-assured, lazing back, expecting a heavenly vacuum cleaner to do it all for them! See through not only the false—but also irresponsible—rapture theory.

Rapture “Proof Texts”

Rapture supporters commonly cite the following five verses as supposed “proof texts.”

(1) Daniel 9:27: “And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

Due to the muddled prophetic understanding of rapture theorists, they claim the phrase “one week” refers to the last seven years, or seven “prophetic days,” of mankind’s society. This is false!

This verse actually references the abomination of desolation, when occupying forces stop the Jews’ daily sacrifice at the Temple. It also addresses the final week of the 70 weeks prophecy about the Messiah and that Jesus Christ would be cut off in the middle of the week, after three and a half prophetic “days”—three and a half years—of His earthly mission. Daniel 9:27 is not a prophecy about how the antichrist will turn on the Jews halfway through the Tribulation. (To learn more about this prophecy, read our article “What Is the “Seventy Weeks” Prophecy?”)

(2) Matthew 24:36 and 24:40-42: “But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only...Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your Lord does come.”

Comprehending any difficult scripture begins with knowing its context. Beginning in Mt 24:40, Jesus explains the condition of society in the last days. People will be “in the field” and “at the mill,” carrying on daily activities. They will also be “eating and drinking” and “marrying and giving in marriage.” In other words, life will seem normal just before destruction—just before the snare. Mt 24:42 confirms that this will come unexpectedly. Famine, pestilence and military invasion will together claim two-thirds of the population of the modern nations of Israel. Read Ezekiel 5:12. Captivity—enslavement!—will take the remaining third.

(3) John 14:1-3: “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

The question becomes: Where will Christ be?

One of the greatest problems with the rapture is that heaven is not, and has never been, the reward of the saved. Jesus said, “The meek shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). He was quoting Psalm 37:11, which says the same thing. Now add this passage: “And has made us unto our God kings and priests: and we [Christians] shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:10). These verses explain why He also said, “No man has ascended into heaven” (John 3:13). So then, not only are God’s people not raptured to heaven before Christ returns, they are not going there later. Further, no one is in heaven now.

Christ’s coming again in John 14:1-31 will be to Earth. He will be here. The word translated “mansions” means “rooms, abode or residence.” The Temple held rooms for various priests who administered there. Different rooms signify differing positions of authority. Christ’s parable of the pounds, in Luke 19:11-27, makes these positions over cities easy to understand. “Mansions” simply refers to OFFICES—or positions of authority.

(To learn more, read our booklet Do the Saved Go to Heaven? You may also want to read the book The Awesome Potential of Man. The millions who worry about being “left behind” never hear the TRUTH about salvation. This inspiring book brings it.)

True salvation is infinitely greater than going to heaven. John 14 reveals that, after His Return, Jesus’ faithful servants will work under Him as kings and priests. Just the truth of salvation—rulership over cities beside Jesus Christ on Earth—reduces the rapture to a pile of scrap.

(4) I Corinthians 15:50-54: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit in corruption. Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMP: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on in corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on in corruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”

There is no proof—or even hint—of a rapture here! Notice the phrase “last trump.” This refers to the seventh trumpet, which announces Christ’s Return to the whole world. This last trumpet is also referred to in Revelation 11:15 and I Thessalonians 4:15-16. It sends a piercing—immense—and REVERBERATING—sound that all inhabitants of Earth will hear.

Notice this in Matthew: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and THEY SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN [nothing secret here] COMING in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet [this has to be the last], and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (24:30-31). This references the saints wherever they are, either buried or alive on Earth. This becomes more clear.

Nothing “secret” is being described! This trumpet blast announces Christ’s Return, and it isthen when He gathers His people. At this point, His true followers will be changed into perfect, immortal beings. This is the time of the Resurrection, when the “dead in Christ” are raised to spirit-born immortal life. They first meet Him in the clouds, not as a rapture—so that they can U-turn with Him back to heaven—but so they can return with Him to begin rule of the earth.

(5) I Thessalonians 4:15-17: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a SHOUT, with the voice of the archangel, and with the TRUMP OF GOD: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

But where will the saints “be with the Lord”? The prophet Zechariah answers: “And [Christ’s] feet shall stand in that day [not seven years later] upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east...and the Lord my God shall come [recall John 14:1-31], and all the saints with [Him]” (Zech. 14:4-5). What could possibly be plainer?

These verses obviously describe Christ’s only additional coming, which is announced by theseventh and last trumpet blast. There can only be ONE last trumpet—ONE seventh trumpet. To state He will return a secret additional time suggests He misrepresented His Second Coming to Earth! If Christ returns to Earth a third time, there must be another trumpet blast, which would make it the “eighth trumpet,” and the seventh and last trumpet really the “second-to-last trumpet.” This is utterly ridiculous! The rapture makes Jesus a liar—and the perpetrator of confusion!

After examining the plain words of the Bible, the above supposed “proof texts” actually prove the falsehood and deceptiveness of this doctrine!