3 Nov 2015
Matthew 24:31
Matthew 24:31: “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
For the record, this verse is not talking about the Rapture. In the Rapture Jesus comes to Earth alone, raises the dead, catches the Church up to meet Him in the air, and takes them on to Heaven. In this event the angels are sent to gather up the elect. Jesus is actually dividing the wheat from the tares in preparation for judgment; the wheat will be gathered into the barn, and the tares will be burned with everlasting fire.
You see, there are actually two gatherings of people, not one. The gathering that happens before the Tribulation is to take the Church to Heaven; we call it the Rapture. The gathering that happens after the Tribulation is to separate the righteous from the wicked, so the wicked can be cast into Hell while the righteous go on to live in Christ’s millennial kingdom. These two raptures are easily confused, especially if you don’t pay close attention to the context or the details of the two events.