Matthew 25:29: “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”

This is an interesting principle that is easily missed. Another way to put it is that actions have consequences. People’s spiritual lives do not stay in one place: they are constantly moving in one direction or another. Those who are moving toward God and who are engaged in the passionate pursuit of Him will find that God will bless them with more. He will reward those who actively seek Him. However, those who have no interest in God or who are too lazy to seek Him will find themselves enshrouded in an ever-growing cloud of darkness.

If you are seeking God then you can expect to find Him – and the closer you draw to Him, the more you will find! However, those who aren’t seeking Him will gradually find their spiritual life falling apart as they slide into darkness. It is like taking a coal out of the fire and setting it on the ground: eventually it will lose all its heat and will become utterly cold and unresponsive.

Your spiritual life will either be getting hotter or colder. It is not going to stay the same. If you find yourself getting colder, then you should seriously consider a change in direction.

Matthew 25:1: “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.”

This is another parable that has been widely misinterpreted. What people forget is that Jesus is still answering the question the disciples asked back in Matthew 24:3. The end-times discussion has not finished. What this means is that the parable Jesus is telling still concerns Israel, not the Church. Matthew 24 focused on Israel, and Matthew 25 continues that focus. The Church is not in view in any of this. After all, these events do not concern them because they will not be around to see them!

This can also be seen from the parable itself. The Church is the bride, not 10 bridesmaids! The bride cannot be excluded from her own wedding. No one in the Church is in danger of losing their salvation, but that is a genuine danger in the Tribulation period. (After all, if you take the Mark of the Beast then you will be damned. There is no forgiveness for that sin.) In this parable Jesus is telling people the urgency of holding onto their faith during the Tribulation. None of that applies to the Church.

These 10 virgins are actually believers who are still alive at the end of the Tribulation and who are waiting for the Lord to come back. However, not all of them have persevered:

Matthew 25:2: “And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.”

In the Bible, oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. This is more evidence that this parable has nothing to do with the Church. All of those in the Church today have the Holy Spirit sealed within them, and they cannot lose it. It is impossible. In fact, Paul goes so far as to say that if you don’t have the Spirit then you are not saved. (Romans 8:9.) Having the Spirit and being saved go together; in fact, they’re inseparable.

However, in the Tribulation that will not be the case. In this age we cannot lose the Spirit, but in the Old Testament it could be lost (as God took it from Samson, for instance) – and in the Tribulation it can be lost as well. In this case we see that some people were wise and held onto the Spirit, while others were foolish and lost it. This created a problem:

Matthew 25:7: “Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.”

When the Lord returned, the foolish ones were caught without the Spirit. They quickly tried to do something about it, but it was already too late:

Matthew 25:10: “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.”

Once the Lord returned, it was much too late. They were lost. That is why Jesus urges the to always be watching:

Matthew 25:13: “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”

As you can see, verse 5 speaks of the bridegroom tarrying – perhaps to see which “bridesmaids” were wise and which ones were foolish. Note that Jesus warns them in advance that this will happen. He plainly tells them that He is going to tarry, and He will come at an unexpected time. He seems to hint that His return will be delayed, and some will take advantage of this to abuse others – but then He will return and their souls will be lost.

Those who endure to the end will be saved; those who falter before the end will be lost. It is a very different situation from what the Church is going through now, but that is because this is a different dispensation.

Matthew 24:37: “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

This is really rather remarkable! Now, keep in mind that this is talking about the Second Coming, NOT the Rapture. This means that after all the horrible things that happened during the 7-year Tribulation, the masses of the Earth will have no realization that 7 years have passed since the signing of Israel’s “covenant with death” and that the return of Christ is imminent. Now, the world should see this coming – in fact, after the 7-year treaty is signed they could practically mark the date of the Second Coming on their calendar – but they won’t. Even though Christ clearly said that He would return immediately after the Tribulation, people still won’t see it coming.

This isn’t the first time in history that something like this happened. Noah told his world that the Flood was coming, but they didn’t listen either. So, as the Bible says, the Flood came and killed them all. (That’s what happens when you don’t listen to God.)

Matthew 24:42: “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”

It may be significant that this says “what hour” and not “what day” or “month” or “year”. Since Jesus comes immediately after the Tribulation, those who are alive at the time should be able to pinpoint the date pretty closely. They won’t know the hour or minute, but they should definitely know that the time is very soon. After all, the book of Daniel actually gives the number of days it will be from the start of the Tribulation to the beginning of Christ’s millennial kingdom (Daniel 12:12). They may not know the hour, but they should have a the general timeframe nailed down pretty closely.

Matthew 24:44: “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

Once again, this is a reference to the Second Coming, NOT the Rapture. Apparently those who are alive at the time will be expecting Jesus to return at a certain moment, but they will be surprised. Whether this is because He arrives sooner or later than expected is not clear. What is clear is that Jesus wants them to be watching so that they are not surprised. There is a reason for this:

Matthew 24:48: “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The people of that time must watch. They aren’t going to get a second chance at this; if they are caught in sin and evil when Jesus suddenly returns then they will be in a world of trouble. So they should watch carefully, lest the Lord come and catch them by surprise.

Matthew 24:36: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”

Note that Jesus is speaking of the SECOND COMING, NOT the Rapture. This should be very clear if you look at the context of Matthew 24 and the entire subject Jesus has been addressing this entire time.

Now, it’s true that no one knows when the Rapture will take place, but that’s not what Jesus was talking about in this verse. What Jesus was saying is that only God the Father knows when the Second Coming will take place (which, remember, happens at the end of the Tribulation). It has been kept hidden from everyone else.

Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

There are two things I want to mention about this verse. First, we see the Lord telling us that this planet is going to be destroyed. (2 Peter 3:12 says it will be done by fire.) This world, and all its wickedness, is not going to last forever. The day is coming when God will judge men for what they have done, and will put an end to sin and death and evil once and for all. The Lord will then create a new Heaven and Earth, where righteousness will live forever and where the devil and his minions will never again have the chance to tempt mankind. This isn’t going to happen soon, but it will happen, and all those who are in Christ will live to see it.

Second, note that Jesus says that His Words will not pass away. This is something that all too many scholars no longer believe. Nearly all modern Bible translations are based upon the idea of textual criticism, which teaches that the text of the Bible has been lost, and so modern man has to guess what it might have once said and piece it together as best we can. So people come up with their own ideas about what the Bible has to say. Then people go further, and actively edit the Bible – creating gender-neutral versions; removing its teachings on fasting and homosexuality; etc. The Bible has become whatever people want it to be.

This is why I prefer the King James Version – it has not undergone this corruption process. That is not to say that I think the KJV is 100% perfect; I believe it has its flaws, and could use some updating (esp. in regards to its archaic language; who today knows what ‘kine’ are?) But I will take the KJV any day over a version that is based on textual criticism.

Matthew 24:32: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.”

People go on and on about how Israel is the fig tree, and how wars and persecution and earthquakes in our time mean that the Rapture is near. That is not what this is talking about. The disciples’ question was, how will we know when Your return is near? What Jesus is telling them is that when they see the things He just described take place – the abomination of desolation, etc. – they will know that Jesus is about to come back. This is talking about the Second Coming (which takes place at the end of the Tribulation), not the Rapture (which takes place before the Tribulation begins).

There are many signs that indicates the Second Coming is near. There are no signs that indicate the Rapture is near. The two are completely different events.

Matthew 24:34: “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”

“This generation” is a reference to the generation that sees the Tribulation. Since the Tribulation only lasts 7 years, and since Jesus returns immediately after the Tribulation, we can see that it is plainly true that the generation that sees the events of the Tribulation will still be alive when the Second Coming comes to pass. That is all this is saying.

“This generation” is not the generation that saw Israel reborn in 1948, nor the one that saw Jerusalem retaken in 1967. It is the one that sees the Tribulation.

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.

Matthew 24:26: “Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

When the Lord returns at the end of the Tribulation, He will do so in a highly visible way. Those who come by and say “The Lord has returned secretly” are liars. God has warned Israel ahead of time so they would not be deceived by false Christs.

Matthew 24:29: “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:
30 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 coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

As we just saw, Jesus Christ will return at the end of the Tribulation (or, as verse 29 says, “immediately after the tribulation”). When He returns He will do so in a very visible way; the tribes of the earth “shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”.

Just for the record, these verses are not talking about the Rapture. The Rapture happens before the Tribulation and takes the Church up to Heaven. The Second Coming happens after the Tribulation and is when Jesus will return to Earth to defeat the antichrist. The two are completely separate events – separated in time by a number of years. Do not confuse the two.

Matthew 24:24: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”

Revelation speaks of the great wonders and miracles that will be done (which include things like raising the antichrist from the dead), so I will not dwell on that here.

Notice, however, the word “elect”. Christ divides mankind into two groups: the elect, which cannot be deceived, and the non-elect, which can and will be deceived. This goes back to predestination. It’s something that the Bible teaches, and which people reject because they don’t like it. A God who picks and chooses is not a God they are comfortable with; it doesn’t match up with their own ideas about what God is like, so they come up with another idea instead and stick to that. Then what God’s Word says about the real God gets ignored or swept under the rug.

Matthew 24:21: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

Notice the staggering scope of this statement! This time of trouble will be the worst time of trouble there has ever been in the entire history of the world. It is worse than World War I, World War II, and any other war that has ever been fought. It is even worse than the Flood, which wiped out all of mankind except for the 8 people on the Ark. (How can it possibly be worse than that? Think of it this way: the Tribulation will kill more than half of the world’s population, which at today’s numbers would be more than 3 billion people. If there were only 100 million alive when the Flood happened then one could see how the Tribulation could be worse, in terms of the sheer number of people who will die.)

A number of people say that the Tribulation isn’t really going to be that bad, and will just be like all of the other persecutions that have happened during history. It’s nothing special, and those who talk about the Rapture are just cowardly American Christians who are afraid of being persecuted. It rather astonishes me that there are those who reject the doctrine of the Rapture on the basis that it is “unspiritual” to want to avoid being persecuted! A “real” Christian wouldn’t even want to run. They would stand their ground and take their lumps, so to speak (unlike the apostle Paul, who fled from city to city to avoid being killed; does that mean he was cowardly?). In other words, talk of the Rapture is equated with cowardice and treason.

I think that argument is preposterous. The Bible teaches the Rapture in a great many places, and it tells us to be looking forward to it, to be comforted by it, and to be thankful for it. To reject all of that and say “Well, you’re just a coward if you believe that stuff” is terrible. The Bible teaches the Rapture; therefore, we should believe in it. This is not complicated.

So, not only do people reject what the Bible has to say about the Rapture, but they also dismiss what the Bible has to say about the Tribulation. They say that it’s not really going to be all that bad. They say that times are tough all over the world, and this is just more of the same. Christians have always been persecuted; Christians always will be persecuted; and this is just more of the same.

That is really a demonstration of appalling ignorance, and a complete rejection of what Jesus said in this verse. During this 7 year period we do not have the mere persecution of the Church. No, what we have is a holy and angry God pouring out His wrath upon the world. The entire world has not faced the wrath of God since the time of the Flood, and this time it will be much worse than it was before. The Tribulation is not just another case of nation-states hunting down and killing Christians; it is a time when God Himself pours out His wrath upon this world and kills people by the billions – and then unleashes armies of demons to torment and kill even more people! Things will be so bad that every last person on Earth will cry out in terror, and will seek to be buried alive rather than have to face the wrath of the Lamb. They will be unable to stand before His gaze. “For the great day of His wrath is come, and who is able to stand?”

The Tribulation is not just more of the same horrors that we’ve always seen; it is a whole new thing, unlike anything that has ever happened before. (We know this because that is what Jesus just said in this verse.) It is the worst and darkest time in all of human history. A sinful world will fall into the hands of an angry God, and when God is done the planet will be destroyed and the world will become a mass graveyard. As the next verse says:

Matthew 24:22: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

In other words, if God didn’t cut the period short, every last living thing on the planet would have died. Every. Single. Last. One.

So don’t try to claim that this is just more of the same old persecution that Christians have always seen. Jesus Himself says that it is not.

Matthew 24:16: “Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:”

Notice the reference to those who are in Judaea. This is another tip that this chapter is aimed at Israel, not at the Church in general.

Matthew 24:20: “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:”

Why? Because Israel follows the Sabbath laws and traditions, and on the Sabbath public transportation is halted and people are only allowed to take so many steps. If this abomination takes place on the Sabbath then the Jews will be unable to flee, and a great many of them will die.

Matthew 24:15: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)”

When the antichrist enters into the Temple during the Tribulation period, that is the abomination of desolation. Some people try to say that this is a reference to the Maccabean Revolt, but Jesus says this is something that will happen in the FUTURE – and the revolt happened in the past! This is something that had not yet taken place in the disciples’ day, but it will happen halfway into the Tribulation.

This passage is also strong evidence that the Temple will be rebuilt at some point. Right now there is no holy place for the antichrist to defile. Before he can do that, the Temple must be rebuilt and functioning. The Temple has not been rebuilt yet, but that will take place at some point in the future.

Also, notice that Jesus attributes this prophecy to Daniel. Liberal scholars like to say that Daniel didn’t write the book that bears his name, and that the prophecies in the second half of that book were added much later by someone else. As you can see, Jesus disagrees.

Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

This is not going to be accomplished by the Church, because in the Tribulation the Church is in Heaven. This will be accomplished by the 144,000 witnesses, and by an angel that will fly over the whole Earth, proclaiming the gospel. Once this is done the antichrist will enter the temple, proclaiming himself to be God, and then the end will come.

Matthew 24:13: “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

Salvation during the Tribulation is different from salvation now (which is something I have written a paper on). This is because the Tribulation is a different dispensation. Right now we are in the Church Age, and in this dispensation we are “once saved always saved”. Once we are saved, we are sealed: we cannot be lost.

During the Tribulation, however, things are different. Anyone who takes the Mark of the Beast will be damned, no matter what. That is a sin that cannot be repented of: it is permanent. Those who wish to be saved will have to endure, refusing to take the Mark, and willing to accept death rather than take it. So, then, those who endure to the end will be saved, but those who falter and take the Mark will be lost, and it will be impossible to save them.

Matthew 24:5: “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”

There will be people in the early part of the Tribulation that claim to be Jesus – in fact, there will be many such people. Israel was warned to not believe them. Jesus would not come back until a number of important things had happened, and when He returned it would not be in secret – it would be openly, with the armies of Heaven. There would be no mistaking the return of the real Jesus.

Matthew 24:6: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

Another way to put it is that these things are the beginning of the 7-year Tribulation period, which is characterized by world wars. The antichrist launches a global campaign that kills a huge percentage of the Earth’s population. All of this, however, was foretold by Christ. These things do not signal the end, but rather, the beginning of the end.

Matthew 24:9: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.”

The Tribulation period will be marked by intense persecution of the Church, as Christians are martyred by the millions. The beast is given power over the saints to overcome them, and overcome them he does.