Since the early years of the last century many prominent preachers have proclaimed that Christ will return “at any moment” to deliver the Church by Rapture, and they maintain that this deliverance will take place before the commencement of the Great Tribulation.

Down the years these theories have been continually presented to the Church as Gospel truth, and have found wide acceptance, capturing the imagination of many thousands, yet the whole case for these theories is balanced precariously upon the claim that Matthew 24 is “Jewish,” and that the company described by our Lord in verse 31 is His “Jewish” elect.

Quite obviously the entire case for pretribulation Rapture collapses if this company, which our Lord named “His elect,” is in fact, the Christian Church, yet those who claim that this company is Jewish, provide no Biblical proof to show that this is really so.

As world events in our day make it increasingly evident that civilization is swiftly heading for a final crisis which the Bible tells us will culminate in the Glorious Return of our Lord, surely it is time the Church took another hard look at these theories, to make sure that this offer of pretribulation Rapture which is held out to the Church, really is genuine Bible-based prophecy, and not just an unauthorized innovation which can never come to pass.

As we have already pointed out, the whole case for these theories stands or falls upon this one vital question: Is this company in Matthew 24 really the Jew, or is it, in fact, the Christian Church?

In this passage Christ explicitly stated that He would “gather together His elect” at His public revelation from heaven with Power and Great Glory. Why cannot this statement be accepted at its face value, instead of branding it as Jewish, and forcing it to meet the requirements of incompatible theories?

Christ did not say “His Jewish elect,” which is but an addition to His words which these theories demand. Nor is it possible to brand this whole chapter as a message to the Jew. When Christ made this discourse He specifically addressed it to “the disciples” (v. 3), and “the disciples” were men who followed Christ and acknowledged Him as Lord, and were chosen by Him as the foundation members of His Church.

He spoke to them as such, and He gave them a very personal message, for He used the personal pronouns “ye”, “you”, “your,” over twenty times in this one address, and in making this a personal message to the disciples, He certainly made it a very personal message to the entire Christian Church, and that message cannot be lightly filched from her and handed strategically to the Jew for the sole purpose of saving the entire pre-tribulation Rapture scheme from ruin.

Christ described this company shown in verse 31 as “His elect.” He also said that the Tribulation would be shortened “for the elect’s sake.” If we study the New Testament usage of this word “elect” we find that throughout the New Testament it is applied repeatedly to the Christian Church.

Peter speaks of the Church as “elect according to the foreknowledge of God,” while Paul declared that he was an apostle “according to the faith of God’s elect,” and he urged the Church to put on “as the elect of God,” bowels of mercies, kindness, etc., and even the actual phrase “for the elect’s sake,” which Christ employed in Matthew 24 was repeated verbatim by Paul and applied to the Christian Church. (2 Tim. 2:10).

Paul would certainly not have done this if Christ had used these words to denote an “elect” company of Jews quite distinct from that of the Church. The words of Jesus Christ and of Paul cannot be set in conflict with each other, nor can Scripture be divided against Scripture in order to establish unscriptural theories. God is not double-tongued, and no license exists for placing diverse constructions upon these two identical phrases.

Then again, in Mark’s account of Christ’s words, our Lord described this company as the elect “whom He hath chosen.” (Mark 13:20). If we examine the N. T. usage of this word “chosen” we find that in the parable of the true Vine, which unquestionably embraces the entire body of the Christian Church, Christ twice named this company as the one that He had chosen (John 15:16, 19), and this company can in no way be differentiated from the one described in Mark’s account. Christ would certainly not have created confusion by placing alternative values upon this word “chosen,” applying it indiscriminately both to the Church, and to the Jew. God is not the author of confusion, and anything which brings confusion is not of God.

This word is also repeatedly applied to the Church in the further N. T. writings. Peter said to the Church “ye are a chosen generation,” and Paul has removed every possible doubt about whom our Lord has chosen, for he once again used the same words as Christ, and assured the Gentile Church at Ephesus that “He hath chosen US” in Him (Eph. 1:4).

In common with the word “elect” this word “chosen” is not used in a single instance to denote an independent company of Jews separate from that of the Christian Church. The very fact that the disciples carried these words forward into their N.T. writings, and used them consistently to denote the Church, to the complete exclusion of such a company, bears witness to the fact that they were used by our Lord in the first instance to denote the Christian Church. The disciples would naturally give them the same signification as their Lord had done beforehand, and the fact that they never once applied them to another independent Jewish company clearly indicates that they fully understood that these words were used by our Lord as descriptive only of the Church, and not of the Jew.

As we have seen, ample evidence is forthcoming to show that the Church has been endowed by her Lord with the inherent right to be called “His elect,” and in the face of all this evidence, to maintain that this title, when used in Matthew 24, belongs by exclusive right to the Jew, is quite absurd. This claim cannot be accepted upon the mere despotic say-so of the theorists, and it never should have been accepted on such a basis in the first place. If we follow the Scriptural injunction to “prove all things” we find that Scripture invariably indicates that the right to be called “Christ’s elect” is held only by the Church, in which both Jew and Gentile are incorporated.

Throughout the N. T., Scripture constantly demonstrates the fact that the company involved in Matthew 24:31 is none other than the Christian Church. The claim that this company is Jewish is simply an unprovable assumption, which serves as an expedient device to prop up this ingenious pre-tribulation Rapture scheme. Take away this prop and the whole scheme collapses.

And the whole scheme does collapse when faced with the unadulterated words of our Saviour, for in this message to His own followers, He has established once and for all, the exact position on the Divine program for the Age-end, where the deliverance of the Christian Church is located, and His words show that this idea of Rapture “at any moment before the Tribulation,” is nothing more than a glamorous illusion, a vain conception of the mind, which can never be realized, for it fails to come within the realm of genuine Biblical revelation.

As we have said before, God is not double-tongued, and Scripture never fights against Scripture, therefore all further prophetic Scripture will be found to conform with this basic Christ-established fact, that the Church will be delivered at His post-tribulational Advent with Power and Great Glory.

If we proceed further and study the words of Paul, we find that he has made a very concise statement, which reveals in actual words the exact time “when” God will give relief to the Church from the trouble and affliction which has beset her constantly throughout her career.

Here are Paul’s words: “Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God.” (2 Thess. 1:6-8).

In this concise and conclusive statement, which was addressed specifically to Gentile believers, Paul actually presented the early Church with this direct information which many in our day fail to appreciate. This statement has always been in Scripture, and it tells exactly “when” the deliverance of the Church will take place, and Paul’s words are in full accord in every respect with the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 24:31. Both accounts describe the dramatic public revelation of our Lord from heaven. Both accounts portray His mighty angels. Both accounts show the deliverance of a company of saints. Christ’s account describes the gathering together of a company called “His elect.” Paul’s account portrays the deliverance of a Gentile company which has been repeatedly named as Christ’s “elect.” Both Christ and Paul unquestionably describe the same company, and both show quite clearly that its deliverance will take place at the Glorious Advent of Jesus Christ immediately following the Great Tribulation.

What more need be said? The Divine Word speaks for itself, and that Word proclaims the unalterable truth of post-tribulational deliverance, which can never be disqualified by conflicting theories.

As this wonderful return of our Glorious Lord swiftly approaches, let us have done with deceptive theories which have no future. Let us hold fast to the unadulterated words of our Savior. Let us not be looking, ever in vain, for a mythical pre-tribulation Rapture which can never come to pass. Let us be found “looking for that Blessed Hope, even the Glorious Appearing of our Great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13)—In other words, let us look for the one and only Blessed Hope, even the Glorious Appearing of our Blessed Saviour in all His Majesty and Power as described in Matthew 24: 30.

Providence Baptist Ministries © 2006 PBM Desktop Publications © 2006 All rights reserved Revised: February 14, 2005