One Layman’s Thoughts on the End Times—Part 1
Here are some thoughts for you pre-mil types to chew on. I don’t want to argue with you. Just read the texts in their context, and try to square them with your preconceived notions. I know, I was raised in a dispensational, pre-mil SBC church too.
The Rapture
When it comes to the rapture, here is the classical text:
Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Matthew 24:40-41, ESV
So who is going to be left behind? The immediate text doesn’t say, does it. What is it that causes you to decide which category represents God’s people? If you will drop back a few verses and catch the context of the passage, you will see that Jesus is comparing what will happen in that day, the day of his return, to what happened in the days of Noah and the great flood:
But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Matthew 24:36-39, ESV
Notice that in the “days of Noah” it was the godless who were “swept away” or taken. It was Noah and his family, whom God preserved in the ark, who were left behind.
Let Both Grow Together
Now look at Jesus’ parable of the farmer who sowed good seed in Matthew 13:24-29:
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ” Matthew 13:24-29, ESV
Notice here too it is the weeds that are first bundled and cast away. The wheat is left behind, to be gathered in the farmer’s barn. Jesus goes on in the following verses to explain the exact meaning of this parable:
“The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. Matthew 13:37-43, ESV
Here again we see that it is the wicked who are taken away to be thrown into the firey furnace. I think the important thing to take away from this parable is the fact that the lost and saved alike are to remain together until the end of the age, and then it’s over; the final judgment. Jesus gives no hint what so ever of the end of the age coming in stages with raptures, tribulations, battles, millennial reigns, and judgments, all stretched out over a thousand plus years.
Think about it.
Well said.