Mateo 24:31

Jesus explained another event that will happen when He returns at the end of the Tribulation. The passage He referred to was Isaiah 27:12-13. There Israel is in view, so Jesus must have been speaking about the gathering of Israelites again to the Promised Land at His second coming. The four winds refer to the four compass points. This regathering will involve judgment (Matthew 13:39; Matthew 13:41; Matthew 24:40-41; Matthew 25:31; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8). Jesus had previously spoken of the angels’ role of assisting Him at this time (Matthew 13:41; cf. Matthew 16:27). This regathering will set the stage for Messiah’s worldwide reign.

God summoned the Israelites to march and to worship using trumpets during the wilderness wanderings and in the land (Exodus 19:16; Exodus 20:18; Jeremiah 4:5; et al.). This is not the same trumpet that will call Christians to heaven at the Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). Other trumpets will sound announcing various other events in the future (cf. Revelation 8:2; Revelation 8:6; Revelation 8:13; Revelation 9:14; Revelation 11:15; et al.).

Events in the church age, between Pentecost and the Rapture, are not in view in the Olivet Discourse. This is the typical pretribulational interpretation of the discourse. [Note: See Bruce A Ware, "Is the Church in View in Matthew 24-25?" Bibliotheca Sacra 138:550 (April-June 1981):158-72., ] The whole discourse deals with the return of Messiah to establish His kingdom on the earth and the things leading up to that. Jesus mentioned no sign involving anything in the church age. The signs begin in the Tribulation when Christians will have gone to be with the Lord. Jesus’ first reference to the Rapture was in the Upper Room Discourse (John 14:1-3), which He gave after the Olivet Discourse. [Note: See Thomas R. Edgar, "An Exegesis of Rapture Passages," in Issues in Dispensationalism, pp. 217-21; and Paul D. Feinberg, "Dispensational Theology and the Rapture," in ibid., pp. 235-44.] Turner compared and contrasted four main evangelical views of this passage: the futurist, the preterist, the traditional preterist-futurist, and the revised preterist-futurist. [Note: David L. Turner, "The Structure and Sequence of Matthew 24:1-41 : Interaction with Evangelical Treatments," Grace Theological Journal 10:1 (Spring 1989):3-27. For a refutation of the preterist interpretation, see Stanley D. Toussaint, "A Critique of the Preterist View of the Olivet Discourse," Bibliotheca Sacra 161:644 (October-December 2004):469-90.] He preferred the third of these, and I take the first.

"Those accepting the posttribulational view, that the rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ occur at the same time, tend to ignore the details of this discourse in the same fashion as the amillenarians do." [Note: Walvoord, Matthew: . . ., p. 181. E.g., Morgan.]

The reference to Jesus gathering the elect from the sky may indicate that dead and raptured Christians are also in view. [Note: Walvoord, Matthew: . . ., p. 190.] They will accompany Him when He returns to reign on the earth (cf. Colossians 3:4). Some interpreters believe the reference to the sky simply describes the whole world in different words and that only Jews are in view in this verse. Some feel this may include Old Testament saints who have died. [Note: Toussaint, Behold the . . ., pp. 277-78; Carson, "Matthew," p. 506; Barbieri, p. 78.] I think it includes Christians and Old Testament saints and possibly angels.

This concludes Jesus’ answer to the disciples’ question about the sign of His coming and the end of the present age (Matthew 24:3). Other important passages of Scripture dealing with the Second Coming are the following: Deuteronomy 30:3; Psalms 2; Isaiah 63:1-6; Daniel 2:44-45; Romans 11:26; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4; 2Th_1:7 to 2Th_2:12; 2Pe_2:1 to 2Pe_3:17; Judges 1:14-15; and Revelation 1:7; Revelation 19:11-21. [Note: For parallels between the eschatology of Matthew 24 and that of the Didache, see William C. Varner, "The Didache ’Apocalypse’ and Matthew 24," Bibliotheca Sacra 165:659 (July-September 2008):309-22.]