I was asked these questions by a "pre-tribulation rapture" doctrine proponent,
and desire to display them and my responses to you for your study.
| "Question #1- Could you please provide the scripture that specifically states there is a gap between the Great Tribulation, which is found in Mat 24:21 & 29, and the coming (parousia) of Jesus Christ which is found in Matthew. 24:27, 37, 39 etc.?" |
There is no GAP between these two. I am proposing that the coming of Christ in verses 27, 37 and 39 was after the great tribulation. He came in wrath. This is not the second coming as such at all. This is His coming to Jerusalem in wrath.
Notice the sixth seal lines up with this COMING in Matthew 24.
Matthew 24:29-31 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: 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. 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.COMPARE WITH THIS:
Revelation 6:12-17 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come ; and who shall be able to stand?It is a coming of WRATH. And the wrath was specifically upon Jerusalem.
The coming of the Lord is not always referring to the coming for the CHURCH. I is spoken of as a coming in THEIR generation who heard Him speak, as evidenced by this verse:
Matthew 10:23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you , Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be comeHe said to the very disciples to whom He spoke, that they would be persecuted and flee from city to city. They would have not gone over all the cities of Israel with the Gospel before the Son of man came. That was not speaking about a people thousands of years later, but to the very ones to whom He spoke . Read the book of Acts to see that they indeed were persecuted from city to city. And the coming of the Son of Man was in wrath against Jerusalem.
Also:
He was carrying His cross to Golgotha, and spoke to the women who were standing there. And look at what He said would happen to them and their children... their generation in other words.
Luke 23:26-30 And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children . For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.He said those women in Jerusalem and their children in Jerusalem would experience this. And lo and behold, this is the sixth seal which refers to His coming with His wrath, which connects to Matthew 24's parallel with the sixth seal, and the coming in wrath that I propose has already occurred.
If you refer to the sun turning black and the moon to blood and stars falling, let me point you to the Old Testament use of this very picture as metaphors of kingdoms falling, and not literal celestial darkness and falling of the lights.
LIGHTS OUT FOR EDOM.
Isaiah 34:4-5 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.LIGHTS OUT FOR EGYPT.
Ezekiel 32:7-8 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.LIGHTS OUT FOR BABYLON:
Isaiah 13:9-10 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.All of this happened in the past and nothing literal about the sun and stars darkening occurred. The sun and moon are said to be rulers of the day and night, respectively, in Genesis' first mention of them. (Genesis 1:16). they are used as symbols for rulership in the Bible That is the same reason why kingdoms' flags used them.
Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars alsoAnd LIGHTS OUT FOR ISRAEL:
Amos 8:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:METAPHORS like this were used all throughout the Old Testament, and Jesus continued use of them, for He authored their use like this in the Old Testament! You have to almost know the Bible backwards and forwards to connect all the metpahors used in the New Testament with those used in the Old to understand the thoughts proposed in the New.