MATTHEW 24:31: RAPTURE OR SECOND COMING?
Tom's Perspectives
by Thomas Ice
Many non-pretribulationists contend that Matthew 24:31 teaches a posttribulational
rapture. All agree that this passage teaches Christ’s second coming. This means that
the question revolves around whether Matthew 24:31 (Mark 13:27 its parallel passage)
is a reference to the rapture or not. I contend that the rapture is not in view in this
passage. The text reads as follows:
“But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the
powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man
will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they
will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great
glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will
gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the
other. (Matthew 24:29-31)
POSTTRIBULATIONAL POSITION
Popular posttribulational radio personality, Irwin Baxter, believes that the rapture and
the second coming “are the same event” in Matthew 24:31.
1
“Matthew 24:29 teaches
that the coming of the Son of man and the rapture are the same event,” contends
Baxter. He arrives at this conclusion by comparing Matthew 24:29-31 to Christ’s return
in Revelation 19. In the discussion cited, Baxter does not refer to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-
18, the undisputed rapture passage, as a baseline for defining the rapture.
Posttribulational rapture scholar, Dr. Robert Gundry, also equates the rapture with
the second coming in Matthew 24:31. “Posttribulationists,” contends Gundry, “equate
the rapture with the gathering of the elect by angels at the sound of the trumpet (Matt.
24:31).”
2
Unlike Irwin Baxter, Dr. Gundry does interact with the rapture passage (1
Thessalonians 4:13-18). He says, “If we define the rapture strictly as a catching up,
only one passage in the entire New Testament describes it. That passage is 1
Thessalonians 4:13-18.”
3
DEFINITION OF THE RAPTURE
As noted earlier, Baxter does not even attempt to define the rapture. Apparently this
allows Baxter flexibility to find the rapture in Matthew 24:31. As noted above, Dr.
Gundry includes in his definition of the rapture “a catching up” from 1 Thessalonians
4:13-18. Dr. Gundry wants to “broaden the definition to include a gathering or
reception” from Matthew 24:31, etc.
4
Since the present debate is whether or not
Matthew 24:31 is a rapture passage, it would beg the question to include Matthew 24:31
in an a priori definition of the rapture.
1 Thessalonians 4:17 is the only undisputed passage describing the rapture event.
Only in this passage is the Greek word
harpazô
(“caught up”) used, from which the word