Matthew 24:40 means we will be caught up to Heaven in order to escape the great tribulation.

Again, as always is true in the "rapture" teaching, we have a passage taken out of context.

Matthew, Chapter Twenty-four is one of the important chapters concerning the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth.

The timing of His return, relative to the Great Tribulation, is as follows:

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: (Matthew 24:29)

The Lord will return immediately after the great tribulation.

Still speaking of His return and our gathering to Him, the Lord declares:

Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. (Matthew 24:40)

Therefore, Matthew 24:40 is not speaking of a pre-tribulation "rapture" but of the gathering of His saints to Him at His appearing. This is the same gathering described in the fourth chapter of First Thessalonians. At His appearing we shall be raised from the dead and caught up to meet Him in the air. If we are living at the time, we shall be changed from mortality to immortality and caught up with those who have just been raised from the dead.

All of this shall take place "immediately after the tribulation of those days."

Neither in Matthew nor in Thessalonians is it stated or implied the Lord then will turn around and take us back to Heaven. This is not a biblical concept.

The days of the Great Tribulation will be shortened so the elect on the earth do not perish before He comes. The Lord desires that there be some still living on the earth to greet Him at His appearing.

If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24:22)

I Thessalonians 1:10 means we will be caught up to Heaven in order to escape the great tribulation.

And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (I Thessalonians 1:10)

This verse is used frequently by "rapturists" in order to prove God will not permit His elect to experience the Great Tribulation.

The problem here is that "the coming wrath" is not the great tribulation.

Tribulation is a good and helpful chastening of mankind. In fact, we enter the Kingdom of God through much tribulation.

However, Divine wrath is another matter. We do not enter the Kingdom of God through Divine wrath. Wrath is destructive whereas the chastening of tribulation creates the patience of the Kingdom in us.

All Christians experience tribulation. In the world we always shall have tribulation. In order to escape tribulation we have to forsake our integrity.

Although we have tribulation we have peace and joy; not as the world gives but as Jesus Christ gives to us.

No, we Christians have not been appointed to Divine wrath. But we indeed have been appointed to tribulation and chastening, for these make us partakers of God's holiness.

"Before I was afflicted I went astray." Suffering drives sin and foolishness from us, and is to be desired for this reason.

The present generation of American Christians are as spoiled babies. We do not realize those whom Christ loves He rebukes. We are attributing all suffering to Satan. It is a fact that God uses Satan to afflict us, but it is for our good. As long as we are following the Lamb, no evil person, including Satan, can possibly harm us.

To be continued.