Is the Gathering of the Elect from the Four Winds (Matthew 24:31) Describing the Rapture of the Church?

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:30-31)This passage certainly contains imagery reminiscent of the rapture passages of scripture in the Thessalonian Epistles and 1 Corinthians 15. But it creates some chronological questions about the timing of the event. Jesus clearly says that the event described in Matthew 24 happens in conjunction with the return of the Son of Man to set up the Kingdom—not before or somewhere in the middle of Daniel’s 70th week. So, the passage does require some further study.Audience of the Book of MatthewAlmost all Bible scholars agree that the intended audience of the book of Matthew is Israelon. Jesus’ birth story is filled with descriptions of answered prophecy. The Sermon on the Mount is focused on living in the Kingdom. It not only expresses what God truly expects of His people, but is intended to give the Jewish people a longing for the Kingdom. When the disciples are sent out in Matthew 10, they are specifically instructed NOT to go to the gentiles, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and they are to preach that the Kingdom is at hand. …Read the rest of this post here, or just listen to the podcast. Get full access to the Proclaim & Defend Podcast at proclaimdefend.substack.com/subscribe