Welcome to Prophecy Q & A with Jimmy DeYoung!
“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:”
It is referring to immediately after the Tribulation period, the seven-year period of time.
“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.” (Matthew 24:30-31)
This is not talking about the Rapture of the church but the second coming of Jesus Christ. There were no Christians around. The doctrine of the Rapture had never been introduced; they don’t know what the Rapture is all about. This is the Olivet Discourse that takes place on Monday afternoon of Passion Week. The disciples asked Jesus two questions:
- When will the Temple be destroyed?
- What are the signs of your coming?
Mark 13 and Luke 21 are parallel passages. These passages deal with the question of when is the temple going to be destroyed. It happened in 70 A.D.
“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:37-39)
The believers were not taken away; Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth were in the ark and were not taken away. The ones taken away were the lost ones – the sinners. Matthew 24:4-29 tells the message that Jesus gave on the Mount of Olives. It describes the Tribulation period. He talks about deception in verses 4, 5, 11, and 24, when the Antichrist comes on the scene, He talks about a Temple on the Temple Mount in verse 15 – when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, flee for the wilderness. These are Tribulation activities.
Matthew 24 is a precursor to the Book of Revelation. Everything that Jesus says in Matthew 24 is found in the Book of Revelation. He is describing the judgments when He talks about deception, the appearance of Antichrist (Revelation 6:1-2), wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom (the second seal judgment), man on a red horse (Revelation 6:3-4), famine (the third seal judgment), a man on a black horse, pestilence, death, a man on a pale horse (fourth seal judgment). Matthew 24 is not talking about the rapture. Matthew 24 is talking about Jesus Christ coming back to the earth. Revelation 19:14 says that we will join Jesus Christ when He comes back to the earth, riding those white horses.
Jimmy DeYoung was a prophecy teacher and journalist who travelled the country and the world educating the Body of Christ of the future events foretold in God’s prophetic Word. His goal was to equip Christians with the knowledge and understanding of what God’s Word says will happen someday soon, so that they can make better decisions today. Dr. DeYoung went home to be with his Savior on August 15, 2021.
