Hi Mike,

I just finished listening to the audio on Who Is Left, Who Is Taken. The whole series you did on Mat 24 was revealing. I’m sure I will listen to that again in the future. I did have a question on this topic about the ones taken. The verses you quote are all teaching the wicked are first burned and just like the days of Noah the flood came and took them all away. These are pretty devastating verses for the rapture. My question is how does 1Th 4 fit into this because Paul seems to be saying that we will meet the Lord in the air which seems to be teaching that out of the two in the field the righteous is taken to met the Lord in the air.

Thanks for your time,
M____

Hi M____,

Thank you for your question concerning how 1Th 4 fits with Mat 24? The fact is that it fits very well with Mat 24 because “the air” is on the earth, and Christ promised that “the meek will inherit the earth.”
“The earth” in scriptural language is our physical bodies, and our physical bodies become servants and slaves to Christ, when He comes into our lives.

Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

So the wicked inherit neither the heaven nor the earth and are instead “gathered together and burned” up. Here is what the scriptures actually teach from Genesis to Revelation:

Pro 10:30  The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.

This scripture fits in well with the promise Christ gives us that His elect will rule over the physical nations of this earth during the thousand years.

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received [ his] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

“Beheaded for the witness of Jesus” simply delivering a deadly wound to the head of the beast within us. That beast within, is “the nations over which we must first be given dominion. Those who die daily and place Christ upon His rightful throne in their hearts will rule on this earth as promised by our Lord to all of His “overcomers.” If we are given to do so inwardly first, then we will also be rewarded to do so outwardly.

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

I hope this is of some help to you.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike