As a young boy friends and I used to gather under the streetlights just after dusk and play "Kick the Can." Kinda' like hide-and-seek. It was so much fun. If someone was able to beat the one who was "it" to the can and kick it, then everyone who had been tagged up to that point were set free. Here's a question for RITA Now to kick around here. Are all events described in the entire Olivet Discourse, e.g., including Matthew 24 and 25 and in the other Gospels, all within the Tribulation? I admit this has become a firm belief of mine relatively recently, say, within the last year. I will also cite Dr Andy Woods as the one whose YouTube Rapture series, say, beginning with his #63, brought me here. Quite frankly, it eases the confusion in my mind that I have wondered about for decades. I posed this in Private Messages to a couple of RITA Now brothers, but thought, "...maybe there are a lot of RITA Now brothers and sisters who might like to kick this can around." :unsure: 😉 I don't believe I have the metal for this so no can do. Just scrap the idea. 😉 Just kidding, of course. Will look into this after re-reading the chapters. I read the two chapters with fresh eyes. IMHO: Matthew 24 1-8 is Pre Trib. 9-14 is Trib. 15-31 is Great Trib. 32-35 (Fig Tree) is Trib and Great Trib. 36-45 Can be applicable to all time. Matthew 25 1-13 Pre Trib. 14-29 All time 31-45 Great Trib. Please consider this: Matthew 24 and 25 are entirely contextually Israel centered and have nothing whatsoever to do with the church. This is the theme of a twelve part series by Dr Andy Woods beginning with "The Rapture Sermon Series 21. Matthew 24-25 Explained - Part 1" and ending with ''Rapture Sermon Series 32. Matthew 24-25 explained, part 12." It is a Sunday School teaching series at his church. Andy is the Senior pastor of Sugar Land Bible Church SW of and in the area of Houston. TX. This perspective has been personally very tension-relieving. I cannot overstate that. I strongly encourage you to go to these YouTubes. Save time watching by setting the Subtitles to English(auto-generated) and the playback speed to 2x. There is a lot of repetition from week to week so don't imagine you have to sit through twelve hours of teaching to get the message. The presentations include these two slides: I hope you'll consider starting it. I have heard several of Andy Woods teachings; he is spot on. I have appreciated how he breaks things down in his preparation to defend the truth. In Bible college, one thing you learn is the timeframe of when a Biblical book was written, to whom it is written, and the purpose of it. I have not been one who has believed that the book of Matthew was written to speak to the church as a post trib rapture. It makes sense to me that the ones “taken” are possibly believers (Jew and Gentile) who survived the tribulation. It is obvious that the second coming is what is depicted in Matthew 24-25. My opinion. Thank you for sharing, he is a fabulous defender of truth, could be because of his background in law :mdrmdr:
