Matthew Chapter 24

VERSE 31 “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.”

The Sinaitic MS omits the word “sound“, which we believe to be in harmony with the general teachings of the trumpets.

“This work (of gathering His elect) will be in progress in the interim, during the “harvest.”

The angels (messengers of the new King of earth) will do a separating work, NOT between the church and the world, but a separating work in the nominal church– among nominal professors, the present “heavens“.

This work is represented under various symbolic descriptions—it is the gathering of the wheat from the tares into the barn (Matt. 13:30); it is the gathering of the good fish into baskets and the casting of the unsuitable fish caught in the gospel net back into the sea (Matt. 13:47-49); it is the gathering of his jewels (Mal. 3:17); it is the calling of “my people” out of Babylon (Rev. 18:4); it is the midnight cry to the virgins, which separates the wise from the foolish (Matt. 25:6); and in this prophecy it is the gathering of the “elect” (the true Christians, the fully consecrated) from all the non-elect of Christendom (the nominal Christians, those not consecrated), from the four winds–from every quarter.

We are not to expect spirit-angels to appear with wings and to fly through the air blowing a great trumpet, and here and there catching away some of the saints–no more than we are to expect to become literal fish and to be put into literal baskets, or literal grains of wheat to be put into a literal barn. The angels or messengers used by our Lord in this harvest gathering will, we believe, be such messengers as he has used in his service throughout this age—earthly servants, begotten of his holy Spirit–“new creatures in Christ Jesus.”

The “great trumpet” we understand to be the antitypical “trumpet of Jubilee,” the “seventh trumpet,” as symbolic as were the preceding six (Rev. 11:15-18), none of which ever made any literal sound. It has been symbolically sounding since October 1874, and will continue to the end of the Millennium. With the beginning of this trumpet began the “harvest” and the reaping and separating, which must continue until the “elect,” the “wheat,” are all gathered out of the present heavens (ecclesiastical systems)–unto the Lord.

The “angels” (messengers) are those who carry the message of the Lord’s Word which produces the separation and gathers his elect to himself.

It is the privilege of the faithful people of God who are now translated out of darkness into the marvelous light— who are permitted to see and hear those things which others do not see and hear, to be co-workers with their Lord as his angels–messengers or servants–in this as well as in all the other features of the work, throughout the age. By his grace such have plowed and sowed and harrowed and watered, and now the same class may also reap with the Chief Reaper.” (D 600-602)

Verse 31 as explained from another point of view.

“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.”

“And he [the Son of man] shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet.” Since a “TRUMPET” is a message, “a GREAT sound of a trumpet” is a prominent message.

The “ANGELS” of the Son of man are sent with a prominent message to gather together the elect “from the four winds,” “from one end of heaven to the other.” The elect are gathered from the four corners of “heaven,” from the entire “heaven,” as it were, for a square with its four corners is a symbol of completeness.

Or it could be said that the “four winds” signify the four cardinal points of the compass, again showing the whole “heaven.” With the elect being gathered “from one end of heaven to the other,” the emphasis is on the four extremities, the entire ecclesiastical heavens.

The “TRUMPET,” which pertains to the message of truth about Jesus’ Second Presence, gathers the elect from different sectarian groups. Christians leave their respective denominations and are attracted to the Harvest message. They are extracted from the various branches of the spiritual or ecclesiastical heavens (the church nominal, Babylon).

Mark 13:27 reads, “And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.” Matt 24 stresses the two ends of “heaven,” whereas Mark 13 mentions “earth” and “heaven,” and thus provides further understanding.

Matthew 24 is talking about the nominal spiritual heavens (viz. “one end of heaven to the other”, this is lateral or horizontal), while Mark 13 emphasizes the vertical aspect.

 In other words, the elect IN the nominal systems (in Babylon), who are nevertheless on a higher plane (being begotten of the Lord’s spirit, i.e. “housetop saints”), as well as those who are on the lower plane (those residing in the “field”, OUTSIDE of Babylon, outside the various systems in earth’s society), all of these are gathered during the Harvest.

When the two accounts are combined, the emphasis is not on the beginning of the gathering but on the completion or accomplishment of the gathering.

In connection with the gathering of the elect, there are various stages.

The call to “Come out of her, my people” is a gathering (Rev. 18:4). God’s people come to, and feed on, the Harvest message or the “carcass” (Matt. 24:28). But that is not the end of the story. The Christian is called to come out of Babylon by or through the “Trumpet”, a message (present truth, the harvest message), but from this message, each is to make his calling and election sure.

When this happens, the Christian is gathered to the *barn condition; that is, he is fully harvested beyond the veil (Matt. 13:30). Therefore, the emphasis is on the accomplishment of the gathering in its entirety. The elect are gathered from one end of heaven to the other and from top to bottom—the gathering is a fully accomplished work.

*There is however another view as to what being gathered into the Lord’s barn consist of, rather than representing the condition of being harvested beyond the Vail as Brother Shallieu suggest it simply implies the condition of security, of separateness from the worldly, and the worldly church, of being gathered to Christ, into oneness with him, in fellowship of spirit through the knowledge of the Truth. However as Brother Shallieu pointed out he is speaking from the finished picture.

Notice Verse 30. Chronologically, the fulfillment of Verse 30 regarding the “Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” will occur after Verse 31

 This of course is dependent upon ones position on what particular tribulation period is being spoken of in Verse 29. If you believe as the Pastor taught that it refers to the 1260 years of Papal supremacy over the Church then the events of Verse 31 could work either way for as we have seen there are two separate aspects to Verse 30, viz. first the sign of the Son of Man’s Parousia (presence) being seen by the Lord’s fateful watchers, and then later or afterwards the sign of the Son of Man being made evident to the world in the clouds (trouble) coming upon the world. If you accept Brother Shallieu’s suggestion (a very distinctive possibility) that the tribulation is in reference to the Hour of Trial then of course Verse 31 would have to have occurred prior to Verse 30.

Brother Shallieu states, Verse 31 is a flashback. The apostles asked Jesus when his Second Presence and the end of the age would be. Verse 30 answers part of this question, the part pertaining to the “they” class (the tribes of earth, the world, the unbelievers), who will mourn when the fiery judgments (clouds of trouble) reveal Jesus. Verse 31 is saying that almost contemporaneously with the appearance of the sign of the Son of man in heaven, the elect will all be gathered. When he appears, we shall appear with him in glory (Col. 3:4).

Continued with next post.