In context, Matthew 24 is speaking of the end of time, the day of Judgment of the Day of the Lord. Whichever way you want to say it.
it is the day when the Lord actually returns to this earth for the final gathering of those who came out of the great tribulation.
The great tribulation is a time of seperation. to seperate the wheat from the tares, or rather, those who will obey the law of God, the word of God, the bible, and those who will continue to rebel against God by not trusting in His word and having pride which is the cause of the fall of man, and instead trusts in there own doctrine rather than that of Gods, So the tribulation is a testing period, to seperate the wheat from the tares, those who come out of the great tribulation as a child of God, will be caught up on the day of Judgment,
The great tribulation preceeds the day of Judgment. The final day of Tribulatin co-incides with the day the Lord comes back, when there is no more gospel, when all those who are to be saved, will be saved.
During this day, though no physical eye will see Him, the signs of His comeing will be evedent. As evident as a lighting strick flashing in the sky.
Where for we will know that He has come.
The bible speaks of a great earthquake on that last day, This earthquake will throw open all the graves and all that remains of the dead will be tossed from the grave, (this is a final judgment) The saved dead will instantly have a glorified body, people will actually see this, the unsaved dead will just be thrown out of there graves as a great shame for all to see. :The worm dieth not. referes to shame. The worm, which is shame, dieth not, meaning the shame of being unsaved will be a judgment upon you forever and ever.
The saved alive during this day will instantly be caught up to be with Christ receiving a glorified body, all people alive during this time wil see this litterally happen, The spiritually dead who are alive, will see a few people here and there dissapear and recieve a glorified body, they will witness this and this will be a condemnation to those who are not saved.
The day of Judgment is according to the bible a period of 153 days, that is 5 months. So on that great and terrible day of Judgment, all the true believers, alive and dead will be caught up, this will all be seen by those who are alive. And then that is the end, no more gospel, God will withdrawl His hand, and there will be no more possiblility of salvation, Just like in Noah’s day when he preached and said that God says in “seven days” I will destroy the world, you have seven days to get into the ark, that is seven days to get into the safety of Christ, Because once those doors closed there is no more possiblity of salvation.
The day of Judgment is a period of 153 days in which all manner of death and plague and torment will continue on this earth as a final punishment to those who are unsaved. they will be in pain and suffer the knowledge the world will end, and that is a period of five months from the day the Lord comes and raptures the believers.
Rev 9:4 They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Rev 9:5 And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.
Rev 9:6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
this is what it means as the lighting strikes, Because the result of the day of Judgment will be litterally happeneing to all those who remain. They wont see Christ in person, but they will see all the signs.
The vulture that feeds on the carcass is a picture of shame and judgment. On this great and terrible day of Judgment, there will be billions dead. Just imagine an earth with 7 billion people, and only a remnant of those are true believers, we are talking billions upon billions of death, millions of deaths daily, as the earthquake will destroy almost every sewage, building and throw open all the graves to toss out the dead for a great and final shame, there will be plagues and death at every tun. millions will die each day. millions will take there own lives, no body will be able to bury them, they will sit on the earth and stink and rot, and there the vulture will be to feed on the carcass, it is a great shame to have your dead carcass eaten or trampled under. and all the dead will litter the street, the stench will be horrible. the earth will shake and pressure will be released, any number of natural disaster may be a result of this earthquake, everything will be destroyed, the living dead will be in a spiritual darkness as the gospel will be withdrawn from the earth. and this will happen for 153 days, or five months, until God destroyes the universe and creates a new heaven and earth.
