And then he says this,
Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Now, what is that verse referring to when he says,
For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Well, he just finished talking about Christ coming in the clouds.
Then he uses the conjunction for, connecting it to what he just said,
For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Now, why is he using that illustration?
Well, keep your finger there and go to Luke 17.
And I'm coming back to Revelation 6, but I just want to lay this groundwork.
And it's all going to fit together in a moment, I promise.
But it says in Luke chapter 17, it says in verse number 34,
I tell you in that night, there shall be two men in one bed.
The one shall be taken and the other shall be left.
Two women shall be grinding together.
The one shall be taken and the other left.
Two men shall be in the field.
The one shall be taken and the other left.
And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord?
And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.
Now, if we were to look at that scripture right there, it's talking about,
obviously, I believe the rapture.
You know, you got people being taken, other people being left behind.
It's pretty clear when you compare it with Matthew 24.
And if we look at Matthew 24, are you in Matthew 24?
If we look at it in verse 27, we're looking at Jesus Christ coming in the clouds,
the coming of the Son of Man.
Then the next verse said, wheresoever the carcass is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.
Well, the carcass is singular.
Carcass means body, right?
And then we've got the eagles, that would be what?
Singular or plural?
I mean, that's plural.
Now, why would eagles gather together at a carcass?
To eat it, right?
Because eagles are birds of prey.
And eagles are some of the animals that it was told unto the children of Israel,
they should not eat this animal.
Because it is a predator.
It is something that eats the carcass of a corpse or a cadaver.
And so when he says wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered ever.
I heard people say this.
Well, that's a negative gathering.
You know, a dead body, a carcass?
Yeah, but not when you're an eagle.
I mean, when you're an eagle, a carcass is a good thing.
I mean, that's a buffet right there, okay?
So they've said, oh, this is a negative gathering.
It's a bad gathering.
And they tried to say that, you know, people are being gathered for a bad reason or to be punished.
But he says that the Son of Man comes in the clouds and he talks about one being taken,
the other left.
And they say, where, Lord?
Like, where are they being taken?
And he says, wheresoever the carcass is, thither shall the eagles be gathered together.
And if we look up the word eagle in the Bible, there's a scripture in Exodus when they're
leaving the land of Egypt.
And he says that I bear you up on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself.
You know, it's very similar to the wording and the language that he uses when he talks
about the rapture where he says, you know, I'll come again and receive you unto myself.
So for some reason, he chooses to use this kind of odd illustration about eagles, you
know, feasting on a carcass.
But basically, he's saying that, you know, the eagles will be gathered together to the
carcass is a parable or symbolic of the fact that we will be gathered together unto Jesus
Christ in the clouds.
When you read it in Matthew 24, there's really no other way to interpret it when he talks
about Christ coming in the clouds and then follows it up with, because wheresoever the
carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
And then he begins to talk about that gathering because look what he says next.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days, verse 29, 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 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 the
great sound of a trumpet and they shall what?
Gather together his elect from the four winds from the one end of heaven to the other.
So when we look at it, we've got Christ in the clouds in verse 27 as the lightning shining
from one end of heaven to the other, okay?
That's in verse 27.
In verse 30, we have the son of man again in the clouds in heaven.
And then in verse 31, we have the elect being gathered together unto him.
So right in the middle of that, in the middle of talking about Christ coming in the clouds
And in the midst of talking about gathering the elect is a parable that says whithersoever
the carcass is, then there shall the eagles be gathered together.
It's pretty hard to look at this and not interpret it as the elect or the eagles and Jesus represented
by the carcass, okay?
And the Bible makes it clear, of course, that the lamb which is in the midst of the throne
shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.
He shall wipe away all tears from the house.
You say, no, Pastor Aaron, that's a bizarre interpretation to say, you know, we're not
going to eat Jesus.
Really?
I thought the Bible said that except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his
blood, you have no life in you.
So why would he not use an illustration about eagles that are eating at a carcass when the
Bible talks about us eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the son of man?
There's a whole chapter about it, or not a whole chapter, but a great part of John chapter
6 deals with that subject.
And I'm making such a big point about this because, you know, those that believe in a
pre-tribulation rapture in direct contradiction of chapter 24 verses 29-31, which clearly
spells out that Christ comes in the clouds and the trumpet sounds and the elect are gathered
after the tribulation, you know, they will take these verses that say in verse 40, then
shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left.
Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left.
They try to say, oh, that's not the rapture.
You know, those people are being taken to a bad place.
They're being taken for judgment.
They're being taken, you know, whatever that's supposed to mean, okay?
But that's what they say, okay?
But if you look at Luke 17, remember, he said, two in the field, one taken, one left.
Two women at the mill, one taken, one left, where?
With us whoever the carcass is, thither shall the eagles be gathered again.
You know what that does?
That proves, are you listening to me?
That proves that verses 40 and 41 of Matthew 24 tie in with verses 29 through 31.
You know, those that are pre-trib will try to separate the two because then another pre-trib
interpretation, because one pre-trib interpretation will say, oh, 40 and 41 aren't about the rapture.
They're being taken for judgment.
But then another pre-trib interpretation will say, well, you know, when he says after the
tribulation, that's not the rapture.
But by the time we get down to verses 40 and 41, we're on the subject of the rapture now.
And the reason they want to be back on the subject of the rapture is because they really
like verse 36.
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, know not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
That's where they derive their doctrine of imminence, saying, Jesus Christ come at any
moment because no man knoweth the day or the hour.
So those that are pre-trib, when we're reading immediately after the tribulation, all of
a sudden it's not the rapture Christ coming in the clouds, but when we get to verse 36,
it suddenly becomes the rapture again.
And then when we're down to 40 and 41, it's not the rapture anymore.
Or if it is the rapture, then you better realize that the rapture in verse 40 and 41 is described
the same way at the end of Luke 17, and when they ask where, it said, whithersoever the
carcass is, thither shall the eagles be gathered together.
So basically, in order to wrap your mind around this pre-trib rapture paradigm, it's
like verse 27 is the rapture, verse 29 is not the rapture, verse 36 is the rapture,
and then verse 40 is not the rapture, even though it's all talking about the same day.
It's bizarre.
I hope you understand what I'm saying.
I'm trying to make this as clear and understandable as possible.
Just two chapters, just Matthew 24, Luke 17, put them side by side.
It's so clear.