(OPINION) Charisma – Have you asked the question, “Are we living in the end times? Is the rapture coming soon?” There are wars taking place, a declared global “pandemic” with COVID-19 that has affected President Trump and many other world leaders, and more taking place.

There are pages online dedicated to discussing what the Bible has to say about the “last days.” With some of these questions on my mind, I had a discussion on my Charisma podcast, Adventures in the Spirit, with Cindye Coates, Ph.D. She is an expert in the study of eschatology (the theological study of the “end times”), theology professor, church planter, and author.

Her husband, Stan, is a three-time Grammy Award-nominated singer and songwriter as well as a professor of koine Greek. My goal was to encourage people, giving them hope and deep biblical insight in having dominion. Knowing that our conversation will challenge and stretch people’s views, I said, “People are talking about Matthew 24, and they’re talking about the rapture.”

I continued, saying, “People say ‘this is that,’ but what does the Scripture show?” Coates said, “When we look at the Bible, we have to realize who was writing, to whom are they writing, where are they writing, when are they writing, why are they writing and what are they saying?” She teaches a course on Matthew 24 saying that whenever anyone is studying Matthew 24, they’ll have to also study Mark 13 and Luke 21, which overlap each other.

“Matthew is very detailed,” Coates said. “So those three accounts lay on top of each other. And we have to realize there were no chapter dividers in the original writing. In order to get the full story of Matthew 24, you’ve got to go to Matthew 21, which is the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey. It’s Palm Sunday, and that’s where it starts. You’ve got to read the entire story from Matthew 21 to Chapter 25, reading it in context. READ MORE