Recently, there is a lot of chatter out there about Jesus comparing his return to the days of Noah.
But these people are getting it wrong.
To understanding Jesus’ warning about his return being like the days of Noah (Matt 24:37–39), you have to understand that he made this warning in the context of when believers will suffer during the Antichrist’s great tribulation (Matt 24:15–22).
Unfortunately, many interpreters, including pretribulationists, ignore the context of which Jesus made this statement. The Noah illustration either gets spiritualized or historicized—consequently, Jesus’ intent is missed.
To learn more about the link between Jesus’ teaching of the Antichrist’s great tribulation and the Noahic illustration, see my book Antichrist Before the Day of the Lord: What Every Christian Needs to Know about the Return of Christ.
The next time you hear clichés such as “Are you building your ark today?” challenge this person to read the Noahic warning in light of the arrival of the Antichrist, as Jesus intended. So many want to skip over the latter event by pretending that the church is not going to be here to face the Antichrist, and so they go straight to the illustration.
You cannot fully understand the illustration without understanding what it is properly illustrating. Biblical interpretation requires us to examine the teaching (Matt. 24:1–31) before the application (Matt. 24:32ff.)
