An examination of the kingdom parables used by Christ create serious pause for those aspiring to be endtime fortellers of prophetic events. Jesus' parables run counter to the messages popularized in the news and modern day prophetic books.
Each parable is couched in the culture and experiences of the of the people to whom they were spoken. Had God wanted to make the parables culturally applicable to a 21st century audience he could have done it. He knows the end from the beginning and certainly knows the future.
However, in all kingdom parables, the notion of a modern-day endtime rapture is absent. The Dragnet parable is one example.
The Parable of the Dragnet Matthew 13:47-49.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into the vessels, but threw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age.
An unfortunate translation in the common English Version of the Bible is the use of "world" in passages that mean age. This causes many to believe the material world is under discussion when rather, what the Lord meant to his first century audience were the last days of the Jewish age, (Heb. 9:26).
The last days events belong to the close of the Jewish age. Not once does the Bible teach the end of the Christian age. Rather it is emphatic that the Christian age has no end, (Lk. 1:33, Eph. 3:21)
Rapture Missing From the Dragnet
This parable shows that there is no interim of a rapture before the end of the age. During the pre-end the age harvest both good and bad creatures of the sea (representative of those in the last days) were gathered in the fisherman's net. At the end or harvest the good and bad were separated.
This is how it would be in the end of the age. Nothing is said of a premature exit of the righteous being raptured from the dragnet and leaving the bad behind. Yet Dispensational rapture advocates posit this very idea.
The End of the Age
Matt. 24:31; John 14:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:50, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 are not rapture texts. They are end of the age texts and would apply to the harvest at the end of the age per the parable.
The time for harvesting the dragnet is the parousia, a technical term for the coming of the Lord. The Lord placed the time of the parousia at the consummation of the Jewish age and destruction of the temple in AD 70, Matt. 24:3, 27, 37, 39. If the rapture did not happen prior to that event, there is no other end of the age the Bible says anything about.
William Bell speaks regularly on Fulfilled Prophecy and is the author of The Re-Examination, a study of Christ's first century return in glory. Visit http://www.allthingsfulfilled.com
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