<p>13:27 <i>And then shall he send the angels- </i>The preachers of His Gospel are His messengers / &lsquo;angels&rsquo; reaping in the harvest and proclaiming God&rsquo;s victory. And yet these are the very things which the Angels are described as doing in the last day (Mk. 13:27; Rev. 14:6-14). Yet we are doing it right now. In the preaching of the Gospel, we are sharing with the Angels in their work. We&rsquo;re in tandem with them. The nature of our response to the Gospel when we hear it in this life is essentially our response to the call to judgment at the last day. The very same Greek words translated &ldquo;Send&hellip; Angels&rdquo; are to be found in the description of John the Baptist being sent to gather men to the Lord Jesus: &ldquo;I send My messenger before Your face&rdquo; (Mt. 11:10). The idea is clearly that those who had responded to John&rsquo;s message of repentance and faith in Christ&rsquo;s forgiveness have in essence already been gathered for the Kingdom. And yet Israel generally had stoned those sent s.w. unto them (Mt. 23:37- the Lord said this introducing the Olivet prophecy).</p><p>The preachers of His Gospel are His messengers / &lsquo;angels&rsquo; reaping in the harvest and proclaiming God&rsquo;s victory. And yet these are the very things which the Angels are described as doing in the last day (Mk. 13:27; Rev. 14:6-14). Yet we are doing it right now. In the preaching of the Gospel, we are sharing with the Angels in their work. We&rsquo;re in tandem with them.</p><p><i>And shall gather together his elect- </i>Alluded to in 2 Thess. 2:1 &quot;our gathering together unto Him&quot;. However, a case can be made that the believers are already with Christ when He comes in the clouds. Therefore the &ldquo;elect&rdquo; could possibly refer specifically to natural Israel rather than the believers. If the reference is to the believers, this creates a chronological issue- although see on Mt. 24:30&nbsp;<i>Power and great glory</i>. The Angels will be sent out to gather together the elect, but Angels will also be &lsquo;sent forth&rsquo; to &ldquo;gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity&rdquo; (Mt. 13:41). It seems that this &lsquo;gathering out&rsquo; will be achieved by the more positive &lsquo;gathering together&rsquo; of the faithful. The point of gathering is the point of division between good and bad; our response to the certain news that &lsquo;He&rsquo;s back&rsquo; will decide the outcome of our judgment. Those wise virgins who go forth to meet Christ immediately are therefore those who will be &quot;caught up together&quot; with the faithful believers who will have been resurrected. Just as eagles mount up into the air and come down where the carcass is, so we will come to judgment. This will be when the Angels &quot;gather together&nbsp;<i>his elect</i>&quot; (Mt. 24:31). They then &quot;meet the Lord in the air&quot; literally, perhaps connecting with Rev. 11:12:&nbsp; &quot;They (the faithful, persecuted saints of the last days) heard a great voice from heaven (cp. &quot;the voice&quot; of 1 Thess. 4:16) saying unto them, Come up (cp. &quot;caught up...&quot;) hither.&nbsp;&nbsp; And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud (cp. &quot;caught up... in clouds&quot;); and their enemies beheld them&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; It may well be that Rev. 11:12 is speaking of the faithful Jewish remnant of the last days, who will be snatched away along with us.</p><p><i>From the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven</i>- Is this a reference to the believers being &ldquo;caught away in clouds, into the air, for the purpose of meeting the Lord&quot; (1 Thess. 4:17)? It seems also an allusion to the lightning of :27. The Lord&rsquo;s coming and His gathering of the elect is all in the same moment; and yet there are apparently various things which must occur all at the same time. The apparent contradictions in chronology need not worry us- see on Mt. 24:31&nbsp;<i>Power and great glory</i>.</p>