Re: Matt. 24:38-39. Is there any contextual or other support for the notion that this sign of the end times is not “life as usual”, but more like those activities become more frenzied and out of control, or that they are done to the exclusion of any other activities?
According to Matt. 24:38-39, in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
In Matt; 24:21 Jesus said the Great Tribulation will be the worst time the world ever has or ever will experience. Therefore it’s clearly not life as usual. In comparing it to the days of Noah the Lord was saying that just as the people of Noah’s day didn’t realize the end of their world was coming, the people alive during the Great Tribulation will be similarly uninformed. They’ll be trying to live as normally as possible during a very difficult time, thinking the trouble will eventually end and things will settle down again the way they always have. They will not realize that the world as they know it is about to end forever.