This narrow way

“Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and the other one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other one will be left. Therefore, be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.” (Matthew 24:40-42).

There may be no more anticipated event for Christians past and present than the rapture of the church. That day first spoken of by Jesus in the Upper Room discourse; “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My father’s house are many dwelling places; If it were not so, I would have told you; For I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3). Paul also wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 about a day when “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.” The catching away of the church has been anticipated by every generation of Christians since Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, as can be seen by his use of the word “we who are alive and remain.” And it is an event which can occur at any moment.

However, there are some passages of Scripture which do not refer to the rapture of the church, but which are taken out of context in an attempt to make them rapture passages as well. Matthew 24:40-42 is one such passage. Matthew 24 and 25 are what is known as the Olivet Discourse, given by Jesus to His disciples when they asked Him about the signs of His second coming and the end of the age. Matthew is writing to First Century Jewish Christians who were anticipating Jesus’ kingdom coming to earth. By this time in Matthew the Jewish leaders of the day had rejected the offer of the kingdom and Jesus was explaining to His disciples that the kingdom had been postponed and what would occur in the interim until the kingdom was realized.

Verses 4-24 lays out for the Jewish people and the nation of Israel the events of the first half of the seven year “time of Jacob’s trouble” written about by the Prophet Jeremiah (30:7) and Daniel’s 70th week (Daniel 9:24), what we call the tribulation. Verses 15-28 detail the second half of the great tribulation, and 29-31 the Second Advent of Christ to the earth when his angels “will gather together His elect (believing Israel, not the church) from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.” (Matthew 24:31).  A parallel prophecy is recorded in Isaiah 27:12,13. All written to Israel. At this point the already raptured church is in heaven with the Lord, awaiting our return with Him to establish His Millennial Kingdom. Jesus then goes into a series of parables and illustrations concerning the division of believing Jews from unbelieving Jews who survived the tribulation. The second such illustration is found in verses 36-41.

“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.”

Another point that sometimes gets misinterpreted is the phrase “just like in the days of Noah.” This is taken from the account in Genesis 6 to mean the days preceding the Second Coming will be comparable to the wickedness and evil prevalent on earth at the time of Noah. That may certainly be true, but I think the emphasis in Matthew is more on eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. In other words, the common occurrences of normal, everyday life. People were just going about business as usual, unconcerned with the things of God despite Noah’s preaching. Until the rain started falling. “And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.” (Matthew 24:39). The unbelievers were the ones taken away.

Elsewhere in Matthew we see the same thing. In the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13, the tares are taken away and thrown “into the furnace of fire” where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:42). Again, in the parable of the dragnet in Matthew 13:47-50, “the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous.” (v.49). At the end of the sheep and goat judgment in Matthew 25, the goats (unbelieving Gentiles) will “go away into eternal punishment.” In John 19:16, “Then he (Pilate) delivered Him to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away.”  

So, in the context of Matthew 24 as well as other places in Matthew’s Gospel, and also when the same Greek word is translated in John, those taken are taken away to judgment, those left are left to enter the kingdom.