By Marv Rosenthal
“At that time there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left” (Matthew 24:40).
Wheat and Weed
In the immediately preceding text (vv. 32-39, see both posts here and here), Jesus gave instruction through a parable and an example.
With the use of a fig tree, the Lord taught that believers living during the 70th Week of Daniel (that is, the final 7 years of this era of human history), will know the general time period of His return. Through the use of the account of the Noahic flood, He taught that the unsaved will be totally unaware of His impending return.
The former is the blessed one; the latter is the cursed one. They eat the same food, do the same work, and live on the same planet, but their citizenship is different. The one is a citizen of Heaven and God is his sovereign Lord. The other, without realizing it, is a citizen of Hell and his loyalty is to the wicked one.
Like wheat and weed, these 2 have grown side by side during the course of history (Matthew 13:26), often with very little outwardly to distinguish them. Nearing the end of the age, their difference will become more pronounced, and a time for separating the righteous from the unrighteous will arise.
The separation will be just and binding. People will be in Christ or out of Christ; saved or lost. They will be recipients of divine grace and a new nature, or rejecters of that grace and possessing only the fallen Adamic nature.
Flawed Teaching
Jesus describes this separation this way: “At that time 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” (Matthew 24:40-41).
Much debate has occurred through the years concerning the time and participants in this event. When does it occur? Who are those who are taken? Who are those who are left?
Some pretribulation rapturists teach that these verses are referring to the Rapture before the 70th Week begins. For this to be true, verses 40-41 must be violently ripped out of context. The verses preceding the text in question are describing events within the 70th Week. Those that follow discuss matters related to the end of the Week.
It is unnatural, unjustified, and totally outside the laws of interpretation to make verses 40-41 a description of a pretribulational rapture. For this reason, a majority of pretribulationists teach that verses 40-41 are describing a judicial judgment that will occur at the end of the 70th Week at Christ’s return to Earth.
According to this position, the wicked are “taken away.” They are consigned to eternal punishment, and it is the righteous who will remain on Earth to enter the Millennial Kingdom of Christ.
To support this view, appeal is made to Noah and the flood in the immediately preceding context. It is pointed out that at the flood, the wicked (those who spurned God’s warning) were taken away in judgment, and the righteous (faithful Noah and his family) survived the flood to repopulate the earth.
It is argued by analogy that since in the days of Noah the wicked were “taken” and the righteous left, and that the end of the age it will be as it was in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:40-41), that the ones “taken” are taken in judgment and the ones left are left to enter the Kingdom.
The flaw in such reasoning rests in the flagrant misuse of the Lord’s teaching on Noah and the flood. The Savior used the account of Noah and the flood to illustrate one basic truth – that the unsaved world will be totally unprepared and caught by surprise at Christ’s coming, exactly as it was caught totally unprepared and by surprise at the flood.
Conversely, there is compelling evidence to demonstrate that the Lord had in view the rapture of the Church when He taught that “one will be taken, and one will be left.”
The Correct Teaching
When the Lord described those who were slain in the Noahic flood, He said they “did not understand until the flood came and took them all away” (v. 39). The word “took” in verse 39 is the translation of the Greek word airo. It means to “take up” or to “take away.” It was used in a negative sense – those taken away at the flood were taken away in judgment.
However, in the next 2 verses (40-41), when Jesus speaks of the one in the field and the one in the mill who are “taken,” He changes the Greek word from airo, meaning “taken,” to paralambano, meaning “to take alongside.”
The Greek word lambano, when used without a prefix, means “to take”; when the prefix para is added to it, it means “to take alongside.”
The following verses will illustrate this usage:
- And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took (paralambano) Mary as his wife” (Matthew 1:24). Joseph took Mary “alongside” him.
- “So Joseph got up and took (paralambano) the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt” (Matthew 2:14). He took them alongside.
- “As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took (paralambano) the twelve disciples aside by themselves” (Matthew 20:17). He took His twelve disciples alongside.
Strong’s Concordance defines paralambano (“taken”) this way: “to receive near; i.e., associate with oneself.” Young’s Concordance defines paralambano this way: “to take alongside.”
In no way can credulity be stretched to support the contention that the wicked are to be “taken alongside” or received into Christ’s presence at judgment. The wicked will be eternally separated from the righteous Son of God.
R.T. France, in his commentary on Matthew in the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries,has made this succinct comment concerning the meaning of paralambano (“taken”) in Matthew 24:40-41: “[Paralambano] … implies to take someone to be with you and, therefore, here points to the salvation rather than the destruction of the one taken.”
Only on 3 occasions is the word paralambano used in a prophetic context. In all 3 instances it is used by Jesus – here in Matthew 24:40-41; Luke 17:34-36; and John 14:3. During Jesus’ upper room discourse, Jesus, wanting to comfort His distressed disciples, said:
Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe
also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were
not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare
a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming
again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am,
there you also will be (John 14:1-3).
The expression “take you to myself” is the translation of paralambano. In is interesting to note that John 14:1-3 is an almost universal rapture text.
Rapture Not Judgment
These facts indicate that Matthew 24:40-41 cannot possibly be speaking of judgment for those who are “taken.”
Rather, it is referring to those who have exhibited saving faith and will be “taken alongside” of Christ – in rapture – following the Great Tribulation and before the beginning of the Day of the Lord wrath.
The true Church will be with Jesus in the clouds because she is not appointed to wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9).
A word concerning those who are left is appropriate. They are not “left” to enter the Millennium (the 1,000-year reign of Christ, Revelation 20:1-6). They are left to experience the ultimate reality of the inspired penman’s words, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).
In Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus gave an admonition: “Now learn the parable from the fig tree” (v. 32).
He sounded a warning: “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah” (v. 37).
The Lord cited a danger: “[T]here will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left” (v. 41).
We would be wise to heed all 3 and we draw ever nearer to the end of the age.
Marv Rosenthal, founder and President of Zion’s Hope, was an acclaimed international Bible teacher for almost 6 decades.
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