Do these verses in Matthew and Luke refer to a rapture? In context it seems that they do not. I am looking at the parallel writings of the Olivet discourse in detail in order to understand what is being relayed and I have been shown this:
Matthew 24:37-41
37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.
38 “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,
39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
40 “Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.
41 “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.
Now before the parable of the fig tree which was given just before this, it refers to the Son of Man coming on the clouds and sending his angels to gather his elect, but I’m struggling with the fact that the immediate passage is not extended from that but is a different expectation altogether of Chrsit’s coming. All would agree -though some would choose to hold to a traditional view- that according to the immediate passage this being “taken” is not seemingly refering to a good thing but a bad thing as is those who were taken away by the flood. And, the passage’s flow does not allow for the being “taken” to refer to the “gathering together” earlier in the discourse because according to Luke they were not given one after the other as in Matthew. However, Matthew grouped stories together in subjects and Luke gave an account in consecutive order (Luke 1:3 transliterated as “orderly account” in NKJV and NIV and as ”consecutive order” in NASB and as “in order” in KJV. the original greek word was: kathexes [kath-ex-ace’]; thereafter, i.e. consecutively). I’m not making this up. This is known by all who would care to look into it. And if we look at Luke’s rendering, he seems to write agreeable to Matthew in that Luke is also stressing the bad things and warning us not to cling to our life. However, we don’t get the “being ‘taken’” comparison like we do in Matthew’s version. Instead, we get something even more allusive to the fact that the being “taken” refers to a bad thing:
Luke 17:34-37
34 “I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left.
35 “There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left.
36 [”Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.”]
37 And answering they said to Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered.”
It seems to me that Jesus was not intending this to refer to the rapture or the gathering together, being that the ones who are being taken are taken to “Where the body is…” which is understood by all to mean “dead body” (NIV).
Understanding that scripture’s inspiration is not based on my understanding of the passage but the original intent of the inspired author, I believe that I’ll have to leave this to speculation but maybe I can add a couple other scriptures to this to see if what I suggested can be true.
Matthew 13:36-43, The Tares Explained
36 Then He left the crowds and went into the house And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”
37 And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,
38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one;
39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.
40 “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.
41 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,
42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43 “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father He who has ears, let him hear.
Matthew 13:47-50, A Dragnet
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind;
48 and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away.
49 “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous,
50 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Now of course these could be simply quote mined from scripture and pasted to prove my point but I actually came across all of this by chance in my bible studies. It is not my intent to do damage to scripture but I do not believe that scripture allows for the traditional view of these passages to stand. The more I try and make them say what tradition holds, the more I feel like I have to damage inspired scripture to do so. (All quotes are from NASB)
