Taken vs Left

Taken or Left?

(A Potential Danger to Literalizing End-Time Events)

If we assume God uses the spiritual with the literal and believe we can connect the language dealing with the end-of-the-church age to that of a literal end, then we should carefully look again at some verses in Luke 17.

Separation of wheat and tares as God’s Elect are brought out of great tribulation.

Lu 17:34 I tell you, in that night^3571 there shall be two <men> in one bed; the one shall be taken , and the other shall be left. (the word <men> does not belong as it is not in the original language).

Night or Midnight: A reference to after the great tribulation when Christ is revealed through the

Bible to set the captives free. Can we interpret the word <night> anyway we want? Is Christ coming at night? How could that be if <night> on one side of the world is <day> on the other?

Joh 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night^3571 cometh, when no man can work.

Joh 11:10 But if a man walk in the night^3571, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

1Th 5:7 For they that sleep sleep in the night^3571; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night^3571.

Lu 12:20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night^3571 thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

1Th 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night^3571.

Mt 25:6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

Job 34:20 In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand.

Ps 119:62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.

The number Two = A reference to the Elect or the Corporate Body where God calls for a Separation

Many people understand that God uses the number <two> in talking about the church and yet when we come to Luke 17:34 we lose track of the context and fail to see how the number <two> applies the same way.

Re 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Re 11:4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

Re 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon (Satan and ministers looking like Christ).

Re 12:14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

Zec 14:2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. (half and half: .5 = salvation and .5 = judgment)

Mt 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

Mt 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

Mr 15:27 And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. (one became saved = Elect, one didn’t = unsaved body)

Mr 9:45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: (The unsaved portion of the body offends and must be cast out. Elect therefore enter into life halted or maimed – missing a part of the body)

Nu 16:21 Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.

Mt 8:28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. (The state of the corporate body prior to the separation)

Mt 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (mammon = treasure or riches that God often equates to the unsaved body as it trusts in uncertain riches rather than Christ).

Jer 51:6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.

Re 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

The Bed: Corporate body is married to God and yet commits fornication and defiles the marriage bed. It would be surprising to think that God is speaking of a literal bed here when He Himself tells us to compare spiritual with spiritual.

Heb 13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

Re 2:22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed^2825, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

Eze 23:17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.

Ps 36:4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.

Who is Taken? The Unsaved is Taken (unaware) in Judgment when God allows Satan to destroy the Body during the Great Tribulation.

God often gives us earthly pictures that if read on the surface could easily be misinterpreted. We have to dig deeper as this is the nature of the complex Word of God. Every word is important and even what appears to be the simplest phrase, could carry a long explanation. The key word is that destruction comes on the church unaware.

Mat 24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

Mat 24:39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Mat 24:40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. (The field is the<world> and another name for the corporate body). (The coming of Christ is <Revelation> when God unseals the Bible and reveals the nature of His judgment on the Church)

Ps 35:8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.

Ps 9:15 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken^3920.

Ps 10:2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

Es 7:10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified. (Wicked Haman who typified the unsaved body was taken in his own device which he made to kill Mordecai who symbolized God’s Elect).

Lu 19:44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Jer 50:24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken^3920, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD.

Lu 21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

Lu 12:39 And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.

Lu 12:46 The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

Re 12:15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

Re 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. (The <earth> is symbolic of the corporate church, Jerusalem below, like Hagar in bondage with her children. It is the one who drinks the flood of God’s wrath).

Ps 59:12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken^3920 in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.

Ec 7:26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken^3920 by her.

Isa 8:15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken^3920.

Eze 33:6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

Who is Left? The Believer is Left and not Cut Off from the City (God’s kingdom). Given the proper context, He or she is the remnant, the few that escape the Sword and therefore are able to flee to be with Christ on the mountains.

Ge 7:23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained^7604 alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

2Ki 19:30 And the remnant^7604 that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

Ge 32:8 And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left^7604 shall escape. (Jacob who fled from Esau - unsaved body - wanted to divide his camp in two when he was going to meet his brother. Fearing that if Esau had destroyed one half, the other would be left – God’s Elect)

Eze 6:8 Yet will I leave a remnant^3498, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.

Zec 13:8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left^3498 therein.

Zec 14:16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left^3498 of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Eze 14:22 Yet, behold, therein shall be left^3498 a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.

Isa 1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left^3498 unto us a very small remnant^8300, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Jer 31:2 Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left^8300 of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

Mic 4:7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. (The Elect are considered halted or maimed because they are now missing a part of the body).

Mic 5:7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.

CONCLUSION: The above are just a few verses out of many the Bible has to offer. By God’s grace, when we patiently compare spiritual things with spiritual we get a bigger picture of God’s overall salvation program. We also see the Glory of God in the way He has written the Bible and why He tells us NOT to lean on our own understanding (Pr 3:5). God defines His terms. We have to allow the whole Bible to guide us as we pray for wisdom. If we assume we can make a literal application to the spiritual language and tie it into a last day, then according to the Bible, we would have to say that the one taken is the unsaved and the believer is left behind. Something to prayerfully consider?