One taken, one left

The verses

Second only to “a thief in the night”, these are the verses most often used to picture a silent disappearance of believers: an aeroplane whose pilot vanishes, a car with no driver, a bed with one sleeper gone.

Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.

The usual reading is that the one taken is a believer, snatched quietly to heaven, and the one left is an unbeliever who carries on, puzzled, in a world that has lost its Christians. It is a vivid picture. The only question is whether it is the picture Jesus was painting. To find out, we read the verses before and after them.

The verses before

But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Here is the illustration that governs “one taken, one left”. In the days of Noah, who was taken away? Not Noah. The flood “came and took them all away”, the unprepared, the ones eating and drinking who “did not know”. Noah and his family were left, alive, on a cleansed earth. “So also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” Then, in the very next sentence, “one will be taken and the other left”. In the illustration Jesus has just given, to be taken is to be taken away in judgment, and to be left is to be spared. There is nothing quiet about a flood.

The verses after, in Luke

Luke records the same teaching with an extra detail. After “the one will be taken and the other left”, the disciples ask the obvious question:

I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.” So He said to them, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”

“Where, Lord?” the disciples ask, meaning, “Where are they taken?” And Jesus answers with a grim proverb: where the body is, there the vultures gather. The ones taken are taken to death. That is not a description of being carried to heaven. It is a description of judgment, and it matches Noah’s flood exactly. Luke also gives Jesus’ second illustration, the days of Lot: “on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:29-30). Lot was left; Sodom was taken. And the day is the day when the Son of Man is revealed, which is the opposite of hidden.

What Jesus said about the harvest

Jesus taught the same order elsewhere, in parables about the end of the age, and He was careful to interpret them Himself.

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

“First gather together the tares.” When the disciples asked Him to explain, He said: “the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels ... The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire” (Matthew 13:39-42). In the parable of the net He said it again: “So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire” (Matthew 13:49-50). In both parables the wicked are separated out and taken, and the righteous remain. Jesus never once describes the righteous being quietly removed while the wicked remain to enjoy the world.

Does any of this contradict the gathering of the elect?

No. The elect are gathered at the coming; Jesus says so (Matthew 24:31), and Paul says we are “caught up together ... in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). But that gathering happens at the visible, audible coming, at the same moment as the judgment of the unready. Both groups are dealt with on the same day: one is caught up to meet the Lord, and one is “taken away” by the sudden destruction that falls when the sky opens. Neither is secret. The two men in the field are standing in the same lightning.

Why the detail matters

The picture of believers vanishing and the world carrying on has had a powerful effect on Christian imagination. It has taught a generation to expect a second chance after the church is gone, a period in which the unready can still get ready. Jesus gave no such hope. In the days of Noah the door of the ark was shut, and the flood came. In the days of Lot the fire fell on the same day Lot walked out. “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32), Jesus said, in the middle of this very passage. The day of the Lord is one day. It is the day of rescue and the day of judgment at once, and the time to be ready is now.