Episode Details

Recently, I was interviewed on Joel Richardson’s The Underground program where I described the biblical arguments for the ones who are taken in Matthew 24:40–41 represent the righteous and those who are left are the wicked.

One of the main points I communicated was interpreters who view the wicked being taken and not the righteous without exception refuse to deal with Matthew 24:31.

“And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matt 24:31)

The “one taken and other left” illustration and the Noahic illustration are referring back to the separation at the parousia event in Matthew 24:31. For example, posttribbers refuse to deal with this by building a brick wall between Jesus’s narrative teaching up to v. 31 and Jesus’s application of it after v. 31.

Their response is to ignore it and go outside of the Olivet Discourse and import some other meaning back into this text.

Amillennialists, posttribulationalists, and most pretribulationists argue that the ones who are taken, are taken to judgment, and the ones who are left, are left for deliverance. This interpretation, however, violates the natural reading of the passage. Specifically, this pretribulational interpretation views those who are taken are the ones taken for judgment after the battle of Armageddon, and those who are left are those who survive the day of the Lord and enter the millennial kingdom. Their argument is based mainly on the Noahic illustration in verses 37–39. They contend the judgment of “the flood came and took them [the wicked] all away” parallels the event of “one will be taken.” But identifying “the wicked” with “those who will be taken” is mistaken for the following reasons:

First, the domestic and agricultural illustrations in verses 40–41 (men in bed and women grinding) parallel the Noahic illustration, so they are not intended to illustrate the illustration of the Noah illustration in verses 37–39. Instead, verses 40–41 intend to illustrate the climax of the Olivet Discourse, which is the gathering of God’s people at the parousia (Matt 24:30–31). At the separation when the parousia begins in verse 31, who is being taken? It is God’s elect, the whole point of invoking the illustration!

Second, the other interpretation breaks the parallelism of the illustrations. Instead, Noah’s family being delivered is described first (“the day when Noah entered the ark,” v. 38), then the judgment upon th