Left Behind
Left Behind
40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
Matthew 24:38-39
Many false ideas have been created from these two verses in Matthew 24. There are those who, now seeing the error, try and argue that it was never these verses that were used in their ideas, except that the two key words ‘Left Behind’ are found right here.
I am of course talking about the idea of the Rapture. For those who don’t know, the rapture is a belief that when Jesus returns, that it will be a secret, silent, invisible coming. Jesus will take his faithful, leaving their nicely folded clothes behind, while the lost are ‘left behind’ on the earth to face the great time of trouble.
It is a popular idea because it teaches that there is a second chance after the Second Coming to be saved. This of course doesn’t work for the simple reality that Jesus saved through faith, but the second chance would be more saved by fear.
The bigger problem with the idea of Rapture is in these verses. They are connected to the previous three verses talking about Noah being saved while the sinners die in the flood. Those who teach Rapture say that God will take the faithful and the sinners will be left behind. The problem is that the Noah story teaches the exact opposite wording.
23 So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.
Genesis 7:23
You can see here that in the Noah story it states that the sinners were taken (destroyed) while Noah was left behind (remained). It is the exact opposite to the teaching of Rapture. At the Second coming, the sinners will be taken away in death while the saints will be left to live with God forever.
In other words, we should all want to be left behind. And for the false idea that the Second coming will be silent or secret, just read for yourselves 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and Revelation 1:7.
God bless,
Pr. Steven Couto