REVISED EDITION
POSTED 02 OCTOBER, 2005

Is Being "Taken" Always a Good Thing?

by J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net

What is truly meant in the Scriptures by “one will be taken, and one will be left” in what many consider to be “rapture” passages? Is this being “taken” a good thing, or a bad thing? Is it a being “taken” into the clouds to meet the Lord, or is it a being “taken” to judgment?

The Verses Under Discussion

The primary verses under discussion in relation to “one will be taken, one will be left” are Matthew 24:37-42 and Luke 17:34-37. These verses are translated differently among Bibles, and are most notably different between the 1995 New American Standard Update (NASU) and the King James Version (KJV), the latter of which because of its long usage throughout the centuries has helped set many of the “interpretative standards.” For the interest of fairness in this discussion, we now quote the Scripture texts under discussion, first from the KJV and then from the NASU:

Matthew 24:37-42

KJV: “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 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, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”

NASU: “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 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, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”

Luke 17:34-37

KJV: “I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.”

NASU: “‘I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.’ And answering they said to Him, ‘Where, Lord?’ And He said to them, ‘Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered.’” 

Based on a surface reading of the KJV text, we can see how some believe that being “taken” is a good thing. But on the basis of reading the NASU text, being “taken” appears to be a bad thing. So which rendering is correct? KJV-Only proponents would no doubt argue that the KJV is correct and the NASU, or other modern translations, are being manipulative. But let us do a more thorough analysis of the text, based on the best available scholarship to us at our disposal—including Greek definitions and comparative studies that were not available at the time the KJV was translated in 1611.

What is the debate, specifically?

The debate, as stated before, is whether or not when Messiah Yeshua says “one will be taken, one will be left,” it is speaking of people being taken into the clouds to meet Him at His return or it is speaking of people being taken to judgment. The first time I ever heard His admonition of “one will be taken, one will be left” being used, was at my Baptist elementary school many years ago. This school, which was ardently pre-tribulational and KJV-Only, held the position that the Messiah was speaking of the rapture of the saints in these verses. It was not until I became part of the Messianic movement in the 1990s, which is largely post-tribulational, that I was presented with the idea that Yeshua might be speaking of people being “taken” in a negative context.

However, it should be noted that the debate about what these verses really mean is not limited to pre-tribulationists arguing that when Yeshua says, “one will be taken, one will be left” He is speaking of “the rapture.” I personally found it quite shocking when I read a statement in a booklet called The Post-Tribulation Rapture: “Pre-tribulationists have claimed that those who are ‘taken’ are killed in judgment.”[1] I found this shocking because as a former pre-tribulationist, I was never taught this. I had always believed that pre-tribulationists thought that the Messiah spoke of those “taken” as being “raptured,” and post-tribulationists thought that those “taken” are judged and killed. Obviously, in this assessment I have been wrong.

There are pre-tribulationists who agree with us that those “taken” are taken to destruction, just as there are pre-tribulationists and post-tribulationists who believe that those “taken” are taken up to be with the Lord. This issue is not necessarily one of pre- versus post-trib, because there are pre- and post-tribulationists who agree and disagree among themselves on the proper handling of these verses. Although our position is post-tribulational, there are pre-tribulationists who agree with us on “one will be taken, one will be left,” and post-tribulationists who disagree with us.

J.K. McKee (B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic apologist. He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical Languages Award for Greek. He is author of numerous books, dealing with a wide range of topics that are important for today’s Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on theological issues, and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries of various books of the Bible.

NOTES

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard, Updated Edition (NASU), © 1995, published by The Lockman Foundation.