To Be or Not To Be . . . Raptured

We hear about the end of the world from various Christian groups all the time, and they use this verse to justify it.

But, in a strange twist, they turn the whole verse around and get it wrong!

You’ve probably heard of the “rapture.” This is the idea that God will come in the night and “take the Christians to heaven.” This leaves the wicked to suffer torments in the last days of earth.

But, if you read the passage, the story is about how God destroys, or takes, the wicked away . . . not the righteous!

Today’s reading may sound like a dire warning. But it’s not. It’s actually announcing the vindication of the Son of God after Jesus’s suffering.

Jesus’s victory has come about, and the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.

However, the Kingdom is still coming, and it’s still within our grasp.

Today, the Gospel invites us to trust in Christ and follow him on the path that leads to salvation. 

The Reading

And, just as happened in the days of Noah, so it will also be in the days of the Son of Man: They were eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, right up to the day when Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Just as happened, likewise, in the days of Lot: They were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; But on the day Lot departed from Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just so on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, whoever will be upon the roof while his goods are in his home, let him not come down to collect them; likewise, whoever is in the field, let him not turn back to the things behind. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his soul, he will lose it; and whoever loses it will preserve it. I tell you, on that night there will be two men upon one bed, the one will be carried off and the other spared. There will be two women grinding grain together, the one will be carried off and the other spared. [ There will be two men in the field, the one will be carried off and the other spared.]” And in response they say to him, “Where, Lord?” And he said to them, “Where the body is, there the eagles will also be gathered.” . . . I tell you, he will swiftly bring them justice. Yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he then find faith on the earth?” (Luke 17:26-37; 18:8)