We have touched on the following before. The point remains a valid concern, however.
Considerable misunderstanding often attends Jesus' words of Matthew 24:37-41 and Luke 17:34-37 in which he details a separation of the wise and prepared from the undiscerning and unprepared at his coming. At this point some are "taken" and others "left."
The theme of the passage is "the days of Noah" - that which occurred in his day prefiguring the time of Christ's return. Insensible to the times, the world at large "knew not until the flood came and took them all away." At Christ's coming many shall again be taken, "as in the days of Noah."
Luke notes that at this point of discourse the Disciples asked as to the destination of those so "taken." Jesus answered with a proverb: "Where the corpse is the vultures will gather" (Luke 17:37). By what stretch of imagination one is to here discern a "Rapture to heaven" is typically not explained by those of such persuasion. It is not the righteous but unrighteous who are "taken," not to heaven but rather destruction "as in the days of Noah" - the presence of vultures constituting a consistent biblical metaphor for judgment and doom (e.g., I Sam. 17:46; Jer. 16:4; Ezek. 39:17-24; Matt. 24:28; Rev. 19:17, etc.)
The basing of meaning upon predetermined premise - as in the foregoing - well demonstrates the vulnerability often attendant a "proof text" approach to Scripture wherein meaning becomes defined, not by the text, but rather presupposition. This may be seen, for example, in the biblical record of angels singing "Glory to God in the highest..." at Jesus' birth - that is, until one actually reads the account. The angels did not sing. They rather said, "Glory to God in the highest..." (Luke 2:13).
While perhaps not the most significant of concerns, the foregoing nonetheless conveys an important principle: Context and objective observation, as opposed to predetermined assumption, becomes vital to meaningful perception. We have sometimes fallen short at this point.
Burl Ratzsch
