Our Lord went on in the previous passage to describe the actual catching away of His church from the earth, and in His description He gives us further insights into what it will be like for the saints at that time. For I want you to notice that He speaks of His saints working in factories (grinding), and working in farmlands (in the field). And I also want you to notice that He describes them as working alongside unbelievers. Clearly, not all saints in the earth at that time will be experiencing intense persecution, for the saints that our Lord describes will also be going about their daily lives, just as the rest of the unbelievers will. This point ties in with what we have said before, in that the Anti-Christ will only be able to persecute the saints that find themselves in his kingdom. But we have also said that the influence of his kingdom will spread during his reign, however it will not have extended over the entire globe before the church is caught away. Something else can be seen from this passage. When our Lord says that two will be in one bed and the one will be taken and the other left, He is referring to married couples. And so we see that as it is today, that one spouse believes while the other doesn’t, so it will be at the end of the age. Just for clarity, I need to mention that in this passage when our Lord says, "In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise, the one who is in the field let him not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it”, He is referring to the outbreak of the great tribulation, and not the catching away of the church. For you will recall that we read earlier, where our Lord warned His church to flee Judea at that time, and not go down to take anything out of his house. With regards to the catching away of the church, the scripture teaches us that we will be changed in the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52).
Michael E.B. Maher
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