But I want to go to another question. Christ said and, we could say, was most careful, and…yet again, using the term…went out of His way to talk about a moment when He comes to Earth where one is taken and one is left. He says it five times, and once and for all, I want to clarify exactly who it is that’s taken and left. I think we all pretty much know who is taken—it’s us taken to the reckoning. That’s pretty easy. But why does Christ, five times…I’m going to do this for dramatic effect…say one is taken and one is left…one is taken and one is left…in Matthew and Luke…one is taken and one is left…one is taken and one is left, and one is taken and one is left?Five times, He emphasized that one gets left. Who is that? And they are working together…these are people right beside those who are taken. Who is that? Now the Rapturists think it’s the poor…the poor idiots on the bus, that when the driver is taken away, they’re left behind to crash and get killed. Or, the pilot on the plane…You’ve heard all these lunatic ideas that they’re vacuumed up to heaven. Well, we know we’re not vacuumed up to heaven. We are taken to the reckoning, the Kingdom of God arrives. But beside those people who are taken was somebody who was left behind—whether in the field, the mill or the bed.Who are those people that you and I are going to be right with? We’re jerked away and they’re not. It’s a critical question, and it’s one I have battled with and I have the answer and the answer is simply astonishing. It will astonish you, and it sets up a bigger question that we’re going to address right after it, although this is a big one. Well, let’s go through the possibilities. Here are the possibilities…“It’s you working at the mill beside some Lutheran, and you’re in the field beside some Baptist, or you’re in bed with a carnal husband or wife. It’s just people in the world…all around us.” Now that would agree with the Rapturists. I’m suspicious of that one just because the Rapturists came up with it. So is that really what Christ wants us to know? Five times emphasizes that the world is going to be left behind while we go to the reckoning. Who would doubt that? Who would doubt that the world is not going to the reckoning to be given the Kingdom…and we need to be told five times, with specific references to different locations, they’re not going; they’re right there with you and they’re not going. I’m not saying it’s wrong to believe some in the world could be near us when it happens, but is that Christ’s meaning?
“It’s the handful of brethren who might work beside someone who’s in United or Living or COGwa or PCG…or you’re married to a mate, you know, and we’re not in their church, but it describes us in bed with them or in the field or the mill with them; grinding at the mill with them. It’s got to be a mate, right?” That’s precious, precious few people that we actually work right beside at the auto plant or at Giant Eagle or flipping burgers together, or…There are very few people in the Restored Church of God, men or women, who are married to somebody who goes to a splinter. I’ll bet the number in the entire church, worldwide, of that kind of people, I’ll bet it is not half-a-dozen couples. I could be wrong, but it could easily be three or four…but maybe it’s ten, you know, the huge number of ten. Is that what Christ is talking about…or who He’s talking about that is left behind? You ought to want to know this.
