Matthew 24:38-41 38 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, 39And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

I will acknowledge that, initially, it could be very easy to associate those taken away in the flood with “the one shall be taken,” described just one verse later. But as I have been emphasizing, Jesus, just moments earlier, had literally and very specifically declared to His disciples that a gathering of the elect is to occur at the coming of the Son of man. Since the true intent of the Noah illustration was to merely elaborate on that original literal description, then those who are taken in verses 40 and 41 must be categorized with the elect who must be gathered at the coming of the Son of man according to Jesus. It is, by far, the most logical con-nection to be made when considering that the context is simply being carried from Christ‟s literal description over to the parable of the fig tree and finally into the comparison of Noah‟s day—where Noah (representative of today‟s be-liever) was the one who was actually taken away in salva-tion while the wicked were left to suffer the wrath of God in the great flood. Fortunately for us, the disciples were as curious then as we are now and asked Jesus in Luke 17:37 to clarify what He was talking about when He used the word “taken.”

Luke 17:37

And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? [where are they taken?] And he said unto them, Whe-resoever the body (carcass) is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

What cryptic message was Christ trying to relay? First, the word He used earlier for “taken” in the Greek transla-tion is paralambano—a combination of para and lambano. It means: To receive near or associate with one’s self in any familiar intimate act or relation. There is certainly nothing intimate between Christ and the unsaved so they cannot be the ones He was referring to. It is evident, when considering the Greek translation that Jesus was referring to the believers who, unarguably, have the intimate rela-tionship with Him and who are to be taken at that time of His Second Coming.