THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 163
the Lord in Matthew 25: 31-46, as will be presently
shown.
Luke 17:20-37. The Lord here replies to the question
put to Him by the Pharisees, "when the kingdom of
God should come." He tells them first that the kingdom
was not coming then ("corned not") with outward display,
but was already in fact in the midst of them
(though they knew it not) . But He goes on to speak
of the coming of that kingdom in power and glory.
The coming of His Kingdom in its future aspect will
be "as the lightning, that lighteneth out of one part
under heaven, and shineth unto the other part under
heaven."
And now let us attend carefully to what follows ;
for
here we have teaching of the clearest sort upon the
subject of our inquiry. Our Lord's second coming will
be in circumstances like unto those of the days of Noah,
and those of the days of Lot. And the resemblance
lies in this, namely, that like as, in both those epochs
of impending judgment, men in general pursued with
entire unconcern their ordinary occupations, as if
things were to go on in that way forever, even so shall
it be "in the day when the Son of man is revealed."
And what then? There shall be an immediate and
final separation. "There shall be two men in one bed;
the one shall be taken (to a place of safety, as was
Noah in his day and Lot in his) and the other left
(for the outpouring of God's wrath). Two women
shall be grinding together ;
the one shall be taken, and
the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one
shall be taken, and the other left."
The significance of the words "taken" and "left" appears
clearly from the context, which tells that Noah
and his family were taken away in safety, and all the