>
> I would like to start a thread on "universally misinterpreted verses".
> It seems that we do not read Scripture for ourselves, but believe what
> others tell us it says. The purpose of this thread is so that we will
> be less deceived - if you have noticed how a verse is undisputabley and
> almost universally misinterpreted in your circles, please inform us.
>
> Here are two for starters:
>
> 1) Gen 1:11 (Thanks to Glenn). "Then God said "Let the land produce
> vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit
> with seed in it, according to their various kinds."
>
> I had always misread this and assumed it meant that seeds bear fruit
> according to their kinds (apples give apple seeds, hence some conclude
> no evolution!), not that there were various kinds of fruits. The same
> of course goes for the animals in Gen 1:25 and elsewhere.
>
> 2) Mt 24:40 "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken, and the
> other left." We have of course all been told that this refers to the
> "rapture". But "taken" here clearly is parallel to "taken" in the days
> of Noah, in verse 39. There it was a flood which took people away in
> judgement - i.e. they were klled (drowned), a far cry from the glories
> of being raptured. If you have any doubt, see Luke 17:16-37.
>
> Fred
>
I have seen commentaries that treat the Mt 24:40 verse as refering to the
Second coming of Christ at the start of the Millenium as opposed to the
rapure for the reasons that you gave. Those who have become believers
during the Great Tribulation will remain to populate the earth during the
Millenium and those who did not become believers and remain will be
destroyed at the coming of Christ. (This all assumes a premillenial,
non-post tribulation view.) This is important to arguments over whether the
Tribulation is pre or mid, since this verse is taken to strengthen a
mid-trib. position if it refers to the rapture.
Jeff