Good day Denadii,
I agree with everything that you said in your post except for the following:
There are two things here to take into consideration when interpreting this:
1). The "one taken" is being compared to those "taken" in the flood, which would make those taken as being the wicked
2). And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.
Many believe that this "one taken" is in reference to the living in Christ being gathered (rapture). But in the scripture, the "one taken" is being compared to those taken in the flood, which would make those taken as representing the wicked.
After Jesus says "One will be taken and the other left" the disciples then ask him, "Where, Lord?" That is, where are they going to be taken? (Luke 17:37) Then the Lord responds with "wherever there is a dead body there will the vultures gather."
This would be a pretty strange response if the "One taken" was representing the living church being gathered.
Seeing that this has to do with the Lord's return to the earth to end the age, then the Lord's response has to do with the following event which takes place as he is returning to the earth:
"Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds flying overhead, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and commanders and mighty men, of horses and riders, of all men slave and free, small and great.”
At the time when the Lord returns to the earth, the angels will go out and first collect the weeds/wicked and will bring them back to where all of those kings, their generals, the mighty men, their horses will have been gathered. At that point the double-edged sword that comes out of the Lord's mouth, which is figurative representing the word of God, will kill all of those gathered there and the birds/vultures will gorge themselves on their flesh.
Therefore, the "One taken" are the wicked who will be taken to be killed. And the Lord's reference to "wherever there is a dead body there will the vultures gather" is in reference to those birds that the angel will gathered for the supper of the great God, where the birds will eat their flesh.
In conclusion, the "one taken" is not representing the rapture, but the wicked being taken by the angels to be killed, where they will all be eaten by the birds/vultures.[/QUOTE
I know that Christians like to interpret the Word, my dear friend, but why not just take it as it says it in the Bible? There is no mention at all of any flood in the entire chapter....Why do we insist on telling God what He means when He says something?