Those who hold the pretribulation secret rapture eschatological theory have been known to use Matthew 24:40, 41 (C.f., Luke 17: 34. 35) to support their pretribulation rapture of the Church viewpoint. The “one will be taken and one left” portion of verses 40 and 41 has been popularized in the Left Behind series of books, which series seems to be based to some extent on the pretribulation secret rapture theory. The idea is that seven years prior to the second coming of Christ, Jesus Christ will secretly descend to the clouds in earth’s atmosphere and surreptitiously resurrect and whisk away to heaven only the living and dead believers. The claim that the Christians disappear instantaneously leaving the unbelievers behind on earth wondering what happened. The secret rapture scheme cannot be substantiated by Matthew 24:40, 41 or any other verse of Scripture.
There will be only one return of Christ (Matt.24:27). The second coming of Christ begins after the tribulation of the interadvental period with the destruction of the universe (Matt. 24:29). At His second coming, every person on earth at once will see the Christ, will hear a loud audible sound that will accompany His coming, and the angels will collect all the believing elect to one place (Matt. 24:30, 31). This coming will be witnessed by everyone on earth simultaneously, believers and unbelievers alike. Scripture makes clear that all human beings, the good and the evil, will be resurrected on the same day at the second coming of Christ (John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15; Rev. 20:12-15). On the day Christ returns to earth, the believers will be resurrected first and then the unbelievers and they will all be brought concomitantly before the final judgment rendered by Christ.
On the last day, Jesus will be seen coming from heaven and will be seated on His throne (Matt. 26:64). All the people of the earth at the same time on the same day will see first the destruction of the heavenly bodies and then Christ coming in the sky (Matt. 24:29, 30). Then the believing elect will be resurrected, the living and the dead (Matt. 24:31). All human beings, not just the elect, will be resurrected on the same day (John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15; Rev. 20:12-15). and gathered together for the final judgment. Christ will then separate the believers from the unbelievers (Matt.25:31-33). The wicked humans and the fallen angels will be ordered into hell, the eternal fire (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 21:8). Jesus will consummate the salvation of the believers and will usher them into heaven to receive their promised inheritance (Matt. 25:34; Eph. 1:11-14) in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-7).
Four events occur concomitantly with the second coming of our Lord on “the Day of the Lord” (2 Peter 3:10). Those events are 1) the general resurrection (John 5:28, 29), 2) the final judgment (Matt.13:41-43), 3) the end of the world (Matt. 13:38-40, 24:3), and 4) the final consummation of the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:24).
Just as the preaching of the gospel separated the world with some believing and some disbelieving (Acts 28:24), so there will be a separation at the second coming of Christ with believers being separated from unbelievers. Christ will send His angels to collect believers from earth and heaven (Matt. 24:31). So on the single day of the second coming of Christ, the believers will be taken to a place before Christ’s throne to await the final judgment and the unbelievers will be momentarily left behind to be later swept up as residue consisting of Satan, the fallen angels, and the unbelieving human beings and brought to a place before Christ’s throne. Most assuredly, both believers and unbelievers will be resurrected contemporaneously on the same day, at the end of the world, at the one and only second coming of Christ and brought before Christ’s throne for the final judgment.
The resurrection of believers does occur before unbelievers such that the unbelievers are temporarily left behind. But the resurrection of unbelievers follows later on the same day possibly only seconds later, but certainly not several years later. Furthermore, not only does the resurrection of believers and unbelievers occur on the same day at Christ’s second coming but His coming and the resurrection of people will be very public and visible to all the world at once.
Therefore, some sort of secret whisking away of only believers by Christ while He is hidden in the clouds occurring several years prior to Christ’s second coming is nonsense and is certainly not what Bible passages such as Matthew 24:40, 41 or Luke 17: 34. 35 teach.
