The truth about the RAPTURE.....

The notion of a rapture of Christians has taken on a life of its own. However, if you read Jesus in Matthew and Revelation alone, you find the one and only rapture. It leaves Christians behind to inherit the earth. This is because Jesus and Revelation only speak of a rapture of evildoers.

Jesus twice and Revelation once says that when Jesus returns the evil are raptured out of the earth first, leaving behind the Christians. First, in Matthew 24:37-42, Jesus taught when He comes, it will be like in the days of Noah when the "flood came and took them [i.e., evildoers] all away." It is in that context Jesus says one will be taken and another left. The verb taken regarding the person at the mill is the same word as in the flood...took them all away. Just as the flood took all the evildoers away first, so will the evildoers be plucked out of the earth first and taken away at the Second Coming. Thus, Matthew 24:37-42 intends the reader to understand by a paralellism that the true Christian is left behind. The evildoers are the ones taken.
What helps confirm this is the Hebrew Matthew -- the oldest version of Matthew upon which the modern Greek translation was built. It has a variant that confirms Matthew 24:40 is talking of the rapture of evildoers, not Christians. See this link.

Furthermore, Jesus more clearly in Matthew ch. 13 made this identical point of rapturing evildoers first. This starts out as the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. When the angels come with Him in the clouds, they are careful to not take the wheat first (i.e., the Christians on earth). Instead, the command will go forth: "Gather up first the tares [i.e., evildoers]...to burn them." (Matt. 13:30.) Jesus then explains the parable's meaning: Jesus says this is precisely what will happen when the Son of Man returns. The evildoers will be taken first and then the wheat (Christians on earth) are gathered into God's barn. (Matt. 13:40.)
This precisely matches the Book of Revelation. Jesus' Second Coming is at Revelation 14:1 (standing on Mount Zion with the 144,00 Christian saints who endured the beast on earth). Then in Revelation 14:14, Jesus is up in the clouds hovering over the earth. It is then that Jesus puts forth a great sickle from the clouds to remove all the evildoers for punishment.
14And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.15And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. 16And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped..... 19And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. (Rev. 14:14-20 KJV.)
Are the Christians already gone when the evildoers are removed? Absolutely not. They are on Mount Zion on earth in Revelation 14:1 when this happens. There is no rapture of Christians in Revelation at the Second Coming. Instead, Christians inherit the earth. Those Christians alive then will inherit the earth, and Christ will begin his reign over them at Zion.
Thus, Jesus twice and Revelation once says the rapture is first of evildoers at Jesus' Second Coming. (Matt. 13:30-40; Matt. 24:37-42; Rev. 14:1-4; 14-20.) Christians are left behind in the place where Christ is coming so as to greet Him: Earth.
The same principle appears repeatedly in Hebrew Scripture. The evil are to be removed, leaving the righteous behind to inherit the earth.
Ps 37:9-11 (KJV) "For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."
Prov 2:21-22 "For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it."
Prov 10:30 "The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not inhabit the earth."