“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.” Matthew 24:37-41

            In Matthew 24, when Jesus talked about the destruction of the temple and his eventual return one day, Jesus made this statement which many believe clearly says there will be a rapture—the removal of the Christians from the planet one day leaving the non-Christians behind.

            Jesus talked about a judgment like the flood of Noah.  It was a severe removal of 99.9% of the planet leaving 8 people behind.  One day everyone was partying and the next second, boom, death.  The rapture idea isn’t the same as the Noah flood idea.  In the rapture, life goes on.  In the flood, everyone is destroyed.

            Jesus seems to be talking more about separation when he returns.  It’s the idea of instant judgment with no time to repent.  One goes this way (heaven) and one goes that way (hell).  One goes to be with God and the other not. 

Another way of understanding Jesus’ statement is looking at the judgment on the temple in 70 AD.  When Rome attacked, some were killed while others escaped.  Some could be “taken” prisoner or their life “taken.”  This would happen on “just another day,” while they worked the field or grinded the grain.

Jesus could have been focusing on the judgment, sometimes expressed as the coming of the Son of Man, that would come on the Jewish faith in less than 40 years from the time Jesus spoke.  Reading this verse as a rapture is suspect.