There are at least two different views on this issue of when the rapture will take place.. There is one view that says all believers (the church) will be raptured prior to the great tribulation. This is called the pre-tribulational view. If you hold this view, then the elect, or chosen ones, Jesus was talking in Matthew 24:22 will be those who are saved during the tribulation. It will be for their sake that the tribulation will be cut short.