You ask a question that I also have wondered about. I too therefore will be interested to see what responses you get. I do not know the answer but will give what I suppose may be one possible answer.There is a man (Howard Pittman http://www.spiritlessons.com/dreams_and_visions/placebo_howard_pittman.htm) who has written his testimony of having died and gone to heaven to make his case to God that he didn't want to die yet for he had plans not yet fulfilled and he thought that his many years of dedicated diligent service to God as a strong Christian should give him good standing to ask for his request of more time on earth. I have referenced and linked to his testimony here before because I really believe him and think that we all can learn much from what he has to share. If he represents Christians who have done many works in their own opinion yet not in God's, how much more might he represent those like you describe as not worthy to be raptured?He said that what he thought were good works for so many years were pointed out to him by God to be in reality done for himself to cover a guilty conscience and were not acceptable at all. Because he had not done the scriptures that were then quoted to him such as Seek first the kingdom of God etc. The important thing here is what he said about what happened as a result of this situation. He said that he was the recipient of God's wrath in a limited sense not an eternal sense. He also said that there are some like himself who would be the recipient of God's eternal wrath though he did not elaborate as to what makes them so._____________________________The tone of His anger knocked me on my face as God proceeded to tell me just what kind of life I had really lived. He told me what He really thought of me and even other people who lived as I did. He pointed out that my faith was DEAD, that my works were NOT ACCEPTABLE, and that I had labored in VAIN. He told me that it was an abomination for me to live such a life and then dare call it a life of worship. Furthermore, He said to those who do it, they are in danger of experiencing His everlasting wrath. As God dealt with me, He displayed His wrath to me. Notice, it was not His everlasting wrath. He did say there are some who will experience His everlasting wrath._________________________________In the end, God did grant him more time on earth or else we would never have heard his story. But he began to live differently from before and is now able to tell us what God is looking for in our lives.My feeling is had he stayed in heaven then after receiving God's limited wrath, and then being accepted as he said he was, he would have gone on to enjoy his eternity based on whatever faith he got right and been forgiven for the parts he did wrong. His eternal reward would have been based on what was done correctly and likely would not have been very big relative to those who got the other parts right too. I know I see through a glass darkly and can only speculate out of a very limited understanding. I may be way off... But I can offer suggestions for the sake of discussion and maybe something someone else says will enlighten us the more.As for the one who gets left behind, should he live to see the rapture one day longer than the one who dies, that would have missed it too, it may turn out to be a good thing for him in the long run because now he has the chance to do something about his status by dying for his faith. But on the other hand, I have often felt that to go in the rapture puts one in a higher category than those who miss it from that point on, but how could I know that really?I come finally to the conclusion that God is so just and fair that He has worked out a way that we all will agree in the end, is correct, though now we can only wonder what it might turn out to look like. For example, if talking to the Pharisees for a longer time could have saved even one more of them, I believe that Jesus would have done it. Finally he had to let them go their way unchanged (but Nicodemus). Maybe the reason the rapture has not happened yet is because God knows that there is yet one more who will get to go if he waits one more day. But finally there will come a day when he will say, that's it, no one else wants to come now... Let's go get the ones who do...Consider Elijah and Elisha and how the first was raptured and the other remained to die but his bones had so much miracle power in them that a dead body that was thrown in the tomb and touched them rose up and walked out. If he had that much power in his bones why did he die? Must have been his time.