Dear Friend. The Pre-Trib Rapture Doctrine is fabricated from disjointed passages. There is no clear teaching for your position in the Bible. That is a fact and is irrefutable. The only clear teaching is ONE RETURN AFTER the TRIB. Again, this is an irrefutable fact. Jesus teaches us this clearly in Mat 24 and Mark 13. In fact Jesus could not be clearer if he tattooed it on you.
Again, the Great Tribulation = the Temptation of Satan whereby he tries to convince the world that He is Christ.
You need to try and understand this one point in blue if you can understand nothing else. Satan does this through another entity as Satan is a spiritual being and cannot take human form.
Jesus sets the start of the Great Tribulation at Mat 24:21. Jesus ends the Tribulation lesson at Mat 24:29. If you read the verses in between you will see no mention of wars against Israel or anyone else. The entire lesson deals with False Christ(s) attempting to deceive EVEN THE ELECT. So clearly, the ELECT are there on earth during the Great Tribulation. Again, this is an irrefutable fact!!!!
The Wrath of the Lamb comes AFTER the Tribulation!!! Please see the below passage from Mat 24 to gain the proper context. Please note that verse 29 states we are now AFTER the Tribulation. I want you to look at the below passage from Mat 24 and then Rev 6. I have numbered the events as they are described. They take place in the same order. Don't let the slight difference in descriptions throw you as Matthew wrote the first description and John the second so we have two witnesses recording things as they heard or saw them.
[SUP]29 [/SUP]Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the (1) sun be darkened, and (2) the moon shall not give her light, and the (3) stars shall fall from heaven, and the (4) powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
[SUP]30 [/SUP]And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: (5) and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.[SUP]
31 [/SUP]And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Now I want you to compare to the 6th Seal of Rev 6:
[SUP]12 [/SUP]And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and (1) the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and (2) the moon became as blood;
[SUP]13 [/SUP]And the (3) stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
[SUP]14 [/SUP](4) And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
[SUP]15 [/SUP](5) And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
[SUP]16 [/SUP]And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
[SUP]17 [/SUP]For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
The Wrath comes after the Lord is revealed from heaven. It comes AFTER the Tribulation. The Wrath of the Lamb is NOT PART OF THE TRIBULATION!!!
People need to understand that heaven opens and the temple and Arc of the Covenant are seen. We see this in Rev 11:18-19. Obviously there is time for people to run to mountains and caves to hide. Clearly there is recognition that the Lord is coming for some period of time before He actually comes like a lightening flash.