Hello DP, Devonmcknight68,
DP, your comparison above is not relevant. The wrath of God (the day of the Lord) that is coming is going to be an unprecedented time in history that will involve all of the inhabitants on the entire earth with some of the plagues involving natural events, such as the sun scorching the inhabitants with intense heat, an asteroid or something similar hitting one of the oceans and killing a third of the earth's sea creatures and destroying a third of the ships, etc. Jesus said that it would be a time of great distress such as the world has not seen from the beginning of creation, until now and never to be equaled again. And the results will be that, if those days of wrath were allowed to go on any longer than the predetermined time, no one would be left alive on earth by the time the Lord returned to end the age. This is why Jesus is coming to gather the living believers prior to the on-set of his wrath, which is to remove the living believer's so that he can pour out his full wrath.
Just because God hasn't done something in the past doesn't mean that it won't happen in the future. The fact still remains that scripture states that Jesus rescued us from the coming wrath and which we are also not appointed to suffer. After Paul gave a detailed account of the dead and the living being gathered in 1 Thes.4:13-18, he then said, "Comfort each other with these words." What is more comforting, to be here on earth during the time of God's wrath or to look forward to the Lord's promise of gathering us and taking us back to the Father's house before his wrath begins?