In Luke 21 Jesus describes the bitter things that will come upon the wole earth. At verse 28 He says, "Now when these things BEGIN to happen, look up and lift your heads, because your redemption draws near."
My question to you is, if the rapture happens at the end of the tribulation, and all the bitter things described in Luke 21 have already happened, or nearly all, then why didn't Jesus say something like, "Now when these things are nearly ended, lift up your heads..." Instead of "when these things BEGIN to happen?"
There is a beginnign to "these things" and there is an end... it is at the beginning that we are encouraged to lift up our heads, not at the end...
So not exactly pre trib but somewhere in the first parts of it. Sounds reasonable...as does anything else, I like your attention to detail. I always thought the church finally gets a break when the two witnesses get resurrected. They go up then so do the rest of us! I admit to simply liking the dramatic flourish of it, so i’m sure it won’t happen like that. Despite all the nasty suffering of the church before hand, it would be kind of cool if it did!