Now, according to what you believe, Jesus should have said, "Well guys, I was planning to come after the tribulation, at the last trump, but some of you will go whoring after a bunch of lies and false doctrines, so I'm gonna be forced to change my plans slightly and sneak in before the tribulation starts and take the wimpy ones out. Of course, I will have to make Myself invisible in order to do this, so nobody will see me do it. And there is going to be a problem because when I load these wimps on the early shuttle, cars will go out of control on the freeway, and planes flown by Christian pilots will crash all over the planet, and a lot of people will vanish before the eyes of others, and there's going to be lots of evidence that I have sneaked in and pulled a fast one, so at present I don't really have a definitive plan. Can I get back to you on this?"
For the life of me, I can't figure out just what it is about Matthew 24 that some people don't understand.
It's really very simple. Mt. 24 doesn't say what we would like it to say. Some of us accept that, and some develop elaborate schemes to wriggle around it.
I have a Scofield reference Bible - probably the worst that has ever been made - and it is really interesting. He constantly dodges and evades passages indicating that the Church will see the tribulation, based on the "fact" that we "know" the pre-trib rapture is true. He never does point out the passage that gives him such confidence. I guess if you're certain enough about your doctrine, you don't really need any scriptural support.