It’s Jesus and that apostles that taught the “catching up” of believers prior to the seven year tribulation. All others either agree with them or don’t.
With all respects, CBear, the “catching up” passage to which refer, 1 Thess. 4:13-18, says nothing at all about the tribulation, seven years or otherwise. It just says there is going to be a rapture. We agree on that.
It is what some expositors refer to as an inference. To someone peering through two stage 2nd coming spectacles, it seems to them to be so.
Truth is, there is no passage anywhere that describes for us a two stage 2nd coming. One before the tribulation, another after it. There are inferences here and there, yes, but we should have more than that.
For such an important issue as this, we would expect a clear statement setting this (a two stage 2nd coming) forth, but there is none.
If there was such a statement, and not just a bunch of subjective inferences, we would not be debating this.