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.
You are correct. Christ does not come to earth during the rapture. We go up to meet Him. His second coming is after the tribulation when He defeats the armies of Satan.
>>If there was such a statement, and not just a bunch of subjective inferences, we would not be debating this.<<
We are not talking about a "2 stage return". Only you are. The whole word does not see Him when the rapture occurs. They most certainly do when He returns.