“Thus we are left with a text that simply does not support what rapture theorists say.”
Indeed, I’m a protestant, and I agree, but I’d go even further. The text from Thessalonians flat out eliminates the possibility of any rapture prior to the first resurrection, since it tells us that the living WILL NOT precede the dead in entering the kingdom. Since Revelation is clear that the first resurrection happens at the very end of the tribulation, after Christ’s return is witnessed by the whole world, then what Thessalonians describes cannot precede that.
This Protestant also agrees. To further emphasise the point one needs to read the Gospel of John chapter 6. There we are repeatedly told that we will all be raised ON THE LAST DAY.
This is the key point regarding the Thessalonians passage that pre-tribbers somehow cannot seem to grasp. Why is this? From my own experience, being raised in a strong pre-trib denomination and graduating from a pre-trib Bible school, I know that unfortunately we often become entrenched in the peculiar beliefs of our denominational upbringing, and fail to do what we are commanded to do, which is to "search the scriptures to see if these things are true."
When I finally did this I realized that the pre-trib rapture was a 19th century doctrine with no Scriptural support, and which was unknown by the early Church and the Reformation.