[Speaking as a born & bred - now former - pre-tribber] This passage, which so many Evangelicals believe teaches the pre-tribulation rapture, teaches exactly the opposite. When, according to the verse, does the rapture occur? AFTER the resurrection - cp. v. 17: "after that..."
If pre-tribbers were consistent with Scripture, instead of teaching a sudden, instantaneous rapture, they would be teaching that the FIRST event will be the opening of graves all around the world, and the bodies of the dead in Christ ascending to heaven. Only AFTER this earth-shaking event witnessed by people everywhere, would the rapture occur.
Is this what pre-trib prophecy teachers are teaching? No. It shows how weak the standard "pre-trib rapture" theory actually is, if even the primary (and virtually sole) text they rely upon does not support the picture they paint of a sudden spiriting away of believers
Very good point!
Look in Daniel Chapter Five, could those attending the palace party central winefest see the body to which the hand writing on the wall was attached? Does the Bible tell us that when He appears we shall see Him as He IS, because when He appears we shall be like Him? Does Paul reveal that we shall not all sleep, BUT we shall all be changed, in a moment, int he twinkling of an eye?
When Jesus comes in the air to take away His Bride, those who have been born from above since The Day of Pentecost preaching by Peter (and of course His Apostles), the alive at that moment and the dead who have been given bodies again, will ALL be changed such that those not Raptrued won't even be able to see them, any more than the folks in palace party central could see the being whose hand was writing on the wall.