“1 Thess 1:9&10 ...
9 For they themselves relate of us, what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God. 10 And to wait for his Son from heaven (whom he raised up from the dead,) Jesus, who hath delivered us from the wrath to come.”
Yes, salient point. We both agree that the rapture includes being rescued from God’s wrath. The various views on the timing of the rapture must agree with this, but disagree with what constitutes undergoing God’s wrath. For the pre-wrath position, that I hold, I believe the wrath of God begins when the Great Tribulation has ended and Christians have been raptured out.
The promise in the above passage is not to escape tribulation. The Thessalonians were well acquainted with tribulation and persecution:
1 Thessalonians 1:6
And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,
1 Thessalonians 2:14
For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans.
1 Thessalonians 3:3-4
that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it happened, and you know.
2 Thessalonians 1:4-5
so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer.
But notice what Paul says after this:
2 Thessalonians 1:6-8
Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This makes perfect sense in a pre-wrath rapture. All Church-age believers experience tribulation and persecution. The last generation of Church-age believers experience the Great[est] Tribulation. God repays tribulation to our tormentors with the wrath of His fiery indignation in the Day of the Lord. But we, escaping divine wrath, come out of the Great Tribulation, and enter into the rest of our Lord.
A pre-trib rapture does not fit here. Isn’t this the rapture? Paul says the Thessalonians will enter into rest when the Lord comes. So this MUST be the rapture. But he also says God will repay their tormentors with fire when He comes. That is not how the pre-trib timeline is presented. The pre-trib view does not describe holy angels arriving with Jesus to pour out fire on the wicked. However that does fit the pre-wrath paradigm.
See you in the clouds, Bro.