The tribulation that believers should expect to experience in this world is the persecution and trials that originate from unbelievers who are influenced by Satan and who attack all that is good and holy because they hate Almighty God. THE Tribulation, on the other hand, is GOD'S wrath poured out upon the world and those who hate and rebel against Him. It will be calamity and destruction unlike this world has EVER seen before. Jesus comes BEFORE that begins to take believers out because "God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Thess. 5:9) Jesus is our deliverer from the coming wrath. (I Thess. 1:10). That's the difference.
In Rev 5, the souls under that alter ask, "How long?", clearly showing God's wrath hasn't started yet. Actually, God's wrath doesn't occur until the first bowl of wrath, right after the seventh and LAST trumpet.
Yes, I know all the pre-tribulation arguments well, and I know the tribulation period will be all the unprecedented horror that Jesus told us it would be, and yet I still don’t see TWO second comings of Jesus in Scripture. Those verses in Psalms 91 point out how God protects us. Regardless, time will tell. It’s not a make-or-break salvation issue.
“Jesus is our deliverer from the coming wrath.”
Just not for those silly jews that get converted during the tribulation, I guess. They get to suffer the wrath because the promises don’t apply to ALL the church, just those of us who get in before a certain deadline.
/sarc