I was once a pre-tribber, having been brought up in it. I found that I always had to refer to someones chart or explanation of the verses that referred to the event. Ialso determined, as I read the scripture for myself, and studied it dilligently that:
1. The plain reading of all of the passages you and I referenced above, plus many others, plainly teach that the rapture happens AFTER the tribulation
2. The word "Tribulation" in the NT is used 15 times: 4 times regarding the end times, once for the world in Romans 2:9 (referring to the LAST DAY, oddly enough), and 10 times for the Church! Thus, one can easily see that the Tribulation is a time for persecuting the Church!
3. Matthew 24 does not mention the rapture of the church prior to the second coming
4. All rapture passages (Matt 24:31, 1 Cor 15:52, 1 Thess 4:16, et al) have the some or all of same elements: coming on clouds, trumpet call, voice of Archangel, etc. They are the same event.
5. The pre-trib rapture of the Church is NOT mentioned in Revelation. The only feasible reference is the typology on Johns being take up in Rev 4:1, but it does not fit the previous references.
There are numerous others, but what bothers me most is the circular reasoning of the pre-trib enthusiasts. To wit: they claim that Matt 24:31 does not describe the rapture, because the rapture occurs after the tribulation, and this passage was for the Jews, not the Church. How do we know that the elect here gathered are the Jews? Because it is after the tribulation, and the Church is already gone.
1. The plain reading of all of the passages you and I referenced above, plus many others, plainly teach that the rapture happens AFTER the tribulation
I am not even convinced there is a rapture as in the popular definition any way.
Cor 15
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
Paul does not actually say we will not die.
He may be telling is that if we are still alive in the last day that we will not sleep in death as the people did that died hundreds of years before but will be changed at the instant of death.
1 Corinthians 15
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Seems to me like that would include getting out of this world with out dying.
Just my view.
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Yep, there is that last trump again that you mentioned.
It seems they go through hundreds of years of scripture to try and prove their point when just a few little verses shoots them down.