The phrase "about the hour or the day no one knows" has to be about the beginning of that time period. Once the anti Christ signs the treaty (which cannot happen until the "church" is gone) we know specifically the number of days to the battle of Armageddon. We also know the number of days to the middle of that time period when the anti Christ will set himself up in the Temple.
Therefore, if the "church" were on earth at the time of the signing of the peace treaty we could easily set a date for the Lord's return. Those who believe in mid trib would be able to count the days as would those who believe in post trib. Neither of those views work with Christ's words that no one would know the day or the hour.
“The ‘Day of the Lord’ is the time period from the rapture of the ‘church’ the body of Christ to the end of that period which climaxes in the battle of Armageddon.”
I agree with your definition. I think this definition works regardless of a pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, or pre-wrath view.
“Christ does not return to earth but we meet Him in the air.”
I agree. The only view that does not agree is post-trib.
“He is not seen by all the people on earth.”
What us your basis for this? I do not see any Biblical support for this view.
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.
Is this referring to the rapture or not? If not, then how is it when believers receive their rest with the apostles? If so, then how can it be a hidden rapture? And how is their a period of relative peace at the beginning of Daniel’s seventieth week if angels coming with Christ are executing judgments of flaming fire?
“That event begins the seven years that God again deals with the nation of Israel as He did prior to Christ’s death.”
Why would God return to the “weak and beggarly elements” of the Law? You should take another look at Daniel 9 as to what God is going to accomplish in that final week. Israel is going to be brought to repentance and salvation during this time, but it will be done through their realization that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah and that the anti-Christ they trusted at the beginning of that week, if false.
“The phrase ‘about the hour or the day no one knows’ has to be about the beginning of that time period.”
It only has to be in order to force the passage to fit preconceived views. Look at the context:
Matthew 24:36-44
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
How can His coming at the end of the tribulation be like a thief and at an unexpected time if it is exactly seven years from the signing of the anti-Christ treaty and exactly three-and-a-half years from the abomination of desolation?
The only view that avoids this date-setting problem is the pre-wrath view, because the Great Tribulation begins at the abomination of desolation but is cut short by the sudden and unexpected return of Christ, followed by the onset of the Day of the Lord which completes the remainder of Daniel’s seventieth week.