[Nea Wood]

It would also be a real slap in the face to those early believers who are fed to the lions, crucified, burned at the stake, or whatever else they had to endure if today’s believers got a pass and were raptured out of here prior to the Tribulation.

I heard someone say once that the suffering of believers prior to the Tribulation is because of sin, the fallen world, etc. But the suffering that will occur during the Tribulation will be different. That will be due to God's wrath. And God will not inflict His wrath on His own children. Therefore, He will remove them right before the Tribulation. Not saying I necessarily believe in the Rapture. I'm frankly not sure what to believe. I'm not a theologian, just someone struggling to understand. But that argument did seem logical.

[MHGinTN]

You do have it! The difference between The Body of Christ and the rest of the world is the Presence of God's Holy Spirit in the believers. Paul tells us it is God Who is in you both to will and to do of His great pleasure. Paul tells us we are bought with a price so we are no longer our own, we are OWNED By God as attested by His Holy Spirit Seal upon our newly alive human spirit. Paul also shows us that we are not appointed to wrath (the Wrath of GOD) but are appointed to salvation. In the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Believers (the church in Thessalonika) we read as just an aside:

9 For people keep telling us what kind of welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve a living and true God 10 and to wait for his Son whom he raised from the dead to come back from heaven. This Jesus is the one who rescues us from the coming wrath.

The reality of the Rapture of the Body of ALL BELEIVERS and thus the snatching away of all alive spirits because of HIS SPirit within them wi;; end the Age of the Grace of God in Christ. God will be turning His attention to Israe during the following seven years, fulfilling the seventieth week of Daiel's Prophecy. The Holy Spirit will usher a number to Heaven during the seven years of God's wrath, a number so large John could not number it! And he could count to atleast 200,000,000 for the unbelieving army which comes against Israel and Jerusalem during the Greta Tribulation portion).