“I have trouble making my own eschatological timeline. Including a pre-trib rapture, or post-trib, or mid-trib. If I was forced to pick one it’d be mid-trip, because some scripture seems to point to a rapture before tribulation, but some seems to point to a rapture afterwards. Or maybe there’s a mild tribulation and a greater tribulation.”
Prewrath. The Bible distinguishes between the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord (Day of Wrath). The “beginning of sorrows”, Great Tribulation, and Day of the Lord are all part of Daniel’s 70th week (in that order). The rapture comes after the Great Tribulation just as the Day of the Lord arrives. This is called the “pre-wrath rapture”.
Many scriptures support this. I’ll just point out one small example.
The sign of a simultaneous solar and lunar eclipse (which cannot happen by currently known means) marks the END of the Great Tribulation and the imminent return of Christ and the Day of the Lord.
Joel 2:31 NKJV
The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
Matthew 24:29-30 NKJV
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Revelation 6:12-17 NKJV
I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Isaiah 2:12-21 NKJV
For the day of the LORD of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up— And it shall be brought low— Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, And upon all the oaks of Bashan; Upon all the high mountains, And upon all the hills that are lifted up; Upon every high tower, And upon every fortified wall; Upon all the ships of Tarshish, And upon all the beautiful sloops. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; The LORD alone will be exalted in that day, But the idols He shall utterly abolish. They shall go into the holes of the rocks, And into the caves of the earth, From the terror of the LORD And the glory of His majesty, When He arises to shake the earth mightily. In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver And his idols of gold, Which they made, each for himself to worship, To the moles and bats, To go into the clefts of the rocks, And into the crags of the rugged rocks, From the terror of the LORD And the glory of His majesty, When He arises to shake the earth mightily.
Thanks for the reminder to distinguish between tribulation level persecution, and wrath/pre-wrath.