The purpose of this chart is to illustrate clearly the celestial disturbances happen after the great tribulation and before the day of the Lord’s wrath.
I teach a straightforward reading of the Bible, and it makes clear that there are multiple prophetic events that must occur before Jesus returns. Christ’s return to resurrect and rapture God’s people is not imminent (“any moment”), since discernible prophesied events must happen first (e.g., the Antichrist’s revelation, the beginning of the Birth Pains, at the midpoint the Antichrist will be revealed and commit the abomination of desolation, initiating his great tribulation against the Church and Israel, the apostasy; coming of Elijah; and a cluster of discernible celestial events). In contrast, Pre-Tribulation theory ("pre-trib") teaches that the Rapture will occur at the beginning of Daniel's 70th Week, before (pre) the Great Tribulation (Daniel’s 70th week). They believe that Christ’s coming can occur at any moment and is “imminent.” They define “imminent” as no prophetic event needs to be fulfilled before the Second Coming.
The first appearance of the Lord Jesus in Daniel’s 70th week will occur at the Rapture of the Church. The Rapture refers to the sudden removal of the believing church from the earth. Jesus will appear in the sky and He will be seen coming on the clouds, accompanied by angels, and announced with a shout and the sounding of the last trumpet of God. I teach that the Rapture of the Church will occur after the cosmic disturbances of the sixth seal, but prior to the breaking of the 7th seal and the beginning of the Day of the Lord. In other words, Pre-Wrath theory teaches that the Rapture will occur immediately after the Great Tribulation and before (pre) God’s Wrath (Day of the Lord).
At an unknown day and hour during the second half of the seven-year period, the Antichrist’s great tribulation will be “cut short” by the Revelation of Christ to resurrect and rapture God’s people, and this will be followed immediately by the Day of the Lord’s wrath executed upon the ungodly. The second coming (parousia) is not a simple (instantaneous) event. The second coming is a complex-whole event containing various purposes of God, beginning with the Revelation of Christ in the sky displaying his Shekinah glory and power to the whole world, and resurrecting and rapturing God’s people, followed by the day of the Lord’s judgments (7 trumpets and 7 Bowls) upon the ungodly and Antichrist’s kingdom, restoring Israel to salvation, and culminating in Christ’s earthly reign. (Many thanks to Alan Kurschner for his spot-on synopsis of Pre-Wrath.)