All that sounds reasonable. But we aren't talking about believing prophecy. We are talking about the pretrib rapture theory, which does not have scripture to back it up.
Chuckle!!! Pre-Tribbers would disagree, but HEY!!! One skilled in the art of "Generating Theology" can easily demonstrate scripture that DOES "back up" their paradigms to their satisfaction. I'm a "Knee jerk Pre-tribber" personally.
[quote} Could you go ahead and post the scripture that says that Christ returns and raptures/gathers the church before the tribulation?[/quote]
Without going to the bother (since I couldn't care less - it'll happen according to plan regardless of our theology), I'll just refer you to the Assembly of God Denomination's "Pre" argument for it: https://ag.org/Beliefs/Position-Papers/The-Rapture-of-the-Church.