then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.
Most premillennialists have understood the day of the Lord to describe the whole seventieth week (seven years) plus the messianic (millennial) kingdom. [Note: See Showers, pp. 30-40, and Stanton, pp. 70-91, for excellent discussions of "the day of the Lord."] We view the whole seven-year Tribulation as a period of the outpouring of divine wrath (Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 12:1). [Note: For refutations of Rosenthal’s view, see Gerald B. Stanton, "A Review of The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church," Bibliotheca Sacra 148:589 (January-March 1991):90-111; Paul Karleen, The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church: Is It Biblical? and Showers, The Pre-Wrath Rapture View: An Examination and Critique.] 