[Timotheist]

I have mentioned this before on this thread. Darby and his cohorts saw support for a pre-trib rapture in two passages:

1) open advent vs coming as a thief. Matt pointed out, like I did, that Paul considered these two phrases to be coincident: in the "day" for those who are waiting, but in the "night" for those who are in "darkness"

2) "Alive and remain". The word 'and' is added to many of the English translations. Reading the passage in its context, Paul is referring to two groups of people, not three: those who have died, and those who are "still alive" (Timotheist's translation) at the coming of the Lord.

A mysteriously veiled third group, those who were raptured before the second coming, would have caused Paul to write this paragraph very differently, and we would no longer comfort each other if people died and missed the pre-trib rapture:

"Regarding those who have passed away, try to take comfort in the fact that, while they missed out on the first rapture, they will be ahead of the second."