Out of all the premillennial views, the prewrath rapture may be the most easy to understand in light of scripture with little to no mental gymnastics required. In this view, the rapture happens before God’s wrath and after the tribulation. More specifically it takes place after the sixth seal is opened in Revelation 8:1. During this time there is a silence in heaven, perhaps caused by Jesus and his angels leaving heaven to gather the elect from the four winds of the earth (Matthew 24:31).
Some say that all the seals are part of God’s wrath but if we look at the opening of the fifth seal, the tribulation martyrs ask God “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10). Hence, this fifth seal and the ones prior to it cannot be part of God’s wrath because the martyrs are not blaming their trials on God but instead they are asking God to begin his wrath and avenge their deaths.
God then fulfills his promise to the martyrs during the next sixth seal by beginning the day of the Lord as prophesied by the OT prophets (Jer 46:10, Isaiah 13:9-11). The mighty men of the earth escape to hide themselves in caves and call “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:16-17).
Since the church is not appointed to “wrath” (1 Thess 5:9), God takes away the church before he pours his wrath on earth. On the other hand, Jesus promises his disciples (who are the church by way of believing in the Messiah) that they will be persecuted unto death before his return (Matt 24:9).
Here’s the clincher, in Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13 the disciples ask Jesus for signs of his coming. If you read the signs that Jesus gives, they line up almost perfectly with the first six seals and none of them match any of the trumpets or bowls!
(Matt 24:5-6) False christs & wars -> 1st seal; white horse & conquesting antichrist (Rev 6:2)
(Matt 24:6-7) Nation vs nation & kingdom vs kingdom -> 2nd seal; red horse & no peace (Rev 6:4)
(Matt 24:7) famines & earthquakes -> 3rd seal; black horse & food inflation (Rev 6:5-6)
(Luke 21:11) disease & pestilence - 4th seal; pale horse & death, plague; (Rev 6:8)
(Matt 24:9) saints persecuted unto death - 5th seal; altar of souls who were slain; (Rev 6:10)
(Matt 24:29) sun & moon darkened - 6th seal; celestial signs; (Rev 6:12)
(Matt 24:30) son of man appears & angels gather elect - 7th seal; silence in heaven; (Rev 8:1)
7a (Luke 21:28) - “... straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Jesus said he has told us these things in advance so we could be on guard (Mark 13:23) and not fall away. If this view is correct the church may not be prepared to face the antichrist and many may end up taking the mark of the beast and betraying one another after hopelessness and disappointment set in because they have been taught that the church will be raptured before this persecution takes place (Matt 24:9). Paul warns of a great falling away during this time (2 Thess 2:3) echoing Jesus’ warning that many of his followers will fall away and end up betraying one another (Matt 24:10). This would mirror the children of Israel’s apostasy after they became impatient from believing that Moses had died after he took longer than they expected to return from Mount Sinai.
Paul said the rapture would be the blessed hope (Thess 4:13-18) as a comfort to the Thessalonians who were bereaved by the death of their loved ones. In this view the rapture will still remain a blessed hope since it will be a way of escape for Christians suffering the greatest persecution the world has ever known (Matt 24:21).
We also know from church history that all the church fathers up until 250AD who wrote about the end times starting with the Didache (dated to 50 to 90AD, a manual for believers in the early Church) and including Iranaeus who was a 2nd degree disciple of Apostle John, had an understanding that the church would face the antichrist (Joey Schimmel describes this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQoR16TQXVU). It wasn’t until 400AD when Augustine popularized a preterist view of scripture that the understanding of end times prophecy started getting fractured in the church.
For those that want to do more research, Dr. Alan Kurschner also expounds on the prewrath view more here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx6gYJBBSek