I believe 2 Thessalonians 1: 4-10 clearly shows that there is a distinction between the tribulation by men and the tribulation that God will reign down on a world with flaming fire on "those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." The context of 1 Thess 5 is the "day of the Lord" and verse 9 says that God did not appoint us to wrath but that we should comfort and build up each other with the fact that we aren't appointed to wrath (v.11). What kind of "comfort" is there in watching for tribulation such as the world has never seen instead of Christ which is our "blessed hope" (Titus 2:13).
The Tribulation described in Revelation is not a time of purification for the Church but the time of Jacob's trouble. ~ Jeremiah 30:8
Revelation 6:15-17 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
The pre-trib rapture isn't something invented by Scofield but has been taught down through church history:
Victorinus (died 303 A.D)
Ephraem of Nisbis (306-373)
Increase Mather (1639-1723)
John Gill (1748) in his notes on 1 Thess 4
Morgan Edwards (1742-1744)
If all you are looking forward to is tribulation, that's fine. I'm looking for the Savior who will return and set up His kingdom without human effort and bring peace to a sin sick world.
