Seven Days of the Lord: The Beyond Prewrath view proposes seven distinct eschatological "Days of the Lord," in contrast to the more commonly accepted singular, generic length of time. The second day of the Lord should be considered as mental anguish for those who are hiding from the Lord's presence. That is, there is no reference to death in Revelation 6:9-17. The beasts who die fifteen months after the start of millennial reign of Jesus could be considered a day of the Lord, though likely the fifth blown trumpet where people seek death but do not find it, is likely a much stronger case. (Ref. 1)
Pairs of Days of the Lord and the Gathering: The first and third days of the Lord will be discussed here, which are unique with each featuring a concurrent gathering of the righteous and Jesus. If two can be chronologically identified, then it opens the door to more, a total of seven, eschatological days of the Lord. (Ref. 2)
Chapter 1 describes Jesus’s return from heaven to earth, in the same manner as His ascension (Acts 1:9–11), specifically to the Mount of Olives (v. 12). At this time, a gathering is inferred of those on the rooftops in Jerusalem who witness His return (Matt. 24:15–21). Notably, the terrain of Israel—except for Jerusalem—is transformed into a plain (Zech. 14:10), which may not facilitate widespread visibility of this event.
This event occurs at the midpoint of the 70th week (Dan. 9:27), as indicated by the call to flee to the mountains in both the Old Testament (Zech. 14:5) and the New Testament (Matt. 24:15–21). Essentially, people are fleeing through the wide valley created when the Mount of Olives splits in two (Zech. 14:4)—possibly toward Petra, as some suggest.
Before this flight, those on Jerusalem's rooftops (on the ground) are presumed to gather to marvel at King Jesus on the Mount of Olives (Isa. 33:17). Figure 1 (referencing Acts 1:9-12; Zech. 14:1–5; Matt. 24:15–16; Dan. 9:27) defines this moment at the midpoint as a "Day of the Lord" (Zech. 14:1), targeted against the wicked who are attacking.
Those reluctant to consider a day of the Lord as possible against the wicked can occur while the righteous are still on the earth, then consider the analogy to Lot where his family was still on earth when Sodom was destroyed.
A separate later chronological gathering involves the elect meeting Jesus in the sky (Rev. 1:7, 8:5; Matt. 24:30–31), followed on the same day by another "Day of the Lord" (third in Rev. 8:7). This introduces a contrast: the first gathering occurs on the ground; the second, in the air. These two distinct events, separated in time, necessitate at least two eschatological Days of the Lord.
2 Thessalonians 2:1–4—which mentions both the gathering and the Day of the Lord—should be understood as referring to the midpoint event (page 9, Fig. 2 of Jesus Returns the Way He Left), rather than the later Prewrath rapture of the elect. Prewrath interpret this at the rapture, though neither the Greek word Harpazo for rapture, nor meeting Jesus in the sky can be explicitly found.
"The Tribulation" and 70th week of Daniel are not the same: Many pretrib proponents and others consider the 70th week having the same meaning as their coined phrase "The Tribulation," though they have an incorrect understanding of Scripture.
First, consider the majority of pretrib proponents will say the seven opened seals and the seven blown trumpets are in the 70th week. Many will also include the seven poured bowls. Regardless of the bowl interpretation, consider Scripture (Matt. 24:29; Rev. 6:12) that the sixth opened seal explicitly says the tribulation has ended. Since they all agree that that explicit seal is within the 70th week and that seal says there is no tribulation, then by their own definition the entire 70th week cannot be uniformly labeled as "The Tribulation," even if that sixth seal has a duration of only one day. Some may counter by saying the 70th week is just a time of calamity which changes the intent of Scripture, complicating eschatological understanding unnecessarily.
Scripture (Rev. 6:7-8; Matt. 24:9-14) has the fourth seal labeled as a tribulation and the fifth seal (Rev. 6:9-11; Matt. 24:15-28) labeled as a great tribulation. The first three seals are Scripturally called birth pangs (Matt. 24:8). Again, no uniformity to their made-up phrase "The Tribulation," which they claim represents the 70th week.
As shown in the previous two paragraphs, the 70th week cannot be universally labeled as all tribulation. Therefore, the rapture naming scheme, for pretrib/midtrib/posttrib, is deceptive. A better naming scheme for say the pretrib could have been say "pre-70th week" or just "pre-70."
Second, consider Scripturally tribulation is always considered persecution against one's faith (Matt. 24:21; John 16:33; Rom. 12:12), though they have the church raptured before the 70th week. Again, they have misinterpreted Scripture. Chapter 3 of my latest book has seven reasons against the pretrib view.
We should all examine Scripture just as the Bereans did in Acts 17:11.
Reference (1): Robert Parker, Beyond Prewrath End-Time Prophecy, Robert's Trumpet LLC, Winter Garden, FL, (c) 2021, 89-123.
Reference (2): Robert Parker, Jesus's Returns the Way He Left Based on His Ascension, Robert's Trumpet LLC, Winter Garden, FL, (c) 2024, 38.