Hi Marylin,I'll just make comments as they come.First, I think it's peculiar that you don't consider it a 'Return' of Jesus, when Jesus is finally here on the cloud to meet us in the air. Why is it not a return? Just because he doesn't set foot on the surface of the earth, it's not a return?Aren't we all waiting for Jesus to come again on the cloud to gather us up? If he does that, then he has RETURNED to earth, our world! Finally he has come again to gather us!!If he appears on the sky on the clouds, the very air in which airplanes fly, wouldn't you say "Look! Jesus is here!" Why Jesus present on the atmosphere of the earth is considered any different from him setting his foot on soil? I just don't know why. If an airplane lifts up from the ground, is it considered to be vanished from our world?Or, are you saying Jesus cannot be physically present on the cloud? Sure he can! There is no verse in the Bible that says, he will only return in his spirit, not his body, on the cloud. Rather, it says he will come on the cloud in all his glory and everyone including unbelievers will see him.According to your explanation, Jesus returns to the earth to gather us up before the tribulation, and goes away, and comes back again to the earth and gather us for the second time, and goes away yet again, and comes back... again... and this time he touches down on the mountain. And you'd only call the touching down part the '2nd' advent (i.e, Jesus is physically present in our world). I would say that's the 4th advent.See how it becomes messy when you try to put the Rapture before the Tribulation? In trying to fit the Rapture before the Tribulation, you have to somehow make the rapture event not qualified as a 'return' of Jesus because the '2nd advent' will have to come later, but in fact in your theory Jesus goes back and forth several times. Then, what about the parable of 10 virgins? In that parable aren't the virgins waiting for Jesus to come and take them away? It just does not make sense. Everything gets messy and disarrayed.Last and foremost, your explanation is differenent from and conflict with the teaching of Jesus.In the Olivet Discours, the teaching of Jesus on the Rapture, Jesus says he will return on the cloud to gather us after the Tribulation. In your theory, Jesus comes on the cloud (and you say this is not a return, still.. it puzzles me why you wouldn't consider it as a return) to gather us up before the Tribulation. Then if he comes again at the day of the Lord, as you suggest, on what will he come? Will he come again on the cloud at the day of the Lord, same as he did at the day of the Christ?In his teaching, he only returns once. Please do not add to his teaching. Just believe what Jesus says. See how it becomes redundent and results in a vastly different teaching than Jesus' by adding to his teaching?He will not rapture his saints before the reign and persecution by the Beast. He has no reason to. Did he rapture saints before the persecution by the communists? It's no different this time, except the Beast will restrict buying and selling to only those who received his mark, and that it will be world wide. Ask the saints who were tortured by the communist. They will say it's no different than anything the Beast will have in store for the captured saints.Be assured; we the saints will be persecuted by the Beast. But, there will be those kept from the hour of trial. Not everyone will be caught and tortured to death. Many who watched and asked guidance will escape the grasp of the Beast and wait for Jesus' return, unharmed.Ed