The following is my answer to a specific question that was asked by a well known post-tribber for any pre-tribber to answer.
Hi Steve, Barry Amundsen here to answer your question as pasted here:__________________________________________________
I have a question to ask all of my pretribber friends:
With all the persecution that we have experienced over the past two thousand years, and are experiencing now, why do you think that we should be exempt from the persecution of the Antichrist?
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The quick answer is that AC's persecution is a separate category only for those who have not honored Jesus as their head. Even many in the churches are rejecting Jesus as head over them and therefore must miss the rapture and be subjected to the AC's persecution.
John 5:43. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
You would do well to read the whole chapter of John 5 because you will see that Jesus is saying that all judgment (which begins at the house of God, the church) has been committed to him by his father and he will raise from the dead and change to immortal the living, for all those whom he deems worthy because they honored him and his father while at the same time leaving here those who did not honor him to face the AC:
John 5:21. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
22. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
23. That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
25. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
26. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
27. And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Jesus will then after he raises up these dead and receive also the living who have honored him into safety, allow to be fulfilled that verse 43 quoted above when the AC comes in his own name and many who rejected Jesus will receive AC but those who did not honor Jesus as head over them will be given another chance to do so though it will cost them their own head as an object lesson that no one can live without their head. Many will be made pure by having to endure the tribulation period but many who are ready now will escape first and not need to be subjected to the AC because they already have honored Jesus with taking his yoke on them and learning from him. The ones who miss the rapture and thus are subjected to the AC are being given another chance to honor Jesus the way the ones who escaped already did and therefore do not need this second chance. The Philadelphia Church will be kept from the hour of temptation while the other churches are not. This allows for the fact that Jesus promised his church that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Yet we also know that AC will make war against the tribulation saints and overcome them. They cannot be the same groups of people. The tribulation saints have had their candlestick removed and now are being treated the way God treated Israel before the church existed because it is the final time of Daniel's weeks of years that are determined that are yet to be completed and have nothing to do with the church.
You also made a point of saying that there can only be one resurrection of dead in Christ. The scriptures do not support this statement but tell us that after Jesus' own resurrection, many graves of the righteous dead were opened (Matt. 27:52-53) and they came out of them and appeared to many before going with Jesus into heaven when he ascended. Jesus spoke of two different hours when the dead would rise; one that was coming in the future (our rapture) and one that now is in his day. This fulfills the different Firstfruits offerings to God the first of which was typified by a handful of grain that was first harvested from a season's production. Then the first two loaves were also presented to God as another Firstfruit offering and this represents our rapture because bread is a finished product. Finally there are the gleanings in the field which Paul described as "then cometh the end" or those saved at the end.