After the tribulation…..

Oh oh, looks like I got this wrong!  I had always thought that the Rapture came before the Tribulation.  Looks like I was wrong.  These are the words from Jesus. 

Matthew 24:29-31(NKJV)

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 

And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

So we can see that Jesus says very clearly that He will come immediately after the tribulation.  My attitude had always been kind of who cares about the tribulation because it was my belief that the Rapture would take place before the Tribulation.  In other words the believers would be taken up before the Tribulation and wouldn't have to experience it.  

Based on these next verses I think I may have been wrong.

Matthew 24:36-44(NKJV)

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 

But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 

For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 

and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 

Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 

Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 

Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 

But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 

Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Now unless I am reading that wrong it is saying that the Rapture takes place right before Jesus returns.  Interesting.  Don't know why I hadn't noticed that before!