Ah man, great post! Wish I could have seen this sooner to upvote :-/

The idea of, "The Tribulation" (aka, the secret rapture) as know in the popular term is as you said, not biblical. Nor does it compare to the examples in the Bible and is extremely dangerous. There are people who are procrastinators and will think, "Ah, I'll just wait until the Rapture happens and then I'll fix my life up." But the Bible never gives examples of a second chance.

• Noah wasn't saved from the Flood, He saved him THROUGH the flood.
• Moses wasn't saved from the plagues, he was saved THROUGH the plagues.

In other words, God will protect us from those events. We will all be present when those things happen.

In Revelation 18:4

4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.

God is going to protect his people from the plagues just as he did with Moses. And we'll all still be here on this planet as those plagues happen. It was at the end of the plagues that Moses and his people left Egypt and it will be at the end of the plagues in the last days that "Spiritual Israel" will leave earth to be with God.