"And as it was in the days of NOAH, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of LOT. They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
Luke 17:26-30
Noah wasn't put into the ark halfway through the beginnings of the rain. He went into the ark before the first drop fell.
"So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood ... And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth."
Genesis 7:7-10
Furthermore, it wasn't during threatening times that he went into the ark. At the time, they were going about life as usual, buying, selling, marrying, giving in marriage.
Likewise when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah
"When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, 'Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.' And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, 'Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.'''
Gen 19:15-17
Lot wasn't moving fast enough so the angel prevailed on him to hurry, because he couldn't bring the judgment UNTIL LOT WAS OUT OF THERE:
"Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there."
Genesis 19:22
While the worst judgments of the Tribulation come after the midpoint when the Antichrist goes into the Temple, the first 3-1/2 years will NOT be normal times. From the beginning of the "time of sorrows," life on earth will be increasingly traumatic until the birth pains come to the end.
The entire seven-year period will be times of increasingly terrible birth pains.
The Rapture precedes all of the tribulation of the last seven years.
