Pre-Tribulationists argue that the church must be absent from earth from chapters 4-18 of Revelation because the term church is not used in these chapters. However, as Kennedy observes, this rationale is utterly flawed:
According to the pretribulational approach, one could argue that Jesus is not in heaven because the word Jesus is absent in the heavenly scenes depicting the saints and the elders worshipping him. Instead it opts for the term lamb. Or one could also argue that the “anti-christ” is not on earth because the word “anti-christ” is not used in these chapters, instead it used the word beast or false prophet. Again, the word rapture or catching away is never mentioned in Revelation and the coming of Jesus is not referred to as the parousia.
Isn’t that just dispensationalists?
Yep. dispies.