Hi Brad,

 

Thanks for replying to my letter about The Sign of His Coming and your comment on 2 Thessalonians 2:2-3.  The key to understanding verse 3 is verse 8. See below.

 

1 Thessalonians 2:1 (KJV) Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

 

Verse 3 uses the wording “a falling away first” which means our gathering together and the rapture will come before the son of perdition, (the final antichrist), is revealed. This is clarified in verse 8, when Jesus speaking through the Apostle Paul says: ”And then shall that Wicked be revealed”.  So, the rapture happens first and then the Wicked antichrist will be revealed to those left behind.

 

Garry B.