2 Thessalonians 2:1

“Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him”

“Touching”: “Concerning” (Con). “And our gathering together unto Him”: “Our being gathered to meet Him” (TCNT). The coming of the Lord and the gathering of the saints are regarded as closely connected, as the use of. single article shows. They are two parts of one great event” (Morris p. 214). The coming of Christ and Christians ("our") being gathered together unto Him happen at the same time. We do not find two "days" of the Lord at the end of time, one for the righteous and one seven years later for the wicked (2 Thessalonians 1:7). Notice also the order of this context. The coming of Christ (including His coming for Christians) happens after the apostasy and after the man of sin is revealed, and not before. “All of this leads us to say that the idea that the man of sin is to appear after the church has been gathered out of the world cannot be true. Strangely this is. rather popular idea. But please observe carefully that our gathering together unto the Lord, etc… is not to happen until the falling away and the revelation of the man of sin have occurred first” (Fields p. 188). The reader should note that Hal Lindsey, in “The Late Great Planet Earth” presented the view that Christians will be removed before the man of sin arrives (p. 110). That directly contradicts what Paul is teaching in this chapter.