Concerning The Time Of Our Gathering To The Lord

Over the course of the last two nights I have tossed and turned, reading the Bible, listening to teachings, and pressing in to God about the time and season we are in.  I am experiencing an urgency from God to receive and share understanding about where we are at with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, so that, with intentionality and a holy fervor, you and I walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.”

Here is a comparison view of the first verse, displaying multiple translations:

Paul is speaking to us with regard to the time when our Lord Jesus Christ will gather us to Himself—our gathering to Him is two fold:  The dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:16d-17).

When will the Lord Jesus Christ gather us?  Is our gathering imminent?  Does anything have to occur beforehand?

2 Thessalonians 2:2-3Do not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.”

Let no one deceive you in any way.

First, there will be a great apostasy.  Is that occurring now?

Second, the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction is revealed.  When and how will the Antichrist be revealed?  Will he be revealed when he confirms a covenant with many for seven years?

2 Thessalonians 2:3-8Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

The man of lawlessness is revealed when he who restrains is out of the way.  The man of lawlessness will then exalt himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.  This is the abomination of desolation half-way through the seven-year covenant.

Third, The Lord Jesus Christ comes to gather us.  1) the restrainer is taken out of the way, 2) the Antichrist is revealed, 3) the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And so we will always be with the Lord.

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