John Fenn taught on youtube that this scripture is mistranslated:
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 KJV
1Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
by our gathering together unto him,
2That 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.
3Let 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;
He says from Greek, the word that gives us the English word "apostasy" refers to falling away, as a ship going over the horizon. Not sin. That it does not make sense that there are many who turn into sin from the true faith, before the Anti-Christ is revealed. But rather that we fall away, over into the Messiah. Then without the righteous, there is the revelation of the Anti-Christ.
Using also the Hebrew traditions of the coming Messiah, feast of trumpets, the last horn and the salvation of the fully righteous, also looking at the intermediates, and the fully wicked. With some changing in the last few years.
I checked non KJV translations to find they exemplify the interpretation that the falling away is considered to mean a great rebellion. And apostasy means fallen to a state of sin from true teaching, down.
Howard Storm believes the rapture only happens as Christ returns, I think he teaches there is no future Anti-Christ. No nuclear war...
So is the falling away, into Messiah or sin? Is there more than one rapture, with changing sides?
I hate Andy Woods "departure" interpretation with perfect hatred.
Because it says that the bible contains error and you have to cherrypick a specific bible version to get it to say what you want it to say.
as for raptures, there are 2 ways to look at it, and that is to say, whether you think the rapture of the 2 witnesses is a separate rapture from the one for everyone else, which I don't.
I view the first half of Revelation 11 as part of Revelation 10 (chapters and verses are not Inspired) which is a parenthetical section, not Chronological. There's not 3.5 years between the 6th and 7th trumpets.
So I actually see basically..
1. the first 4 seals happen, they are pre "tribulation" events, pre 70th week, and are the chaos that allows the Antichrist to come to power, offering solutions to the problems the 4 horsemen caused. Note that there is no timing markers in Revelation 6 except the 6th seal which Jesus says comes after the tribulation of those days, which would indicate that the great tribulation Jesus referred to, was the 5th seal, which seems to be confirmed in Revelation 7.
That'd place 3.5 years at least between the 4th seal, and 5th seal.
2. Anyway, after the first 4 seals happen, Antichrist comes into power, and over the next few years you have relative peace, a false peace. The two witnesses start their ministry during this time, when things seem like they're going well.
3. Then at the midpoint, Antichrist violates the covenant, invades Jerusalem, and there's the abomination of desolation.
4. 5th seal, happens, and during this period of time the saints are persecuted and martyred, 2/3 of Israel die, and towards the end of it, the 2 witnesses are killed.
5. At this point in time, there's a great earthquake and the signs of the 6th seal occur, the 1/3 of Israel that are alive and elect call out for Yeshua, Jesus returns, the 2 witnesses, along with all the dead in Christ are resurrected, and those who are alive and remain are raptured.
6. Then the wrath of God begins, the trumpets and bowls.
7. Revelation 19 is not the second coming, John is in heaven when the heavens open up and He sees Jesus, Jesus is already on Earth. The popular imagery of Jesus riding a flying white horse is wrong.
Jesus returns to earth on a cloud, not a horse.
But if you view the entire book Chronological, then you'd have up to 3 resurrections, the one at the 6th seal, the one of the two witnesses just before the 7th trumpet if you see 3.5 years between the 6th and 7th trumpet, and the one after Revelation 19 where you have the martyred saints being resurrected and ruling during the Millennium, and you'd have a 4th if you insist that Revelation 4:1 is a rapture (which I find to be an erroneous interpretation but many pre trib claim that's what it is)