What does Paul teach about the timing of the Tribulation in 2 Thessalonians 2?
Paul teaches in 2 Thessalonians 2 that the Tribulation and the man of sin appear only after the Church has departed. The Body of Christ is raptured before that period, because the Tribulation is God's dealing with Israel, not the Church. It comes from Old Testament prophecy.
Les explains that the only time Paul even mentions the Tribulation is in II Thessalonians chapter 2, where he makes it so plain that after we have departed, then shall appear that man of sin, and the Tribulation, and all the rest of it. He stresses that the Church is not concerned with the Second Coming but with the outcalling of the Body of Christ, the Rapture, which is strictly a Pauline revelation. Because the Tribulation is God dealing with Israel and comes out of all the prophetic statements of the Old Testament, the Church will not fit that Tribulation scenario; it is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Paul is alone the one who has been revealed the secrets concerning the Church, while the Old Testament prophetic things were not secret.