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Matthew speaks of a gathering of believers in such a fashion that the general world sees it and “mourns”. They also note the “sign of the coming of the Son of Man” being placed in the skies. Christ spoke as coming at a time “such as was the days of Noah, for folks were buying and selling, marrying and divorcing, eating and drinking” which would denote an era of relative prosperity and a false peace, though reading about the days of Noah one is also confronted with a world filled with exceptional sin and violence as well as inteference from the Nephilim(Quix can give some good info here).

Thessalonians speaks a removal of a “restrainer” but Revelation speaks of multitudes being martyred for their faith and for refusing to take the mark of the beast “or to worship his image”, which means either a bunch of folks are saved after the rapture, or the rapture doesn’t occur when we all thought it might. I can tell you a lot of preachers don’t go for the “folks being saved after the rapture business”...yet there you are...folks being killed by the Beast,False prophet, Beast Image, worship system after the church was supposedly raptured up before the antichrist takes power scenario.

Reading the whole passage of 2Thessalonians 2 then examining verse 13 thru the end in relation to the first 12 verses suggests that believers hold fast and ‘stand firm’ in the faith in relation to the first 12 verses(reading contextually and not lifting anything out). The previous passages speak of “one who is restraining” who is taken out of the way, then the lawless one is revealed then Christ comes and destroys him.

Matthew speaks of a gathering of believers in such a fashion that the general world sees it and “mourns”

Right. When Jesus physically, literally returns to earth after the seven-year Tribulation, He brings the believers with Him who had been raptured seven years before. The world mourns because they know that everything is over, and the One who they despised and blasphemed has arrived to reclaim His creation and the ending to that fact is not good for them at all.

Those left on earth after the rapture will mourn Christ's return to earth.

Christ spoke as coming at a time “such as was the days of Noah, for folks were buying and selling, marrying and divorcing, eating and drinking” which would denote an era of relative prosperity and a false peace, though reading about the days of Noah one is also confronted with a world filled with exceptional sin and violence as well as inteference from the Nephilim(Quix can give some good info here).

The days of Noah" also refer to the fact that people will be living as if nothing is changing in the world and they will ignore and ridicule the warnings that there is a judgment coming. I have also read that the Babylonian Talmud records that there were homosexual marriages occurring in the time of Noah.

Our generation is exactly like that of Noah's.

That's right - many "preachers" don't go for the "folks being saved after the rapture business" because they don't know Scripture and certainly don't preach it. The Bible clearly states that there will be 144,000 Jews who know Christ as Savior who go throughout the world and preach the Gospel during the Tribulation, and the Bible clearly states that there will be multitudes saved after the Rapture and many of those will be beheaded by the Antichrist.

Many "preachers" substitute their own opinions for Scripture and attempt to equate the two. This is why so many people who sit in church pulpits every Sunday are so abysmally ignorant about the 25% of Scripture that is prophetic. The fact that there are "preachers" who don't preach the Bible is simply more evidence of the end-time apostasy of the Church and just goes to show, once again, that the word of God is inerrant and absolute truth.

As for me, I will stick with the promises Jesus Christ made to get His Bride off the scene before He judges the world for seven years. And until someone can provide the Scripture that contradicts that, I'm going to go with what God said about it.

The passages in verses 13-17 are not some sort of indication that Church-age believers will be on earth during the Tribulation.

If we go back to verses 1-2, Paul is speaking to believers who had been alarmed by some letter they had received, supposedly from Paul, which told them that they were already in the Tribulation. In verses 3-12, Paul explains that the Antichrist cannot come until the Holy Spirit, via the Church, is taken out of the way. He then gives a brief description of the Antichrist.

Verses 13-17 are simply Paul's admonition to the Thessalonians to stand firm in their faith and "hold to" what they had been taught. It is not some instruction to hang on while they go through the Tribulation.

The Bible does not contradict itself. God tells the Church:

Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. (Romans 5:9)

And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (I Thess 1:10)

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ (I Thess 5:9)

The Church is promised that we will not go through the Tribulation. And nowhere in the Scripture are those promises contradicted.