<p>2:5 <i>Have you forgotten that when I was still with you I told you these things?</i>- Paul was only with them for three Sabbath days. He had little contact time with them, and yet he warned them of future tribulation at the hand of Jewish and Gentile forces of evil, to result in a &quot;man of sin&quot; being enthroned in the Jerusalem temple. And yet from 1 Thess. 4 it is clear that they were still ignorant of basic theology about the resurrection. Clearly Paul considered practical warnings as to the difficulty of the path ahead as being more important than theology.</p><p>In 1 Thess. 5:3&ndash;5 they had been told that the pre-eminent sign of the Lord&rsquo;s coming is the &ldquo;peace and safety&rdquo; cry within the ecclesia. Now in 2 Thess. 2 Paul puts it another way: &ldquo;that day shall not come, except there come a falling away <i>first</i>&rdquo;, or most importantly, as the most obvious sign.</p>