2 Thess - Chapter 2

2 Thessalonians - Chapter 2

Welcome to chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians where the Apostle Paul addresses the important question that the Thessalonian believers had been lied to by false teachers - saying that the Rapture of the Church had already happened and they missed it....and they had letters from the Apostle Paul to prove it.  The Apostle Paul now sets the record straight of what really happened and what is the real truth of the Gospel.

Let’s dive right into verse 1 of chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians as we study in detail the information we need to know on the difference between the Rapture of the Church and the 2nd coming of Christ.  We will learn how to recognize when the Rapture is about to occur, and then seven years later what the Bible says about the 2nd coming of Christ.  

Two Separate Events

2 Thess 2:1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ AND our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the Day of Christ had come.

As the apostle addresses the brothers and sisters in Christ in Thessalonica, he is speaking here of TWO separate events, yet part of one big event as he begins this chapter.

• 1.  The Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ where Christ is coming back to earth at His 2nd coming to judge those upon the earth who rejected Him and His authority - those who have been for the last seven years experiencing the greatest wrath of God upon the earth.
• 2.  The Gathering together to Him  is where Christ will gather His believers up in the clouds BEFORE the Tribulation Period - away from the wrath that is coming upon the earth to those who persecuted His believers and rejected Him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  This IS the Rapture of the Church.

False Teachers

Do not be shaken or troubled in your heart are the words of comfort that the apostle is giving to these believers in Thessalonica.  Do not be concerned by what came to you even in a letter claiming the Day of the Lord had already come.  "They are lies."

• He is telling them to not to listen what they have heard from those false teachers.
• Even if there was a prophesy given in the church, ignore it because every believer is suppose to judge all prophecy and this would not have been from God.
• Or even seen written down in a letter, as they were claiming came from the Apostle Paul, which was false.  In the end of this letter that he is writing them, he asks these believers to compare his handwriting from his 1st letter to this letter he is sending.  They both are the same handwriting - from him.
• He is specifically telling them that t he Day of the Lord has not come.
• A lot has to happen before that will take place.

That Day

3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, AND the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition 4  who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

The apostle is now laying out what must happen before that Day – the 2nd coming of Christ takes place.  There are four things that must happen first.

• 1.  The falling away
• 2.  The man of sins revealed – called the son of perdition
• 3.  This man of sin opposes God and exalts himself above Him
• 4.  He sits in the temple of God demanding to be worshipped – thinking himself as God.

Let’s examine each of these:

• 1. The falling away:  The falling away must come first.  Apostasy is another word for falling away.  Something will bring on the removal of masses of people from the church – a fall from Christianity.  That was already happening in the Thessalonian Church because of the lies the false prophets were speaking out.  That, however, was happening only in one church within the small scope of Christianity that had reached the world. 
  

       Today, the falling away is most definitely happening all over the world - in a world where every nation has been reached with the gospel.

Example:

• • China is mostly communism and has been for several decades.
  • Europe is now only 1% Christian whereas they once led the way for Christianity.
  • The Muslim nations are covering the earth.
  • And here in America -  Christianity has been sliding downhill for decades, while today our present governmental administration is pushing socialism/communism to overtake our country.  With the COVID pandemic, the government closed down most churches.  While many of the congregants watch sermons online, that dwindled over time.  When the churches were allowed to open, some remained closed permanently.  Those churches which did open lost 20-30% of its congregants who never came back.  Masses of fake Christians who attended church, or carnal believers who are easily swayed are falling away, turning their backs on God, and are falling into apostasy.  Sadly, they will miss the rapture and will have to go through the Tribulation Period, now being destined to hell. Their unbelief forced the Holy Spirit out of their lives and their hearts became so hardened to where the Bible tells us there is no way they could ever go to heaven.  It's too late for them.

But yet, hold on…we have already begun the greatest revival in all of human history.  While masses are leaving, new masses are coming in.

• We don’t see it much here in America just yet, but it is happening in persecuted countries.  Afghanistan – a huge Muslim country is the largest church in the world, but also the most persecuted church.  Iran, also a Muslim country, is the 2nd largest church in the world, and also a very persecuted country for Christians.  Christianity is expanding by the thousands upon thousands in the midst of persecution.  We here in America don’t even hold a candle to those in persecuted countries as far as revival and those who are truly committed to Christ.  But when persecution mounts in the United States, and it will, revivals will take hold across our nation.  People in fear will start coming to the Lord in groves, and when the Rapture of the Church comes, these new believers will all be included with the true believers who have stayed faithful unto the Lord until the end.

When the Rapture of the Church does happen, only those who have the indwelling Holy Spirit within them will go up because it takes the Holy Spirit in us to thrust us up to heaven.  In other words, those who have made a public profession of Christ has given permission for the Holy Spirit to overtake their life.  For those apostates who fell away, their hearts became so hard to where they are no longer capable of repenting, thus they pushed the Holy Spirit out of their lives as they yielded to the world and Satan.

Heb 6:4-6 tells us that...For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

Let’s go to #2  The man of sin is revealed:  This man is also referred to as the son of perdition, meaning a false apostle as in John 17:12, referring to Judas.  What does that means?  Let’s look at some facts here:

• The man of sin is a human person - a man.
• The context of this scripture falls within the topic of apostasy.  That would have to mean that this one man of sin is an apostate of the Church.  He once was a believer (or pretended to be) who ended up rejecting Christ and allowed Satan to rule in him.
• He will be the head of apostasy - Daniel 7:24 calls him a king, meaning he will have a large and devoted following (2 Thess 2:10), exalting himself. Because he is an apostate, he probably won’t deny divine existence and people will flood to him as their savior until half way through the Tribulation Period, he will announce himself to be God and that everyone must bow down to worship him.
• He will more than likely be a Jewish former believer, coming out of the church.  From references to end-time prophecy from the Book of Daniel, he had to have come from Jewish roots. In other words, the anti-christ will have a Jewish background.  Again, remember, the Tribulation Period is all about the Jews.   

If you recall, it was earlier brought out that the Apostle Paul himself thought the anti-christ was coming in his lifetime,
so we must get into the mindset of what he was writing to these believers of the 1st century.
We can’t think of only ourselves of today.  What this scripture is telling us must apply to us today as it did 2000 years ago
as the world faces the onset of the entry of the anti-christ?

If these false teachers were telling the truth that these Thessalonian believers missed the rapture, where Jesus already rescued His believers, that would mean they already would be in the Tribulation Period and the anti-christ would be on the scene.  That then would cause greater fear among these believers.

Abomination of Desolation

Let's go to #3 and #4:  The man of sin, meaning the antichrist will turn on the Jews and the rest of the world.

• 3.  This man of sin opposes God and exalts himself above Him
• 4.  He sits in the temple of God demanding to be worshipped – thinking himself as God.

About half way through the seven year Tribulation Period, the antichrist will turn on the Jews, and ultimately the whole world, and march into the newly built temple in Jerusalem, claiming himself to be god, demanding the Jews, and the whole world bow down to worship Him.  This is called the time of the Abomination of Desolation.  He will then call forth the whole world to take what is called "The Mark of the Beast," which will be some sort of identification placed upon the hand or the forehead of everyone in the world.  For those who refuse, they will not be able to buy nor sell anything and hunted down.  For those who refuse to bow down to the antichrist, they will be martyred (Dan 9:27; Dan 11:31; Matt 24:15; Mark 13:14). 

⁵ Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?

Nothing has changed.  What the apostle told them a year and a half earlier has not changed.  They were now believing a lie from these false teachers that came to their church.

The Mystery of Lawlessness is Already at Work

⁶ And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 

From all we have learned so far, from what the apostle is writing, is that the Rapture of the Church cannot happen until right before the man of lawlessness is revealed.  In other words, there is something about Christians living on the earth that is stopping the anti-christ from coming forth.  That something is someone – the Holy Spirit - the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers in Christ.  There is an appointed time by God when believers who has the indwelling Holy Spirit living within them will leave this earth to allow the man of lawless man to come forth.

The 2nd Coming of Christ

⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 

During the Tribulaion Period, the lawless one will have his day to finish his efforts upon the earth to gather as many as he can to destroy.  But it will not happen until Jesus takes out His believers in the Rapture first.  For the next seven years following the rapture of the Church, Satan will work through the lawless one (anti-christ) with power, signs and lying wonders.  At the same time, God will bring His judgment upon the earth - thus millions of people will be killed.  Then at the end of the seven years of the Tribulation Period, Jesus will return to the earth with tens and tens of thousands of His saint (the Church) to bind Satan to the Bottomless Pit and destroy those upon the earth who came against Him.  Christ will then establish His Kingdom upon the earth with His returned saints to rule for 1000 years.  This will also be the time when God fulfills His promises to the Jewish people as proclaimed throughout the Old Covenant. 

The Great Delusion

¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12  that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

During those seven tribulation years, God will allow the peoples of the earth to receive and believe the lies of the anti-christ.  As such, they will live in the delusions of what he says and does, causing them to ignore the truth and live in unrighteousness.

But God...  

¹³ But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, ¹⁴ to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Again, the apostle gives thanks to God for these brothers and sisters in Christ living in Thessalonica.  He is reminding them that while God chose the whole world to be saved, God knew they would be the ones who would receive Christ.  In other words, God foresaw from the beginning of time who would accept or reject Him. For those who would receive Him, God set them apart for salvation.

Because those who chose God, God set them apart – meaning He has called them, meaning us believers, to  be set apart by the Spirit to believe in the truth of the Gospel.  And when we do, we will receive the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Glory meaning we will receive glorified bodies just like Jesus when He raptures us into heaven.  As such, the whole world will see that we are like Christ.

^{15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.}

So then, Paul is telling these believers to don’t give up – stand fast, stand strong and hold to what he told them from the beginning.  Not only did he tell them this when he was with them a year and a half earlier.  He wrote to them in his last letter  And now is writing to them in this 2nd letter.  Stand strong and firm for the truth.

¹⁶ Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, ¹⁷ comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.

As a closing salutation and prayer, the apostle is praying God will comfort them in this hope and truth as they stand strong for what they have been taught from the very beginning.  As such, he is telling them to continue in the Word of God and do the good work of the Lord until He comes – occupy till He comes.