2 Thess 2:1-8 This chapter is written to people who are unsure about the timing of the rapture. It also could be said that you could take out 2 Thessalonians here and substitute pre tribulationalists. Paul sets the context in verse one, he is writing this chapter in regards to two things:
- Coming of Christ and; 2. Our gathering together to Him or the rapture. This clearly shows it is the first gathering of the followers of Christ by the use of the word "our."
These two events are not differentiated in the following verses so it would be fair to say that they occur at the same time or are the same event. This in verse 2 is referred to as the Day of the Lord thus defining what "The Day of the Lord" is, both events.
V.2 Day of the Lord.
They are concerned they have missed it. It would be fair to say they didn't know what they were looking for, obviously someone had told them something false which they believed. Paul is correcting their thinking saying it has not come. Paul gives reasons in v. 3
V.3 "Let no one deceive you" Day of the Lord will not come unless and until 2 things happen: 1. The apostasy comes, or the great falling away happens. (Christians have to be here to fall away.) and; 2. The man of Lawlessness is revealed. This eliminates the pre trib option and leaves mid and post, as we know that the man of lawlessness is revealed in the temple at the mid point of the final seven years. This is called the abomination of desolation as found in the book of Daniel 11:31. It seems that there are many who have been deceived by a pre trib rapture as these Thessalonians also had, the very thing that this verse warns against.
This verse removes the possibility that the church could be the restrainer of verse 7 as it happens in reverse order. Verse 3 says the apostasy and revealing of the man of lawlessness occur then then "our" gathering to Him. Verse 7 puts the removal of the restrainer before the revealing of the lawless one.
What does it mean for the antichrist to be revealed? Does this mean we will know who he is years in advance or when he takes power? Verse 4 gives us the answer to what this means in these selected verses. He will oppose God and sit as God in the temple. This is the only way we will know for certain that it is him. There have been many speculations of who it may be but until the abomination of desolation we will not know for sure.
Paul includes Himself by using the word "our" in verse 1. This shows that he is watching and waiting for the second coming and obviously isn't expecting to be secretly raptured away before times get tough. This is unless Paul and his audience, which he refers to as "our," plan to convert during the tribulation and are expecting to gather to Jesus when at the end of the tribulation. This simply does not make logical sense and is therefore safe to conclude He is not teaching a pre trib rapture.
Up until verse seven a case could be made for a mid trib or a pre wrath rapture, as the two events that need to happen are done at the mid point of the tribulation. However the phase "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ"
appears in verse 1. Although there are other places where this is over looked by pre tribulationalists verse 8 clears things up for us. Verse one gives us two events, the coming and the gathering, and verse 8 expounds on the coming. It is absolutely clear that we are talking about the second coming of Christ here because it says He will destroy the lawless one when He comes. We know that the lawless one isn't destroyed by Jesus until the second coming at the end of the Daniels seventieth week so that moves the timing of the rapture to the end of the tribulation.
Therefore the events happen in this order:
- Apostasy (v.3+11) (probably has already started.)
- Restrainer removed (v.7) (notice restrainer is referred to as "He," the church is a she.)
- Lawless one revealed. (V.3) This is also called the abomination of desolation.
- Day of the Lord. This includes three events: the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (v.3), "our" gathering to Him (v.3), and the destruction of the lawless one. (V. 8)s
Any thoughts?