2 THESSALONIANS 2: 1-5
THE DAY OF THE LORD
[1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11]
This section contains truths found nowhere else in the Bible. It is key to understanding future events and it is central to the letter. The church at Thessalonica found itself, much as we are at times, in a state of confusion over the return of Jesus. So Paul here begins dealing with a doctrinal error concerning the return of Christ that had crept into the Thessalonian church.
Paul had instructed the Thessalonians concerning the Day of the Lord when he preached to them in person. The Day of the Lord is the period of history mentioned repeatedly in the Old Testament during which God will bring judgment [and Millennial blessing] on the people of the earth in a more direct, dramatic, and drastic way than ever before (Isa. 13:6, 9; Zeph. 1:14-16). From other New Testament revelation concerning this period of time it is believed that this Day of the Lord will begin after the Rapture of the church, and will include the Tribulation and the Millennium.
In his first letter to the Thessalonians Paul had taught them that the day of the Lord would come as a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5:2). Misinformation began to circulate regarding this event. To some it seemed that the day of the Lord had already come. After all, the persecutions they were experiencing seemed to be what the prophets had predicted when they wrote about the great calamities coming on the world in “that day” or the day of the Lord. Apparently the Thessalonians even had received instruction from other teachers that the judgments they were experiencing meant it was the Day of the Lord, that is, the Great Tribulation. But if this were so, how could Paul’s previous instruction that they would be caught up (1 Thess. 4:17) and escape the wrath of God coming on the earth be true? Paul wrote this section (2 Thess. 2:1-5) to clarify the matter. [Walvoord, John & Zuck, Roy; The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983, p. 717.] They had not been excluded from the rapture nor was it the day of the Lord for other events must occur before the great gathering out of God people and the Great Tribulation (CIT). Not only that but believers will not go through the wrath of God (1 Thess. 5:9).
I. THE COMING OF OUR LORD, 1.
II. THE DAY OF THE LORD, 2.
III. THE APOSTASY OF THE CHURCH, 3a.
IV. THE LAWLESS ONE, 3b-5.
Verse 1 is an urgent request for them to understand properly the events around the Coming of the Lord. “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,”
Paul now launches into the subject of the Coming of Christ on which he has just touched (1:5-10). The brethren are implored to correct the confusion about the Return of their Lord.
There are two phrases in the verse relating to the Second Coming. The first is “on behalf of the coming” [huper tçs parousia] or “presence,” and the second is “our gathering together to Him.” [hçmon episunagôgçs ep auto] which refers to the Rapture. Both of these phrases are generally interpreted as referring to the coming of Christ. The parousia or coming had been used in 1 Thessalonians 2:19 & 4:15 for the gathering out of God’s people event. The gathering together is a reminder of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, in which both those in Christ who have died and those still living will be “caught up together” to meet the Lord and “always be with the Lord.” [Both nouns are united with the same article indicating they are two parts of one event. It should be noted that parousia also is used for Christ’s return after the Tribulation (Mt. 24:37-39). The Latin equivalent to the word parousia is "advent," so Christians sometimes speak of the second advent of Jesus. ] We still look for and await this great assembling together (Heb. 11:25) in the sky.
The very form of Paul’s plea (request or beseech, erôtômen) and the solemn use of the full title “our Lord Jesus Christ” indicates that what follows is of extreme importance. It is clear that the subject of the Second Coming had become a source of tension and disruption, instead of a source of comfort and hope as it is intended to be.
II. THE DAY OF THE LORD, 2.
Verse 2 addresses the alarm that distorted teaching concerning their present tribulation was causing. “that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.”
They were “shaken in mind” and “troubled” by the false teaching that they were in the Great Tribulation. They were told that the persecution they were enduring was because the Day of the Lord was upon them.
The “Day of the Lord” was well know from the Old Testament and probably Paul’s teachings. In the Old Testament the expression “Day of the Lord” occurs 20 times; “last days” 14 times; and “in that day” 100 plus times. It will be a time of God’s special intervention in the affairs of the world (Isa. 2:1-2, 9-12; 4:1-2, 12; Joel 2:1-11; 30-32).
God has appointed a day when Christ the Lord shall return to remove His holy people, and they will be gathered to Him. Following the Rapture, the period that is identified as “The Great Tribulation” (see Revelation 7:14). “The Day of the Lord” refers to a period of unprecedented judgements poured out successively on the earth.
This unprecedented Judgements will be poured out on the earth for a period of seven years. However, even during that terrible period, God will receive any who turn to Him in faith. Tragically, most of mankind will curse the God of Heaven rather than turn to Him in faith (Revelation 16:8-21). It isn’t much different really from the situation that prevails today when people are too wrapped up in pursuing their own desires to think of God or their relationship to Him. For to most of mankind “self” is the center of their life.
Apparently the theory that the Thessalonians were in the day of the Lord had come through three channels, “by spirit, report, or letter,” indicating that the day of the Lord had already come. The multiple sources made the Thessalonians more inclined to accept it as authoritative.
The reference to “spirit” probably indicates that some of this teaching had come in the form of prophecy, utterances in public worship purporting to be given by the Holy Spirit. In addition to prophecies, there had also been “words.” This probably means in normal conversation and dialogue. A third form of the false teaching must have come in some kind of a “letter” claiming to have been from Paul. He denies responsibility for any such letter.
The erroneous message which all these voices echoed was that the day of the Lord had arrived and the Thessalonians were in it. These readers who knew about the day (1 Thess 5:2) knew that its earlier phase would be a time of heightened persecution for the saints. Their suffering had already been so severe that became convince that the tribulation period was already in progress, even though the Lord had not yet come to gather them to heaven (1 Thess. 1:10). And what about those promises that they would not see God’s wrath (1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9)? Paul had taught them a pretribulational Rapture. But their confusion arose because they could not distinguish their present troubles from those of the day of the Lord. And people were telling them, with Paul's apparent backing, that such a deliverance was not to be.
Therefore they were in great need of an authentic word from Paul assuring them that they had understood him correctly in his first Epistle. They needed to know that the parousia (coming) of Christ for His church would be marked by other identifiable events that would preceded the day of incredible upheaval and catastrophe. To accomplish this, Paul proceeds to describe features, obviously not yet present, that will characterize that day's early stages.
III. THE APOSTASY OF THE CHURCH, 3a.
Having stated the issue and identified the sources of the false teaching, Paul proceeded to warn his readers against being deceived. Verse 3 then states events that must precede the rapture of the church. “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
The antidote to poisonous heresy is a good strong dose of the truth. So Paul proceeds by referring to three events which must occur before the judgments of the day of the Lord took place. They are the apostasy, the revealing of the man of lawlessness (vv. 3-4, 8), and the removal of restraint against lawlessness (vv. 6-7).
In order to prove his assertion that the Day of the Lord had not yet begun, Paul first cites the fact that the apostasy that must precede it had not yet appeared. “The apostasy” or the rebellion (lit., “the falling away,” hç apostasia, from where the English word “apostasy” comes) indicates a revolt, a departure, an abandoning of a position once held. In Acts 21:21 apostasy was regarded as a departure from accepted doctrine [“forsaking Moses”]. So apostasy means a departure, and religious apostasy means departure from God’s truth as revealed in His Word, the Bible. The definite article stands before the word "apostasy"; therefore, Paul is not talking about just any departure from the faith but about a special, particular, and widespread one. "Apostasy," does not mean merely disbelieving but rather an aggressive and angry revolt (Acts 21:21; Heb. 3:12). It is this apostasy that will come before the Day of the Lord.
This apostasy of millions betraying Scriptures is the dream of liberal churchmen for the establishment of a truly ecumenical church will at last be realized. That church will be a-moral church, teaching a doctrine formulated to appease society’s expectations, telling man what he wants to hear. This church will unite all religions under one roof, permitting worship of the Antichrist to be rapidly instituted. This church is the scarlet whore foretold by John [see Revelation 17:1-18].
Paul himself later wrote in detail concerning the elements of this great departure from the faith, in 1 Timothy 4:1-3 and 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 4:3-4. Listen to just 2 Timothy 3:3-4. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, (4) & will turn away their ears from the truth & will turn aside to myths.” In all these passages he says that this defection from the faith would occur in the last days. It is as though the infidelity of those who profess to be religious will prepare the way and perhaps even furnish the base on which Antichrist will erect and promote his revolt against God and His truth. But the Day of the Lord will not come until this great religious apostasy sweeps the earth.
[Can you see it happening today? Church members saying they’ve been saved by the Grace of God but don’t act like they love the Lord. They have a form of godliness but deny by their action the love of God’s people and the sharing of the Gospel of salvation. They won’t care for the things for which God cares (Mt. 24:10-11). If they are not of the Apostasy they certainly facilitate it]
The first major event that is to occur before the Rapture is a falling away from God’s truth or Word within the professing church. It will be a departure from the truth that God has revealed in His Word. True, apostasy has characterized the church almost from its inception, but Paul referred to a specific distinguishable apostasy that will come in the future (1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; 4:3-4; James 5:1-8; 2 Peter 2; 3:3-6; Jude). On the basis of what follows Paul had already taught them about it (2 Thes. 2:5). [Walvoord & Zuck. P. 718].
IV. THE LAWLESS ONE, 3b-5.
Another event that must take place before the judgments of the Day of the Lord occur is the revelation of “the man of lawlessness” (ho anthrôpos tçs anomias). This event will begin the awful days of judgments. His revealing not only includes who he is but also being revealed for what he is, the man of sin. The tense of the verb “be revealed” [Aor. Pass. Subj.] seems to indicate that this revelation will be a decisive act that will take place at a definite moment in history (vv. 6, 8). The fact that he is to “be revealed” (from apokalupsç) places him in contrast to Christ, who will also be “revealed.” The idea of the Antichrist as a christ-substitute is clear.
He will be fully associated with and characterized by “lawlessness” (anomias, or “sin,” as some mss and the kjv have it). This person is thus characterized as being opposed to God’s law. He is also described as the man doomed to destruction (“the son of perdition,” kjv). The same spirit that filled Judas Iscariot (Jn. 17:11), making him the son of perdition, will also make Antichrist the “son of perdition.” The destruction to which he is destined is the oppose of salvation; it is everlasting torment.
Elsewhere in the Bible he is called the “little horn” (Daniel 7:8), the “prince that shall come” (Daniel 9:27), the “willful king” (Daniel 11:36), the “antichrist who will come” (1 John 2:18).
This man is also called the “beast coming out of the sea” (Rev. 13:1-10), “a scarlet beast” (17:3), and simply “the beast” (17:8, 16; 19:19-20; 20:10). He is the Antichrist (1 John 2:18), a pseudo-Christ hostile to the Savior. He will be a real human being, not a principle or a system or a succession of individuals. Such a person has not yet been spotlighted on the stage of human history [Walvoord & Zuck. P. 718]. This person is the ultimate personification of satan and the culmination of all that is opposed to God.
There is no need to speculate about who this individual might be, we are not told, nor is it important that we should know who this individual is. He will be revealed at the appropriate time; but his identity will be revealed only after the people of God have been taken out of this world. This man will be Satan’s masterpiece who will usher in the Great Tribulation by his presence. He will not be revealed until the faithful of this present age are taken into the presence of the Master at the Rapture. The Master did say quite plainly, “Concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven” (Mark 13:32).
Verse 4 gives us a fuller characterization of this diabolic person who sets himself up as God. “who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
This man is further described as the adversary of God. He will seek to replace the worship of the true God and all false gods with the worship of himself, and will proclaim himself to be God. The beast will tolerate the worship of no one or nothing but himself (Rev. 13:5-8).
So after the “departure” or falling away of verse 3, Antichrist will demand to be worshiped as God in the temple in Jerusalem. Does this mean a literal temple in Jerusalem, or is this a metaphor, meaning that he usurps the very authority of God? Both are possible.
The Jews are certainly preparing to rebuild the Temple. You can go to the Temple Treasury Museum in Jerusalem and see the garments already made for the priests, along with the utensils, tools, candles, mitres (liturgical headdress), and plans to replicate the ark of the covenant to Levitical standards.
“Wait a minute,” you say. How can THE TEMPLE BE REBUILT when the Mosque of Omar, the Dome of the Rock, the third most holy site of Islam sits on the very spot where the temple is to be rebuilt? To bulldoze it down would start a holy war of unbelievable proportions, as 900 million Muslims would rise up and crush the four million Jews in Israel.
Dr. Asher Kaufman is one of a number of Jewish archaeologists who contend the Dome of the Rock Mosque does not sit on the site of the Holy of Holies as previously believed. The actual Holy of Holies lies beneath a little gazebo-like structure called the Dome of the Tablets and the Dome of the Spirits.
Why would this spot be referred to as the Dome of the Tablets? Because the Tablets were there. What tablets? The Ten Commandments that were in the ark of the covenant, which sat in the Holy of Holies.
Why would this spot be referred to as the Dome of the Spirits? Because the Spirit of God, the shekinah glory, filled the Holy of Holies.
What stands on the temple mount in front of the Dome of the Spirits, the Dome of the Tablets? Nothing.
The Antichrist will say, “Let me solve this sticky issue, the Palestinian problem, the question of Jerusalem. “Jews, you build your temple on the true site of the temple. We’ll build a wall to separate it from the Muslim Dome of the Rock Mosque.” Ezekiel prophesied this very thing would happen (Ezekiel 42:20). In this way, Antichrist will seemingly solve the problem that has troubled and divided Jerusalem for centuries. The people will say, “He’s wonderful. He’s our hero!”
Then, in the midst of his popularity, Antichrist will walk into the temple and demand to be worshiped, “showing himself that he is god,” and the horrific second half of the seven-year Tribulation will follow.
“Don’t be shaken,” Paul says to the Thessalonians. “You are not in the Tribulation. This is not the Day of the Lord. You did not miss the Rapture because the “son of perdition”—Antichrist—has not yet come.” [Courson, Jon: Jon Courson's Application Commentary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003, S. 1353.]
The Scripture indicates that the Day of the Lord cannot come until certain things, yet in the future, take place. Though the Lord will come “like a thief in the night” (1 Thess 5:1-11), Jesus will not come until certain events take place.
It requires no imagination to suggest that events are rushing toward the great finale for mankind. It is entirely possible that the Antichrist has already been born; all that waits the revelation of this individual is the Rapture of God’s people—then he will be revealed. At that time, those awful events that culminate in God’s final Word to the earth are set in motion. We who are Christians are called to live with confidence in this present age knowing that we are destined for salvation and not for wrath. We are responsible to labor at the task of declaring Christ’s love and warning all who will receive our word to flee from the coming wrath.
Before this day is finished, it is possible that Christ the Lord will return. Whether He comes or whether He delays, we are nevertheless called to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58). We were assigned a task, and the charge we received has never been rescinded. You recall the charge? “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19, 20).
We live in the knowledge that the time is short; whatever work will be done must be done now, while it is day. Child of God, you must work to fulfil the will of the Master who urged us, “We must work the works of Him who sent us while it is day.” Then, He appended this explanatory word to encourage us, “Night is coming, when no one can work” [John 9:4]. Jesus’ words lend urgency to the need to be busy about His work. [“Perhaps Today” by Michael Stark. SermonCentral.com]
Paul emphasizes that he personally had taught them these prophetic truths in verse 5. “Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?”
This teaching was nothing new to the Thessalonians. Paul had taught them about the day of the Lord when he was with them in Thessalonica. He called on them to recall those lessons.
Paul did not regard prophetic truth as too deep or unimportant or controversial for new Christians. He believed it was a vital part of the whole counsel of God, so he taught it without hesitation or apology.
[IN CLOSING]
Let’s close with a story. A Louisiana GAME WARDEN had been tracking Boudreaux, the infamous Cajun poacher, Late one night he stumbled upon the criminal's cabin. Climbing upon the roof, the game warden waited for the dawn, hoping to jump the poacher as he emerged.
The game warden after a fitful night of trying to keep quiet, heard Boudreaux making breakfast the next morning. The smell of bacon frying and coffee brewing became a temptation to his stomach. Then, to his surprise, Boudreaux came to the door and yelled, "Hey game warden, you might as well come on down and have some breakfast with me!"
Over breakfast the game warden asked how the wily Cajun had known he was waiting on the roof. Boudreaux grinned. "I didn't, but 1 do that every morning just in case you are!"
We also should be daily looking for Christi’s return. For our attention to spiritual matters can be diverted by many things in this world. However, the Bible tells us to be prepared at every moment, for any day may be the day Christ comes. Far too many who are called by the Name of the Master are content to be religious rather than godly. Ask God to help you keep your attention on the reality of His coming. Too much time has already been spent in doing what the pagans do. Keep the words of the Apostle in mind, “You know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:11-12).
And what of you who are now OUTSIDE THE GRACE OF GOD? What answer will you give at His return? And what will be your fate? Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of forgiveness, Today is the day of life, offered now through faith in the Son of God. He died because of your sin, and He rose from the dead to make you right with the Father. Therefore, the message we deliver to you is that which is found in the Letter to Roman Christians, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” That passage concludes with a glorious promise—a promise which is for you, if you will but receive it, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [Romans 10:9, 10, 13]. Amen.
