Please review Part 1 before reading this continuing exposition of II Thessalonians 2:1-12.
II Thessalonians 2:3 – Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
At times in the New Testament, the expression “that day” has a wide variety of prophetic time periods, which are determined by the context of the verses in which it is found. In these verses the context determines “that day” to mean specifically the day of the rapture.
Paul advises the local church that those who are telling them that the rapture has already occurred, or is about to happen in the immediate future, are misinforming them. And he then gives then two reasons why what they have been told by these men is simply not true.
The first reason is that the great “falling away” had not occurred at the time he wrote the epistle, and until it did no one could say the coming of the Lord was going to happen right away. The Greek word translated “falling away” is “apostosia,” from which our English word “apostasy” is derived. In the context of these verses, it is preceded by the definite article in the Greek text, and can only refer to “the falling away” from something, and that something represents the gospel truths of the faith once delivered to the saints.
Jude 1:3 – Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
At the time Paul wrote II Thessalonians he knew the rapture was not in the immediate future, because the faith had not been delivered by the gospel to all the world of his day, as Jesus had indicated it would before the end.
Matthew 24:14 – And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
The faith, a system of teaching and doctrine, had to first be in place in order to have a “falling away” from it. In an attempt to justify the “first of the week” position, in very recent times, someone came up with the idea that “apostosia” meant “a catching out” of the saved at the rapture, but that is stretching the linguistic meaning of the word far beyond allowable limits. It’s a cute idea, but it just isn’t true.
Well, I would say it is finally getting close to the first resurrection, because the falling away from the truth is now in full swing on a worldwide basis, just as Paul indicated in his second epistle to Timothy.
II Timothy 4:1-4 – I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; [2] Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. [3] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; [4] And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
The second reason he gave them that the rapture had not yet occurred, and was not in the immediate future, was that the man of sin, the antichrist, had not yet been revealed to them. The Greek word rendered “revealed” in the KJV is “apokalupto,” which means “to remove the veil or covering away from, so as to expose to open view what was before hidden, hence, to reveal, to make manifest.” The same word is used in the same epistle to refer to Christ’s visible manifestation at the time of his Second Advent.
II Thessalonians 1:7,8 – And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, [8] In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Revelation 1:7 – Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Some who hold the “first of the week” position teach we will be caught out before the antichrist is revealed to the believers, but that is simply not true.
I have a suspicion that many who believe they will be caught up before the manifestation of the antichrist are going to be as surprised as an animal suddenly finding itself trapped inside a snare. They will suddenly find themselves trapped in the tribulation period with a real manifested antichrist in the Middle East.
Luke 21:35 – For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Revelation 12:17 – And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 28:20 – Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.