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2 Thessalonians 2:1, Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 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. 3 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…
These Thessalonians believers were all upset. Paul had told them back in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 to look for the coming of Christ and the rapture of His people to meet the Lord in the air. They were concerned about believers who had died and Christ hadn’t come yet. Paul assured them when the Lord comes for the church, the dead in Christ would rise first. Then all the living believers will be caught up or raptured to meet the Lord in the air to ever be with the Lord.
But now in 2 Thessalonians 2 some people had come to them using Paul’s name as their authority source saying the Day of the Lord had already come. That would mean they missed the rapture. They were upset, agitated, and troubled. So Paul writes to them to calm their fears. They had been sold a bill of goods, false goods. Paul reminds them in verse 1 of what he had taught them earlier about the coming of our Lord. Paul puts it like this: “the coming of our Lord and our gathering together to Him.” His coming for us means our gathering to Him. So what’s this talk about the future Day of the Lord? It’s a reference to God’s end time intervening in judgment on the earth, leading to Christ’s second coming in Revelation 19 to establish His earthly kingdom. When will that be? Paul’s going to explain to them what will lead to the coming Day of the Lord. Walvoord commented, “The second chapter of 2 Thessalonians is one of the great prophetic chapters of Scripture. No other chapter in the entire Bible covers precisely the same points of revelation that are given here.”
A SUMMARY OF THE END TIMES (ESCHATOLOGY)
Before we get into the details of this chapter, I want to remind us of the big picture of the end times. There are three sixteen-cylinder words that capture the different views of eschatology, and they all reflect on Christ’s second coming and the 1,000 years mentioned six times in Revelation 20. The AMILLENNIAL view says the 1,000 years are symbolic of a lengthy period of time, the church age. It says at some point Christ will return to earth and judge all humanity, the lost go to hell and the saved to heaven. The POSTMILLENNIAL view also says the 1,000 years are symbolic of a lengthy period of time, but in this case the church will conquer the world through the preaching of the gospel, bringing prosperity and dominance and establishing God’s kingdom on earth. At some point following this unknown time, Christ will return to earth.
As a church we hold to the PREMILLENNIAL view of the end times. We believe God made promises to Israel in the Old Testament about restoring Israel to her land. Then the Messiah will come to sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem and rule the entire world for 1,000 years as described in Revelation 20:1-6. After Christ came the first time to provide redemption through His death on the cross for all God’s people, God had a plan to save a great number of Gentiles and Jews in this church age which began at Pentecost. But God didn’t renege on His promises to Israel. The church isn’t spiritual Israel and doesn’t replace Israel in God’s plan. Here are a few examples of God’s promises to Israel that have not yet been fulfilled. In these verses David represents Christ, who fulfills the promises God made to David.
Jeremiah 33:14-16, ‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she will be called: the Lord is our righteousness.’
Ezekiel 37:24-25, “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. 25 They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever.
Zechariah 12:10, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
Zechariah 14:4,9, In that day His feet (Messiah’s) will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. 9 And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.
FALSE TEACHING ABOUT THE DAY OF THE LORD
2 Thessalonians 2:2, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure (mind) 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.
The LSB and ESV translate composure as “mind.” The false teaching was that the Day of the Lord had already come, which would mean they’re in the tribulation period and headed for severe judgments. Paul says this false teaching had three potential sources.
The first was a spirit, which could mean someone was bringing this message, possibly through speaking in tongues. First John 4:1 says we are to test the spirits whether they’re from God, because many false teachers have gone out into the world. We have to do this all the time. If it’s a voice on YouTube or a new book or podcast – you always want to ask yourself is what they say biblical. Does it square with Scripture? Paul assured us in 1 Timothy 4:1 that there will be deceitful spirits.
1 Timothy 4:1, But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons….
The second potential source was a message some men were espousing. In our day of podcasts and other forms of communication, we have to keep our antenna up. There always seem to be voices trying to alarm Christians, prognosticating that this world event is that in the Bible. Some were convinced Hitler was the Antichrist. He certainly acted like one. I recall when we first moved to Evansville there were voices warning of coming crises. I call it the crisis mentality. The sky is falling! They’re going to take Christian radio off the airwaves! Send your money to help us fight this evil. Some were assuring us that the government was going to outlaw homeschooling, and there were threats and legal battles to protect the freedom to homeschool. Some of this may be true in the future, but as Paul says, God doesn’t want us to live in fear. We’ll look at those two results of this false teaching. One author said, “It’s amazing how gullible some believers can be when a new prophetic fad appears.”
The third potential source was a forged letter purporting to be from Paul. That really got under Paul’s skin. You can see in verse 3 where he puts it very strongly, “Let no one in any way (double negative – absolutely not) deceive you.”
Now notice the two effects of this false teaching. Don’t be quickly shaken from your composure or mind. Keep your head. Stay calm. “Shaken” is used of being tossed around like a ship tossed around in a storm. The second “disturbed” was a feeling of fright or alarm, being in a continued state of agitation. So Paul is saying, “You’ve bought a bill of goods that is causing you all kinds of undue fretting and anxiety. It’s a false teaching.” Since there were so many false documents flying around, the early church had to be trained to distinguish between the false and the true. We need that same discernment today.
Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, declared the world would end in 1874. Then he recalculated to 1914. His successor claimed Jesus actually did come on October 1, 1874, but invisibly. He claimed Jesus moved from the Father’s right hand to the throne of His kingdom. Imagine the influence of just these two false books: The Book of Mormon and the Quran.
There’s nothing more deadly than spiritual deception. That’s why Paul said if anyone, even an angel from heaven, brings another gospel than the one he taught, let them be accursed! (Gal. 1:8). Paul told Titus to take strong action against certain deceivers.
Titus 1:10, For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.
In 2 Timothy 2:17-18 two characters, Hymenaeus and Philetus, were teaching that the resurrection had already taken place and upsetting the faith of some. Remember, the only way to keep from being tossed around is to sink your roots firmly, securely into the Word of God. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly (Col. 3:16). Paul charged the Ephesians to be strong in the Truth by equipping the saints and building up the body of Christ (v.12).
Ephesians 4:14-15, As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; [15] but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,
If you are not equipped with God’s Word and have no spiritual weapons to counter all the myths and delusions of our day, you are toast for the religious hucksters. You need a doctrinal grid to process everything and then have the convictions to hold to the truth. Now Paul is going to correct this false teaching about the Day of the Lord.
THE APOSTASY AND THE ANTICHRIST
2 Thessalonians 2:3, 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,
Paul clearly assures us that the Day of the Lord when God brings judgment and wrath on planet earth leading up to the second coming of Christ and all the events of Revelation 20, will not come until two things become evident: the apostasy and the man of lawlessness.
What is the apostasy? The ESV calls it “the rebellion.” Apostasy means literally “falling away.” Here it’s a deliberate abandonment of God’s truth. There’ve been lots of apostasy in the history of the church. Spurgeon faced it toward the end of his life in the Downgrade Controversy where church leaders departed from the great truths of God’s Word. Gotquestions.org describes apostasy as “a wholesale rejection of God’s revelation, a further ‘falling away’ of an already fallen world.” This is a global, final religious rebellion against the triune God. This apostasy will prepare the world to receive the Antichrist. We see aspects of it today with an abandoning of biblical faith, along with the rise of man-centered, God-denying philosophies such as atheistic Marxism, man-exalting humanism, godless evolution, same sex marriage, transgenderism, antisemitism, unbridled moral chaos, educating children in godless systems of thought, and everything else that liberal and apostate churches today are buying into. Add to all this the rise of Islam today in Europe, England, and right here in the United States, and you have aspects of this rebellion against God.
Are we experiencing this end time apostasy now? Certainly, to an extent. When churches put lesbians in the pulpits and defend same sex marriage and every conceivable practice God calls abominable, we’re talking apostasy. The Roman church has been apostate for centuries, but Protestant denominations who deny the clear teaching of Scripture or simply ignore the Bible are also apostate. You’ll know you’re in an apostate church if you hear nothing about the gospel, heaven, hell, creation, end times, and coming judgment.
Christ described the apostasy in the tribulation period.
Matthew 24:10, At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. 11 Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. 12 Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.
Who is the Antichrist? Paul describes him as lawless and the son of destruction. He recognizes no authority over himself and he is headed for destruction. He’ll abolish every existing form of worship. Daniel gave us plenty of information about this end-time world ruler.
Daniel 7:25, He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.
We’ll see more of him in 2 Thessalonians, but the Apostle John describes him as an arrogant, blaspheming beast.
Revelation 13:4, they worshiped the dragon (Satan) because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” 5 There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.
SO WHAT?
This Antichrist will severely persecute God’s people who are saved during the seven-year tribulation period. He will wear them down. Revelation 20:4 indicates that he will use beheading as a means of execution. Of course you’ll remember Hitler who used those gas chambers to solve the “Jewish problem.” The Antichrist will try to change all normalcy – he’s lawless and changes the times. He’ll also try to eliminate the Jews. We’ve had forerunners to this devilish actor. Pharoah tried to have all the Jewish male babies killed. Remember Haman in the book of Esther? He tried to have the Jews exterminated. Remember King Herod? He sent his soldiers down to Bethlehem to kill all the Jewish boys two years and under. We see antisemitism on the rise today!
This all reminds us we live on a planet at war with God. We’ve seen beastly men like Marx, Darwin, Hitler and others pour their godless ideologies into the mainstream of our own world in the last 200 years. We’ve seen a radical changing of laws in our own day. Who would have guessed reasonable people would legislate in favor of males who try to be females sharing showers with females, and males competing in sports against females, or making murdering unborn babies by the millions legal. How quickly our own nation caved to the woke agenda, stirring up hatred between races and genders and groups of people living by lies. Our nation, founded on Judeo-Christian values, has normalized and made legal what God clearly declares is abominable.
Paul’s great concern is that these Thessalonian believers don’t get anxious and blown around by the winds of the false teaching that the Day of the Lord had already come. Two things must come first: the apostasy and this Antichrist. So Paul assures them to be comforted that the next thing on God’s agenda for them, and for us, is Christ coming in the clouds to receive His church and take them to always be with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).