Here is a great contrast. The Lord’s word to Israel was conditional.
Zep 2:3 “seek righteousness . . . perhaps you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger”.
Lk 21:36 “Be vigilant . . . that you may be deemed worthy to escape . . . and to stand before the Son of Man”.
Rev 3:5 “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels”.
Rev 3:10 “Because you have kept My command to endure, I will also keep you from the hour of trial”.
Pauline references cited show that the church “will not suffer the wrath of God.” This point forces post-tribulationists to make a sharp distinction between the tribulation period and the day of the Lord, for that day is “the day of His fierce anger”, Isa 13:13.
The post-tribulationist position must maintain that God’s wrath is absent from the seven-year tribulation. This arrangement is wrong for the following reasons:
1. The day of the Lord is a period of substantial duration.
2. The day of the Lord and the tribulation coincide.
3. God will be in control during the tribulation. It’s His day.
4. The wrath of God is present during the tribulation.
If the day of the Lord were limited to Christ’s second advent, the Thessalonians could hardly have been led to believe it had already arrived.
At least several months would have passed from the time they were troubled by the false teachers until Paul dispatched his epistle to them.
2 Th 2:1-3 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. 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.
Verse one has one main subject – “concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him”. In the Greek, the definite article, the, precedes the word “coming”. There is not a definite article preceding “our gathering together”. This indicates that these two things, connected by and, are actually one and the same event – His coming and our gathering together to Him. This event is called the rapture of 1 The 4:13-18!
Verse 2 is essential to help us understand the main reason that Paul wrote this portion of Scripture. The Greek perfect tense normally indicates something that has already occurred and the results are still present, or continuing. In our case, it would be translated, “had come”, “as though the Day of Christ had come” But, Moulton and Milligan, in The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, p. 215, wrote, “Contemporary usage makes it clear that in 2 Th 2:2 [our selection] it should be rendered as pointing to strictly present time, ‘as that the day of the Lord is now present’.”
The Thessalonians thought or were being led by some to believe that they were now in the Day of Christ/Day of the Lord! This is the error that Paul was addressing so they would not be deceived by any means – especially not by another epistle that some alleged to be from Paul.
Verse 3 includes a supplied phrase - “that Day will not come” - which seems to complete the ellipsis well; nothing else really makes sense here. That day will not come until the apostasia, comes first.
This word, apostasia, is generally translated “falling away”, but the root of the word simply means, “to depart.” In fact, its cognate verb form, afistaymi, has this meaning.
Comparing a noun to its cognate verb is not always an accurate way to get the meaning of a word, but it often helps. One example of the verb form is in Acts 12:10. An angel of the Lord had just freed Peter from prison and led him past the guard posts to the city gate. The angel then, using this verb, departed! In fact, of the 15 times this verb appears in the NT, it is translated “depart” 9 times in the NKJV.
The way I would translate this particular portion would be, “for unless the departure comes first and the man of sin be revealed, that day will not come.”
Something else is significant in this Greek passage. It’s the use of the definite article (the) before apostasia, departure. This is called the anaphoric use of the definite article. This means that its noun – in this case, the departure – is referring back to something already mentioned. Here it points back to verse one. Christ’s coming and our gathering together to Him is the departure. It is the rapture. In addition, Paul referred to “the departure” in his first epistle to the Thessalonians.
Of course “the departure” delivers us from the coming wrath of the tribulation of 1 Th 1:10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
1 Th 4:13-18; 5:8,9 is the rest of the rapture material Paul was referring to: “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. 5:8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In addition to all of this, Paul had personally told them about these things as 2 Th 2:5 shows us: “Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?”
The Thessalonians had been given quite a bit of information concerning the rapture. When Paul referred to the departure, they would know exactly what he was referring to.
Also, there is nothing in either of the Thessalonian epistles referring to a “falling away”, or an apostasy, which this apostasia could be referring to. This strengthens the argument even more for the meaning to be “departure”.
Therefore, I believe verse 4, along with the latter part of verse 3, describes the first beast of Revelation 13:1-10. For lack of a better term, I will call this beast the “anti-god”. I think we will find that there is a strong parallel between our passage and Revelation 12 & 13.
In 2 Th 2:6,7, the Greek verb katecw [The w represents the Greek omega a long o sound.], and its meaning, is a key to understanding what is going on. This word is used once in both verses and is usually translated “restrain”. It is translated various other ways in the NT, but its basic meaning is simply to “hold on(to)”, “hold fast” or “keep”. This is the only time in the NT that the translators translated this word “restrain”.
Here is a complete concordance of the word katecw in the NT.
Our word is italicized to help you identify its translation:
Mat 21:38 Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.
Lk 4:42 And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them.
Lk 8:15 those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
Lk 14:9 Give place to this man, and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place.
John 5:4 after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.
Acts 27:40 they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore.
Rom 1:18 against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
Rom 7:6 having died to what we were held by.
1 Co 7:30 those who buy as though they did not possess.
1 Co 11:2 and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.
1 Co 15:2 if you hold fast that word which I preached to you.
2 Co 6:10 as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
1 Th 5:21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Phi 13 whom I wished to keep with me.
Heb 3:6 whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence.
Heb 3:14 if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.
The first time katecw is used in our passage, verse 6, is in the neuter gender. The fact that the gender is neuter is significant. It is referring to some thing which is holding on to the man of sin, “so that he should be revealed in his own time.”
This man of sin is the first beast of Revelation 13. What is holding this man of sin, this beast?
According to Rev 17:8, it is the pit, abussou, that is holding him. Rev 17:8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
He is under the control and power of God, of course, until he is allowed to ascend from the pit. I believe the beast could even be there now waiting to be released! This fits in with the immediate setting which Paul was describing – the Day of the Lord (Christ), the subject of the book of Revelation.
In verse 7, we have the verb katecw again, but this time it is a masculine participle. This definitely indicates that the subject matter of this participle is not the same as in verse 6. Because Paul has switched the gender from neuter to masculine, he has switched from describing some thing to a masculine someone.
Who is this someone, and what is he holding onto? The two common views are that “he” is either the Body of Christ, the church, or the Holy Spirit.
But since we must understand that James, Peter, and John ministered specifically to the circumcision believers, they wrote their epistles to those who were expecting to go through the tribulation (Jam 5:7-8; 1 Pe 1:13, 2:9,10; 4:7-13; 2 Pe 3:1-3; 1 Jo 1:17,18,28; Rev 1:9).
The tribulation is also called “the time of Jacob’s (Israel’s) trouble” (Jer 30:7).
The Holy Spirit is operating on the earth at that time (cf. Jam 4:5; 1 Pe 1:2,22; 4:10,11; 1 Jo 2:17-27; 4:2,13).
I also do not believe that “he” is the Holy Spirit because the common translation, “...until he is taken out of the way...” is not what the Greek says! First, the verb genaytai comes from ginomai, which basically means “to be”, “to become”, or “come to be”. This is the only place in the entire NT where they translated this verb “taken”.
Second, the prepositional phrase ek mesou, which was translated, “out of the way”, should simply be translated “out of the midst”. This is the literal Greek translation for these words. Again, this is the only place in the NT where mesou, midst, is translated “way”.
What we have in most English translations, then, is a translation that disregards the common and natural meanings of two words, and gives them meanings here that are not found anywhere else! If we translate this passage using the common meanings for the words, we get “... he who is now holding on will do so until he becomes (or comes to be) out of the midst ...”.
At first, this does not seem to make any sense – especially if “he who holds on” is the Holy Spirit. But, keep in mind the context – the Day of the Lord. Our passage has corresponded to the 12th and 13th chapters of Revelation. But the question remains: Who is “he”?
Now, according to 2 Th 2:8, the lawless one will be revealed after “he who is holding on ... becomes out of the midst.” Is there any clue to “his” identity in Revelation? I believe the answer lies in Rev. 12:7. Here, we find the dragon (Satan) fighting to “hold on” to his position in Heaven. Yes, he is there even now!
But, in Rev 12:8&9, we find Satan and his followers defeated and cast out of the midst of Heaven, from the midst of the elect angels, down to earth. Immediately afterward, we see the beasts arising in Rev 13, and doing the things Paul described in 2 Th 2:4-10 according to the power of Satan. That is exactly what both passages say!
To summarize, then, what we have is:
1. The falling away is really the rapture, the departure.
2. Satan is cast out of the midst of heaven and the elect angels. He could no longer hold on to his position there after being defeated by Michael and his angels.
3. The first beast, the man of sin, is revealed after he was released from the pit which was holding him.
4. The second beast, he had two horns like a lamb, is revealed, apparently rising from this pit also, according to Rev 11:7.
In light of the fact that the events Paul described in 2 The 2:2-10 parallel the events of Revelation 12 & 13 so well, along with the fact that the syntax, grammar and vocabulary of the original do not really fit the traditional interpretation, I have found that the position I have described makes more sense than any other that I have heard. For me, no other explanation fits either the context, or the Greek.
That Day will not overtake us! For God did not appoint us (the Body of Christ) to the wrath, but to salvation from it, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through sanctification by the Spirit, and belief in the truth.
This is the truth proclaimed through “our gospel” (2 The 2:14), the gospel of the grace of God which was preached by Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles and to the Body of Christ!
Sudden destruction will not come upon us for we are not of the darkness! The Body of Christ will not have to endure the terror of the tribulation. Praise God, we can comfort and edify one another with this knowledge!
In Christ,
Bob Hill
