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2
THESSALONIANS 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is
about the end times. This
chapter is often quoted for supporting the pre-Tribulation theory. It has been interpreted to mean that the Holy Spirit keeps
the Antichrist under control until a certain time, and then is taken off
the earth. “Concerning the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you,
brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy,
report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of
the Lord has already come” (2 Thess 2:1-2). Let’s examine
this passage closely, starting with the first verse to ensure we have
everything in context. Paul
starts a new line of thinking in 2 Thessalonians 2:1.
Starting with verse one, he is talking about the return of Jesus:
“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…” Paul wrote this because there was a rumor that Paul’s group
had sent around a letter to the churches of the area stating that; verse
two, “the day of the Lord had already come.”
Naturally, this upset the congregation of the Thessalonian
church. APOSTASY 2 Thessalonians
2:3 is literally translated in the Greek as, “Not anyone (No one) may
deceive you by (in) no (any) way; because unless comes the apostasy
firstly and is revealed the man of animosity, the son of perdition.”
The New
International Version translates this verse as, “Don’t let anyone
deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion
occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to
destruction.” The King James
Version translates this verse as, “Let no one deceive you by any
means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away
first, and that man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.” The words
“rebellion” and “falling away” come from the Greek word,
άποστασία7 (apostasia).
In classical and biblical Greek, it can be translated as
rebellion, if the translator feels the passage is speaking of politics.
But rebellion means one thing and apostasy means something
completely different, and the meaning of the verse is affected.
The verse is speaking about the man of lawlessness’
relationship to God, not about politics.
The meaning of
the word apostasy has not changed in two thousand years. Apostasy means renunciation of one’s religion and
principles. The lawless
one, whom Paul is speaking of, is a person renouncing his religion and
principles (rebelling against God and God’s order).
Verse three should actually read, “because unless the apostasy
comes firstly and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of
perdition.” Also note, the
word commonly translated as lawlessness in the Greek is actually
άνομίας
(anomias) or animosity. Animosity means
spirit of hostility. So
again, the verse would best be translated as, “because unless the
apostasy comes firstly and the man of animosity is revealed, the son of
perdition.” A man with the spirit of hostility. In the verses
that follow, Paul goes on to describe how bad the lawless one is - the
depths of his apostasy. Verse 4,
“...exalting himself over everything.” Verse 5,
“…sits in God’s temple, showing himself to be a god.”
After all this,
Paul reminds the Thessalonians in verse six that the lawless one’s
time is not yet, as he is being restrained until a certain time. When is that time? Dan 9:27, “He
will confirm a covenant with many for one seven, but in the middle
of that seven he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And one who causes desolation will place abominations on a
wing of the temple until the end that is decreed is poured out on
him.” We know from
Daniel 9:27 that the lawless one will defile the temple in Jerusalem in
the middle of the Tribulation, declaring himself to be God.
Now we read the same thing in 1 Thessalonians 2:3:
In the middle of the Tribulation, the restraints are lifted.
Without any restraints, the lawless one is given full authority
over every tribe, people, language and nation, and in conjunction with
this authority, is “given power to make war against the saints and to
conquer them” (Rev 13:7). Paul is saying
that when the apostasy takes place, the man of lawlessness is revealed.
We know the apostasy does not take place until the middle of the
Tribulation. Before this
time, the man of lawlessness is masquerading as a man of peace.
He has not revealed his true nature.
We know that on one day in the middle of the Tribulation, the
Antichrist will reveal his true nature to the world by committing
apostasy, breaking his covenant with Israel, desecrating the temple, and
declaring war on the saints. A terrible day in
history. Let’s review. In 2
Thessalonians 2:4, Paul describes how this lawless man opposes and
exalts himself over everything called God, proclaiming himself to
actually be God. In verse five, Paul reminds the Thessalonians how he
explained all of this to them before when he was with them. Then starting in verse six, he explains what is keeping the
end times from coming. THE RESTRAINING 2 Thessalonians
2: 6-8. “And now you know
what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the
one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of
the way. And then the
lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with
the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.” Now let’s
examine the original Greek in verses 6-8.
Literally, this passage is translated: Verse 6, “And
now the restraining you know, for to be revealed him in his
time.” Verse 7, “For
the mystery of lawlessness already operates; only the restraining
just now until out of the midst it comes.”
Verse 8, “And
then will be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy
by the spirit of his mouth and brought to nothing by the outshining of
his presence.” Now let’s look
more closely at verses six though eight. Verse 6, “The
restraining…” μόνον ό
κατεχων5 (monon o katexon). In
this clause a translator must take into account the participle with the
definite article, which changes the translation slightly: “Only there
is one restraining,” meaning there is a person or force restraining.
So we would have, “For the mystery of lawlessness already
operates in the world, only there is one restraining…” What does
“restrain” mean? It
means, “to keep under control.”
It doesn’t mean to stop or prevent; it means to limit or hold
back. What or who is
restraining is not specifically mentioned.
Taking into consideration the verses before and after, it is
obvious that it is God’s will that the lawless one be restrained until
the proper time. The
primary acting agent of God’s will in any matter is the Holy Spirit.
The Church, itself, could never be a force or power capable of
restraining Satan. So
let’s assume for now that the Holy Spirit is restraining.
On this point, there should be little argument. Note also that in
the original Greek, the one restraining, the Holy Spirit, is not
removed, but only stops the act of keeping the power of the lawless one
in check. OUT OF THE MIDST Verse 7 ,
“…until out of the midst it comes.”
The Greek is έως έκ
μέσου
γένηται6 (eos ek mesoo genetai). Έως
(eos) is simply “until,” but it is a participle used as a
verb to describe the action in this sentence.
Έκ is
“out of,” and is a primary preposition denoting origin or from, as
in out of place, or out of time. Μέσου
(mesoo) means “middle.” The
root word for μέσου (mesoo) is
μενσος (mensos), which means “midst.” There are many instances of mesoo being translated as
“middle” or “midst” depending on what is perceived as the
intended meaning. Midst is an old
form of middle, but more precisely it means “among.” (Oxford
American Dictionary, Heald Colleges Edition, 1980).
When used in conjunction with a group, mesoo is translated as
“midst” or “among.” “He
stood in the midst (meso), and saith unto them, Peace be unto you”
(John 20:19, KJV). “And
as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst (meso) of them, and
saith unto them, Peace be unto you” (Luke 24:36, KJV). Middle more
precisely means, “at the equal distance from extremes or outer limits,
or occurring halfway between beginning and end” (ibid).
My point here is that since the verse is talking about a period
in time (comes to pass), the word translated “middle” more
accurately describes the event, rather than the word, “among.”
Γένηται
(genatai) is the verb and has been translated as “comes into
existence,” or “appears in public,” or “comes to pass.”
It is the present indicative middle form of the verb,
γινομαι (ginomai).
Being the present indicative form of the verb means it expresses
a fact and denotes action. So this passage
in verse seven would literally and more correctly read, “…until
out of the middle [time] it comes to pass or appears in public.” Or “until it comes to pass or appears in public in the
middle [time].” The word
“time” is not in the verse, but I bracketed out “time” to
emphasize how the word “middle” is used.
This clearly
would indicate the lawless one being restrained by the Holy Spirit until
a “middle time” or the middle of an event.
Taken in context with the verse four, where the lawless one sits
on the Temple throne declaring himself to be God, we can continue that
line of thinking and deduce that Paul is talking about an action, an
event taking place in the middle of the Tribulation. THE MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS 2 Thessalonians
2:7, “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work;
but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is
taken out of the way.” The word Paul
uses for lawlessness is translated in the Septuagint as wickedness (Jamieson,
Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the
Whole Bible, Robert Jamieson, Zondervan Publishing House, 1999).
Lawlessness has a legal connotation, which seems inappropriate to this
passage; whereas, wickedness denotes evil, evil actions, and an evil
person. Paul is writing about a man who opposes everything godly and
displays every sort of evil. Wickedness
works best here. Some translators (NIV) have
taken the Greek word,
μυστήριον, (mysterion) and
translated it as “secret power.”
The word simply means mystery.
The accurate translation of this verse is, “For the mystery of
wickedness already operates…” The
“mystery of wickedness” refers to the unleashed power Satan will
have in the last half of the Tribulation, as he is given temporary
authority to perform certain actions: Persecution of believers.
Throughout history, Satan has been responsible for a limited
persecution of believers, which could have been worse, but the Holy
Spirit has been a restraining force. UNTIL THAT WHICH
HINDERS 2 Thessalonians
2:7, “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the
one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out
of the way.” Some translations
of verse seven are, “…till he is taken out of the way,” or
“…until that which hinders is removed.”
Either translation is based on the assumption that the
Holy Spirit would be removed, which is clearly not what the text says in
the Greek, nor was it Paul’s intention. As explained
under, The Restraining section above, the Holy Spirit is keeping
the Antichrist from doing whatever he wants until the proper time.
The Greek of verse seven says the Holy Spirit stops restraining,
but it does not say he leaves the earth.
Instead Paul talks about the timing of the restraints being
lifted, “until out of the middle [time].”
So as the Great
Tribulation moves into the last three and one half years, the Holy
Spirit is here, the Church is here, and all are moving towards the
inevitable climax together. Verse 8 continues
with the Greet word, kai or “And…”, which means the thought Paul
started in earlier verses continues.
“And then will be revealed the lawless one…”
So verses seven and eight together are, “until out of the
middle [time] it comes to pass or appears in public, and the lawless one
will be revealed…” or “until it comes to pass, that out of the
middle time, the lawless one is revealed…” Why does Satan have this new
authority? During the Tribulation the
believer’s situation will be similar to that which Job experienced.
God asked Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job?”
Twice God asked Satan if he had considered Job.
Satan said he had considered Job, but found that God was
protecting him. In Job 2:6, in the second
test, God tells Satan, “…he is in your hands; but you must spare his
life.” Why did God do
this? Satan told God, “A
man will give all he has for his own life.
But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he
will surely curse you to your face.”
The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands;
but you must spare his life.” I bring this up now, because
it shows that God is able and willing to place Christians and the Church
into harms way, as he sees fit and for his purposes. God is able to give Satan limited authority in relation to
people on the earth. Only
unlike in Job’s situation, Satan will bring about the death of
Christians under persecution in the last three and a half years of the
Tribulation. The Holy Spirit is
restraining in two ways: 1. He is keeping Satan’s persecution of the Church under
control/limited; 2. He is
the overall restraining force until the time appointed for the
Antichrist to be fully revealed. There have been many
antichrists over the ages – people used of Satan, who have acted out
similar events as we have read in Revelation (Antiochus IV Epiphanes,
Nero, Hitler). At the end
of Nero’s reign, he was thought by many Christians to be the
Antichrist, fueling speculation that Jesus Christ had returned or was
about to. Some people argue that if we
believe Jesus will come back at the end of the Tribulation, then we
would know the exact day of Jesus Christ’s return, and that’s not
possible. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the
angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father…” (Matt
24:36). According to Daniel
there are 1,290 days allotted for the lawless one from the time of the
abomination to his fall. “From
the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that
causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days” (Dan 12:11).
So once you saw the apostasy, you could easily start counting and
come up with a real date on the calendar.
But Daniel doesn’t say that the lawless one’s time on earth
is over at the end of 1,290 days: He says the lawless one has an
allotted time to do certain things, and a specific amount of time to
make war on the saints. Daniel 12:12, “Blessed is
the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.” Daniel adds in 45 days, and it is somewhere in this
“window” that I expect Jesus to return.
Yes, we won’t know the exact day or hour, but we will
certainly know when to expect him within a very short period of time.
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