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2 Thessalonians 2:3
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3 Let [exapatao] no [me] man [tis] deceive [exapatao] you [humas] by [kata] any [medeis] means: [tropos] for [hoti] that day shall not come, except [ean me] there come [erchomai] a falling away [apostasia] first, [proton] and [kai] that man [anthropos] of sin [hamartia] be revealed, [apokalupto] the son [huios] of perdition; [apoleia] KJV-Interlinear
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, NASB
First, Paul warns that you should not fall prey to the deceptions of men. Those deceptions were listed in the previous verse. There will come along many sources of deceptions, from the word of mouth in Pauls day, to the massive media technology we have in our current day.
You will see movies, and documentaries, stories in books and publications, even conversations between people that will describe the end of days concept, or deny it or mock at it.
But certainly since Pauls day, when this was written over 1950 years ago, the Rapture has not yet occurred, and the second advent has not yet occurred. Why? Well Paul gives us a very general reason, which reason will only make sense to us, since we live in the days much closer than those folks back then. Obviously we are over 1950 years closer, even though we do not yet know the century, the generation, the decade or anything close to that eventual date.
But, unlike those folks in their day, we have hindsight and we have the historical record of humanity to help guide us in the evaluation of our observations.
What good does that do us? It helps us put history in perspective, and more than that, it should help us rekindle or strengthen our faith in Gods ultimate promise that history will indeed occur as He has stated, as we observe His hand in our contemporary history.
Paul begins by identifying two great events which will occur prior to Christ’s return (the Second Advent).
First there is going to be a great apostasy, and second, after that great apostasy, the man of sin will be revealed.
First we consider the man of sin. This is singular and refers to one person, not a sequence of people throughout the ages, as thought by some. This is chronological, therefore the apostasy will occur prior to the revealing of the man of sin. Here the terms, perdition, lawlessness and son of destruction, are used to describe this person, as well as describing his sole intention and eminent wickedness.
The great apostasy, means a falling away. And since one cannot fall away from something that has not first been attained, then this falling away has to occur after some form of spiritual awakening has already been accomplished. That spiritual awakening that I am referring to is the spread of the gospel to the gentile nations throughout the world, mentioned elsewhere in the Bible.
We have already witnessed this spreading of the gospel from our hindsight historical perspective.
Therefore, the apostasy is something that will occur after the world has been populated and evangelized, in effect. And that population and evangelization has already occurred or is an ongoing process of occurrence in our contemporary time.
However, chronologically, the apostasy will occur near the end of our current dispensation. It will occur over a period of time (not defined), but we can look to history for examples.
In Noahs day, apostasy occurred slowly over many centuries. Noah and his party of eight were all that were left of the believers on earth when the rains began to fall.
In the book of Judges, the nation of Israel rose and fell spiritually over the course of mere generations, but the nation on the whole did not disappear.
After Solomons time, the Nation of Israel was finally disintegrated over the course of fewer centuries.
In our current day, events in our time are described in terms of increasing frequency. Therefore, we can legitimately assume that this apostasy will occur on some form of rapid timetable, which would be much quicker than in past history.
Apostasy means a falling away, a departure from, a defection from truth, or a forsaking of faith. This implies that Christian beliefs will be nearly wiped out, not just in a single or group of countries, but across the entire world (similarities to Noahs day, in pattern but not in terms of numbers).
Likewise, the mention of the man of sin, after this spiritual decline, also implies that his rise to power will be a direct result of that decline. We have already studied the anti-christ, and you should recall that he is going to be a very personable fellow, very popular, very smooth, and people will slobber all over themselves just to get close to him. You have to go to Revelation and Daniel for that study. It is quite an extensive study.
Now this mentioning of the two events (apostasy and the anti-christ) are linked together here, because they are related. When people lose their spiritual values, then they turn to evil. There are only two views in life – truth and lies. Spiritual values are truth, and everything else makes up the body of lies.
When this departure occurs across the world, and since blessings come from God to believers who are functioning within their spiritual lives, then fewer functioning believers or fewer believers, means less blessing. Less blessing means greater turmoil.
And when you factor in the massive changes that this world is in for, namely accelerated population growth for one, then there will be many problems associated with that single element alone (unemployment, food, homes, public services, crime, etc), not to mention the increased problems that will occur because of storms or natural disasters. And when you factor in mans efforts to solve his own problems, which is almost always through government programs (which never work), then you have huge trouble. And in this case, it will be on a global scale.
So the great apostasy that will be in existence, will contribute to the anti-christs assumption of power. People will want him in power. Spiritually dysfunctional people look to spiritually dysfunctional leaders.
And one more thing, the man of sin is also referred to as the son of disaster. That means that he is here to pursue disaster. His natural course in life will be nothing but disaster. Not that he is doing it intentionally (at first), but that everything that he does will result is greater and greater disaster, and his policies will finally end in the attempted extermination of the greater human population, for which he cannot solve their problems. Get rid of the people and you get rid of the problems.
Stalin tried this when he could not feed or employ millions, so they were shipped off to Siberia to die. Our Church Age history provides many examples of problems and solutions that will be dramatically increased when the Tribulation occurs.
Even our contemporary legislative efforts from this health care law being proposed, is a good example of the corruption that is raising its head. Where health care would be withheld from the very old, where health care would be rationed, where people would be penalized if they do not get the government insurance, where access to personal bank accounts will be mandated so that government can collect what they deem is due them, and things of this nature.
A global government, a global currency, and other similar concepts that seem to be taking root in the world are only precursors to what appears to be a departure from Biblical principles.
So, Paul paints a picture of the end times. We already know the picture of the world during the Tribulation with its phenomenal disasters. But when the Rapture occurs, this dysfunctional spiritual state of the world will already be in place. Thus the end of our dispensation has its destiny already painted for us.
And by the way, the man if sin, the anti-christ will not be revealed during our dispensation. There is a current restraint preventing his identity. And he will not be revealed until that restraint is removed – namely the removal of the Holy Spirit (we will get to that study, so be patient).
The Holy Spirit is resident in all believers, so the Rapture will occur, removing believers, and then the restraint will be gone and the anti-christ will be revealed to a then very unbelieving world.
So, if the Rapture did occur now, then this anti-christ person would already be alive somewhere in the world. But if the Rapture does not occur for another century, then this person will not have been born yet. In either case, no one will be able to identify him during our dispensation, as he is hidden in obscurity.
