Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 2 Thessalonians 2

The hortatory words “we ask you, brothers” (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:12) provides a transition from what Paul has been saying about the day of the Lord to an acute problem related to it. This problem has to do with the eschatological events he has just described in ch. 1. In the interest of truth about this vital hope, Paul must set down accurately certain features of “the day of the Lord” as a corrective to what some were falsely claiming.

He must explain what he means by “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him” or else the solution to the problem cannot be grasped. “Being gathered” (GK 2191) defines which part of the “coming” (parousia; GK 4242) Paul has in mind.

This is the great event he described more fully in 1 Thessalonians 4:14–17—i.e., the gathering of those in Christ to meet him in the air en route to the Father in heaven. This begins the day of the Lord. The relationship that this happening bears to the tribulation phase of the day of the Lord so frequently mentioned in these letters is important. Some limit the parousia to a single event and insist that it comes after the tribulation. It is hardly possible, though, to explain the variety of relationships belonging to the parousia in these letters if it is understood only as a single event. Even the meaning of the word suggests a longer duration.

Another problem is encountered if the parousia that initiates the day of the Lord is considered as the single event of Christ’s return to earth following the tribulation. If Paul had given oral or written instruction to this effect, the false claim that the day of the Lord was already present could hardly have alarmed these Christians. According to this scheme, the day of the Lord could not begin without Christ’s personal reappearance. His continued absence was obvious to all.

Yet the claim was made and accepted to the extent that the church was troubled. This implies Paul had not taught that a one-phase parousia after the period of wrath would begin the day of the Lord. He had told them that the coming of the Lord to gather his saints into heaven would initiate both the tribulation and the day of the Lord. They were promised immediate “rest” (1:7) and glorification with Christ (1:10), not increased persecution.

The false instruction had, however, denied them an imminent “rest.” They would first have to undergo the severe persecution of the tribulation and possibly even suffer martyrdom before Christ’s coming, according to these misrepresentations. They were even told that their current suffering indicated the arrival of the expected tribulation. Paul speaks in 2:3–4, 8–12 of this future period in terms quite similar to those of Rev 13 and 17. The man of lawlessness has a number of affinities with the beasts of Revelation, enough to show that the two books describe the same period.

Though 2 Thessalonians does not specifically mention the beast’s war with the saints and their martyrdom, Revelation 13:7, 10 declares it explicitly. If this is a possibility for the church, why did Paul at no point teach this kind of anticipation? The answer must lie in the removal of Christians (including the Thessalonian believers) from earth before this persecution. It is another group of God’s people, following the church’s translation, who must face the terror of this archenemy.

Despite their “persecutions and trials” (1:4) these Thessalonian Christians were not living in the day of the Lord, as they had been erroneously told. A right understanding of “being gathered to him” reveals that they could not be so enmeshed, because for them Christ’s parousia will antedate the awful period to come. In fact, their “being gathered to him” would be the event that signals the day’s beginning.

As their friend and brother, Paul respectfully requests (“we ask,” v.1; cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:1) them not to become “unsettled or alarmed” (v.2). This might easily happen if they were led to believe that somehow the glorious coming had passed them by. “Unsettled” (GK 4888) means “to be shaken from your sensibleness [lit., mind].” Distorted teaching had “alarmed” (GK 2583) them. Paul cautioned them against hastily adopting something other than the instruction he had previously given them (cf. v.15).

False teaching that purported to have come from Paul had reached them through three possible avenues. (1) One was the spiritual gift of “prophecy” (lit., “spirit,” v.2; GK 4460) or something like it (see also 1 Thessalonians 5:19–20). Whatever the specific medium, the teaching was represented as having Paul’s authority. (2) A second avenue was the spoken word (“report”; GK 3364). Though this did not claim the direct inspiration of prophecy, it too was based on an allegedly Pauline foundation. (3) The same basis was claimed for a third medium of communication—“letter.” Someone had misrepresented Paul’s views in a letter bearing his name, a mistake he will rectify in any future correspondence (cf. 3:17–18). It is not clear whether the readers had been misguided through one or all three channels, but in any case Paul denounces them all.

The false teaching consisted in the claim that “the day of the Lord has already come” (lit., “is present”; GK 1931). This word denotes actual presence. These readers who knew about the day (1 Thessalonians 5:2) knew that its earlier phase would be a time of heightened persecution for the saints. Their suffering had already been so severe that someone tried to convince them that the period was already in progress, even though the Lord had not yet come to gather them to heaven. They knew of the time of trouble and the Lord’s return to culminate it (1:7–9). They had been led to believe, however, that his coming for them would spare them the anguish of that hour (1 Thessalonians 5:9). But here were people telling them, with Paul’s apparent backing, that such a deliverance was not to be.

Therefore they were in great need of an authentic word from Paul assuring them that they had understood him correctly in his first letter. They needed to know that the parousia of Christ for his church would mark the beginning of the future day of trouble and consequently that the day had not yet arrived. To accomplish this, Paul proceeded to describe features, obviously not yet present, that would characterize the day’s early stages.

The hortatory words “we ask you, brothers” (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:12) provides a transition from what Paul has been saying about the day of the Lord to an acute problem related to it. This problem has to do with the eschatological events he has just described in ch. 1. In the interest of truth about this vital hope, Paul must set down accurately certain features of “the day of the Lord” as a corrective to what some were falsely claiming.

He must explain what he means by “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him” or else the solution to the problem cannot be grasped. “Being gathered” (GK 2191) defines which part of the “coming” (parousia; GK 4242) Paul has in mind.

This is the great event he described more fully in 1 Thessalonians 4:14–17—i.e., the gathering of those in Christ to meet him in the air en route to the Father in heaven. This begins the day of the Lord. The relationship that this happening bears to the tribulation phase of the day of the Lord so frequently mentioned in these letters is important. Some limit the parousia to a single event and insist that it comes after the tribulation. It is hardly possible, though, to explain the variety of relationships belonging to the parousia in these letters if it is understood only as a single event. Even the meaning of the word suggests a longer duration.

Another problem is encountered if the parousia that initiates the day of the Lord is considered as the single event of Christ’s return to earth following the tribulation. If Paul had given oral or written instruction to this effect, the false claim that the day of the Lord was already present could hardly have alarmed these Christians. According to this scheme, the day of the Lord could not begin without Christ’s personal reappearance. His continued absence was obvious to all.

Yet the claim was made and accepted to the extent that the church was troubled. This implies Paul had not taught that a one-phase parousia after the period of wrath would begin the day of the Lord. He had told them that the coming of the Lord to gather his saints into heaven would initiate both the tribulation and the day of the Lord. They were promised immediate “rest” (1:7) and glorification with Christ (1:10), not increased persecution.

The false instruction had, however, denied them an imminent “rest.” They would first have to undergo the severe persecution of the tribulation and possibly even suffer martyrdom before Christ’s coming, according to these misrepresentations. They were even told that their current suffering indicated the arrival of the expected tribulation. Paul speaks in 2:3–4, 8–12 of this future period in terms quite similar to those of Rev 13 and 17. The man of lawlessness has a number of affinities with the beasts of Revelation, enough to show that the two books describe the same period.

Though 2 Thessalonians does not specifically mention the beast’s war with the saints and their martyrdom, Revelation 13:7, 10 declares it explicitly. If this is a possibility for the church, why did Paul at no point teach this kind of anticipation? The answer must lie in the removal of Christians (including the Thessalonian believers) from earth before this persecution. It is another group of God’s people, following the church’s translation, who must face the terror of this archenemy.

Despite their “persecutions and trials” (1:4) these Thessalonian Christians were not living in the day of the Lord, as they had been erroneously told. A right understanding of “being gathered to him” reveals that they could not be so enmeshed, because for them Christ’s parousia will antedate the awful period to come. In fact, their “being gathered to him” would be the event that signals the day’s beginning.

As their friend and brother, Paul respectfully requests (“we ask,” v.1; cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:1) them not to become “unsettled or alarmed” (v.2). This might easily happen if they were led to believe that somehow the glorious coming had passed them by. “Unsettled” (GK 4888) means “to be shaken from your sensibleness [lit., mind].” Distorted teaching had “alarmed” (GK 2583) them. Paul cautioned them against hastily adopting something other than the instruction he had previously given them (cf. v.15).

False teaching that purported to have come from Paul had reached them through three possible avenues. (1) One was the spiritual gift of “prophecy” (lit., “spirit,” v.2; GK 4460) or something like it (see also 1 Thessalonians 5:19–20). Whatever the specific medium, the teaching was represented as having Paul’s authority. (2) A second avenue was the spoken word (“report”; GK 3364). Though this did not claim the direct inspiration of prophecy, it too was based on an allegedly Pauline foundation. (3) The same basis was claimed for a third medium of communication—“letter.” Someone had misrepresented Paul’s views in a letter bearing his name, a mistake he will rectify in any future correspondence (cf. 3:17–18). It is not clear whether the readers had been misguided through one or all three channels, but in any case Paul denounces them all.

The false teaching consisted in the claim that “the day of the Lord has already come” (lit., “is present”; GK 1931). This word denotes actual presence. These readers who knew about the day (1 Thessalonians 5:2) knew that its earlier phase would be a time of heightened persecution for the saints. Their suffering had already been so severe that someone tried to convince them that the period was already in progress, even though the Lord had not yet come to gather them to heaven. They knew of the time of trouble and the Lord’s return to culminate it (1:7–9). They had been led to believe, however, that his coming for them would spare them the anguish of that hour (1 Thessalonians 5:9). But here were people telling them, with Paul’s apparent backing, that such a deliverance was not to be.

Therefore they were in great need of an authentic word from Paul assuring them that they had understood him correctly in his first letter. They needed to know that the parousia of Christ for his church would mark the beginning of the future day of trouble and consequently that the day had not yet arrived. To accomplish this, Paul proceeded to describe features, obviously not yet present, that would characterize the day’s early stages.

Paul supplements his request in v.1 with a prohibition: “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way.” Apparently those who willfully and maliciously troubled the Thessalonian believers had done this by deceiving anyone who would listen to them regarding the day of the Lord. Paul warns his readers not to be taken in by these speculations. He does not say what moved these promoters of error. Perhaps a misunderstanding of grace led them to teach that Christians must earn their part in the parousia by persevering through severe suffering. Whatever it was, Paul is determined to prove that his readers were not in the day of the Lord.

In the second part of this verse, the Greek sentence is not complete; it presupposes something to be added from the previous verse; i.e., “that day will not come” (lit., “that day is not present”). According to Paul’s argument here, two conspicuous phenomena that will dominate the day’s opening phase had not yet happened. That is, his readers had not missed the rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:15–17) and were not in the day of the Lord (v.2) because two clear indicators of the earliest stage of this eschatological period had not yet appeared (cf. introduction to 1 Thessalonians).

Let us put it this way. Suppose the government of some country should announce, “In the near future on a date known only to us, Christianity will be suppressed. To mark the official beginning of this policy, on the appointed day the largest church in the country will be demolished and its pastor required to renounce Christianity publicly. Thereafter, all who admit they are Christians will be placed in jeopardy of imprisonment.” At that time a foreigner might arrive in that country, having heard nothing more than that Christianity would be cruelly suppressed. He would doubtless find some Christians already experiencing certain hardships and, in his ignorance of the timing of the actual beginning of the policy of suppression, might assume that it was already in effect. A citizen who knew the details of the policy would have to tell him, “The period of suppression of Christianity is not yet present, because the largest church in the country has not yet been demolished and its pastor has not yet renounced Christianity publicly.” So far there is no logical problem. But some who have problems with the pretribulational view of the rapture ask, “How can the nonarrival of two events (‘the rebellion’ and the revealing of ‘the man of lawlessness,’ v.3) that initiate the day of the Lord, a period that will come after the believers have been raptured—how can the nonarrival of these events prove to the confused Thessalonian believers (who are to be raptured and thus will not be in the day of the Lord) that they are not actually in that day?” The answer still is that the absence of the phenomena demonstrates the nonpresence of the day of the Lord. Obviously, had “the rebellion” and the revealing of "the man of lawlessness” already taken place when Paul was writing this letter, then the teaching of the priority of the rapture to “the day of the Lord” would have been called into question. But here in ch. 2 Paul is not discussing the timing of the rapture. He is simply reassuring his readers that “the day of the Lord” had not come. Nor does he at any place in this context (vv.1–12) tell his readers that they will at some future time “see” the two initial phenomena of “the day of the Lord.” Had he said that, there would indeed be a problem. But he did not speak of the Thessalonians’ actually seeing the phenomena. He simply stressed the present nonarrival of the phenomena.

To sum up, let us return to the analogy of the newcomer to the country facing the suppression of Christianity. Suppose now that, arriving after the initial announcement, he is a short-term visitor due to leave before the official beginning of the anti-Christian policy. The answer to his confusion about being in the country with the policy already in effect would be corrected by his realizing that the largest church would have to be destroyed and its pastor publicly renounce Christianity before suppression of Christianity began. And this would be a valid answer, even though he would not be present when these things took place.

The troubled at Thessalonica could take heart in knowing they had not missed the gathering of those in Christ at the parousia (v.1). Their present persecutions were not identifiable with those to be inflicted by the man of lawlessness on a later group of saints after the eschatological day begins.

A closer look at the two phenomena accompanying the day of the Lord illuminates the characteristics of that day. “The rebellion” represents apostasia (GK 686), from which the English word apostasy comes. This word points to a deliberate abandonment of a former professed position. Attempts to identify the apostasy with some past or present movement are futile because of its contextual association with the Lord Jesus’ second advent (v.1). Other passages in Scripture likewise anticipate a defection of professing Christians (see Mt 24:11–12, 24; 1 Timothy 4:1ff.; 2 Timothy 3:1–5; 2 Timothy 4:3–4; 2 Peter 2:1–22; 2 Peter 3:3–6;Jude 17–18). After the rapture of those in Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:17), all who are truly in him will be gone. Conditions will be ripe for people, especially those who call themselves Christians but are not really such, to turn their backs on God. Then their insincerity will demonstrate itself outwardly. This worldwide anti-God movement will be so universal as to earn for itself a special designation: “the apostasy”—i.e., the climax of the increasing apostate tendencies evident before the rapture of the church.

Following and in conjunction with the apostasy will come the unveiling of a mighty figure embodying everything opposed to God. His whereabouts before his unveiling are not given. He will be alive for years before his unveiling, but his dramatic public presentation will occur after the rebellion begins.

Paul characterizes this figure in three ways.

(1) He is “the man of lawlessness”; i.e., he is the epitome of opposition to the laws of God. Satan so indwells and operates through him that his main delight will be in breaking God’s righteous laws.

(2) He is “the man doomed to destruction” (lit., “the son of perdition”). That is, he belongs to this class of people. The same expression describes Judas Iscariot , another member of this class.

(3) This individual “opposes and exalts himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped.” His direct and determined opposition to the true God will be a leading feature of the continuing apostasy. It will be especially marked by removal of the symbolic articles from the Jerusalem temple. The man of lawlessness will occupy the holy precincts in order to accept and even demand worship that is due God alone. This evidently is a Jewish temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem in the future. Dependence of these words on Da 9:26–27; 11:31, 36– 37; 12:11 (cf. Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14) demands such a reference. There is no impressive evidence for understanding “temple” (GK 3724) in a nonliteral sense. The well-known “abomination that causes desolation” (Mark 13:14) is sometimes regarded as a person and sometimes as an act of desecration by that person. The act of desecration to which this verse looks will transpire halfway through the seventieth prophetic week of Da 9:24–27, when the covenant made earlier with the Jewish people is broken. This will mark the climax of this lawless one’s career. Historically, a foreshadowing of this blasphemous intrusion happened when Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the temple in Jerusalem just before the Maccabean revolt.

The relationship of this portion of 2 Thessalonians to Christ’s parousia confirms the impression that Paul must be referring to a single historical personage. Quests for such a person in the past and present have proved fruitless. Resemblances to Antiochus Epiphanes, Nero, Diocletian, one of the popes, and others may be admitted. But fulfillment of all details of the prophecy must await the future period of this man’s prominence. “The man of lawlessness” will be a new historical figure whom Satan will energize to do his will in the world. As “man of God” in the OT regularly designates a divine prophet, the present “man of lawlessness” designates a false prophet, probably to be identified with the second beast of Rev 13:11ff. (cf. Revelation 16:13; 19:20; 20:10). His primary function will be to preside over the religious apostasy in cooperation with the beast out of the sea (Revelation 13:1ff.), who leads political opposition to God. As God’s chief opponent in Jerusalem whose background is probably Jewish (cf. Daniel 11:36–37), the lawless one will give religious leadership to complement the dominance of his associate over governments of the world’s nations.

The presence of such an apostasy and counterfeit god will not escape international observation. The nonpresence of these things when Paul wrote proves his thesis regarding the nonarrival of the day of the Lord.

A note of impatience may be detected in Paul’s question. If the Thessalonian believers had recalled Paul’s oral teaching, disturbing elements in the newly arisen false system could have been eliminated. Paul was certain about their previous familiarity with the substance of vv.3–4 because he had personally given them this information.