Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 2 Thessalonians 2:3

"let no man beguile you in any wise: for [it will not be,] except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition," — 2 Thessalonians 2:3 (ASV)

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.