Chapter 2 – One God Translation

2 Thessalonians

   2 In connection with the coming of our lord Jesus Messiah and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters: 2 Do not be quickly shaken out of your senses or disturbed by any “spiritual” utterance, any message or letter pretending to come from us, which suggests that the day of the Lord is immediately at hand or has already come. [1311] 3 Do not let anyone deceive you by any means, because before that day comes there must first be the great rebellion, and the lawless man must appear, the one destined for destruction. 4 He elevates himself over everything that is called God and all that people hold in reverence. He finally even installs himself[1312] in the temple[1313] of God, claiming to be God. [1314] 5 Do you not remember that I used to tell you about all this while I was still with you? [1315] 6 So you know that at present there is a power which holds him back, so that he will not be revealed before his appointed time. 7 Meanwhile the secret energy of lawlessness is already at work; however, he who now restrains will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way. 8 Then that lawless one will be revealed, the one whom the lord Jesus will destroy by the breath of his mouth and obliterate by the brilliance of his coming. [1316] 9 That lawless one will stage his own “coming” with Satan’s power to aid him. It will be accompanied by all kinds of miracles, signs, and amazing but deceptive displays of Satanic power. 10 His wicked deceptions will completely fool those who are on the way to destruction, as a punishment for their refusal to develop a passion for the truth in order to be saved. [1317] 11 Because of this God will let loose on them an energy of delusion so that they will believe what is false. 12 As a result judgment will fall on those who decided not to believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness.
    13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning to be saved by becoming holy through the spirit and believing the truth. 14 To this He called you through our Gospel, so that you may participate in the glory[1318] of our lord Jesus Messiah. 15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions we taught you, whether by spoken message or by letter from us.
    16 Now may our lord Jesus Messiah himself and God who is our Father,[1319] who loved us and through grace gave us the comfort of the Age to Come and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.

2 Thessalonians

[1311]

The error is to say either that the promised Day has happened or will happen with no events preceding it. The popular “pre-tribulation” rapture theory is condemned by Paul’s words here. There is only one future Second Coming of Jesus.

[1312]

“Intrudes into, and sits down in…He in person sits down enthroned in the temple…The temple which Christ had cleansed, and in which the first Christians prayed, and likewise Paul himself, that house of prayer for all people was an object of interest to every Christian church” (Lange, Commentary, 2 Thessalonians, p. 128).

[1313]

Most naturally understood as a real building, and a vital piece of information about the future in Jerusalem. Note F.F. Bruce: “the picture here is of a material shrine.” And TDNT on Rev. 11:1: “In this case we are fairly obviously to think in terms of the earthly temple in Jerusalem” (Vol. 4, p. 887). A temple is to be expected in Israel, since the Abomination of Desolation will stand there (Mt. 24:15; Mk. 13:14), and Dan. 9:27, 11:31 and 12:11 speak of the sacrificial system being interrupted. Rev. 11:1-2 likewise refers to the final 3 ½ year period of tribulation connected with trampling down (see Zech. 12:3, LXX) cited by Jesus also in Luke 21:24. Rev. 11:2 is a reference to Dan. 8:11-13 where the sanctuary is cast down. Cp. Isa. 63:18, Ps. 79:1 for the final period of violence before the arrival of the Kingdom. When Paul first introduces the church or an individual believer as “a temple,” he does not use the definite article. The church is “a temple of God” (1 Cor. 3:16).

[1314]

Paul here alludes to Dan. 11:36 where the final wicked King of the North is described. Jesus referred to the Abomination of Desolation standing where he ought not to (Mk. 13:14), that is, installing himself in a holy place (Mt. 24:15). Dan. 12:11, the important key to defining the Abomination of Desolation, informs us that from the appearing of the Abomination of Desolation about 3 ½ years will elapse until the end of the vision which is marked by the resurrection of the dead who are currently sleeping in the dust of the ground and will awake to receive their inheritance in the Kingdom and “the Life of the Age” (Dan. 12:2). This Life of the Age to Come appears some 49 times in the NT, the life to be gained by resurrection (or being transformed while still alive if a person is still living when Jesus returns).

[1315]

Paul spent perhaps only a few weeks founding the Thessalonian church, but his teaching on the “time of the end” and the important sequence of events leading to the return of Jesus was of utmost importance to him and discussed often. The vital importance of this information, which is similar to Jesus’ famous Olivet discourse in Matt. 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, needs to be properly understood by believers and passed on to subsequent generations until the supreme event of the Second Coming happens. Repeated false and failed date-setting has not only sold millions of books but tends to throw the whole subject into disrepute. It is quite clear that Jesus will come back once only in the future. A so-called “PRE-tribulation” rapture is imaginary and not found anywhere in the NT. Especially striking is its complete absence from the careful sequence of events given by Jesus in Matt. 24 (and parallels). Remember that the mistaken theory posits both a rapture and resurrection of dead saints, before the onset of the Great Tribulation. That huge event, a pre-tribulation rapture-resurrection, is not mentioned ever by Jesus. The only coming he recognizes happens after the Great Tribulation (Mt. 24:29-31). When some say that Jesus was speaking to Jews in Matt. 24 they imply that none of the words of Jesus are for us! We all know that the disciples of Jesus were Jews, but we ought to know that the words of Jesus are for all believers until the end of the age (cp. Jn. 12:44ff; 2 Jn. 7-9 for a solemn warning). If Matt. 24 is not addressed to us, then is the sermon on the mount, also delivered to the Jewish disciples of Jesus, not for us?

[1316]

Paul gives us a crucial piece of understanding in reference to prophecy. He quotes from Isa. 11:4, and the context of all Paul’s quotations must be studied in detail. There is to be an Assyrian enemy of God and God’s people, including the nation of Israel. He is called “the Assyrian,” pointing to his origin in the Middle East, not Europe! (Europe is not the subject of biblical prophecy.) The Messiah in Mic. 5:5-6 is the one who at his coming will deliver Israel from the invading Assyrian. That term might include geographical areas such as ancient Assyria, Babylon, Persia (see Ezra 6:22 where the Persian king is called the king of Assyria), and Syria. Zech. 5 speaks of a future commercial venture in the area of the land of Nimrod (see Gen. 10:9-11). Zech. 12:3 in the LXX speaks of a terrible invasion of Israel, a trampling down of Jerusalem and the nations mocking Jerusalem (a further ref. is in Zech. 13:8-9; 14:1-2). Luke 21:24 is cited by Jesus from Zech. 12:3, LXX and Jesus refers again to this verse in Rev. 11:2-3. When the Messiah comes he will rescue Israel from the Assyrian antichrist (the King of the North of Dan. 11). The Assyrian will be destroyed in the lake of fire and brimstone (Isa. 30:33).

[1317]

The indispensable quality required for salvation is a “love for the truth” of all that Jesus and the Apostles taught as the faith. Not to love that truth is the equivalent of wickedness (v. 12). This is more than ethics; it entails believing all of Jesus’ teachings.

[1318]

“Glory” is a synonym for the future Kingdom to be revealed at the Second Coming of Jesus.

[1319]

This is one of 1300 references in the NT to God as the Father. This is massive evidence for a unitary, non-Trinitarian understanding of monotheism, shared by all Bible writers.