What
Must Happen Before the Day of Christ Comes?
By Rusty
Entrekin*
1 Now, brethren,
concerning the coming
of
our Lord
Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,
2 not
to be soon shaken in mind
or troubled, either
by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of
Christ had come.
3 Let no one deceive you by any
means; for that Day
will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin
is revealed, the son of perdition,
4 who opposes and exalts
himself above all that is
called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple
of God, showing himself that he is God.
5 Do you not remember that when
I was still with you
I told you these things?
6 And now you know what is
restraining, that he may
be revealed in his own time.
7 For the mystery of
lawlessness is already at work;
only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
8 And then the lawless one will
be revealed, whom
the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the
brightness of His coming.
9 The coming of the
lawless one is according
to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10 and with all unrighteous
deception among those
who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that
they might be saved.
11 And for this reason God will
send them strong
delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12 that they all may be
condemned who did not
believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. II Thessalonians 2:1-12 (NKJV)
What is the Day of Christ? According to verses 1 and
2 above, it is a day "concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our gathering together to Him".
The word "concerning" is translated from the Greek
word hyper. The Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament defines
this word, as it is used in this verse, to mean "with reference to", or
"about".1
The Day of Christ is the time during which Christ
comes, and we are gathered to Him. There is another interesting Greek
word in this verse, the word parousias, translated "coming" here.
This word was used in NT times to refer to the
presence of an arriving king. It is the same word that was used by
Peter to refer to the first coming of Jesus to Earth in bodily form:
2 Peter 1:16 For we have not followed
cunningly
devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
The invisible presence of Christ could not be what
Paul is talking about when he uses the word parousias here in II The
2:1, because the Thessalonians were already enjoying Christ's presence
in that sense.
Make no mistake, Paul is talking about THE Second
Coming when he uses the word parousias here. The Parousia will not be
an invisible or secret event which will escape the notice of most:
Matthew 24:26 Therefore if they shall
say to you,
Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret
chambers; believe it not.
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and
shineth even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man
be.
Revelation 1:7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and
every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes
of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
Matthew 24:30 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will
appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and
they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power
and great glory.
When Christ returns, it will not be an event that
escapes the notice of all but a few. "Every eye will see Him."
Apparently, some one had been shaking up the
Thessalonians, troubling them by claiming that this day had arrived.
Sound familiar? Today, there are groups claiming
that the Day of Christ has come. Within the Christian camp, Full
Preterists claim that Jesus came in 70 AD. Outside of it, the Jehovah's
Witnesses believe He returned in 1914. Several times in the last
century, there have been those who have set near dates for Christ's
return, and profited by selling books on the subject.
Since this is the case, this passage is just as
relevant for us today as it was for the Thessalonians. We do will do
well to take it to heart.
Apparently, there were false teachers who wanted the
Thessalonians to believe that Jesus had already returned when He had
not. Notice that the apostle told the Thessalonians, "Let no one
deceive you by any means".
Paul did not think that the Thessalonians were
beyond deception concerning this matter. We should be humble enough to
acknowledge that we are not beyond deception either, no matter how
educated or clever we may be. Sophisticated, educated and
intelligent people are just as prone to fall for false teaching as
anyone else, because they too are susceptible to the enticements of the
flesh. They just need to hear sophisticated, intelligent, and educated
sounding arguments!
The apostle anticipated that any number of means
might be used to deceive believers concerning this matter, even writing
letters in the his own name. He also instructed them not to be shaken
up by spirit or word. He expected that not only false teachers, but
also spirits might try to mislead the Thessalonians.
That is something to think about. Why would demons
want to mislead believers regarding the timing of Christ's
return? This must give the enemy some strategic advantages.
If demons can sometimes mislead believers, even well
educated ones, should we not expect to occasionally hear false
teachings from very sincere believers regarding Christ's return that
sound, on the surface, quite convincing? I am not saying that any true
believer would try to deliberately mislead God's people (unless he has
a heart problem meriting Divine discipline). But it is possible for a
believer to be quite sincere, but spiritually misled. Obviously, this
is a very real danger, or Paul would not have taken the time to
specifically warn believers that they should not be deceived in this
way.
But with the possibility of convincing deceptions
regarding the timing of Christ's return out there, how can the average
believer recognize a deception when he hears one?
Fortunately, in the next few verses, the apostle
Paul gives us accurate weights by which we may weigh any teaching that
the day of Christ is at hand.
To teach that Christ has come before it has happened
is to teach something that is not true, and we should not allow anyone
to deceive us in this regard. But obviously, if He has come already,
then to teach such a thing would not be wrong. So how can we know
if Christ has come or not? Thank God, Paul gives us definitive signs to
look for. He tells us that the Day of Christ will not come "UNLESS"
certain things happen first. What are these things? Let's carefully
read this passage to see.
3 Let no one deceive you by any means;
for that Day
will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin
is revealed, the son of perdition,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above all
that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the
temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Obviously, the apostle's intention was to give the
Thessalonians easily recognizable signs they could use to evaluate the
claims of those who said that Christ had returned. We cannot transform
these signs into mysterious, allegorical, or hard to recognize things,
as many have done, without subverting the apostle's intentions. We
should not interpret a passage allegorically or symbolically unless
there is contextual warrant to do so. As Martin Luther wrote:
{The Holy Spirit's} words cannot have
more than one,
and that the very simplest sense, which we call the literal, ordinary,
natural sense. . . . We are not to say that the Scriptures or the Word
of God have more than one meaning. . .We are not to introduce any . . .
metaphorical, figurative sayings into any text of Scripture, unless the
particulars of the words compel us to do so.. . . For if anyone at all
were to have power to depart from the pure, simple words and to make
inferences and figures of speech wherever he wished. . . [then] no one
could reach any certain conclusions about . . . any article of faith. .
. 2
First, before Christ returns, there must be a
falling away. In (A.T.) Robertson's
Word Pictures, we read concerning this:
"It seems clear that the word here means a religious revolt and the use
of the definite article seems to mean that Paul had spoken to the
Thessalonians about it. The only other New Testament use of the word is
in Acts 21:21 where it means apostasy from Moses."
Apparently then, Paul is talking about a great
falling away from God and the Gospel. Since Paul is giving the
Thessalonians definitive events to look for, it is reasonable to
conclude that this falling away will be striking and easy to discern.
Although this falling away may begin before the lawless one comes, it
will reach its height when he comes, as we will soon see.
Secondly, the day of Christ will not come until the "man of
lawlessness" is revealed. Note that he is not merely a force or
a principle of lawlessness. Paul differentiates between this man and
the mystery of lawlessness in verses seven and eight:
7 For the mystery of
lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so
until He is taken out of the way.
8 And then the lawless one
will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His
mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
The lawless one is a literal man, not a principle.
Remember, the apostle's intention was to give the Thessalonians easy to
recognize signs, not mysterious, ambiguous ones that would be difficult
to discern.
It won't be difficult at all to recognize the man of
lawlessness. He will be someone "who opposes and exalts himself above
all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."
History DOES NOT YET record a literal fulfillment of
this quite specific prophecy (a man sitting in the temple and claiming
that he is God). Because of this, those who teach that Christ has
already returned must ignore this verse, allegorize it, spiritualize
it, or force it into historical events that aren't an exact fit. The
ONLY way for this scripture to be literally fulfilled is for the temple
to be rebuilt.
When the time comes, the rebuilding of the temple
could happen very quickly. Already, there are those in Israel who are
preparing for this event [See http://www.templemountfaithful.org].
Be
ready for Jesus to return. Keep your lamps trimmed and plenty of oil on
hand. When the shout goes out that the bridegroom is coming, events
will happen so fast that there will not be enough time to get more oil!
Before Jesus returns, however, the lawless one will
be revealed. There will be miraculous signs and other events that will
accompany the revealing of the son of perdition, and many will be
deceived thereby:
9 The coming of the lawless one is
according to the
working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10 and with all unrighteous deception among those
who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that
they might be saved.
11 And for this reason God will send them strong
delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12 that they all may be condemned who did not
believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Note the parallels between this passage and the
beast described in Revelation 13. There we read, "and all the world
marveled and followed the beast." Certainly the apostasy will reach
it's height at this time.
The day of Christ will not come until the son of
perdition is revealed. If there is any doubt that Paul is here teaching
that Christ will return after this man is revealed, verse 8 should take
it away: "And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will
consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of
His coming."
You may have heard clever, very convincing arguments
claiming that Christ has already come. No matter how convincing they
sound, you should reject them unless these easily recognizable signs
have literally taken place. The signs will be striking and easy to
discern, not little known historical events, or hard-to-detect trends
stitched together by some clever researcher who has combed through
books and newspapers. Ignore these clear signposts to your own peril.
Allegorize them or spiritualize them, and you open yourself up to
deception.
Could All of This Have Already Happened?
One day, while involved in an intense debate with
some Full Preterists (who believe that Christ returned in 70 AD), one
of them read 2 Thessalonians 2:6 from the NIV:
"And now you know what is holding him
back, so that
he will be revealed in his time."
The phrase "is holding him" he argued, proves that
the man of lawlessness must have been living when Paul wrote the
letter. Therefore, he contended, all of the prophecies in this passage
must have already been fulfilled.
His argument would have been a very powerful one,
were it not for the fact that the NIV does not translate this verse
with complete accuracy. A literal translation of this verse doesn't
sound very natural in English, and because of this, the translators of
the NIV may have added words they believed were implied.
In the original Greek language in which the New
Testament was written, the word "him" is absent from the first part of
the sentence, and this is very apparent in literal translations of this
verse.
Green's 1993 Literal
Translation reads: And now
you know the thing holding back, for
him to
be revealed in his time.
The 21st Century King James
translates it similarly: And now ye know what withholdeth, that he
might be
revealed in his time.
Young's literal translation includes the words "his
own," a more accurate translation of the Greek word "eautou": "and now,
what is keeping down ye have
known, for his being revealed in his own time,"
Lastly, let's look at the Greek
Interlinear, both for this verse and the one following:
2
Thessalonians 2:6 kai {AND} nun {NOW} to {THAT
WHICH} katecon
{RESTRAINS} oidate
{YE KNOW,} eij
to {FOR} apokalufqhnai
{TO BE REVEALED} auton
{HIM} en
{IN} tw
eautou {HIS OWN} kairw
{TIME.}
2:7 to gar
{FOR THE} musthrion {MYSTERY} hdh
{ALREADY} energeitai thj {IS
WORKING} anomiaj
{OF
LAWLESSNESS;} monon
{ONLY THERE IS} o {HE WHO} katecwn
{RESTRAINS} arti {AT PRESENT} ewj
{UNTIL} ek {OUT OF
THE} mesou
{MIDST} genhtai
{HE BE GONE,}
Note something highly significant here:
to katecon ("that
which restrains") in verse 6 is
neuter, meaning it is a thing rather than a person doing the
restraining. However, in verse 7 o katecwn ("he who
restrains") is masculine, indicating that there is also a person (God,
a human, or an angel) who is restraining.
It's too bad we don't have Paul with us to tell us
for certain who and what these two restrainers are, as the
Thessalonians did. However, I believe that history and the scriptures
give us some good clues.
Note that the neuter and masculine restrainers were
working at the same time to prevent the antichrist from being revealed
before his own time. Because of this, it seems likely that the
masculine restrainer mentioned in verse seven was using some thing (a
neuter force, circumstance, or condition) during the time of the
Thessalonians as the means of restraint.
The purpose behind this may have been to have been
to prevent other would-be antichrists from claiming the temple before
Antichrist's time comes. This would have been necessary, because
according to verse 7, the mystery of lawlessness was already at work.
This fits in nicely with "as ye have heard that Antichrist
cometh, even now are there many antichrists" in 1 John 2:18. In fact,
history does record that there was at least one man itching to get his
hands on the temple around that time. Josephus records that the Roman
Emperor Caius tried to claim the temple and set up images within the
temple in AD 40.
The Jews pleaded with Petronius, the Roman officer
charged with carrying out Caius's commands, and told him that the
entire nation would fight to the death to prevent his orders from being
carried out. Petronius agreed, at the risk of his own life, to petition
the emperor on the Jews' behalf. Enraged that Petronius had not
speedily carried out his command, Caius replied with a very angry
letter. While delivery of that letter was delayed by stormy seas, the
wicked emperor died. As God was pleased should happen, news of the
emperor's death reached the noble Petronius before that threatening
letter did.
Some preterists have speculated that the "what" of
Thessalonians 2:6 is the "Roman Government," and the "who" of 2:7 is
the Emperor Claudius, who was emperor of Rome when 2 Thessalonians was
written. The one who is being restrained, they speculate, is Nero. Dr
Kenneth Gentry, who is a partial preterist, comments "It may be that he
(Paul) employs a word play on Claudius' name. The Latin word for "
restraint" is claudere, which is similar to "Claudius."
Some have claimed that this view was held by some of
the church fathers. While I have not yet verified this, I should
mention at this point that there is no doubt that some of the church
fathers held to certain partial preterist views. However, all of the
Church Fathers looked forward to a future resurrection. None of them
were full preterists.
As Dr. Leon Morris has pointed out, Nero was only a
child when 2 Thessalonians was written, so it is doubtful that Nero was
being restrained from getting his hands on the temple at that time. II
Thessalonians was written about A.D. 51 or 52. Nero would have been
only 14 or 15 years old at that time. In fact, as a friend of mine
pointed out, it may have been because Nero was not properly restrained
(by his parents and guardians) that he turned out the way he did!
In light of this, it seems more likely that the
restraining force was the Jewish people, rather than the Roman
government. The idea of the restraining force changing, but the
masculine Restrainer staying the same, is supported by the fact that
Paul does not use the neuter verb again in verse seven.
If the Restrainer is an angel or the Holy Spirit, at
later times He might use other means of restraint (for instance,
preventing the temple from being rebuilt). This might explain why the
neuter verb is not used again in verse seven. Once the Restrainer stops
standing in the way, Antichrist will be revealed in his own time:
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is
already at work;
only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom
the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the
brightness of His coming.
While the prospect of a future Antichrist is dire,
when he is revealed we will know that the coming of our Lord is near.
We will have the sure and certain expectation of Christ's imminent
return to sustain us through the brief reign of the lawless one.
Then, we look forward to glorious, wonderful things.
We look for a literal coming of Jesus, the bodily resurrection of those
who have died in Christ first, and then the changing of the mortal
bodies of those who are alive into immortal ones. We look forward to
the time when the lion will lay down with the lamb, and the nations
will beat their swords into plowshares. Finally, we look to a literal
new heavens and new earth, in which there will be no more pain, sorrow
or death. If need be, that's worth going through a few years of
persecution for!
Jesus taught us to ask in prayer that our Father's
kingdom will come, and that His will may be done, on EARTH even as it
is in heaven. He would not have instructed us to pray for this if he
had no intention of bringing it to pass!
Daniel 2:4 And in the days of these
kings shall the
God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the
kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Psalms 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the
heathen for thy inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for
thy possession.
Psalms 72:11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before
Him: all nations shall serve Him.
Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and
there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world
are become [the kingdoms] of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall
reign for ever and ever.
God's victory over sin and death will find full
expression. Sin and death will be completely conquered, with no less
finality than that with which the lawless one will be consumed and
destroyed:
1 Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy that
shall be
destroyed is death.
Revelation 20:14 And death and hell were cast into
the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things
have passed away.
And we, what do we say to these things?
Come,
Lord Jesus!
1. Page 1228, VII 507-16
2. Quoted by W. G. Kummel, The
New
Testament: The History of the Investigation of its Problems
(Nashville/New York: Abingdon, 1972) 22-23.
* Copyright 2001, Marshall "Rusty" Entrekin. Permission is hereby
granted to reproduce this
document for free distribution, provided it is not altered in any way.
See his website www.thingstocome.org