In 2 Thessalonians Paul writes to correct a mistaken understanding and application of his previous teaching. He writes:
"Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction."Several key phrases need to be correctly identified to keep Paul's comments in context. Again, the views Bible teachers have here will vary. These are some of the phrases:
- "coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him"
- "easily unsettled or alarmed"
- "the day of the Lord"
- "the day of the Lord has already come"
- "that day will not come until: A) the rebellion occurs, B) the man of lawlessness is revealed
Number 2 - "easily unsettled or alarmed" is from the Greek words "εἰς τὸ μὴ ταχέως σαλευθῆναι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ νοὸς μηδὲ θροεῖσθαι" and is translated in the NAS as "that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed" (notice the NIV translates the thought of the Greek but the NAS translates the words) . The key words "unsettled" means "to shake, to cause to move to and fro, to cause to waiver like the shaking of a foundation." This word "unsettled" is used beside the word "mind" in the Greek meaning the shaking is being done in their mind, the faculty for reasoning or understanding. This is followed by the word "alarmed" which in the Greek means "to be disturbed, to be frightened, to be inwardly aroused." The report the Thessalonians had accepted had not changed their outward circumstances (there was no increase in persecutions, plagues, or marks of the beast, etc.) but the trouble was on the inside caused by unwarranted fear of something that had not yet manifested.
Number 3 - "day of the Lord" is an Old Testament term for God's Day, or period (Daniel's 70th week) of judgment on the earth and Israel's testing.
Number 4 - "day of the Lord has already come" tells us what they were so unsettled and alarmed about in the mind and inward being. They were anticipating the tribulation and its accompanying events.
Number 5 - Paul says that day worthy of fear will not come until "the rebellion occurs" and "the man of lawlessness is revealed".
The Thessalonian believers wrongfully feared they had missed the rapture that occurs with the appearing of the Lord before the tribulation begins. The tribulation is a seven year period that includes judgment on the nations, but also, a time of testing for Israel in order to bring them to a place of repentance when God pours out on them "a spirit of grace and supplication" mentioned in Zechariah 12:10 (12:10-14:21).
This is the order of events presented in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3:
- Coming of the Lord to gather the church (rapture)
- "The Rebellion" and "revealing" of the anti-Christ
- The period of judgment known as the Day of the Lord, the seven year tribulation
- End Time Basics 1
- Daniel's Prophecy
- Daniel's Weeks; Matthew 24; Luke 21
- Rapture
- The First Half of the Tribulation
- The Second Half of the Tribulation
Galyn Wiemers
http://www.generationword.com
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NKJ 2 Thessalonians 2:1 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,
1) In verse 1, Paul speaks of the coming (of Jesus) and our gathering together to Him. I take the coming and gathering as the same event. The nound coming ("parousia") has the article and is connected by "kai (and)" to the noun gathering ("episunago"), which has no article. Thus, it meets one of Granville Sharp's rules: when two nouns are connected by "kai", and the first noun has the definite article while the second doesn't, then the two nouns are connected referring the the same thing.
I think Paul is merely borrowing from Jesus' teaching from the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus describes his coming as "immediately after the tribualtion of those days."
Matthew 24:29-31 " Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. "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. "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together (verb form: "episunago") His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
2). I believe that the Thessalonians were misguided in thinking that the day of Christ was "at hand." A.T. Robertson
But evidently some one claimed to have a private epistle from Paul which supported the view that Jesus was coming at once, as that the day of the Lord is now present [hōs hoti enestēken hē hēmera tou kuriou]. Perfect active indicative of [enistēmi], old verb, to place in, but intransitive in this tense to stand in or at or near. So "is imminent" (Lightfoot).
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/robertson_at/wp_2thes.iii.html
If this rendering is correct, Paul corrects their misunderstanding that the day of Christ is imminent. He points his readers back to Matthew 24, where Jesus prophesied that specific events must take place before His return is imminent- namely, the falling away, and revelation of the Antichrist:
10 "And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 "Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 "But he who endures to the end shall be saved.....15 "
Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand),
The Thessalonians should not be "shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter" to suppose that Christ coming was about to transpire.
Even if the best rendering, in verse 2, should be "had come" this makes little sense, IMO, for the pre-trib rapture position. Paul goes on to speak of two events that will transpire before that day (the falling away, and the revelation of the Man of Sin (Antichrist)). If the pre-trib rapture happens at the beginning of the 70th week, why would Paul, in effect, place the revelation of the Antichrist before the 70th week when we know he appears during the 70th week?
I see 2 Thess 2:1-3, when taken at face value, as a strong indicator that Christians should not expect to be removed from the earth before the commencement of Daniel's 70th week.
I don't see a basis for defining the "Day of the Lord" as the entirety of Daniel's 70th week. I think that, throughout the NT, there are different terms that are used interchangeably to speak of the second coming of Christ (one day, not a duration of days). You are probably aware that, in 2 Thess 2:2, both "the day of Christ" and "the day of the Lord" can be seen in our English translations. Without arguing for one rendering over another, if it should be "the day of Christ", Paul equates it with the day a believer meet His Lord (of which 2 Thessalonians 2 says that the falling away and man of Sin must precede this day)
Philippians 1:10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,
Philippians 2:16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
If the better rendering is "the day of the Lord", it cannot include the entire tribulation, as Acts 2:20 places the cosmic signs before the day of the Lord and Matthew 24:29 places the cosmic signs after the tribulation. The day of the Lord, then, must be after the tribulation, according to these two texts.
Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
NKJ Matthew 24:29 " Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 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. 31 "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Believers are to watch for the day of the Lord, which is after the tribulation.
NKJ 1 Thessalonians 5:1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
There are OT citations which show that the day of the Lord is one day, but I think this is good for now.
Brian
Sorry about the delay in getting back to this topic. The ice storm has slowed things down, which is nice so far.
I have been thinking about this topic and squeezing in brief moments of study. There are so many things here to discuss but there is one thing I have to get clear, it seems, before my mind can continue to process this issue.
I want to eventually discuss the biblical meaning of the length of the Day of the Lord (a moment, 24 hours, 7 years, Trib + Millennium, etc.) but first I am trying to figure out why the length would matter in the interpretation of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3. It may be that I just can't see the correct angle. One reason why I might not understanding this is if:
1. "had come" at the end of verse two does not actually mean the Day of the Lord (as described in the OT and NT as a day of judgment, wrath, terror, etc.) had actually come but instead the text "had come" is understood to mean it was very close. In this case, the error that Paul was correcting in the Thessalonians' eschatology was that the Day of the Lord was not close or imminent. If that is a correct understanding, Paul was telling the Thessalonians that there was ample time remaining before the Lord returned (or, before The Day of the Lord). But, if "the day of Christ had come" is understood as being a past tense reference to the second coming of the Lord, which would include a single day of wrath and judgment, why would the Thessalonians be "shaken" or "troubled" since the 24 hour "Day of the Lord" had come and gone? The worst was already over?
Next, I need to understand if "coming of our Lord", "our gathering together to Him", "The day of Christ", and "The Day of the Lord" are all the same event or events in a rapid succession of moments (1 Cor. 15:52-"flash", "twinkling"). (The first two are, of course, but are the third and fourth one also the same "Day"?)
It's important to put the passage at hand- 2 Thessalonians 2- in its proper context. There's no question that Paul is speaking about Jesus' coming for Christians. In writing to the church in chapter 1, Pauls says that they should expect to receive rest from their persecutions "when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." After making this point, Paul then goes on, in chapter 2, to explain that "that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition." Paul has one coming of Christ in mind here, that is, the coming of Christ which is the hope for the Christian.
It is clear that Paul is not speaking of a particular coming of Christ (i.e., the Second Coming in the pre-trib scenario) that is irrelevant to the hope of these Thessalonian Christians. In other words. Paul is not speaking of two different comings of Christ, one pre-trib and another post-trib, depending upon his thought patterns at the time.
Before, I pointed out that it really doesn't matter if we translate verse three (in 2 Thess 2:3) as "the day of Christ" or "the day of the Lord" or if it should be "is at hand" or "had come." Both end up undermining the pre-trib view. This is because "the day of Christ" is always presented as the believers hope (i.e., Philippians 1:10, 2:15, etc.). Thus, Paul would be saying that the Christian's hope ("the day of Christ") will not come until the falling away comes first and the Antichrist is revealed (if it should be "the day of Christ is at hand"). The pre-trib scenario doesn't allow this. The post-trib position does. Or, if they were shaken in mind that "the day of Christ had come", Paul still speaks of two things that must precede this day, in effect putting the revelation of the Antichrist before the beginning of Daniel's 70th week. This makes no sense in the pre-trib scenario, but works just fine for post-tribbers.
What about "the day of the Lord?" My personal conviction is that it's the same day regardless of the variation in terms. Pre-tribbers typically claim that the day of the Lord is the entirety of Daniel's 70th week. Well, if we presume that Paul meant "the day of the Lord had come" he again would be saying that the Antichrist will be revealed before the begining of the 70th week. We know this is simply not true. If we presume that it should be "the day of the Lord is at hand" then Paul makes it clear that the falling away and the revelation of the Antichrist must precede this day, undermining pre-tribulationism because he would be saying that Christ's coming is not imminent just yet. Again, it's highly doubtful that Paul held to pre-trib and is simply speaking of Christ's coming in power and glory in 2 Thessalonians 2. To hold this would be to divorce chapter 1 from the context (where Paul tells his beloved readers when they can expect rest from the persecutions.) In effect, he would be speaking of a coming of Christ that was no immediate concern to the church.
I believe that the most natural understanding of the following terms (the day of Christ, the day of the Lord, the day of God, the day of Jesus Christ, the day of our Lord Jesus Christ) are that they are referring to the same day. Otherwise, we are left with the awkward conclusion that Paul and Peter had different comings of Jesus in mind and expected his audience to know, without much hint from the context, which coming they were speaking of. How could the original audience be expected to decipher this (Is he speaking of a pre or post-trib coming?)?
Brian
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