What does 2 Thessalonians 2 teach about the timing of the Rapture?
| By: r. Renald Showers; ©1996 |
| Bible Prophecy Questions Answered by Leading Christian Scholars. |
What does 2 Thessalonians 2 teach about the timing of the Rapture?
Dr. Renald Showers: One of the passages that is often a question mark with regard to the timing of the Rapture is 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2. Paul in verse 1 says, “Now, we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto Him.” That’s definitely a reference to the Rapture, when Christ is going to come out of Heaven and gather His saints together with Him. Let me point out to you, the Greek language, what it says is: “We beseech you, brethren, on behalf of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him.”
Let me tell you why Paul was saying that. Paul had taught the Thessalonian Christians, we understand, that the Lord would come and rapture the Church saints out of the world before the future Day of the Lord would begin at the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation period with the outpouring of God’s wrath. But after Paul had taught the Thessalonians that and had left the city, somebody had sent a letter or had passed on words through some form to them to the effect that Paul now was teaching that the Day of the Lord had already begun and that they as Christians were already in the Day of the Lord. And obviously, that false teaching would completely contradict what Paul had already taught them about the Church saints being raptured to Christ: that they’d be raptured out before the future Day of the Lord would come.
The Thessalonian Christians were shaken by this because the false teachers said Paul himself is the one who has taught this, that the Day of the Lord has already started; you’re already in it. And they were using as evidence the fact that the Christians were already being persecuted and saying, “Well, look, the Day of the Lord is here.”
So Paul is writing to rebut that false teaching, to try to drive home the point, “Christians, you’re not in the Day of the Lord. And I’m writing to you on behalf of the teaching I already gave to you about the coming of the Lord to gather us together to Him in the Rapture. I’m writing in defense of that teaching that we’re going to be removed from the earth before the Day of the Lord, and therefore, we as Christians will not be here when the Day of the Lord comes,” and to drive home to them that the day of the Lord has not started. He says to them in verse 2, “that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand.”
Now, many of the Greek manuscripts which are regarded as very reliable say that “the Day of the Lord is at hand.” And literally, it’s that the Day of the Lord, in essence, is already here. That was the problem. Somebody had said, “You’re already in the Day of the Lord.” And that contradicted what Paul had taught to the effect that Christians would be removed before the Day of the Lord began. So to prove to them that the Day of the Lord had not already started, Paul says in verse 3, “Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day [the Day of the Lord] shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition”—who is the Antichrist. He’s saying that the evidence that the Day of the Lord isn’t already here and you’re not in it is the fact that two things that have to happen before the Day of the Lord will take place have not happened yet, namely, the apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin.
Paul is not teaching here that the apostasy and revelation of the man of sin have to take place before the Rapture takes place. What he’s saying is, the apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin, or the Antichrist, have to take place before the Day of the Lord begins. The implication being that the Antichrist would already be on the world scene and in a position of power before the Day of the Lord and the seven-year Tribulation period begins. He would have to be that in order to make or confirm the covenant with Israel at the very beginning of the seven-year Tribulation period. Certainly Israel would not enter into a confirmed covenant relationship with this man if he weren’t in a position of authority or power to confirm such a covenant with him. So Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2 is not saying that here are two things that have to happen before the Rapture: the apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin or the Antichrist. What he is saying is, here are two things that must take place before the Day of the Lord begins, not before the Rapture begins.
Hello sir. I enjoy your show every Sunday night on Channel 30 WVCY Milwaukee. I’m confused as to what the Day of Christ is vs “Day of the Lord” which refers to the 7yr. tribulation. I’ve heard that “Day of Christ” refers to the rapture and is the way this passage should be translated.
I also noticed that in vs. 3 and 4 Paul goes into detail about the antichrist sitting in the temple committing the abomination of desolation. I fear that if the Day of Christ is the proper translation and refers to the rapture, Paul is saying that the abomination of desolation must happen first, thus meaning we will go through the first 3 and 1/2 years of the tribulation. Please clarify.
The tribulation. The darkened sun and moon. Then the rapture. Then the Day of the Lord. What u r teaching will cause a holocaust. Christians need to be ready to suffer.
Exactly.
This does not make sense – the text is equating the Day of the Lord AS the paraousia and catching away – this is very clear only a few vss later…. How can you possibly miss both the plain sense within v1 -4 – then confirmed in text only a few vss later with reference to the parousia and the time as AFTER the great man of sin, etc.
Paul says “as that the day of Christ is at hand.”-2Th 2:2 which is future tense, so it’s impossible that they thought the day of the Lord had already begun. These stories are all nonsense to make us believe in a pre tribulation rapture, which won’t happen. The same goes with people saying “falling away” means rapture, which would mean the rapture comes before the rapture… yes there really are people teaching this.
Preaching a pretrib rapture is the same as playing russian roulette, so please stop doing it and preach the truth.
In that verse, the word ενεστηκεν is the 3rd person single form of the verb where we’re reading, Its tense is PERFECT (which indicates a present-tense report of an action that has been completed but has effects in the now; like: “he has done”), its voice is active (which indicates that the subject performs the action, instead of receives it), and its mood is indicative (which describes a situation that actually is — as opposed to a situation that might be, is wished for, or is commanded to be).
Good and accurate blog – We can know more about the end times because we’re there. There are many signs and confirmations like the torahcalendar.com but I want to quote the servant. “…Since Jesus (or the Bible) never says exactly what the abomination is, Paul couldn’t very well use that as an example. Therefore, he used the ‘uprising’ that precedes the abomination, in Daniel 11:31, which he called “the rebellion” because that’s the term that a “holy one” uses, in Daniel 8:13. The holy one refers to the “rebellion that causes desolation”, which is obviously the uprising and abomination put together. Yet, since the uprising and abomination happen in such close proximity to the ‘gathering’ (rapture), prompting Jews in Judea to flee immediately for the mountains (Matthew 24:16-18), Paul had to add some other things that happen soon after the abomination, to strengthen his point.” Thanks for the blog and allowing this post.