The Rapture, the Anti-Christ, & the Restrainer
What’s Bothering You? in an exposition of 2 Thessalonians 2
When is the rapture? Who is the anti-christ?
The unstable are easily shaken. World crises provoke a new wave of end-times teachers and writers trying to capitalize on the panicking people who think it is a sign of the end. In the 1970s, when America seemed weak and communism seemed strong, the fall of South Vietnam, the bad economy, there was a craze of end-times speculation, with The Late Great Planet Earth being the best-selling nonfiction book of the decade.
About a decade ago, some people saw several “blood moons” as evidence of the soon coming end. Some people are so unstable that if the moon falls in the earth’s shadow, they take that as a dire sign of soon coming catastrophe.
To hear how the end times should make you more stable from 2 Thessalonians 2, listen:
The Problem (2:1-12)
The problem is that the Thessalonians are troubled like a boat tossed by waves. Someone told them that Paul is saying the “Day of the Lord” has already come. “The day of the Lord” is the Old Testament way of speaking of God’s judgment. So, some had told them that Christ had already returned, that the judgment had already happened (like preterists do today.)
When is the rapture?
Over the last century or so, many Christians have accepted the idea that the rapture happens before Christ returns, usually 7 years before. This is called the “pre-tribulation rapture.” But, Paul mentions the “appearing” (the second-coming) first and then the “gathering.” They happen together.
If Paul had been teaching them a pre-tribulation rapture, then you’d expect him to say that the rapture hasn’t happened yet. He lists things that will have to happen before Christ appears. A rapture is not one of them.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:17, “the rapture” is part of the events of the second-coming; it’s the glorification of those who are alive when Jesus comes. If the king was coming to a city, he’d send a message ahead to tell the city, a “cry of command.” The city would send out a delegation to meet him somewhere outside the city and give him an official escort in. It’s the same word as in the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:6. They are waiting for the groom to come and when they hear of him announced, “Here is the bride-groom,” they then go out, “to meet” him – literally, again “to a meeting” – and escort him back. So, when Jesus comes to the earth over which He already has “all authority,” His people will be to meet Him and escort Him back. We will be his entourage.
For more on the rapture, see the article: “Tribulation Over the Rapture” (< click to read the article.)
For more on the rapture, click on the YouTube link above.
Three Things that Must Happen Before Christ Returns
not the “rapture”
FIRST:
The Rebellion: the Greek word “apostasia,” apostasy. It can mean a revolt or insurrection. Is it the Jewish rebellion against Roman rule from AD 66-70? Maybe. Or is it a religious apostasy, like the falling away to Islam or the use of icons in the church? For us, it’s already happened and so the “day of the Lord” can happen at any time.
SECOND:
The Man of Lawlessness, the antichrist, must be revealed first. His title “the man of lawlessness” shows that he’s antinomian, meaning against law. He lives as if God is dead, so he doesn’t submit to any laws from God but imposes his own will. The antichrist is the self-exalter, like Pope Pius IX who declared, “I am the church.” The church is the temple. The Pope declares himself to be the “head of the church” and to have “the chair of St. Peter.”
THIRD:
The Restrainer is taken away. There’s someone restraining this antichrist. The rebellion against God’s law is already in play. But there’s someone restraining it. He is a person. He can’t be the church or else they would have known that the church hasn’t been taken out of the world yet. The church isn’t called “he.” He can’t be the Holy Spirit or else no one could be born again. Maybe the government, represented by its head.
We shouldn’t be bothered by speculations but be firm on what we know.
For more on the rebellion, the “man of lawlessness,” and the restrainer, click on the YouTube link above.
The Anti-Christ
1 John 2:18, “many antichrists have come.” In Revelation 13, the beast is killed but comes back. Anti-christs keep returning even after they are refuted, exposed, even killed.
Satan will be behind “the appearance of the lawless one.” There will be miracles and amazing achievements. The Lord Jesus will kill him with the “breath of His mouth.” In Revelation 1:16, John sees Jesus in a vision as having a sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth.
For more on the anti-christ, click on the YouTube link above.
People are deceived because they “refused to love the truth and be saved.”
God sends them a delusion by sending them the truth. People are deceived because they “refused to love the truth and be saved.” Oh, they may have heard the truth, even been raised hearing the truth in church every Sunday. But they didn’t love it. They loved money instead or their ego, to be told how good they are. Because of their choice not to love the truth, “God sends them a strong delusion.” God deludes them by sending them the truth. Their hatred of the truth leads them to choose to believe some lie, like that men can become women.
Transsexuality is a strong delusion accepted by those who don’t love the truth.
People who do not love the truth are driven to deception when they are exposed to the truth. So, unbelievers do not love the truth, God sends them the truth and they react to it by embracing a delusion, “in order that they might be condemned” (2:12.) God sends the truth to drive those who do not love the truth to their condemnation.
Lawlessness produces lovelessness.
For more on how God sends truth to delude those who do not love the truth, click on the YouTube link above.
The Promise (2:13-15)
Rather than be troubled, be stabilized by the promise to “obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You’re loved by God “because God chose you.” You’re not loved by God because you chose Him.
If you trust Jesus, from the beginning God chose you to be saved.
Be firm. Hold to the teaching you were taught from scripture
The Prayer (2:16-17)
Paul puts Jesus first and prays to Him, like God, because He is God. In Greek the he reflexive pronoun is singular, for both the Father and the Son, like they’re one.
The one God loved us. He also gave us “eternal comfort,” rather than “eternal punishment.” You have “eternal comfort” so, the prayer, be comforted now. And may God establish your heart, firm, not shaken.
Hopefully, you’re not bothered by the news. You have eternal comfort so be bothered only if others around you don’t yet have it; if they haven’t been loving the truth. For yourself, be thankful that God chose you first. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God because God loved you first.
For the full message on 2 Thessalonians 2, click on the YouTube link above.
Covenant Reformed Baptist Church is Caswell County’s/Danville, Virginia’s Reformed church.