Second Letter to the Thessalonians ~ Part 2

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We paused our ongoing story of Sha’ul’s Second Missionary Journey as we began to dig into his second letter to the Thessalonians while in Corinth. Now, we continue to explore his second letter, which he wrote soon after his first.

Sha’ul’s Prayer for Them

¹¹ With this in view, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill by His power every good purpose of yours and every action stemming from your trust. ¹² In this way, the name of our Lord Yeshua will be glorified in you, and you in Him, in accordance with the grace of our God and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

With this in view probably refers to the whole preceding passage about the people’s perseverance in persecution. Sha’ul prays for their faithfulness in living a Believer’s life as a demonstration of their inclusion in God’s grace.

Correction of a Misconception

2 ¹ But in connection with the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah and our gathering together to meet Him, we ask you, brothers, ² not to be easily shaken in your thinking or anxious because of a spirit or a spoken message or a letter supposedly from us claiming that the Day of the Lord has already come. ³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. ³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way.

Misinformation can come from a spirit other than the Ruach (see 1 Thess. 5:19–22, 1 Yochanan 4:1, 1 Kings 22:22–23), a spoken message that is a sermon or teaching, or a letter supposedly from us but actually a forgery (see 2 Thess. 3:17 for Sha’ul’s authentication of this letter). Alternatively, if this last phrase is translated as “a letter from us, supposedly claiming … ” then Sha’ul is referring to a genuine letter of his, perhaps 1 Thessalonians, which was being misinterpreted to imply that the Day of the Lord has already come. While a similar error is reported in 2 Timothy 2:14–18, it is hard to see how Sha’ul’s message of 1 Thess. 1:10, 3:13, and especially 4:13–5:4 could be misunderstood in this way. In any case, don’t let anyone deceive you (compare 2 Corinthians 4:1–2).

Revelation of the Man of Lawlessness

There is much speculation over precisely what the following passage discusses since the events it speaks of have not yet occurred. The Thessalonians knew better what Sha’ul meant than we do because he used to tell them these things (v. 5). Nevertheless, there is no shortage of opinions, all contradicting each other and all copiously supported by quotations from Scripture. My advice to those interested in pursuing these theories is first to read 1 Corinthians 13:8–12, then to examine books on prophecy that present an overview of the subject, not just one perspective. My notes here are suggestive, not dogmatic. ^[1]

For the Day will not come until after the Apostasy has come and the man who separates himself from Torah has been revealed, the one destined for doom.

The proof that the Day (of the Lord) has not come is that the Apostasy has not come, and the man who separates himself from Torah, who is destined for doom,has not been revealed.

On this Apostasy which precedes The Second Coming of Yeshua the Messiah, on the moral decline which is part and parcel of such rebellion. On the false teachers who will spearhead this evil movement, see 2 Kefa 2:1–3 and Yahuda 4–16; on the attitudes of those who welcome them, see 2 Timothy 4:3–4. But already such false teachers are present; as Sha’ul himself said later, the Messianic Community spawns them (Acts 20:28–31). Yochanan agrees and calls them Anti-Messiahs (1 Yochanan 2:18–23, 4:1–6; 2 Yochanan 7), examples in advance of the final Anti-Messiah, whom Sha’ul here calls the man who separates himself from Torah. In such false teachers, who have “the spirit of the Anti-Messiah” (1 Yochanan 4:3), “already this separating from Torah is at work secretly” (v. 7).

Who is this man who separates himself from Torah? Clearly, an evil figure is, indeed, the very embodiment of evil. Such an apocalyptically evil figure is mentioned elsewhere in the Tanakh and the Brit Hadasah. Isaiah speaks of a self-exalting individual (Isaiah 14:13–14), Daniel of the “little horn” and “the abomination that causes desolation” (Daniel 7, 9, 11–12); Yeshua of “false Messiahs” (Mattityahu 24:4–28, Mark 13:5–23, Luke 21:8–28); Yochanan not only of “Anti-Messiah” (1 Yn 2:18–19, 4:3) but also of two beasts and a false prophet (Revelation 11–20).

⁴ He will oppose himself to everything that people call a god or make an object of worship; he will put himself above them all so that he will sit in the Temple of God and proclaim that he himself is God.

The man who separates himself from Torah will sit in the Temple of God (compare Mattityahu 24:15). Although some consider the Temple spoken of here metaphorically, that seems unlikely. After all, Sha’ul wrote when the Second Temple was still standing, and nothing in the passage suggests that his intent was other than to be taken literally. For this prophecy to be fulfilled, there must be a Temple, but there hasn’t been one since Titus destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE.

⁵ Don’t you remember that when I was still with you, I used to tell you these things? ⁶ And now you know what is restraining, so that he may be revealed in his own time. ⁷ For already this separating from Torah is at work secretly, but it will be secretly only until he who is restraining is out of the way. ⁸ Then the one who embodies separation from Torah will be revealed, the one whom the Lord Yeshua will slay with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the glory of his coming. ⁹ When this man who avoids Torah comes, the Adversary will give him the power to work all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders. ¹⁰ He will enable him to deceive, in all kinds of wicked ways, those who are headed for destruction because they would not receive the love of the truth that could have saved them.

Judgment of Unbelievers

¹¹ This is why God is causing them to go astray, so that they will believe the Lie. ¹² The result will be that all who have not believed the truth, but have taken their pleasure in wickedness, will be condemned.

Satan’s activities will result in wide-scale deception of the unbelieving world. First, however, Sha’ul pointed out that unbelievers reject the truth that would save them. Therefore, God will send them this strong delusion after they have already turned Him away. Their condemnation is based on the fact that they did not believe the truth.

In our next post, we will continue to explore Shaul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians, beginning with 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

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^[1] David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary.