2 Thessalonians Chapter 2 Verses 1 – 2

• In his first letter to this church Paul had gone into great detail concerning the rapture of the church. We walked through it together when we studied chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians and laid completely flat the scene and sequence of the rapture of the church. The fact that before the Great Tribulation, before God’s righteous judgment upon this world is poured out and completed, those that are washed and cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ are taken out of the way. Raptured! Claimed! Paul said in the fourth chapter of the previous letter, “We will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the clouds and thus we shall always be with the Lord…therefore comfort one another with these words.” Install and reinforce HOPE!
• And yet we know by his statement here in Chapter 2 that comfort was failing. Hope was lost. They were mixed up. They were shaken and troubled. Why? Well first he reveals some sort of spiritual deception and man this is the truth! That we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places! (Ephesians 6:12)
• A little biblical revelation of the satanic and demonic leadership that drives wickedness and confusion on this planet. Ephesians 6:6:6! Before you look for the worldly conclusion or the human problem, before you go to the spoken word or the physical account (letter), man realize that your troubledness and confusion are what the enemy of soul wants…He strives constantly at work for you to get all troubled and shaken and then lash out or accuse or distrust or continue the drama! Happens to us, it was happening to them…Ephesians 6:6:6 was working hard in that new church.
• And apparently Lucifer had some help. Folks spreading false doctrine which was misaligned with what Paul had said and even fake letters circulating that were contributing to the folks being confused and shaken and troubled. So Paul sets out to reinforce and correct them. Set them straight! The Day of the Lord is yet ahead. You haven’t missed and you certainly are not in the Great Tribulation!
• Now what’s cool is that notice, the Thessalonians would be shaken or troubled by the idea that they had entered the Great Tribulation ONLY if Paul had taught them that if you’re saved, you would escape it via the rapture! Otherwise they would have in a way welcomed the Great Tribulation knowing that the second coming of the Lord was at hand! So it’s very clear to me in the actual letter and supported even by their current state that Paul had taught them that the church will literally, physically, completely escape the righteous judgment of God upon the earth during the 7 year Great Tribulation period. Cool, right!?
• First it was our loved ones missed it! (First letter) They’re dead and gone and they missed it! Paul corrected that. Now it’s, we missed it…Paul sets roadblocks up against that false doctrine too…

2 Thessalonians Chapter 2 Verses 3 – 4

• Paul says watch, it is yet ahead. He said earlier to them, “You are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief!” God in His word is so very clear and simple and unambiguous! He leaves no cliff-hangers (playoff story). He says before the rapture, will come the great apostasy. And before the second coming of Jesus Christ, will come the Anti-Christ.

• Paul says here that there will be a great falling away, the apostasea in the Greek…what we call the Great Apostasy, but what is it? Well, it’s the great defection…a great movement on earth to forsake God in heaven. And it is upon us! The world has not only rejected the word of God, in the day we live in today, it hates it…billions that wear the badge Christians don’t know or care to even know what the word of God says…and we are seeing something unprecedented in our time, a whole sale departure of even the church from truth…when we see the Great Apostasy upon us, the rapture is right around the corner…
• And the moment after the rapture, how do you know you’ve missed it, other than a bunch of folks disappeared, (but the world will probably have an explanation for that), well next up is the Anti-Christ…Satan incarnate man because this man sits as God…that folks is the very essence of Anti-Christ which is totally alive and well today even in the hearts of good people like you…1 John 2:18…

2 Thessalonians Chapter 2 Verses 5 – 8

• “You overcome because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” John wrote that in 1 John Chapter 4. Who is in you, Christian? The Holy Spirit! The Anti-Christ, the enemy, Satan…is no match for the Holy Spirit…God Himself. That’s comforting and commanding for me! Because I decide who I worship. I decide who I follow…and if self and Satan are no match for the Savior, Jesus Christ, how foolish and a waste of breath am I to follow them and not Him?
• This scripture set reveals that something is restraining the work of the enemy upon the earth. Who are what is that? It’s you Christian. It’s the Holy Spirit indwelling and upon each and every Jesus loving citizen of heaven that walks on this earth and Paul is connecting the dots for us and for them and adding some additional details to what he had told them before. That before the Great Tribulation, the Great and terrible day of the Lord, the time of Jacob’s trouble, the seventieth week of Daniel, before the Anti-Christ is unleashed and revealed, the Holy Spirit Himself, His influence and overcomence upon this earth will be, He will be taken out of the way…
• The restraining force upon the earth, the bride of Christ, will be removed and the world will be plunged into God’s righteous judgment…the 7 year Great Tribulation. But listen, don’t get this wrong, don’t miss this…the Holy Spirit won’t evacuate the earth…we know that because there will be those that come to faith during the horror of the Great Tribulation…we know them as tribulation saints…this simply means that the church is gone…the bride of Christ is joined to her Groom…and coming soon to a Jerusalem near you…the coming, the return of Jesus with His army (His bride!)…as Paul says there that the Lord will consume him and destroy him with the brightness of His coming…see Thessalonica church, you haven’t missed it…these things are yet ahead…and they are for us as well..
• So have you missed it? Oh I’m not talking about the rapture…have you missed the point? The key. The path. The Way…? That God Himself is the power to overcome…the Great Restrainer…He is the one that has with Him not only eternal life but forever-freedom right now in that circumstance, in that workplace, in that marriage, in that relationship…in your heart…if you drop the worship of weakness, and attack your own rebellious spirit of anit-christ!