2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 – The Future Is Now – Bible study

2Thessalonians 2:1-12 The Future Is Now The chapter that we are looking at is end time. If you are a student of the Bible, you already know that when God reveals end time prophecy He does it cryptically. The book of Revelation is an example. Much of that book is end time prophecy, but the facts are cloaked in symbols so that the meaning of the passage is very difficult to understand. That book, along with the books of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel, have lead me to a conclusion. God wants us to know what will happen in the future, but He wants us to work to understand it. I believe that is also true of what Paul wrote in this chapter. For us to understand what this chapter contains, we are going to have to work for it. So lets get started. I. \#1-2\ Paul was speaking about two completely different days. A. \#1\ Paul was speaking about the rapture of the church. How do I know that? 1. Paul said it was time or day marked by "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2. "by our gathering together unto him." These two phrases together, leave us no room for misunderstanding what day Paul meant. B. \#2\ Paul spoke about the second of those two days, "the day of Christ" or "the day of the Lord." 1. The phrase, "the day of the Lord" was used 24 times in the Old Testament and refers to the day Jesus Himself returns to the earth to pour Gods wrath upon the earth. 2. It is always portrayed as a day of sorrow, gloom, death, destruction, and judgment. 3. In our text, Paul acknowledged that the Day of the Lord is a day which would a person to be "shaken in mind" and "troubled in spirit," but in 1Thess 5:13, Paul said that the rapture of the church is a day that should give comfort to the believer. 4. These are not the same days. Paul was speaking of two completely different days. C. Why was Paul referring to two different days in two different verses which sit directly beside one another? 1. I think perhaps in part it was to make it more difficult to understand. The Holy Spirit was making it hardernot impossible but harderto see the truth so that only those who would dig for it would find it. 2. I think also because these two days are very close together in time. a. These two days are only seven years apart. b. The next event on Gods calendar that we know about is the Rapture of the church. (1) It could happen any moment, literally any moment. (2) If you are not saved when the rapture takes place, you will go into the tribulation, which in itself is a period of seven years of awful judgment on the earth and the wicked. c. Then there will be seven years of tribulation where God judges the wicked upon the earth with both natural and supernatural judgments. d. That seven years of judgment will end with the Day of the Lord. That is the day when Jesus physically returns with the church to execute wrath (largely suffering and painful death) upon those who have not obeyed Him. e. So these two days are very close together. 3. And I think it is because these two days very close together in association. They are the bookends for the seven years of tribulation. II. There are four major events mentioned: A. \#3\ There is "a falling away." B. "that man of sin be revealed." He is also called "the son of perdition" or the son of the devil. C. \#6-7\ "what withholdeth until he be taken out of the way" – A withholder will be taken out of the way. D. \#11\ God will send A "strong delusion." III. The order of three of those events is also given: A. Paul told us what was to happen first: 2Thess 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first. 1. Something is going to fall away. a. What is the "something?" b. I know of nothing else it can be but the church. c. The church is going to fall away from whom? d. I know of no one else it could fall away from but Jesus. 2. This is a not a new interpretation of this verse. a. I have been preaching for more than 40 years and this interpretation was preached to me back then. b. However in the light of what is happening today in the "church," even if today was the first time anyone had ever proclaimed it, it would be a valid interpretation. 3. You see, the church is not going to fall away from Christ, it has fallen away from Christ. a. We have "churches" ordaining gays, boycotting the Jewish nation, using the most worldly entertainment possible to get a crowd, refusing to preach on sin and repentance, and mutilating their own weak translations of the Bible. b. There is not enough holiness left within most congregations today to convict a lost person of any type of sin. In fact, most churches go out of their way to make sure that does NOT happen. 4. However, for all of what is happening to the "church" at large, that really does not bother me. a. This pulpit does not reach around the world or even very far outside the doors of this building. I cannot control what takes place out there and, for the most part, my voice will never be heard out there. b. What does concern me is what happens to the Green Pond Baptist Church. (1) A church does not have to fall all the way out of Christianity to fall away from Christ, and no church will ever fall away unless its members fall away first. (2) When the GPBC quits standing against sinall sinwe have fallen away. (3) When the GPBC quits using the altarwe have fallen away. (4) When the GPBC stops telling others about Jesus we have fallen away. (5) When the GPBC slacks in their public worshipwe have fallen away. (6) When the GPBC stops believing in prayerwe have fallen away. (7) When the GPBC stops giving to the cause of Jesuswe have fallen away. c. These are the very things that I am concerned with because these are the things that weboth you and Ican control. B. \#7-8\ The "withholder" must be removed THEN the wicked one will be revealed. 2Thess 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And THEN shall that Wicked be revealed. 1. The wicked one will not be revealed until the withholder is removed. 2. In all honesty, this text does not tell us who the withholder or the evil one actually are. a. We know that the withholder is holding the evil one back, which in itself is pretty impressive. b. Because the evil one is the son of the devil \#3\, who opposes everything that is even called God \#4\. c. Even though their identities are not named in this text, I believe it is pretty obvious to those who have studied the Bible who they are. (1) The Withholder is the Holy Ghost. (2) The evil one is the anti-Christ. 3. The second event is the Holy Ghost will be taken out of the anti-Christs way. a. Presently, the Holy Ghost abides within the believer. b. All of the believers make up the one true church or body of Christ. c. When God removes the true believers from this world by the rapture, He will also be removing the Holy Ghost. d. Dont get too concerned about the Holy Ghosts absence because He really wont be gone. (1) The Holy Ghost is God, and God is both everywhere and every when. (2) There is no time or place where God is not. (3) However in the church age the Holy Ghost works through the church. (a) The church, the believers, are the light and salt of this world. (b) To remove the church is to end the Holy Ghosts present ministry of working through the church. (c) The Holy Ghost will still be here, but He will work like He did in the Old Testament, though a few individuals at a time instead of like He has done in the New Testament, work through a whole body at once. 4. However, the second event is the removal of the Holy Ghost or the rapture of the church. Both happen at the same time. C. \#8\ Then the anti-Christ will be revealed. 2Thess 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, 1. Again, I do not believe there is any doubt who the "evil one" is. It is the anti-Christ. 2. He is described in this text: a. \#3\ "the son of perdition" (Devil) b. \#4\ He opposes all that is called God or is worshipped. c. He exalts himself against all that is called God or is worshipped. d. He will sit in Gods temple and attempt to show that he is god. e. \#8\ God Himself will have to return to destroy him. 3. The anti-Christ will be revealed or made known sometime after the rapture of the church. a. However, that does not mean he is not already here. b. The Bible describes this person in the Old Testament as well. (1) He is a slick talker, a flatterer. (2) He is notat least at firstgiven to out-and- out violence. Instead, he will get what he wants by his ability to speak. He will be a diplomat, a negotiator. (3) He will be a politician which more than likely means he will be voted into his place of authority. (4) He will start on some national level and work his way up to a world leader, ever increasing in his authority. c. Over the years, I have been asked if "so-n-so" could be the anti-Christ. (1) My answer is that almost anyone could. About the only one you can rule out is Donald Trump. That man is no flatterer. (2) The best type or image of the anti-Christ that I have ever seen is Barak Obama. By the way, he COULD still be the anti-Christ. He is relatively young and his career is far from over. IV. Then there is the last event: the Great Delusion. 2Thess 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: A. Many in the fundamental circle have preached that this only pertains to those who had heard the gospel, rejected it, and were lost at the rapture. B. I no longer think that. 1. Notice that the verse gives us a fact, an effect, and a cause, but not a time. a. The fact is that God will send a strong delusion. b. The effect is that all will be damned. c. The cause is that they believed not the truth. 2Thess 2:10 because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. d. Yet, the verse does not give us the exact time of this event. 2. Just as I see the falling away already happening, so I see the strong delusion already taking hold. 3. Sadly, there are so many strong delusions today: a. For the last 70 to 80 years, there has been the strong delusion that there is no God. b. For the last 40 to 50 years, there has been the strong delusion that there are many ways to god. c. For the last 20 to 30 years, there has been the strong delusion that sinas defined by Goddoes not exist. d. In the last few years, there has grown the strong delusion that man can decide what is right and wrong. e. There is no question that the LAST of the strong delusion will be the anti-Christ is god, but that is only the last in a long series which have taken hold on our world today to insure that all who refuse the gospel of Jesus Christ will be cast into the Lake of Fire. C. What is sad is that it is highly possible that some sitting within these church walls will soon be deceived by some strong delusion. 1. The only inoculation that anyone person has against this spirit of delusion is to accept Jesus as their Savior. 2. The future is now. Are you sure you are ready for it?