If you were to judge from Christian bookstores, TV Bible teachers, the Left Behind movies, and popular Christian writing, you would think that Pretribulationism, the Secret Rapture, and the Pretribulational coming of Christ were taught plainly and everywhere in the Scriptures. Here is the fact of the matter. Not only is there no clear support for such a doctrine in the Bible, but the most explicit and clear passage on the subject appears to contradict it. I want to preach on that passage this morning, and I will leave you to judge if what I am saying is correct. Please turn in your Bibles to that passage. Please turn to 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 and follow while I read that passage.

Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? 6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. 8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

My goal is simply to work through this passage verse by verse and exhibit its clear teaching on the Tribulation and Second Coming. It has three sections, which we will look at in order.

I. The Familiar Subject.

II. The Threatening Deception.

III. The Apostolic Teaching

I. The Familiar Subject

2 Thessalonians 2:1 makes the subject which Paul wishes to address very clear: “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him …”

You must understand that Paul takes up a subject about which he had already written the Thessalonian church. I refer, of course, to the well-known passage in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 and following. It is quite important to a right understanding of this passage that you understand that Paul is here addressing the very same subjects and events he has dealt with there. Let me mention several things that confirm the identity of the subjects and those addressed there.

Paul uses the same peculiar word for Christ’s coming as in 1 Thessalonians 4:15. It is the word Parousia, which refers to Christ’s coming as His arrival.

1 Thessalonians 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. (1 Thess. 4:15 NAU)

Paul couples the same event with the Parousia that he couples with it in 1 Thessalonians 4. He speaks here and there of the gathering of Christ’s people to Him at His Parousia. The gathering and the coming are inseparably linked. The gathering takes place at the coming.

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

Paul identifies these two events closely by the grammatical construction he uses in 2 Thessalonians 2:1. He speaks of the coming and gathering—not the coming and the gathering. He does not repeat the article because the two things are closely identified in his mind. This close identification of the two things is natural given what he has already said in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 and following.

As we move on into the passage, the fact that the coming and gathering are inseparably related will become very important. When Paul speaks of the Day of the Lord in verse 2, he refers to the familiar subject he has just identified in verse 1. Interestingly, Paul transitions from the coming and gathering to the day of the Lord in the same way in 1 Thessalonians 5. Please look at that passage with me.

15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 5:1 Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. 2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

Having spoken repeatedly in chapter 4, verses 13-18 of the coming of the Lord, he calls it the day of the Lord in chapter 5. The day of the Lord is the day of the coming of the Lord when His people are gathered to Him in the rapture and resurrection. Several things require this:

• The contextual flow of 1 Thessalonians 5 and 2 Thessalonians 2 requires this identification.
• The fivefold use of “Lord” in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 prepares this phrase to describe the Second Coming in 1 Thessalonians 5. The same transition takes place in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2. The coming of our Lord in verse 1 is called the day of the Lord in verse 2.

What does this mean? Why is it important? The prevailing Dispensational view of eschatology thinks that the day of the Lord is something different than the coming of the Lord. That is why I have made such a point of this. The point in seeing that they are the same thing is important practically. The fact that the day of the Lord does not come unless certain things happen first means that certain things must happen before the coming and gathering mentioned in verse 1.

But why does Paul now have to address this familiar subject again? Hasn’t he said all of this already in 1 Thessalonians? The answer to those questions is found in the next verse I have entitled …

II. The Threatening Deception

Verses 2 and 3 read: “that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you …”

Our understanding of Paul’s concern must begin by understanding that the church’s faith in Thessalonica was immature. Likely, Paul’s ministry in Thessalonica lasted longer than the three sabbath days he ministered in the Jewish synagogue mentioned by Luke in the Book of Acts. Nevertheless, several factors make clear that he was forced to leave that city long before he felt the new church was well-established.

• Acts 17:10 speaks of the hasty and secret departure which was forced upon him by the persecution of the Jews: “The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.”
• Because of his forced and premature departure, Paul felt considerable anxiety for the church in Thessalonica. Paul speaks plainly of his anxiety for them in 1 Thessalonians 3:1: “Therefore when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone.” Consequently, he sent Timothy to find out how they were doing.
• Paul feels the necessity in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 and follows to tell them that they should not “grieve as the rest who have no hope.” They were in danger of grieving like the rest, who had no hope for their dead loved ones. This concern of the Apostle also tells us how immature their understanding was of the last things when Paul was forced out of Thessalonica.

Now, even though he had written them with clear teaching in 1 Thessalonians, their immature faith was being undermined once more by false teaching. Paul does not seem sure of the exact source of this false teaching. He mentions several possibilities in verse 2. He was unsure whether it was “by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us.”

• The term, spirit, probably refers to a supposed prophecy.
• The term, message, possibly refers to a rumored or reported verbal instruction or preaching by the Apostle.
• The term letter (It is the word epistle.) even contemplates the possibility of a forged letter from Paul. The point is that whichever of these it was—or even whether it was all of these—what was conveyed was false and did not represent the views of the Apostle.

But what was the false teaching that threatened the infant church in Thessalonica? It was the report that the day of the Lord had come. But what could such a teaching have meant? This question requires a careful answer and some careful consideration. Think about several things:

• The Day of the Lord refers here to the Parousia and the Gathering of Christ’s people to Him at that event. I have emphasized this already. It is what the context demands we understand the day of the Lord to mean.
• Paul says that the day of the Lord—literally—has set in. The verb used here means to be present or to be here. And Paul puts it in the perfect tense. Thus, it may be translated, “the day of the Lord has become and is now present.” Or it may be translated “the day of the Lords stands present.”
• Now, can you see the difficulty? There is more than one problem.

First Problem: Paul can scarcely mean to imply, and it seems unlikely, that the false teachers were saying that the Second Coming, Resurrection, and Rapture were already happening. No Christian would believe that. That falsehood was too obvious to have any credibility. Paul must mean that the false teachers said these things were impending or imminent. But there is another problem.

Second Problem: Paul himself, at times, taught that the coming of the Lord was near and, in this sense, imminent. There is a sense in which the coming of the Lord was imminent. But here, Paul is saying that it is not imminent. How are we to put these two things together? I think that Paul must have meant to contradict the false teachers by saying that the day of the Lord was not imminent in such a way as to be in the immediate future. It was not imminent in such a way as to warrant Christians giving up their day jobs. It seems from 2 Thessalonians that some Christians in Thessalonica were doing this. Cf. 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15. They were waiting for the day of the Lord, which they thought could be any day now. Nothing intervened, and no prophesied event must occur between the present day and the day of the Lord. Paul will now refute this false teaching by saying exactly the opposite.

III. The Apostolic Teaching (regarding the Christ’s coming and our gathering to Him)

There are several components in Paul’s teaching to remedy this false doctrine of the immediate imminence of Christ’s return. He is going to speak of …

A. What Must Happen First

B. What Prevents This Now

C. What Will Happen Then

A. What Must Happen First

Paul teaches explicitly that there are some things that must happen before Christ comes back and we are gathered to him. He says that the day of the Lord: “will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?”

Paul here reminds the Thessalonians of something he had touched on even in his short ministry there. Notice verse 5, where he says that he had taught them this. He had said that certain events were appointed and predicted to precede the day of the Lord. There were two such events, and they were closely related.

• The first was “the apostasy.” Here is how one Greek dictionary defines the word: “as a condition resulting from changing loyalties revolt, desertion; as a religious technical term; (1) apostasy, rebellion (2TH 2.3); (2) defection, abandonment (AC 21.21).” The word probably refers to religious apostasy but may also connote rebellion against the true God. Though apostasy takes place all the time, this apostasy from the true religion and the true God would be so widespread that it would be clearly seen by genuine Christians.
• The second and closely related event was the revelation of “the man of lawlessness.” This is the person commonly known as the antichrist in popular prophecy.

Yes, this language most naturally means that he is an individual person and not some sort of movement or institution. The mystery of lawlessness may be such a movement, but it produces an individual who leads in the apostasy from God and the holy religion. He is apparently at the center of the great apostasy and leads it. Hendriksen is right when he says: “He is not an abstract power or a collective concept, but definitely and eschatological person.”

Paul also tells us that he claims for himself divine honors. He claims to be god. Thus, he calls men to worship him and forsake the true God. I think it is likely that the language of his taking his seat in the temple of God is not to be taken with crass literalism. Nor does it refer to the church as Hendriksen and others think. It just means that he claims the worship given to any god men worship in whatever temple they worship him.

Let me now focus your attention on the most important things Paul assumes in these verses about what must happen first.

• He assumes that the apostasy and the revelation of the man of lawlessness are obvious events.
• He assumes that the Thessalonians know that they have not happened yet.
• He assumes that they will know when they do happen.
• He tells them that until they do happen, they must not think that Christ’s coming and our gathering to Him are immediately imminent.
• He directly implies that, when they do happen, the coming of Christ will be in the immediate future.

B. What Prevents This Now

Verses 6 and 7 read as follows: “And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.”

Paul says that the Thessalonians knew what and who the restrainer was. But most Christian commentators have been trying to figure out what the Thessalonians knew ever since Paul wrote these words. There are many different views of this restrainer. If you want to ask me about other views than the one I will suggest, you may.

My view is that the restraint is angelic power and the restrainer is a mighty angel. This view is suggested to me by Daniel 10:13, 20, and 21 and Revelation 20 where angels restrain demonic power. This view is also suggested to me because it makes sense that fallen angels (Satan who is behind the mystery of iniquity) would be restrained by unfallen angels.

But to me the important thing to realize is that there is a restrainer and a restraint upon the mystery of lawlessness throughout this age. This restraint lasts till the very end of the age. You should carefully note that there are three consecutive events laid out this passage. There is (1) the time of restraining; (2) a removal of restraint and the coming of the apostasy, man of lawlessness, and time of delusion; (3) after a short time the destruction of the antichrist and his followers. That series of events is strangely parallel to another we have seen and which I will point out in the application.

C. What Will Happen Then

Verses 8-12 describe what happens at the end of the gospel age when the restrainer is removed.

8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. 

During those terrible last days of this age, three things will happen.

• The lawless one will be revealed. This is a reference to the personal antichrist or man of lawlessness mentioned in verse 3.
• The world will be subjected to a tremendous, deluding activity by Satan. False miracle and signs will be given to support the claims of the antichrist. Satan, however, is the unwilling agent in God’s hand to judge a world which rejected the truth by causing them to believe a lie. Thus, the world in delusion will follow the false god of the antichrist to their destruction. This is the apostasy of which Paul has spoken earlier.
• The Lord will return in glory. The word used is Parousia the very word used in verse 1. Apparently, the seeming triumph of the antichrist will be only a short time. Then the supernatural judgment of the Lord will fall on him and the world following. They will be totally destroyed.

IV. Practical and Doctrinal Observations

A. We must distinguish a true and a false doctrine of imminence according to this passage.

Paul’s warning in this passage that the day of the Lord is not immediately imminent is a straightforward rebuke of a false doctrine of imminence that is widespread among Christians today. This false doctrine of imminence is that no prophesied event remains before Christ’s pretribulational coming and that Christ may come at any moment. This false doctrine is based on false deductions from the commands of the Bible to be alert to and to watch for Christ’s coming. We must watch for and stay awake for Christ’s coming, but such watchfulness does not imply that Christ’s coming may be at any moment.

I have a friend who once was ministering in a foreign country. When he came to the end of that ministry, he was eager to go home. He knew that his plane left early in the morning at a certain stated time, but he was so concerned not to oversleep and miss his plane that he stayed awake all night. He did not stay awake because his plane could leave at any time. He stayed awake because he was afraid he might oversleep. Similarly, we must stay awake not because Christ could come at any moment but because falling asleep spiritually may lead to us not being prepared for His coming. 

The delicate thing about all this—as I have been implying—is that there is a biblical doctrine of the imminence of Christ’s coming. In many places, the New Testament teaches that Christ’s coming is near and is drawing nearer. But something may be near and yet not be ready to occur at any moment. We are told that in the gospels, certain feasts of the Jew were near, but this did not mean that they could occur at any moment. They fell on certain set dates.

The point is this: There is a true doctrine of Christ’s imminence and a false doctrine of it. The true doctrine of imminence is defined as nearness. The false doctrine of imminence is defined as any-moment-ness. Our passage shows you that Christ’s coming is not imminent in the sense of any-moment-ness. Paul explicitly says that certain prophesied events must happen first.

Maybe it will help if I put it this way. Christ’s coming is imminent, but until the apostasy and revelation of the man of lawlessness, it will not be immediately imminent. With all the talk about imminence, it is interesting to note that in the NASB, the word imminent or imminence only occurs once. Would you like to know where? Of course, you would. It is 2 Peter 1:14: “knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.” Jesus had prophesied that in his old age Peter would be martyred. Peter was now in old age and knew that his death was immediately imminent—sure to happen in the next few days or months. Peter’s death was immediately imminent. The Parousia of Christ is not imminent in that way. And that is what Paul is saying in 2 Thessalonians 2.

B. We must reject the unbiblical doctrine of Pretribulationism.

I have just emphasized to you that one of the main pillars of Pretribulationism is unbiblical. It simply is not the biblical teaching that no prophesied event is due to occur before Christ’s return. If that were the case, then we Pretribulationism would be correct, but it is not true. The fact is, however, that no passage in the Bible teaches a Pretribulational coming of Christ. Let me just briefly recite the evidence for Post-tribulationism in the Bible.

• In Matthew 24, it is clear that the coming of Christ comes after the tribulation. Whatever the tribulation is in that passage, the coming of Christ occurs after it. Cf. Matthew 24:9, 21, 29f.
• In the Book of Revelation, there is no coming of Christ until after the breaking of the seals, the blowing of the trumpets, and the pouring out of the bowls of plagues. If these things depict the great tribulation, as Dispensationalists think, then the coming of Christ depicted in Revelation 19 after all of those things is not pre-tribulational but post-tribulational.
• In 1 Thessalonians 4-5, the Second Coming of Christ, the rapture of the living saints, and the resurrection of the dead saints brings sudden destruction on the wicked. Note carefully! It does not bring seven years of tribulation but sudden destruction. 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3: “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.”
• In 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 one and the same Second Coming of Christ brings relief to the saints and eternal destruction to the wicked. There is no secret rapture ushering in a period of tribulation for the world, but a public and glorious coming bringing immediate destruction to the world. Cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10. The same coming glorifies the saints and destroys the wicked.

Simply put, the Bible everywhere else teaches the very same Post-tribulationism we find in 2 Thessalonians, and nowhere teaches Pre-tribulationism.

C. We must refuse the false hope that the church will not go through the tribulation. 

It is more than a little ridiculous that the notion that the church will not go through the tribulation should have been so attractive to the Christian church. Where did the Bible ever promise Christians deliverance from tribulation in this world? Again and again, it actually says the opposite.

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Acts 14:22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

1 Thessalonians 1:6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit

Revelation 1:9 I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Here is my theory. The pretribulational promise of not going through the tribulation is part of a whole system of easy Christianity that has spread through the Christian world. Easy believism, the notion that you can make a one-time decision for Christ and without perseverance in the faith expect to go to heaven, and other such doctrines lead directly to the idea that Christians do not have to suffer the tribulation. All of these things are part and parcel of an Easy Christianity which infects the church today. Easy Christianity is not biblical Christianity. The Bible never promised a salvation which delivers us from tribulation in this age.

D. We must notice the parallel between 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 20 and reject Premillennial “diplopia” or double vision.

I pointed it out in my exposition of Revelation 20. But let me point it out again here. There is a fascinating parallel between Revelation 20 and 2 Thessalonians 2.

• In Revelation 20 you have the binding of Satan for a thousand years, then you have the loosing of Satan and the deception of the nations for a short time, then you have the burning of Satan by fire from heaven.
• In 2 Thessalonians 2 you have the restraining of the mystery of lawlessness, then you have the removal of the restraint and the deception of the world through the antichrist, and then you have the destruction of the antichrist and his forces by the Parousia of the Christ.

The parallels are striking; and they point directly to the idea that in both passages we have the same series of events simply described in different language.

But in Premillenialism you have the view that these two very similar series of events are not the same. The one series takes place in this age; and the other series takes place in the millennium which follows this age. Jay Adams calls this Premillennial Diplopia. Do you know what diplopia is? It is double vision. He is saying that Premillennialism is guilty of double vision. It sees two things when there is really just one. He is right!

E. We must accept the truth of a short time of global tribulation for the church and of a personal antichrist emerging at the end of the gospel age.

When we compare 2 Thessalonians 2 with Revelation 20, it becomes clear that there is a short period of specific, concentrated, and terrible tribulation for the church at the end of the gospel age. I think other passages also suggest this truth as well, but these are the two we have studied; and they make the matter clear enough. Revelation 20:3 speaks of a “short time” of Satan’s loosing following the thousand years in which Satan was bound. 2 Thessalonians speaks of a period of apostasy and delusion following the time of the restraint of the mystery of lawlessness. This is brought to an end by the Parousia of Christ.

We are not by this committed to all the mythical ideas associated with the so-called “Great Tribulation” by Dispensationalism. I am not saying this is a seven year period of time. I am not saying that it is necessarily a time of widespread war and natural disaster. It is clear, however, that it is a time of terrible spiritual delusion for the world and of global persecution for the church.

Let me proceed, then, to the matter of the antichrist. If there is a specific time of tribulation, it also makes sense that there is a specific man is who is the antichrist or the man of lawlessness. This is the most natural interpretation of 2 Thessalonians 2’s reference to the man of lawlessness. If there is a specific, global attach on the church at the end of the age, it makes sense that it would be led by a personal antichrist. This is also the most natural interpretation of a passage like 1 John 2:18: “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”

Once more let me clarify that in asserting this, I am not affirming all the mythology developed by Dispensationalism about the antichrist. Nor am I endorsing all the fallacies of the “Left Behind” movies. I am only saying that there will be a personal antichrist who leads the attack on the church of Christ at the end of the age.

F. We must see the implication of the world-wide spread of the gospel through the building of the church in this age.

Let me point out that there is an implication found in both 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 20 that is often overlooked. If there is an apostasy after a lengthy period of restraint, and if there is a thousand years in which Satan is bound, the necessary implication is that the gospel does spread successfully throughout the world. How could there be an apostasy if the truth was not first accepted? How could there be a rebellion if the rule of Christ was not first accepted?

Often, when the end times are taught today, a terrible pessimism about the church is encouraged. If the age will end with such a tribulation and man of sin, then the conclusion would seem to be that things will only get worse and worse until the end. Evil men will become worse and worse. That is true, but it does not contradict another truth. Good will grow. The gospel will be preached. The church will be built across the world.

The parable of the wheat and weeds contains the true statement of what will happen in this age. It is not true that we must become spiritual pessimists about the church with Dispensational Premillennialism. It is not true that we must become spiritual optimists with the Postmillennialists. What we must look for is epitomized in the words of Jesus in Matthew 13:30: “Allow both to grow together until the harvest …”

Sam Waldron

Dr. Sam Waldron is the Academic Dean of CBTS and professor of Systematic Theology. He is also one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY. Dr. Waldron received a B.A. from Cornerstone University, an M.Div. from Trinity Ministerial Academy, a Th.M. from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1977 to 2001 he was a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Waldron is the author of numerous books including A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, The End Times Made Simple, Baptist Roots in America, To Be Continued?, and MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response.