“Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle,” 2 Thessalonians 2:15.
The word ‘therefore’ indicates that Paul is here drawing a conclusion from that which he has stated in the earlier verses of this chapter.
2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is one of the most detailed regarding the person of the Antichrist and the prestige with which he will be viewed by unconverted men and also his perdition in shame.
SECRET RAPTURE
Be that as it may, it is a chapter, the plain teaching of which, is very sadly ignored. Were it read and believed the notion of a ‘secret rapture’ of the saints of God would be universally abandoned.
The opening verses makes it clear that there will be no return of Christ for His saints until after the revealing of the Antichrist.
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God,” 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4.
There was a common notion amongst some of the early believers that the Saviour could come in their day. But Paul is countering that by saying that the Saviour will not return until AFTER ‘a falling away first’, or an ‘apostasy’. Furthermore, he says that the Saviour will return after the revealing or ‘unveiling’ of the ‘man of sin . . . the son of perdition’, the Antichrist.
Therefore the ‘timetable’ of the second coming is set down for all to see. It will come AFTER the rise and the revealing of the Antichrist. The revealing of the Antichrist will IMMEDIATELY initiate the ‘great tribulation’. The Saviour makes that plain!
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be,” Matthew 24:15-21.
Note the total urgency that must be shown once the Antichrist identifies himself by the erection of ‘the abomination of desolation’ in ‘the holy place’, which will be the temple the Jews will one day soon build in Jerusalem. The ‘great tribulation’ will begin immediately that happens and there is not even time to snatch up a discarded item of clothing or gather together a few things from the home before fleeing to the hills.
PLANNING
For the ‘great tribulation’ to be set in motion and become effective as the Saviour indicates, it must be well and secretly planned by the Antichrist for quite some time before! Within living memory, the world has been given a foretaste of that of which the Saviour speaks.
In 1934 in Germany, there took place what was called ‘The Night of the Long Knives’. It was also called the ‘Röhm purge’ or ‘Operation Hummingbird’. (more…)
This is the fourth article I have written on the subject of how Israel will find itself hated and isolated at the end of this age and that in a manner never known before. (See:
