2 Thessalonians 2
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · AD 50 – AD 51 · The early church · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
17 verses · 386 words · ~2 min read · ~3 min listen
The Man of Lawlessness
1Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter seeming to be from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has already come. 3Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. 4He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
5Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? 6And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it will continue until he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.
9The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, 10and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. 11For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, 12in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.
Stand Firm
13But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth. 14To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15Therefore, brothers, stand firm and cling to the traditions we taught you, whether by speech or by letter.
16Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who by grace has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope, 17encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and deed.
Footnotes (1)
- a v13 Or God has chosen you as the firstfruits
Study notes on this chapter · 3
The king who exalts himself above every god
From Daniel 11:36 the king 'does as he pleases', exalts himself above every god, and meets his end between the sea and the glorious holy mountain. Since the chapter's earlier verses match the Seleucid kings closely, readers disagree on whether verse 36 still describes Antiochus IV or turns to a figure at the end of time.
When: Daniel, c. 530–164 BC; proposed fulfillments run to a future end time.
Ways people read this (4)
- Still Antiochus IV Epiphanes, described in increasingly exaggerated terms, whose actual death did not match the details.
- A future end-time ruler, sometimes identified with the antichrist (many Christian commentators since the early church).
- Rome or another historical power, read in historicist interpretation.
- A type: Antiochus is a pattern for later persecuting powers.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
Caught up to meet the Lord in the air
Paul tells the Thessalonians that the Lord will descend from heaven with a cry of command and a trumpet, the dead in Christ will rise first, and the living will be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air. Christians agree on the hope of Christ's return and the resurrection, but disagree about the timing and nature of this event relative to other end-time events.
When: 1 Thessalonians, c. AD 50–51.
Ways people read this (4)
- Pretribulation rapture: believers are taken before a seven-year tribulation (dispensational premillennialism).
- Posttribulation: the gathering happens at Christ's single visible return, after the tribulation, when believers meet the Lord and escort him to earth (historic premillennial).
- Single return: the gathering is part of the one return of Christ at the end of history, with the resurrection and judgment (amillennial and postmillennial).
- Midtribulation and prewrath: various positions in between.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
The man of lawlessness
Paul tells the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord will not come until the rebellion occurs and the 'man of lawlessness' is revealed, who sets himself up in God's temple and claims to be God. Paul says something 'restrains' him now. Nearly every part of the passage has been interpreted in several ways.
When: 2 Thessalonians, c. AD 50–51.
Ways people read this (5)
- A future individual antichrist, with a temple that is rebuilt or symbolic (futurist).
- A Roman emperor (Caligula, Nero) or a wider Roman-era opposition (preterist), and the restrainer is the Roman state.
- An institution or system of apostasy, such as the papacy (historicist Protestant).
- The restrainer has been identified as the Holy Spirit, the church, government and law, the archangel Michael, or Paul's own preaching.
- The 'temple' is the church, or the Jerusalem temple before AD 70.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.