{"id":3974,"date":"2012-11-13T03:30:26","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T11:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=3974"},"modified":"2012-11-12T22:13:22","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T06:13:22","slug":"2-thessalonians-23-two-preceding-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/2-thessalonians-23-two-preceding-events\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Thessalonians 2:3 &#8211; Two Preceding Events"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 128);\">Let no one deceive you by any means; for<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"color:#696969;\">&nbsp;<em>that Day will not come<\/em><\/span> <span style=\"color:#000080;\">unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong><u>Truth to Learn<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Tribulation won&rsquo;t begin until a couple of other things happen first.<\/p>\n<h3><strong><u>Behind the Words<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&ldquo;<span style=\"color:#000080;\">Deceive<\/span>&rdquo; is translated from the Greek verb <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>exapata\u014d<\/em><\/span>, made up of <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>ek<\/em><\/span>, used as an intensifier, and <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>apata\u014d<\/em><\/span>, meaning &ldquo;to deceive&rdquo; or &ldquo;to seduce.&rdquo; Thus, <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>exapata\u014d<\/em> <\/span>means &ldquo;to completely deceive.&rdquo; It is expressed here in the subjunctive mood, indicating possibility or probability. Therefore, the opening part of this verse should read, &ldquo;No one should completely deceive you &hellip;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The words &ldquo;<span style=\"color:#696969;\"><em>that Day will not come<\/em><\/span>&rdquo; have been inserted by the translators; however, they are implied by the context and are appropriately inserted.<\/p>\n<p>The words &ldquo;<span style=\"color:#000080;\">falling away<\/span>&rdquo; are translated from the Greek noun <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>apostasia<\/em><\/span>. This word is based on the verb <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>aphist\u0113mi<\/em><\/span>, which is made up of <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>apo<\/em><\/span>, meaning &ldquo;from&rdquo; or &ldquo;away from&rdquo; and <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>hist\u0113mi<\/em><\/span>, meaning &ldquo;to stand&rdquo; or &ldquo;to place.&rdquo; Thus, <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>aphist\u0113mi<\/em><\/span>, means &ldquo;to put away&rdquo; or &ldquo;to remove.&rdquo; So, the noun <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>apostasia<\/em> <\/span>refers to &ldquo;the departure.&rdquo; It can refer to a departure from a place or a set of ideals. The English word apostasy primarily refers to a departure from the core beliefs of Christianity, but the Greek word could also refer to a physical departure.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;<span style=\"color:#000080;\">Perdition<\/span>&rdquo; is from the Greek noun <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>apoliea<\/em><\/span>, which is made up of <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>apo<\/em><\/span>, meaning &ldquo;from&rdquo; or &ldquo;away from,&rdquo; used here as an intensifier, and <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>ollumi<\/em><\/span>, meaning &ldquo;to destroy.&rdquo; Thus, <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>apoliea<\/em> <\/span>refers to &ldquo;complete destruction.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h3><strong><u>Meaning Explained<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In the previous verse we noted that Paul is talking about how the Thessalonian Christians had been fooled into believing that the Day of the Lord (the Tribulation) had already begun. In today&rsquo;s verse he instructs us regarding certain events that must occur before the Tribulation can begin.<\/p>\n<p>He says, &ldquo;<span style=\"color:#000080;\">no one should completely deceive you &hellip;<\/span>&rdquo; The reason we shouldn&rsquo;t be fooled into thinking the Tribulation is upon us is because it won&rsquo;t happen until a couple of other things happen. The first thing that must occur is the <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>apostasia<\/em><\/span>; however, there is much debate as to what this specifically refers to. Some believe that it refers to the Rapture, when the church is removed from the earth. Others note that the only other use of the word in the New Testament is the following:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000080;\">&hellip; that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses &hellip;<\/span> (<span style=\"color:#800000;\"><strong>Acts 21:21<\/strong><\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>Secular writers of the first century use the word to refer to political revolt as well as the religious movement away from fundamental Judaism. So, it is unclear as to whether Paul is referring to a religious apostasy or to the rapture.<\/p>\n<p>The other event that must occur before the Tribulation is the &ldquo;<span style=\"color:#000080;\">man of sin<\/span>&rdquo; must be revealed. This is most likely a reference to the one we call &ldquo;antichrist,&rdquo; although only the Apostle John uses that designation. Only after the <span style=\"color:#800000;\"><em>apostasia<\/em> <\/span>and the revealing of the &ldquo;<span style=\"color:#000080;\">man of sin<\/span>&rdquo; can the Tribulation begin.<\/p>\n<h3><strong><u>Application<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It&rsquo;s very clear to many of us that the Rapture and the Day of the Lord are both very near. Until that day, keep your focus on God and listen for the trumpet blast!<\/p>\n<p><strong>In God&#39;s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/images\/Signature.gif\" style=\"width: 63px; height: 35px;\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Copyright&nbsp;&copy;&nbsp;2012 Will Krause. All rights reserved<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let no one deceive you by any means; for&nbsp;that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, Truth to Learn The Tribulation won&rsquo;t begin until a couple of other things happen first. Behind the Words &ldquo;Deceive&rdquo; is translated from the Greek verb [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[2894,2892,2365,818,2891,2893],"class_list":["post-3974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apoliea","tag-apostasia","tag-deceive","tag-exapatao","tag-falling-away","tag-perdition"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-126","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3974"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3977,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3974\/revisions\/3977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}