Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

2:3 The day of the Lord will be preceded by two events, neither of which has been fulfilled. The first prerequisite is the rebellion. Although some have suggested that this refers to a Christian or Jewish apostasy, in view of vv. 9-12 a rebellion of humanity as a whole against God is probably in view. Just as humanity in Adam has rejected God and has been plunged into ever greater depths of sin as a result (Rom. 1:18-32), so it will move into all-out rebellion against God when the Antichrist appears (2 Thess. 2:4). the man of lawlessness is revealed. This second prerequisite, elsewhere called the "antichrist" (see 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7), will personify hostility to God and his revelation. He will disclose who he is, the rebel par excellence. He is the son of destruction, the one whose destiny is to be defeated and destroyed when Jesus returns (2 Thess. 2:8).

2:4 Paul draws on Dan. 11:36-37 when he says that the lawless one opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship. The Antichrist will not countenance any rivals but will insist that he alone is God. The temple of God has been variously interpreted as the church, the heavenly temple, the Jerusalem temple, and a metaphor for supreme blasphemous arrogance modeled on the activities of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (see notes on Dan. 11:31-35). Whatever the meaning, the context seems to indicate a concrete and observable act of defiance against God.

2:5-7 Paul is apparently surprised that his own teaching on the end times had not stopped the Thessalonians from believing the false claim (v. 5; cf. v. 2), so he rehearses that teaching (vv. 6-7). The man of lawlessness cannot be unveiled while what is restraining (Gk. to katechon, neuter participle of katechō, "to prevent, hinder, restrain") him now is at work. In v. 7 Paul refers to he who now restrains (Gk. ho katechōn, masculine participle of the same word). Scholarly theories on the identity of this restrainer include the Roman Empire/emperor, the Holy Spirit, and the archangel Michael. According to Dan. 10:13, 20-21, Michael restrains satanic principalities (cf. Rev. 12:7), and in rabbinical traditions and the Septuagint of Dan. 12:1, Michael is said to "pass away" when the Antichrist pitches his tents in Judea (Dan. 11:45) just before the great tribulation begins (Dan. 12:1). The restrainer functions to make sure that the man of lawlessness is revealed (see 2 Thess. 2:3) in his time and not before. Prior to the revelation of lawlessness personified, it operates as an impersonal mystery, stirring up hostility to Christ and his people. Lawlessness remains in mystery form until the restrainer is taken out of the way.

2:8 And then the lawless one will be revealed. As soon as the restrainer is removed, lawlessness is free to manifest itself in unrestrained fashion in the Antichrist. In God's providence, Jesus' second coming overthrows the rule of the Antichrist. the breath of his mouth (cf. Isa. 11:4). The Lord will destroy the Antichrist with overwhelming ease when he comes again.

2:9-10 The coming of the lawless one. The Antichrist has a "coming" (Gk. parousia) which is a poor substitute for Jesus' coming (Gk. parousia, v. 8). Satan is the power behind the Antichrist, working with unrestricted power on his behalf through signs and wonders--which (though they are false) lead people to believe that the Antichrist is God. Unbelievers are those who are perishing because they have failed to embrace the gospel, God's only way of salvation.

2:11-12 Because unbelievers have rejected God's offer of salvation in the gospel, God sends them a strong delusion. As part of his righteous judgment, God is instrumental in causing these unbelievers to embrace the Antichrist (believe what is false) so that they advance to a whole new level of rebellion and are thus condemned as allies of the Antichrist at the second coming.