The Apostle Paul taught a Post-trib Rapture in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8. The plain sense interpretation and obvious point of this passage, meant to dispel false alarm at Thessalonica, is that the "coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" and “our gathering together unto Him” in v. 1 (the "Day of Christ" in v. 2 and “that day” in v. 3) will not occur until after the “falling away” (apostasy) and the antichrist is revealed and destroyed in v. 3. (The word “by” in v. 1 (Gr. huper, 5228) means “concerning” or “regarding”). The "falling away" in v. 3 (Gr. apostosia, meaning rebellion; 1 Tim 4:1-2, Matt 24:10 etc.) cannot mean the rapture (departure from earth rather than from the faith) as claimed by many Pre-trib proponents because that is totally contrary to the clear meaning of the Greek word apostosia which carries a negative meaning of rebellion and anarchy, and because the Apostle Paul would then be making the contradictory statement that our gathering together unto him (v. 1) will not happen until after our gathering together unto Him (v.3). The Pre-trib argument from this passage that the Church must be the restraining influence of verses 6-7 and thus must be removed from the earth is false. According to the Pre-trib position, "he who now letteth" in v. 7 is the Holy Spirit as He is working through the Church, and therefore the Church must be removed from earth before the antichrist can be revealed. However, the Holy Spirit’s ministry of indwelling believers is not equivalent with His ministry of restraining the antichrist (if in fact the "He" of the passage is the Holy Spirit, which is not clearly shown). The Holy Spirit is eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient God, is not limited only to indwelling believers, and can cease restraining antichrist without the Church being raptured.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 04:46:39 +0000
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