In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He [Jesus Christ -Yeshua]
was in the beginning with God.
SECOND THESSALONIANS
The book of Second Thessalonians is the ninth of Paul’s thirteen
letters referred to as the Pauline epistles. Paul wrote this epistle to
the Thessalonians while in Corinth shortly after he wrote his
first
letter in AD 51. Paul had previously founded the church of Thessalonica
during his second missionary journey. Thessalonica, which is present day
Salonika (or Thessaloniki), Greece, was the capital city in the Roman
province of Macedonia.
In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul emphasized the
return
of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. In his second letter, he reemphasized the
return of Christ by carefully explaining events that must first take
place before His return. Many believers in Thessalonica were being
misled into believing that Christ’s return was imminent.
Consequently, they were
behaving irresponsibly by giving up their jobs and conducting themselves
unbecoming of believers in Christ. Paul made it clear that the Day of
the Lord will not come until the falling away comes first, and He, the
restrainer, is taken away. Then God will reveal the
lawless one who is
the man of sin, the son of perdition.
Paul’s second letter is momentous for our current time. The son of
perdition is the Antichrist. The
Antichrist cannot take his position as
a world leader until the Christian church, the restrainer through the
power of the Holy Spirit, is taken away. This means that the
rapture of
the saints on earth must occur before the Antichrist is revealed. Today,
many are falling away from the teachings of Christ while the greatest
religious cult, Islam, is growing at a fast pace. God will allow Satan
to empower the Antichrist with all power, signs and lying wonders
because people will rather believe a lie than the truth. God will send a
strong delusion and condemnation to those who have rejected the truth.
They will perish.
Second Thessalonians 1-2: Thanksgiving and encouragement; events
preceding the Day of the Lord
Second Thessalonians 2-3: The second coming of Christ; comfort to
believers; conduct of believers