[Note: This is referring to the Rapture of the Church - see: Jn. 14:2-3 - "...I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." - 1 Th. 4:16-17 - "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."]
[2] That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by Word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
[Note: This is referring to the Second Coming of Christ - see Rev. 1:6-7; 19:11.]
[3-5] Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
[Note: The Church (born again believers - Philadelphia - Rev. 3:7-13) has been caught up to heaven, and before Christ's Second Coming with the wrath of God. The apostate church (Laodicea - Rev. 3:14-22) remains to face the wrath of God in the Tribulation (Dan. 9:27; Mt. 24:3-29; Rev. 6 - 18). The Antichrist is revealed forty-two months after he confirms a peace covenant with Israel when he declares himself to be god (Dan. 9:27; Mt. 24:15; Rev. 11 - 13).
[6-12] And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now letteth will let, until He be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked (one) be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
[Note: Satan and the Antichrist are limited ("on a leash" - Job 1:10-12; 2:4-6; etc.), and are being resisted by born again believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Jam. 4:7; 1 Jn. 4:4; etc.). When we are caught up to be with Jesus, there will be only the 144,000 saved Jews, and the two witnesses, to resist them (Rev. 7 & 14; 11:3-12). It is not until they are removed, that Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet, are loosed upon mankind (Rev. 12 & 13 - 18)!]
Just as God removed Noah and Lot before He sent judgment, so too will
He remove born again believers prior to His wrath being poured out on the world!
Thank You Lord Jesus!
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