Tag Archives: 2 Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians—The Man of Sin, the Great Falling Away, and the Restrainer Discussed

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2 Thessalonians 1

2 Thessalonians 1:4–8, Persecutions…righteous judgment. The backlash of Elohim’s righteous judgments against the wicked is persecution and tribulation against the saints by the one’s being judged, and their judgment is a result of their treatment of the saints. The saints will finally experience rest from this vicious cycle at the second coming, when Yeshua will take vengeance against the ungodly wicked.

2 Thessalonians 1:9, Everlasting destruction.The ungodly wicked hate Elohim and want nothing to do with him, so Elohim will give them what they want—a place that is far from his presence, along with what they don’t want: everlasting destruction. The wicked want immortality without Elohim, but there is no such thing. There is only damnation and eternal destruction apart from Elohim, but blessing and life for those who seek him.

2 Thessalonians 2

2 Thessalonians 2:3, Falling away [Gr. apostasia]. The Greek word apostasia literally means “a defection from truth.” What is truth by biblical definition? It is that Truth that is divinely revealed from Elohim in heaven to man. The Word of Elohim as found in the Bible is Truth (John 17:17), Yeshua is Truth (John 14:6), and Elohim’s Torah-law is Truth (Ps 119:142, 151), and these are three ways of saying the same thing, and these three are indivisible and indistinguishable from each other. To the degree that one has all three of these things as components of one’s life is the degree to which one is walking in the Truth. So falling away or defecting from truth means walking away from the Bible, Yeshua and the Torah.

2 Thessalonians 2:3–4, Man of sin [Gr. hamartia meaning “to miss the mark”]. The man of sin is an individuals misses the mark of Elohim’s righteous standards, that is, he is one a) who walks contrary to the Torah of Elohim, for sin, by biblical definition is a) violating the Torah (1 John 3:4; Lev 4:2, 13, 22, 27), b) anything that is in opposition to righteousness which is defined by Torah-obedience (1 John 5:17; Ps 119:172), and c) anything that is in opposition to Yeshua the Messiah and not to belief in him (John 16:9; 3:18; 8:24). There are many “men of sin” who fit this description, but the man of sin of the last days will be unlike any other in that he will be demon-possessed, will exalt himself above Elohim and will sit in the temple of Elohim. He will be a highly visible and extremely powerful individual.

2 Thessalonians 2:4, Temple of Elohim. There is debate among Bible students as to whether this will be a rebuilt third Jewish temple sitting atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, or whether this an evil, demonic leaders  who will sit atop Christendom after a majority of earth’s Christians have been ecumenically united in some way probably under the Roman Catholic Church. Whoever the man of sin may be and wherever will be his seat of power, he will exalt himself as Elohim over the earth with powerful signs and wonders (v. 9).

2 Thessalonians 2:6, What withholdeth/what is restraining. There is much debate as to who or what it on earth that is preventing the man of sin from exercising full authority on earth. Some Bible students believe that it is the Spirit of Elohim, some believe it is Christians. It is unlikely that it is either of these since there will be saints on earth and the Spirit Elohim up until the second coming of Yeshua, which occurs after the great tribulation and, most likely, midway through the wrath of Elohim.

2 Thessalonians 2:7, Mystery of lawlessness [Gr. anomia]. The Greek word anomia literally means “lawlessness” or in the biblical context “Torahlessness.” The man of sin will be opposed to the law or Word of Elohim as revealed in Scripture.

2 Thessalonians 2:11, The lie. What lie in Scripture can be consider so colossal and of such overarching significance that Scripture refers to it as “the lie”? Paul refers to this lie again in Romans 1:23. This is likely the lie of the serpent in the tree of knowledge that led man to commit the first sin. That lie was a) man doesn’t need to obey Elohim’s Word, b) man can become like Elohim, c) man can have immortal life apart form Elohim, d) man can have knowledge that Elohim is allegedly withholding from man. All the false Antichrist religions and philosophies of the world are based on these lies.

2 Thessalonians 2:12, Truth…unrighteousness. Truth and unrighteousness are opposites. This is because Scripture tells us that YHVH’s Torah is Truth (Ps 119:142, 151) and righteousness (Ps 119:172), that the Word of Elohim is Truth (John 17:17) and that Yeshua the Messiah is Truth (John 14:6). (Why do I capitalize the word Truth? It is to differentiate between secular truth and divine or spiritual Truth. The latter is at a much higher level and is eternal and is a reflection of the mind and character of the Almighty Creator.) The opposite of Truth is evil, darkness, sin and unrighteousness. Those who righteous and walk in the light of Truth love and live out righteousness, while those who walk in darkness, evil and sin take pleasure in unrighteousness as this verse states.

2 Thessalonians 3

2 Thessalonians 3:6, Withdraw. Why does Paul instruct the saint to withdraw from “brothers” who are out of order spiritually and don’t follow the basic tenets of Scripture? Simply this. Evil company or companionship corrupts good habits or morals, as Paul writes elsewhere (1 Cor 15:33). Or otherwise stated, one can’t live with pigs and not expect to get dirty. That’s why YHVH is presently calling his people to come out of Babylonian religious systems (Rev 18:4), and to come out from among those who are unclean or unholy spiritually and be separate from them (2 Cor 6:17). This is how the bride of Yeshua is preparing herself to be the chaste virgin for which the Messiah is returning.

Tradition. Whose are what tradition are the saints to follow: the traditions of men or those that line up with the full Word of Elohim? Too many people follow religious traditions established by men and the institutions they have created to perpetuate their own ideas some of which line up with Scripture and many of which do not. Where did Paul or any of the other apostles or any of the other biblical authors instruct people to follow them? Nowhere. Rather, they all instructed their readers to follow YHVH Elohim and Yeshua the Messiah and the Word of Elohim. Even today, too many Christians spend most of their time following men and reading and studying what men have written rather than going directly to the Word of Elohim. For such people, how do they know if the men they are following are preaching the Truth of Elohim or their own man-made traditions if they don’t know what the Bible says?

 

Allusions to Torah-Obedience in the Book of Second Thessalonians

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Connecting the Gospel to Its Pro-Torah Hebrew Roots

When I was taking a college level biblical Greek class a few years back, the Christian professor and I had a few discussions about the Torah. It was his belief that the epistles in the New Testament contained very few references to the Torah. In his mind, therefore, the Torah wasn’t a very prominent idea in the minds of the apostolic writers. I tried to enlighten him otherwise.

While the epistles might not contain very many outright references to the Torah—especially direct commands to be obedient to the Torah’s standards of righteousness, the apostolic writers weave the fundamental concepts of the Torah through their writings and make countless allusions to the Torah as we shall see in the study below. The Torah was just part of their spiritual and social fabric and background. It was their spiritual foundation, and to them Yeshua the Jewish, Torah-obedient Messiah, who was the Living Word of Elohim incarnate, was simply an extensions or expression of this basic idea of Torah truth and righteousness, and whose example they expected the saints to follow as his disciples.

Similar words studies as I have done in First Thessalonians can be done to any book of the Bible including every book of the Testimony of Yeshua or New Testament. The fundamental principles of YHVH’s Torah-instructions in righteousness can to be found throughout the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

2 Thess 1:3, Love.The Torah defines how a man is to love Elohim and his neighbor. Biblically speaking, is love merely an emotion, or is it something more? The Bible presents love as an action. Yeshua said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). This action involves obedience to YHVH’s Torah-commandments. Elsewhere, Yeshua sums up the Torah when he quotes the biblical shema, which states that the duty of man is to love YHVH with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength and one’s neighbor as oneself (Mark 12:28–31 cp. Deut 6:4 and Lev 19:18). The shema is a summation of the ten commandments the first four of which show us how to love YHVH, while the last six how to love our neighbor. These ten statements form the foundation or cornerstone of the entire Torah, which expand out of them.

2 Thess 1:5, Righteous judgments of Elohim.As the just judge of the universe, YHVH Yeshua will judge all men at his second coming based on his word — the Torah (Rev 19:11, 15 cp. Isa 11:3–5 and Ps 119:172). He will then offer rewards to his servants based on how well they followed his Torah or not (Matt 5:19).

Continue reading →
 

Allusions to Torah-Obedience in the Book of Second Thessalonians 

Posted on by
1

Connecting the Gospel to Its Pro-Torah Hebrew Roots

When I was taking a college level biblical Greek class a few years back, the Christian professor and I had a few discussions about the Torah. It was his belief that the epistles in the New Testament contained very few references to the Torah. In his mind, therefore, the Torah wasn’t a very prominent idea in the minds of the apostolic writers. I tried to enlighten him otherwise.

While the epistles might not contain very many outright references to the Torah — especially direct commands to be obedient to the Torah’s standards of righteousness, the apostolic writers weave the fundamental concepts of the Torah through their writings and make countless allusions to the Torah as we shall see in the study below. The Torah was just part of their spiritual and social fabric and background. It was their spiritual foundation, and to them Yeshua the Jewish, Torah-obedient Messiah, who was the Living Word of Elohim incarnate, was simply an extensions or expression of this basic idea of Torah truth and righteousness, and whose example they expected the saints to follow as his disciples.

2 Thess 1:3, Love. The Torah defines how a man is to love Elohim and his neighbor. Biblically speaking, is love merely an emotion, or is it something more? The Bible presents love as an action. Yeshua said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). This action involves obedience to YHVH’s Torah-commandments. Elsewhere, Yeshua sums up the Torah when he quotes the biblical shema, which states that the duty of man is to love YHVH with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength and one’s neighbor as oneself (Mark 12:28–31 cp. Deut 6:4 and Lev 19:18). The shema is a summation of the ten commandments the first four of which show us how to love YHVH, while the last six how to love our neighbor. These ten statements form the foundation or cornerstone of the entire Torah, which expand out of them.

2 Thess 1:5, Righteous judgments of Elohim. As the just judge of the universe, YHVH Yeshua will judge all men at his second coming based on his word — the Torah (Rev 19:11, 15 cp. Isa 11:3–5 and Ps 119:172). He will then offer rewards to his servants based on how well they followed his Torah or not (Matt 5:19).

2 Thess 1:8, Taking vengeance. See notes on 2 Thess 1:5.

2 Thess 1:6, Righteous thing. The Torah defines what the biblical standard of righteousness is (Ps 119:172).

2 Thess 1:8, Know Elohim. One can’t know Elohim without understanding his character as defined by his Torah standards of righteousness. John expressed it this way: “Now by this we know that we know him if we keep his [Torah] commandments. He who says, ‘I knows him,’ and does not keep his [Torah] commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3–4).

2 Thess 2:3, Falling away [Gr. apostasia]. The Greek word apostasia means “defection, rebellion, abandonment, a forsaking, apostasy (see TWOT, AG, Thayer’s, Strong’s, et al).” The only other place this word is found in the NT is Acts 21:21 in reference to the lie that was circulating that Paul was teaching the Gentiles to forsake [apostasia] or reject the law Continue reading →