“The apostle Paul warned the church not to look for the coming of Christ in his day.
‘That day shall not come,’ he says, ‘except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed.’ 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Not till after the great apostasy, and the long period of the reign of the ‘man of sin,’ can we look for the advent of our Lord. The ‘man of sin,’ which is also styled ‘the mystery of iniquity,’ ‘the son [...]
Read 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.
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Why does God allow so many to be deceived? According to this passage, what have the wicked rejected?
Verse 11 is a text that many people find extremely challenging. Paul states very directly, “God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie” (2 Thess. 2:11, NIV). The knee-jerk response to this text is something like, “How can a God of truth send deception? How can He act the same as Satan [...]
Read 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10.
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How do we understand these events? What’s especially important in all this about the phrase, “they received not the love of the truth”?
The man of sin was introduced in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. Through much of Christian history he has operated to undermine God’s law (particularly the Sabbath) and to usurp powers that belong only to Christ. In passages such as Daniel 7:20-25 (the little horn) and Revelation 13:1-7 (the beast from the sea), this same power operates [...]
Key Thought: The only protection against being overcome by Satan’s deceptions is loving the truth of God’s word.
[Teaching plan for The Antichrist September 17,2012]
1. Have a volunteer read 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4.
A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. Why did Paul warn the Thessalonian church members against those who would “deceive” them by announcing the second coming? Have people been deceived by that announcement in these latter years? [...]
According to Paul, what two things characterized the world situation at the time he wrote?
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How do we see the great controversy revealed in these verses? 2 Thess. 2:6-7.
Combining these verses with the previous ones, we can see that Paul is outlining three stages of history from his time until the end. The final stage begins at the Second Coming. Before this stage is the revelation of the man of sin (2 Thess. 2:3),also known as the lawless one (2 [...]
In the short interval between 1 and 2 Thessalonians, the Thessalonian church members became confused about the meaning of what Paul wrote in the first letter.
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They drew the conclusion that the Second Coming was either at hand or had already come in some secret way (2 Thess. 2:2). Paul’s short answer to this problem? “That can’t possibly be true. There are too many things that haven’t happened yet.”
The confusion in Thessalonica caused Paul to write his [...]
What is the topic addressed by Paul in the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians?
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How are these words relevant to us today? In what way do we face similar challenges within our church regarding end-time events (date-setting, conspiracy theories, and the like), however different our context? What similar principle do we find here that we also constantly confronted? 2 Thess. 2:1-3.
There is no clear evidence in this passage that the church was asking questions about the second coming of [...]
Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Thess. 2:1-12, Matt. 24:1-14, Zech. 3:1, Dan. 8:8-11, Acts 2:22.
Memory Text: “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, ESV).
Key Thought: In correcting the Thessalonians’ false theology of last-day events, Paul reveals truth about end-time deceptions.
In the midst of all Paul’s words of encouragement as well as exhortation, he wrote about end-time events, including the greatest end-time [...]
