“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;” (2 Thessalonians 2:3 KJV)
Is 2 Thessalonians 2:3 showing that The Church Age believers in Christ (us today) will go through the Tribulation Period to come? Some say yes. But in context they would be wrong.
The KJV Bible is a year 1611 Translation. Now this is interesting because in the 1599 Geneva Bible, an earlier translation, it reads differently as:
“Let no man deceive you by any means: [a]for that day shall not come, except there come a DEPARTING FIRST, and that [b]that man of sin be disclosed, even the son of perdition”
Some End Time teachers say that in the GNV Bible, the English phrase ‘departing’ sure sounds a lot like the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, the snatching away of church age believers PRIOR TO the Tribulation Period, known in the Greek as Harpazo! And so, in 2 Thes. 2:3, it can also have a meaning to withdraw, or to depart, or even to remove, as well as the KJV Bible’s translated ‘falling away’.
So we see that before the 1611 King James Version of the Bible was published, the English word ‘departure’ was the accepted translation for apostasia. This is very interesting! Why? Because, if this is so, Paul is clearly teaching a Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Yet, some debate this as well because the KJV Bible clearly translates ‘apostasia’ as a ‘falling away’.
The 1599 GNV Bible has warrant but so does the 1611 KJV Bible. So there is a debate about this idea. It may be correct that it is ‘departing’ or ‘falling away’ , or maybe even both.
Regardless, Paul shows us the Pre-Tribulation viewpoint by the very context of the Epistle of 2 Thes. 2, in any case, even if ‘apostasia’ is translated as ‘falling away’.
The context is that there was a forged deceiving letter going around as if Paul wrote and sent it. But it was a fake. The letter of Paul to them was to refute this fake letter because the fake one was teaching that they had ALREADY entered the future time period named in Scripture as ‘The Day Of The Lord’. The Book of Revelation describes the day of the Lord as a time of God’s wrath in the Tribulation Period upon those who are deemed wicked after which Jesus would setup His 1000 year Kingdom Age, ruling and reigning on the Earth. This fake letter circulating caused fear as the believers thought they had missed the Harpazo Rapture! Paul goes on to assure them that no believer from the church age will miss this event, even if they physically die. They will either be alive and changed or dead and rise again bodily and changed to our new glorified bodies as Christ now has.
Now here we see clear context! I mean, why would the fake letter have UPSET and placed FEAR in these believers, if they were taught by Paul previously to be a Post Tribulation rapture? That alone shows that Paul had previously taught them that the Harpazo, what we refer to as ‘The Rapture’ today, will come BEFORE the Tribulation Period.
Paul goes on to mention that the restrainer (Holy Spirit) must also be REMOVED from Earth before the Antichrist rules on Earth during coming Tribulation Period. The Holy Spirit indwells believers and when believers of Christ are snatched away off the Earth, the Holy Spirit indwelling will also be removed. The Holy Spirit in the Tribulation Period will still be active on Earth but not the same way as He is now in this age of grace we live in. This is further supporting a Pre-Tribulation Rapture of Church Age believers. Paul calls this our ‘blessed hope’ in Titus 2:13. Not God’s wrath for His Bride of Christ.
