2 Thess 2:2 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, regarding the [a]coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your [b]composure or be disturbed either by a spirit, or a [c]message, or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 No one is to deceive you in any way! For it will not come unless the [d]apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above [e]every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? 6 And you know what restrains him now, so that he will be revealed in his time.7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only [f]He who now restrains will do so until [g]He is [h]removed. 8 Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will eliminate with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His [i]coming.
This passage is just one more which has the brethren disagreeing as to its interpretation. I have long held, that the apostasy is better served, by being understood to be the departure. However, I watched a video on YouTube in which a very learned brother pointed out that nowhere in Ancient Greek literature is a physical departure, of human beings, able to be inserted into the meaning of this word. The intrinsic understanding supported by the word, in the text, is a political, emotional, or religious displacement. The exact same word is used one other time in the New Testament, where the religious Jews complain of the Christian’s teachings, saying that they are teaching Jews to “forsake Moses.” One of the root word’s conjunctions is even used for the word meaning divorce.
Clearly, the passage’s subject and context is “the coming of our Lord….and our gathering together with Him.” The one thing standing in the way of the revealing of the identity of the “son of perdition” is the One who restrains, this phrase “restrains, removed, revealed” being a repeat of the same idea of “apostasy, then the unveiling,” of who is the antichrist. Paul’s repetition of the same exact idea, twice, in two different ways, is how he is making plain what is to happen, and in what order. His students thought the day of the Lord had already arrived (judgement) and he was saying that this ONE thing must happen FIRST, because the man of sin was God’s wrath and judgement. Paul’s argument about “the day” was that first there is THE turning away (a singular, identifiable event), then Antichrist is revealed, and after that would be the feared “day” of the Lord. The one-time event of the restrainer removed, or THE apostasy, had to come before anything else. His whole argument hinges on only this one thing, occurring just once (unlike rebellion, which is continuous.)
Perhaps the “apostasy” can be better understood, as the removal of God’s Presence. Maybe He needs to abandon those who do not love the truth, to the development of their plans, which results in their own destruction (Rom 1). Is there anything that would drive home the fact of impending judgement, and signify the end God’s patience with the world, more than the removal of HIS presence, manifested by the withdrawal of the ambassadors of His grace? He will not judge the righteous with the wicked. Remember Lot and Enoch? His Spirit will not always strive with man.
