Commentary on "The Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:1–12)"

CAREL STEVENSON

 

Day 4: Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - The Restrainer (2 Thess. 2:5–7)

 

This day begins with a reference to the great controversy. Again, the worldview outlined by Ellen G. White (EGW) in The Great Controversy is deeply heretical and should be fully abandoned by anyone seeking to understand the biblical worldview. If you have not read this article yet please do. In addition, from my experience the falsifications of Christian doctrines that come from the writings of EGW must each be relearned under solid, born again, biblical teachers who are themselves controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Once again the author puts the order of events in a way that deceives. He states that “the final stage begins at the Second Coming.” As already discussed the second coming that Adventists are waiting for is the return of Christ on the Day of the Lord. Please understand that if you are on earth during the tribulation and the arrival of Jesus it is because you were not born again and part of the church when Jesus took us home. Again see 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18,

“For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Now look at chapter 5:8-11

“But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

The Lord Jesus Christ will return for His church and then the sequence Jon Paulien describes takes place. We are in the period of lawlessness and restraint that will be followed by the rapture of the church which precedes the apostasy and the revealing of the Antichrist that will bring in the three and half years of trial before in His mercy Christ returns and puts a stop to the outpouring of His wrath.

The restrainer must be our God and specifically the work of God the Spirit. Because of this there was not a need to specify the authority of the restrainer, Paul’s assumption would be that his audience, being Christians, knew that all power and authority belong to the Trinity. Yes, the texts the author points out clearly and repeatedly state that end will not come until the whole world has heard the Gospel, but this is narrowed down in Romans 11:25 where we are told that we are waiting until “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” The passage from Revelation 14 makes it clear that even after the rapture of the church, the apostasy and the revealing of the Antichrist it is the intent of the Lord to continue the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus.

 

GO TO DAY 5

 

Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised September 16, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Camp Verde, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

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Official Adventist Resources

Standard Edition Study Guide Week 12

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SSNET Study Guide Week 12

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