2 Thessalonians 2.2-The Thessalonians Were Disturbed and Alarmed by False Doctrine Related to the Timing of the Day of the Lord
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday June 29, 2021
Second Thessalonians: 2 Thessalonians 2:2-The Thessalonians Were Disturbed and Alarmed by False Doctrine Related to the Timing of the Day of the Lord
Lesson # 23
2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now, concerning our Lord Jesus Christ’s arrival resulting in our gathering before Him, each of us is requesting each and every one of you brothers and sisters, 2 that each one of you would not be easily shaken from your composure, nor be alarmed by either a spirit, or by a message, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the Lord’s day is taking place. (My translation)
The contents of 2 Thessalonians 2:1 reveal that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy are politely presenting a request to each member of the Thessalonian Christian community which is in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ’s arrival which will result in the church gathering in the Lord’s presence.
This arrival is speaking of the rapture or resurrection of the church.
Therefore, the contents of this verse reveal that this request is with regards to the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ which will result in the dead in Christ and those alive in Christ on the earth gathering in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at the rapture or resurrection of the church.
2 Thessalonians 2:2 presents the content of the request since it identifies for the Thessalonians what Paul, Silvanus and Timothy are concerned about in relation to the rapture or resurrection of the church when they will receive their resurrection bodies and their sanctification and salvation are thus perfected.
This verse reveals that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy were politely requesting that the Thessalonians would not be easily shaken from their composure or alarmed by a spirit or by a message or by a letter allegedly from them, which taught that the day of the Lord was taking place when these three men wrote this epistle.
Therefore, this request is in the form of three prohibitions and thus, are related to the three sources from which this false doctrine was being propagated in the Roman province of Macedonia where Thessalonica was located.
Now, 2 Thessalonians 2:2 contains two infinitives which do not present the two-fold purpose for which Paul, Silvanus and Timothy were making a request of the Thessalonians but rather they constitute one appeal because Paul is using “synthetic parallelism.”
Some assert that Paul is using “synonymous parallelism” however, these two infinitives have slightly different meanings with the second building on the first, which would constitute synthetic parallelism.
So therefore, here in 2 Thessalonians 2:2, the apostle Paul employs the verb saleuomai (σαλεύομαι), “would become easily shaken” and the verb throeomai (θροέομαι), “be alarmed.”
The idea expressed by these two verbs is that the Thessalonians were not to be easily shaken from their composure with the added emphasis of not being taken by surprise by the false teaching that the day of the Lord was taking place in their day and age.
The noun pneuma (πνεῦμα), “spirit” refers to the false teaching propagated by false prophets which expressed a viewpoint which is contrary to the Spirit inspired teaching of the apostles and originates with Satan’s cosmic system.
The word has this same exact meaning in 1 John 4:1, 2, 3 and 6 where the apostle John uses this word in relation to the proto-Gnostic teachers who taught an early form of Docetic Gnosticism, which denied the human nature of Jesus Christ.
Now, here in 2 Thessalonians 2:2, the word pneuma (πνεῦμα), “spirit” is used relation to those who taught that the eschatological day of the Lord was taking place in the first century A.D. when Paul penned Second Thessalonians.
The noun logos (λόγος), “message” refers to the content which false teachers were communicating regarding the eschatological day of the Lord.
The noun epistolē (ἐπιστολή), “letter” refers to written communication addressed to the Thessalonian Christian community from allegedly Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, thus, it refers to a “pseudonymous” letter.
The term “pseudonymity” refers to the practice of publishing one’s writings under a revered person’s name and this is why Paul explicitly identifies himself as the author at the end of some of his letters (cf. 2 Thess. 3:17-18; Gal. 6:11; Col. 4:18).
This would guarantee the authenticity of the letter.
These three words represent the three sources from which the false doctrine regarding the eschatological day of the Lord “might” have been propagated throughout the Roman province of Macedonia, where Thessalonica was located.
Paul was not saying that this false doctrine was propagated by all three but rather that if it comes through any of these three or all three, this false doctrine was to be rejected by the Thessalonian Christian community since it contradicted his apostolic teaching regarding the eschatological day of the Lord.
The expression “to the effect that the Lord’s day is taking place” identifies the false doctrine, which caused the Thessalonians to be shaken from their composure and alarmed.
The reference to the day of the Lord or “the Lord’s day” refers to the eschatological day of the Lord, which is composed the seventieth week of Daniel and the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
It takes place sometime after the rapture or resurrection of the church and begins when Antichrist establishes a seven-year treaty with the nation of Israel and it ends with the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
During this period, Jesus Christ will exercise His righteous indignation against every unrepentant, unregenerate human being on the earth at that time and He will do this through the seven seal, trumpet and bowl judgments recorded in Revelation 6-18.
This request in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 reveals that some or all in the Thessalonian Christian community were shaken from their composure and in a state of being alarmed by being exposed to this false doctrine that the day of the Lord was taking place in their day and age.
This is further supported by Paul’s statements in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-5.
Paul’s statement in verse 5 emphasizes with the Thessalonians that he had taught them that the day of the Lord cannot taken place until the Antichrist appears.
Then, in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8, he reminds them that the Antichrist cannot appear until the Spirit who restrains evil through the church and indwells the church is removed when the rapture takes place, which removes the church from the earth.
The fact that Paul has to remind the Thessalonians of these things as he does in 2 Thessalonians 2:5 indicates that the Thessalonians were in fact shaken from their composure and alarmed by this false doctrine.
This does not mean they were out of fellowship with the Lord, which is supported by the first chapter of Second Thessalonians.
This chapter commends the Thessalonians because their post-justification faith in the gospel was growing to an extraordinary degree and because their divine-love for each other was growing to a considerable degree (2 Thess. 1:3) despite the fact that they were being persecuted by the unregenerate citizens of Thessalonica (2 Thess. 1:4).
Consequently, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy boasted about the Thessalonians to other congregations in the Roman provinces of Macedonia and Achaia (2 Thess. 1:4).
Therefore, it appears that the Thessalonian Christian community was simply confused with or unsure of the timing of the day of the Lord in relation to the rapture and the church, which is true of many in the Christian community today in the twenty-first century.
This confusion caused some if not all in the Thessalonian Christian community to be shaken from their composure and alarmed by this false doctrine that the day of the Lord was taking place in their day and age.
We must remember that in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul had to reassure them that the dead in Christ would take part in the rapture since some were upset that maybe they wouldn’t be and were lost.
We also must remember that the Thessalonian Christian community were new believers who had been believers no longer than two years.
Thus, it is understandable that they would be confused with regards to such great doctrines as the day of the Lord and the rapture and their relationship to each other.
Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 is reiterating what he taught the Thessalonian Christian community in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and 5:1-10, namely that the Thessalonians will not experience the righteous indignation of the Lord Jesus Christ during the seventieth week and His Second Advent because they will be delivered from His wrath through the rapture or resurrection of the church.
The church will not experience the Lord’s righteous indignation which He will exercise against every unregenerate, unrepentant human being living on the earth during the last three and a half years of the seventieth week of Daniel and during His Second Advent.
This will be the result of the Lord removing the church from the earth at the rapture or resurrection of the church.
Thus, we can understand why Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 was requesting that in relation to the rapture or resurrection of the church, the Thessalonians would not be deceived by false teaching which asserted that the eschatological day of the Lord was taking place in their day and age.
They must not be deceived by this false teaching because the rapture or resurrection of the church will deliver them from the eschatological day of the Lord.
Now, Paul’s polite request in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 was a reminder of what Paul asserts in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 that the Thessalonian Christian community must test those who claim to be communicating prophecy or Christian doctrine.
1 Thessalonians 5:20 Each and every one of you must continue to make it your habit of not treating prophecies with contempt. 21 Instead, each one of you must continue to make it your habit of testing each one of these things. Each one of you must continue to make it your habit of holding on to those which are good. (My translation)