2 Thessalonians 2:3b-The Day of the Lord Will Take Place When the Antichrist is Revealed Publicly to the World

2 Thessalonians 2:3 Do not let anyone deceive any one of you in any way. For, if the rebellion does not take place first, namely the unique person characterized by a distinguishable lawlessness has been revealed, that is, the unique son characterized by a distinguishable destruction, then the Lord’s day is absolutely not taking place. (My translation)

2 Thessalonians 2:3 contains a solemn prohibition followed by a hoti causal clause which presents the reason for the prohibition and contains a third class conditional statement which, presents evidence which identifies that the day of the Lord is taking place.

In verse 3, the Thessalonians were being prohibited from being deceived by these false teachers into believing that the eschatological day of the Lord was taking place in their day and age in accordance with any means such as spirit, a letter or message allegedly from Paul, Silvanus and Timothy.

Then, as we noted, this prohibition is followed by a hoti causal clause, which presents the reason for it and contains an elliptical third class conditional statement.

It is elliptical because the statement ouk enestēken hē hēmera tou kyriou (οὐκ ἐνέστηκεν ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου), “the Lord’s day is absolutely not taking place” at the end of 2 Thessalonians 2:2 is implied with the addition of the emphatic negative adverb ouk (οὐκ).

It forms the apodosis of the third class conditional clause which would follow hoti in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 if it were not omitted.

The protasis of this third class condition is “if the rebellion does not take place first, specifically, the man of lawlessness is revealed, that is, the son of destruction.”

The relationship between the protasis and the apodosis is “evidence-inference” which means that the apodosis is inferring something from the protasis.

Paul infers something in the apodosis from some evidence he presented in the protasis.

The evidence presented in the protasis is that if the rebellion led by Antichrist has “not” taken place, specifically, the man of lawlessness is revealed, that is, the son of destruction.

In the apodosis, he infers that the day of the Lord is absolutely not taking place.

Now, here in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, the context would indicate that the third class condition is expressing certain fulfillment.

This means that if the rebellion led by Antichrist against Jesus Christ during the last three and a half years of the seventieth week does not take place first, then the day of the Lord is absolutely not taking place.

In other words, the day of the Lord is certainly not taking place if the rebellion led by Antichrist against Jesus Christ has not come first.

The noun apostasia (ἀποστασία), “rebellion” refers to the great rebellion led by the Antichrist during the seventieth week of Daniel and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 and 7-10 describes this rebellion against God.

The noun anthropos (ἄνθρωπος), “a unique person” pertains to an adult human being and the word’s articular construction is monadic indicating that this human being is in a class all by himself, which is indicated by the word’s genitive adjunct tēs anomias (τῆς ἀνομίας), “of lawlessness,” which indicates a monadic notion.

Paul’s description of this person in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10 corresponds with the description of the little horn in Daniel 7:8, 11, 24-25 and 9:27, the first beast in Revelation chapter thirteen and in 1 John 2:18, the apostle John calls this person “the Antichrist.”

The noun anomia (ἀνομία), “characterized by a distinguishable lawlessness” pertains to a person who is conducting themselves with complete disregard and contempt for the laws and regulations of the law of God that govern society.

It pertains to the state of being or behaving or conducting oneself in open defiance of God’s law, which can be summarized as loving God with one’s entire being and strength by loving one’s fellow human being by treating them in a manner in which you would want to be treated.

The articular construction of this abstract noun is distinguishing the lawlessness which characterizes the Antichrist from the lawlessness of the rest of the members of the human race since he will deify himself and demand people to worship him above every god including the true and living God, Jesus Christ.

This interpretation is indicated by Paul’s statements in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 “He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, and as a result he takes his seat in God’s temple, displaying himself as God.” (NET)

This word anomia is functioning as a genitive of apposition or epexegetical genitive which defines this unique human being as one whose lawlessness distinguishes him from the lawlessness practiced by the rest of the human race.

Paul’s emphasis here with this noun anomia in the genitive case is to merely define this unique human being rather than to identify what he produces and this is further supported by the monadic expression that appears after it, namely, ho huios tēs apōleias (ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας), “the son of destruction.”

The expression ho huios tēs apōleias (ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας), “characterized by a distinguishable destruction” is clarifying the previous expression ho anthrōpos tēs anomias (ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς ⸀ἀνομίας), “characterized by a distinguishable lawlessness.”

The noun huios (υἱός), “the unique son” refers to the Antichrist since Paul’s description of this person in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10 corresponds with the description of the little horn in Daniel 7:8, 11, 24-25 and 9:27, the first beast in Revelation chapter thirteen, who John describes in 1 John 2:18 as “the Antichrist.”

The noun apōleia, “characterized by a distinguishable destruction” pertains to the termination of someone by causing them to no longer exists bodily on planet earth.

Specifically, it speaks not only of the physical death of the Antichrist but also that he will suffer eternal condemnation in the lake of fire forever since God no longer has any use for him because he refused to exercise faith in His one and only Son Jesus Christ for eternal salvation.

The articular construction of this abstract noun is distinguishing the destruction which the Antichrist will experience from the rest of the members of the human race since he will deify himself and demand people to worship him above every god including the true and living God, Jesus Christ.

This interpretation is indicated by Paul’s statements in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 “He opposes and exalts himself above everyso-called god or object of worship, and as a result he takes his seatin God’s temple, displaying himself as God.” (NET)

The articular construction of this noun is also monadic which indicates that this human being is in a class all by himself, which is indicated by the word’s genitive adjunct tēs apōleias (τῆς ἀπωλείας), which indicates a monadic notion.

This word apōleia functions as a genitive of apposition or epexegetical genitive which defines this unique human being as one whose destruction distinguishes him from the destruction of the rest of unregenerate humanity.

This interpretation is indicated by the fact that a comparison of Revelation 19:20-21 and 20:7-10 reveals that the Antichrist will not only be the first unregenerate human being to suffer eternal condemnation in the lake fire but also he will suffer eternal condemnation before Satan.

So therefore, to summarize our findings in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul solemnly forbids any false teacher to deceive any member of the Thessalonian Christian community that the eschatological day of the Lord was taking place in their day and age.

They were not to receive such false doctrine through a spirit, or by a message or by a letter allegedly from Paul, Silvanus and Timothy.

The reason why they were not to accept this false teaching is that the Antichrist, whose lawlessness and whose destruction will distinguish him from the rest of the human race, must be revealed publicly to the world first and then the day of the Lord can take place.

Now, many expositors believe that there is a temporal relationship between the protasis and the apodosis and I believe this as well.

Paul is asserting that rebellion against God by the Antichrist must take place and then the day of the Lord will take place, which is indicated quite clearly by the presence of the temporal adverb prōton (πρῶτον), “first” in the protasis of the third class conditional statement which constitutes the hoti causal clause.

This word pertains to something first in a series involving time and here it indicates that the day of the Lord cannot take place until the rebellion led by Antichrist against the Lord takes place first in history.

Therefore, this would indicate that Paul is speaking of the day of the Lord as the Lord’s response to this rebellion led by Antichrist.

This response is the seven seal, trumpet and bowl judgments recorded in Revelation 6-18 as well as the Second Advent of Jesus Christ recorded in Revelation 19-20 and many other passages or in other words, this rebellion prompts these judgments resulting in the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

The implication is that the day of the Lord has not taken place because the Antichrist has not been publicly manifested to the world by his outrageous ungodly actions against God.

Thus, the Thessalonian Christian community need not be concerned that the day of the Lord was taking place in their day and age.

Now, as we noted 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and 5:9 teach that the church will be delivered from the Lord exercising His righteous indignation against the unrepentant, unregenerate inhabitants of planet earth during the seventieth week of Daniel and His Second Advent.

However, the contents of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 reveals that the rapture or resurrection of the church will be what causes the church to be delivered from the wrath of the Lamb during the seventieth week and His Second Advent.