An Introduction to 2nd Thessalonians Eschatology Series #1

[Music] okay I'm I'm gonna do something tonight which is what I would call an introduction to something part of the problem that I have to confront is sometimes people they get something in their head this is that and then you can't move them from there you can't even introduce new facts now I'm gonna go back to this because this remains a difficult place for me and I refuse to be bound by this I have the utmost respect for dr. Scott not only do I still love the man have the utmost respect for him but I've told you I'm also my own person and I'm also the worst type of student which is I have to I have to see it I've got to wrap my mind is Christ to talk about you know going to the factory to see the glasses made if that's what is necessary for some that's me and part of the difficulty of having a ministry where there are already people who have come to certain conclusions based on certain pieces of information is then presenting something that people will say well that's not what dr. Scott said and what I what I'm very much opposed to is that presents the most ignorant type of thinking that means you don't read any books ever because one person who proposed a theory any theory the theory of relativity or the theory of anything you want it means there could never be another theory proposed now there comes a point when there is some form of a universal truth to an application or an application to a universal truth and that can only be known by going to sources investigating and not having preconceived ideas now I'm gonna go back to and use this as a point of reference because it still sticks in my craw this shows you the stunted growth of people I know what dr. Scott said about Shemin Melchizedek and I still came to you and I said this is what I think and I was very clear I showed you the reason why I came to the conclusion I came to I didn't come to it because I thought it was a good thing to say I came to it because I realized that scripture does not contradict itself and a careful analysis of Hebrews puts the theory kind of as a side now it's not gonna make or break your faith no I said that when I expressed and did the teaching out of Hebrews but yet there were some people who by the way that's how you you ferret out people who are not willing to learn they're not even willing to expose themselves to new facts or new pieces of information this is you know this is the way a car is made and by golly every car is a Ford there are no other cars except for a Ford because this is the car that was made and therefore that's the only car that will ever exist but go out there and you'll see there's how many different cars that are now being made hello welcome to the year twenty thousand two thousand something should be twenty thousand feels like it but my point is the people who get all hot under the collar if i sat them down and said okay let's talk linguistically let's talk about grammar they wouldn't be able I'm sorry I may not be able to communicate very well in English but I i know languages very well you could not hold a candle you could not even come close most of these people who got mad at me for certain opinions i expressed which were not opinions by the way they came out of the book our people cannot read Greek cannot read Hebrew and have not spent any time outside of and I do not fault them for listening to dr. Scott I listen to dr. Scott too but I fought those people for not being Bereans and staying you keep pressing on and you keep learning you keep pushing the horizons and don't think that you've come so far in God's kingdom that you know everything that's in this book because you don't and neither do I and I'm smart enough to admit it and I bet you if dr. Scott were still alive he'd say the same thing it's only an ignoramus that forms closed opinions and you could say well I go back and digress to this example of chemin melchizedek I guarantee you I'm willing to bet my right hand on it that if dr. Scott were still alive and I was studying the word and he and I were sitting down and I would say I want you to take a look at this and look carefully at the language I think there would be a good cause to revisit certain things that he said if that is not an error we all have to grow I remember when I first started speaking on Sunday morning and had to overcome my own issues the things that I maybe had some more gray dots about than the things that were more solid you cannot you cannot grow in Christ if you refuse to open your mind so I say that is as kind of the precursor to where I'm gonna do tonight and I'm not going to bring the subject to a close because it requires opening up so many different books and it requires peeling back so many different layers that it's impossible to just say in 30 minutes or an hour however long I'm here we're going to come to some conclusion on something we can't this is a perfect example of dr. Scott's teaching style if you keep laying down layers of things and you keep laying down layers from different directions until something gels everything together some light goes on and all the pieces come together now I've got so many different people listening to me I've got people who have been listening for over 30 years and I've got people messages here that tell me they just started listening last week okay so you know there's there's a couple of things that work you have to for the people who have heard things before good you need to hear it again it obviously didn't work the first 20 times you heard it and for the person who's hearing it the first time this will replay like everything else can you you wouldn't want to be a my position because it's it's like having to feed everybody and now we've got we've got people who are vegetarians over here and we've got people over here who only eat that and people who well I'm not sure about that I'm not even sure I know what food is all having to sit at the same table so you know my advice especially the people I was just saying this in the last program I didn't plan to have them play that and sit down here and say this but you know you need to chill out some of you just really need to chill out you're asking me to either bend my neck to something in my heart I have not and cannot come to that conclusion and I'm not saying that that conclusion in the ultimate terminus is wrong by the way anybody who studies theology who studies what other people said you'll be kind of blown away that great scholars great men of God and women of God give them the same scripture and you can have as many interpretations and and as a rainbow not just shades different colors but shades of the color and interpretation so as I said this is an introduction I am I'm not wanting people to if I hear one more person say to me well you know that's not what dr. Scott said well I'm glad that dr. Scott said it but excuse me you need to pull the wax out of your ears I listen to dr. Scott and I as I said I still have pages in my Bible stuck together you can't learn it all in a lifetime and you can't know it all and you certainly can't be taught if you have an attitude like that so I'm I'm talking to people tonight who are ready to kind of change gears and I do guarantee you this I think probably if you take the people who are so ignorant that they cannot hear what I'm saying let's call the terminus the ultimate endpoint the ultimate endpoint of what I'm saying we'll come to the exact same thing that dr. Scott said the ultimate terminus of things but in between there may be very I'm not going to apologize for that I cannot be the woman of God I was designed to be and have to keep apologizing to some of you who are too silly or too stubborn and you know what maybe at the end of all things you'll find out that the things you've trivialized me or dr. Scott for whoever really we're irrelevant because you missed the big picture so that's my introduction to this evening and and you know I just I feel like God is just beginning to work in me and show me and lead me and guide me in the way that that he desires and we're talking about 10 11 years in and I just feel like I'm just getting started I wish that that would fall on some of you as well that if you've if you've been here for any amount of time you start to listen with the same concept which is a feel like I'm just getting started even though I know these things I can always go back and revisit and I guarantee you you listen with the heart that's open you'll receive something probably that I think will help you in your walk of faith now I would like you not I'm going to go to a break right now I would like you to open your Bibles to second Thessalonians and I'm juggling four Bibles on my lap two to my left three to my right two on my lap the first and second Thessalonians were written in a very short window from each other weeks maybe even months perhaps there are three issues three major issues confronting the Thessalonians the first one which you find in the theme of both first and second the second Thessalonians is persecution they are being persecuted and you can if you comb through and you read through in your own time you'll find that the reason why Paul is saying certain things is they're under severe persecution now I'm looking at second Thessalonians tonight but I want to give you three things in 2nd Thessalonians that are very apparent one is persecution to see it's not new unruly members of the church and where am I getting that from now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition and don't think tradition but teaching which he received from us there was a lot of disorderly conduct going on people acting unruly within the church so don't think that this is somehow my words of discipline or my words of admonition to you are new this is age-old people thinking and doing and whatever what's right in their own eyes but still wanting to be in the church and saying because they're here it's okay last there's a great amount of confusion going on and the confusion is so to me when you read this second Thessalonians it's so abundantly clear of what they're confused about in the first Thessalonians Paul told them about what people commonly teach on the concept of the rapture which is by the way I set out to teach on that tonight and I said before I can do that I've got to do this and we'll get back to the wrap because I think it's a very important subject to discuss the reason there was confusion between first and second Thessalonians is people came from outside and poison the mind of a few people in the church and what was being spread is the persecution that you are undergoing is the day of the Lord these people were traumatized with the persecution they were thinking what's going on here and somebody came and said well it's the day of the Lord knowing what the day of the Lord meant the day of Great Tribulation the great day of terror and although these people the Thessalonians are not perhaps like other congregations where we could say inherently perhaps Jewish in thought somebody had come to tell them that the persecution they were undergoing they were in the middle of the day of the Lord which is why Paul has to set the record straight and within this letter if you have your Bibles open in the second chapter in the fifth verse he's gonna say remember you not what things when I was with you that I told you these things in other words somebody came along and decided to tell the people that Paul had originally instructed does the reason for their suffering the reason why all this is going on is because the day of the Lord they're being punished the day of the Lord's upon them now people have built ministries on on teaching on the rapture on teaching about prophecy and last days and I said and tell you with great caution this is not a subject that I decided that well this this will be fascinating let's do this this is a subject that I touch with with great we'll call it great caution because I realized that many people have formed opinions and thoughts on these passages particularly and whether those thoughts are true or not and this is why I said this is where a scholars mind comes in you must present all the information you're free to make a decision afterwards but the truly intelligent person does not come to a conclusion on any subject until all the facts have been put on the table then you may draw your conclusion and if you still choose to believe something that you formerly are previously believed by virtue of the fact that it just seems right in your eyes then stay there but don't be ignorant to not expose yourself and this is my gripe with a lot of people now I'm not going to tell you that this is not a difficult chapter of the Bible because it is you cannot really teach on this second chapter of Thessalonians unless you're also willing so I said it's an introduction tonight unless you're willing to teach out of Daniel seven nine eleven and other passages that refer and teach and tell us a little bit about what will happen in the last days so jumping in like this kind of cold is like saying okay here we're gonna we're gonna splash around the water a little bit tonight and we have to revisit this from several different angles so tonight I just want to kind of get into the second chapter and even the second chapter of second Thessalonians is fraught the opening of it is fraught with problems which is why I have multiple Bibles open on my lap I'm going to start with just verse one reading the King James and then I'm going to read a couple of other translations and I'm also going to visit the Greek and even though the second I'm sorry the first verse is not my focus I want you to see how word order can change understanding of just how we think we understand this begins now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto Him let me read both verses so it actually makes a finished thought she'd be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand now stop right there let's first look at have a couple of this is the revised English when I grabbed it because it has the Apocrypha in it but then I decide to TM I too much for one night all right let me read that same those same two verses and I want you to we will flip-flop back to the King James so you can see even this is problematic the revise is now about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ when he is gathered when he when he is to gather us to himself I beg you my friends do not suddenly lose your heads do not be alarmed by any prophetic utterance any pronouncement or any letter purporting to come from us alleging that the day of the Lord is already here do you see a difference already now we've done this before but it's important that you see what happens I pulled the amplified bible same same opening but relative to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah and our gathering together to meet him we beg you brethren not to allow your minds to be quickly unsettled or disturbed or kept excited or alarmed whether it be by some pretended revelation of the Spirit or by word or by letter alleged allegedly to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has already arrived in this year do you see a little bit more of a difference wait there's wait there's more I just pulled this off my set the English standard version now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him we ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or by a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come I'm trying to give you an example of why we have to be careful handling these chapters these passages with the King James 26 translation of that same verse and I will read them all the way down now we do implore you by the very certainty of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ now we beseech you brethren touching the coming of but concerning the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ I beseech you brethren as to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ we beg you but there is one entreaty we would make of you brethren as you look forward to the time when our Lord Jesus Christ will come and our gathering together to meet him and our muster before him and our assembling to meet him and our being gathered to meet him and to gather us in to himself so just in that one verse which is not even my intention but oh boy this is an interesting word when it says now we beseech you which we've read that many times in the King James the word beseech this is an interesting word here which is I think it may be 1/2 X I don't even know if it's if it's elsewhere I did not check but I I don't and I read Greek I don't really recognize this is the word that occurs frequently I'm so when it says we beg you the the words that are used that's that's fine but here's the key thing the King James says something like this brethren by the coming of our Lord Christ and the Greek has who bear this patter seus with regard essentially to his return to it the the strangeness of the way the King James has phrased certain things leaves you wanting in understanding I believe it says with regard to the coming the parousia of the lord of us Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him that word to be King James gathering together is the only other place that occurs is in Hebrews in Hebrews 10 and I believe it's 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves it's the only other place that occurs so it's very clear that the opening of this leather letter is not a gathering for the sake of socializing and it's not even a gathering for the sake of a gathering as in the church but gathering to be gathered unto Him so just think about and the word being used parasya parousia is important to note because the same word that is used of the coming of Christ will appear let me just get to this now and get this out of the way if you want a circle the word that's there is the same word that appears in verse nine when it talks about even him whose coming is after the working of Satan is the same patter see it's the same word now many people here again I'm going to tell you what people have done even theologians they have made this word a a term that is synonymous in its use with the coming of Christ but yet just in the same passage Paul did not use the word strictly Christ word because he says it regarding the one whose coming is after the working of Satan same word so it's almost like this whole this whole chapter needs to be in fact the whole book needs to be handled very carefully but this whole chapter needs to be picked apart very carefully he goes on to say that be not soon shaken in mind three things or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us and it's important to understand that what Paul is saying is whoever were these people who were telling the Thessalonians that the persecution they are enduring is because of the day of the Lord it's very plausible that a letter was also circulated for Paul to say don't be troubled neither in spirit by word or by letter as if it is from us that's what the meaning is don't think it's that we wrote this thing don't be troubled by that and he's essentially gonna say I'm gonna set the record straight don't let anybody deceive you now I want you to think about this don't be soon shaken in mind or be troubled let me go back to the Greek and we may have to kind of play around here because it's there's so many issues in the translation of what's been done here that it's I mean I tried to not scratch up my Bible too badly but then I just I gave up and I said I I think I just have to do something where I may print an extra page because it seems like there's so many things that I have issue with but so not to be quickly shaken from your mind or to be alarmed and this is what needs to be underscored here neither dia new Matos by a spirit that is any spirit whether it's a spirit of a fear a spirit of alarm not a we're not gonna define and it's not about the holy spirit there is no definite article but through a spirit nor through a word nor by a letter it by the way it bestowed us an epistle so you sing as if to say that somebody might say that we wrote you something everybody settle down I just said at the beginning this program chill out you know easy it is to get people riled up and I mean we see this all the time every generation has had somebody pop out of the woodwork that proposes something and people crazy and he's saying let no man deceive you by any means now just I I need to draw some some attention to some words yesterday forgive me if I flip flop around but the same word for deceive in verse three will be the same word that is used in verse ten with all deceivableness this is what's going to happen with the Antichrist so there's already a spirit of deception that has been planted circulating so he says let no man deceive you by any means take a look at how much italics are in we know italics means it's added by the translators how much italics are added in the third verse and for good reason but let me read it as it appears for that day shall not come except there there come boy you're gonna hate this a falling away first the first thing I want you to do because some of you are just gonna you're just gonna be playing pissed at me and I really don't care that's the third verse I first want you to look in your Bible it says except there come a falling away correct okay who's gonna be looking my way which camera raise your hand all right push down right there to the Greek where I've circled and you're gonna see a definite article okay I want you to pay attention these are important things there is a definite article there so what we have is the not a we have the falling away first now let's talk about this falling away which the Greek word for the falling away is apostasy ax from where we get our English word apostasy so that's why I said there's it's almost like where where do I begin because even I friends I I don't deliberately try to memorize the Bible just living in it so of course even my mind I have these things in my mind you know difficult it's going to be to remove except there come a falling away for can you imagine that because it's already in my mind so it there's no it's a definite article there I'm gonna try and deal with this I said tortoises introduction so just bear with me let no man deceive you by any means and we'll deal with the italics in a minute except there come the apostasy we may call it the falling away the apostasy and that man of sin here's another difficult one and by the time I get to this that man of sin maybe the next time I sit down here I intend by the way to pull out some of the manuscripts or some of you hard heads can see that not all of the oldest sources agree on this translation if I just take it from my Bible if you have a Bible like mine that's got underlined words with numbers beside it I don't even have to look it up I know that 266 in the Greek is hamartia this Bible is translating this and going according to other versions but if you were to look in the Sinaiticus in the Saheed ik bow Eric if you were to look in other versions you would find that there the translation there is not man of sin but man of lawlessness well that'd make a big difference no in the big picture I want you to think about out of whose mouth this came Paul who in fact I'd be certain enough to say would equate it to apocryphal and Old Testament concepts of referring to the son of Belial if we were going from a hebrew ism so don't get so dogmatic there's no there's not going to be any loss of interpretation whether we say man of sin or man of lawlessness and the only thing that I would say to you is man of sin if we go with that translation and by the way the mint the ancient or oldest sources are divided on this if we go with man of sin and there's no error in that because he indeed fits the category of that if we go with man of lawlessness we have a deeper picture of one who refused to be ruled by God go back to the teaching on Romans and the concept of lawlessness and you'll kind of get a flow it's almost like a flowchart of Paul's the way he would say something I'm not going to tell you that I want to change or alter I'm just putting out there but what has happened to the text and transmission over time so I'm gonna come back to the italics when I finished the rest of this so that there come the falling away or the apostasy first and that man of sin or that man of lawlessness be revealed the son of perdition now it's like how many how many things can you juggle at one time you could jugglers so the first thing we want to do is we want to look at what from the Greek that I have here on my lap what happened to this passage that is the third verse let no one deceive you by or in any way hoody because unless comes the apostasy in fact hear this translation they put rebellion in brackets first and be revealed in fact this version strangely enough because you know what some of you can read Greek and you can recognize take a look at it is in brackets in this here but if you look I'll underline it you'll read here if you read Greek you have here the word anomia not home or tia and they even give the translation lawlessness I'm not suggesting that that is the correct rendering I told you the manuscripts are split and that will not make or break your life I'll tell you when something is crucial like instead of a falling away which seems like any random falling away there is a definitive moment in time characterized by the definite article the falling away first let's take a look at this so we have here and revealed the man of sin or the man of lawlessness the son of tradition or destruction and the reason why go back to your italics that for that day let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come but happened is when you read this from the Greek you've got because unless comes the rebellion first in other words something must happen first before this other thing happens that's to say that the day that they were all being told they are in because of persecution going on no no no he's trying to say whatever they told you is going to happen will not happen until this first happens let's get the record straight that's essentially what this verse is saying let's get this straight before anybody tells you you're in the day of the lord of the day of the Lord is here at hand before that happens this other thing must happen so essentially dum-dums it's not the day of the Lord chill out don't you like the Bible taught in real verbage now it's there's just so many things in here let's before I move away from this I'm trying to slow down before I move away from this third verse let's go to the 26th translation and I'm reading the second half of the third verse in the 26th translation and their be revealed the man of lawlessness the son of destruction and the appearing of that incarnation of wickedness that lost soul and the representative of longest lawlessness is uncovered the one who is doomed to destruction the champion of wickedness must first appear destined to inherit perdition when wickedness will be revealed in human form the man doomed to perdition and then the man of rebellion will come the son of hell I'll call them they have all interesting levels of things but there is one thing that I want to highlight which again it's almost like verse by verse you have to stop at something and what I want you to look at I've got to find the first word here so in this third verse when it says that just read from King James that man of sin be revealed this is very important I have a note somewhere here let's take a look at this so what is important about this is this is the same word to be revealed you're gonna recognize this word from dr. Scott repeating this many times over a park aloof see that's the same word that was said of Christ when he was revealed when he was manifested so there's something very important about this word from this third verse that you've almost got to push aside the words to see something very firmly there and that is this that this man of sin to be revealed by the by the use of this word epoca loosely be revealed let's let me just take a look at the grammar that's two three it is clearly a suggestion no it's beyond suggestion that he already is by the use of that word just as Christ had revealed himself hold on hold that thought the brain just kicked in sometimes takes me a little while alright let me read something to you now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the since the world began but now is made manifest by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations essentially the the revelation the revealing was the scriptures telling us a revealing Christ's coming in the flesh the revelation of that the unfolding of that but he was before he took up flesh this word revealed essentially same says the same thing about this son of perdition so it's very interesting that in there you know some people think well this this this person will come up as in someone who again scripture has to confirm hit confirm it's up as if to be born but this person is already in existence and has been and the word to be revealed to just he will be unveiled he will be seen now whether that means that he takes up in the body of someone else which is highly suggested because he must have form but is already here which by the way first John talks about the spirit of Antichrist is already worse than already at work there are many antichrists already speaking of that which are is so that's one one area the other thing that's as you start putting these things together you realize that you can read right by these and you can miss certain things I I'm guilty of that by the way I've done that now we we begin to hear from Paul about this son of perdition by the way that word is that term is used in one other place in the New Testament would you like to know where it's on a perdition in the New Testament we'll get there eventually Jesus and John 1712 while I was with them in the world I kept them in thy name those that thou gave us me I I have kept none of them is lost but the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled and we talk about a spirit that has existed where that is people tend to talk about the Antichrist and the spirit of Antichrist is something kind of vague and ambiguous if you read if you study Daniel and really comb through the language in Daniel which I really it's very laborious even for me and I'm a linguist you'll find some very fascinating things not just the things we've come to know over the years or you find some very fascinating things that reveal this person who will ultimately be revealed who Paul is talking about he says listen what you're going through is not the day of the Lord and before that day can come this thing first must happen this person must be revealed must be unveiled if you will who opposes who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped I want you to highlight two words in this opposeth and exalteth and see if you do not see the same spirit opposeth and exalteth exalteth for me it's easy to go to Isaiah and you see when he says I will be like God and I will ascend that was Lucifer and that same spirit that will be again exalting himself above even God even and that who opposes now let's be very careful because I think sometimes the tendency used to read this into thing who would oppose God but sometimes what is opposed to God comes in the appearance of the form of religion and we know that to be true when you study church history people that resisted the scriptures and preferred the traditions of men and there you have opposition again they get the opposing factor so who opposeth and exalteth to things that are being described of him and interesting that he says himself above all that is called of God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that He is God now this is what's really important again words play an integral part and interpretation we're not talking randomly about the temple generically we're talking about the inner sanctum this concept of the inner sanctum he will go and invade the most holy part now I've had many discussions with people who have said well how could this person invade the most holiest part of the church and by the way for if we're now not talking of the temple if we're now not speaking of the temple what does that mean you need to hold that thought I want you to read carefully what Paul says in verse 5 remember he not that when I was yet with you I told you they seemed so you guys don't remember what I told you see they didn't have the luxury of replay and I imagine that when they had a letter that was passed around knowing how letters were produced can you imagine how many people touch those things and probably cried and got spit and saliva and you know whatever else they might have dropped on it or used it for who knows it's it's leather right or whatever it's skin just that you remember what I told you when I was with you and this has plagued many people because if you go back to comb what he says in first Thessalonians he really does not elaborate on what he's saying here which has opened this is going to open up a discussion for me tonight to discuss the interpretation of these verses which any serious scholar and I'm going to say that you may you may just like the way I'm saying this any serious scholar it's going to be challenged in the interpretation of these verses any serious scholar you want to be taken seriously you've got to first look at the language you've got to look at the most ancient sources and you've got to consider the context and you cannot make a decision on what this should mean based on what grandpa said or based on what every commentary says because there's so many problems with interpretation of these verses but let's go at it let's take a charge here so beginning at verse 6 and now you know that tells you that he already discussed this previously with them and he is not going to elaborate a second time because he says and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time here's another observation of the King James doing something so nutty so kooky because they didn't like to repeat words right so I wanted juxtapose 6 and 7 then I'm going to go back to talk about verse 6 for the mystery of iniquity doth already work only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way and I want you to look at two things the word withholdeth and the word letteth are the same greek word isn't that grand so we can't repeat now it's it does I have to just say one thing the Greek word does change its form ever so slightly let's take a look so withholdeth forgive me for writing on a slant but that's the best I can do here with the books all right critic on and that is verse 6 and down there in verse 7 who now letteth you know this is why when people say oh you know you do King James Bible is the only Bible it you know they're like ah shut up really you know I'm sorry I'm becoming a little bit intolerant as I get older and as I start to get just a little bit wiser that they're just way too many people talking out there and some of them just need to keep quiet because take a look what I just showed you and the people people argue and say oh no no no no it's the same word there's there something wrong with the understanding of these words which I'm going to show you in a minute there's just way too many things to deal with here and I know I'll run out of time which is why I said it's an introduction right introduction this first word here is a verb it's a participle it is present we'll talk about this accusative it is neutral neuter and singular that's very key right there the second word only he who now letteth is a verb it's a participle it's also present it's active nominative which means it's the subject masculine and singular so let's talk about this and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed there it is again that word revealed same word as in verse three revealed in his time for the mystery of iniquity doth already work only he who now letteth the same word we just looked at will let italicized until he be taken out of the way now there's no doubt in my mind that on the most simplistic level paul is saying that there is something at this current time present which means and ongoing neutral and singular that is we're gonna have to look up this word withhold or letteth that is we'll call it a restraining force right now that is still restraining that is still ongoing and restraining now and must be removed in order for this these events to unfold that makes sense right yes okay intermediate greek-english lexicon little and Scots make English lexicon this word the root of this word which looks like this cat and we'll do it exactly the way they list it and eco okay intransitive sense to hold fast to hold back to withhold to check to restrain to control to bridle to be held down to be bound to be kept under to detain to stay to stop to Terry to have in possession to possess to occupy to sound to fill to continue to spread to cover in another sense used of the grave to confine conditions of the like to hold down to over power to oppress of circumstances to occupy or engage of persons to be possessed inspired to follow close upon press hard from the Latin urge air and finally in another use to bring a ship to land to bring it in or to bring to bring it in or to and the entrace ative to control oneself to hold to stop to cease as in of the wind to come from the high sea to shore to put in to report to prevail lastly to keep back for oneself to cover oneself but to keep back for oneself now I want to ask you something is God in control of everything so it seems I can say something that seems rather counterintuitive but it I know it to be absolutely true it seems that when God's appointed time comes and only he knows that time these things will begin to happen for if the thing that is holding back or restraining or keeping in check or keeping in place must be removed first and this is why I said I say exercise caution with this I brought a book that has some church fathers ideas in the day when people like Tertullian were writing their commentaries on these very passages and trying to expose it them they said that this force that was at work had to be not the force not the restraining force but the force that was going to come to the front speaking of the man of perdition or the Antichrist they were talking about it and referring to it as the Roman Empire let me read this to you it'll make more sense you'll see through the ages have people have made different ideas and in their day I'm sure people thought they were perfectly tenable except that the Roman Empire as it existed then no longer exists right he who now restrains this is a ancient Christian commentary on scripture if you're thinking of buying it save yourself the time I have all of the commentaries you could ever think of and I really can't think of any forgive me it takes so much work to make a commentary but very few people are willing to put their shingle out there and stand underneath it okay have no idea where that came from but he who now restrains it so I am sorry I flipped this for you but Tertullian there is also another even greater obligation for us to pray for the Emperor's everything concentrated around Rome yes even for the continuous continuance of the Empire in general and for Roman interests we realize that the tremendous force which is hanging over the whole world and the very end of the world with its threat of dreadful afflictions is arrested for a time by the continued exist of the Roman Empire this event we have no desire to experience and in praying that it may be deferred we favor the continuance of Rome Chrysostom had another opinion by the way and this will in fact I'm gonna read this because it'll show you how polarized and how how bizarre this is if I can draw your attention to one thing which is very important is the difference between this masculine singular and this neutral singular now it seems tenable and it has been even proposed here in this ministry that the neutral singular would refer to the Holy Spirit that if the Holy Spirit is removed and if the Holy Spirit is taken away and I'm at this point I'm not gonna make any definitive commentary on that many others have said that as well including dr. Scott that until the Spirit of God is removed and taken away then these other things can happen that clashes ever-so-slightly with things that happen in Revelation and you talk about people being sealed with a mark in their head and essentially they're being sealed by the spirit that brings the conflict of something which again that's why I said you can't do this all in one night it's impossible but I can at least put enough information out there I've at least introduced enough thought-provoking grammar just in these two words alone to get some people to kind of think about some things but let me read Chrysostom as they're all in here one may naturally inquire what it is that which restrains the man of lawlessness and in addition why Paul expresses it so obscurely and I agree with Chrysostom it's it's very obscure because he's remember he says don't you remember what I told you so kind of like when I make jokes about something and if you weren't there you might not understand what the joke is about you'd be like what was that about and unless you were here on staff to know that there used to be a guy used to say my thinking at the time and I say my thinking at the time and I know that there's only a handful of people that will know what I actually meant or what I was referring to and that line that verse when he says remember you not that when I was yet with you I told you these things leaves us slightly in the dark in any any person anyone who professes to have the exact information I tell you is the liar because we don't know what he said to them we don't we only know what is written we only know what we have is preserved so when he says don't you remember what I told you and Chris Austin was right Paul is expressing this in a very obscure way and this is coming from the pen of a man who knew how to write decisively and definitively which is why people like to to lien were led to believe it was Rome so it's as to not incur any you know to not ruffle any feathers and I reject that as I said the Roman Empire has fallen how could that even be tenable at this point it's not what then is it that holds back that is that hinders the revealing of the Antichrist some indeed say the grace of the Spirit but others the Roman Empire I agree with the latter position so Chrysostom agreed that it was the spirit why because if Paul meant to say the spirit Rome he would have spoken he would not have spoken obscurely but plainly I agree with that but there's a problem with even that even now the grace of the Spirit that is the gifts hold back the Antichrist if not he should have come by now and if his coming was to occur with the cessation of the gifts of the Spirit Chrysostom says for they have long since ceased that's perplexing we'll leave that one alone I don't want to even try to understand what he meant by that the gifts of the spirit of ceased but because Paul said this of the Roman Empire he merely touched on the topic understandably speaking covertly and darkly for he had no need to create unnecessary enemies why would that be an enemy and useless dangers for the mystery of lawlessness does already work here he speaks of Nero as if he were the type of the Antichrist okay so this is the problem sometimes when people make statements because we know what Nero did we know that we could we could look at history and say Nero had a very vicious spirit to him we could say that the same spirit that inhabited Alexander the Great or Nero or Hitler which is that's that same spirit that has not died that will get take up another human form we could say it like that but it would be completely absurd to suggest that it was Nero and and and say and now we close the book but in their day that could have been plausible there's one other commentary here it's very brief so variant of Gabala that which restrains and prevents the coming of the lawless one is the holy spirit Paul says this to show that the mystery of iniquity is already beginning in the heresies that have arisen since the Apostolic times so you get the idea not everybody has agreed and why I told you you're gonna have to you're gonna have to tune in again to find out where I'm leading you but you'll know this I've picked this thing apart and I intend to pick it apart some more like like you keep going until there's nothing left to pick at and I do not believe that we can understand this passage without two or three other supporting passages so we need to know what is the withholder and what is the letteth ER Wow did you like that and those can only be at least in part understood contextually by unfolding the rest of these verses six through twelve which we will do now I'm smart enough to know that there are people who as I said I've listened for a long time and you form certain conclusions I'm not telling you that they're wrong I'm just telling you you got to put some effort into looking at all the information and processing it properly I would like to put in a couple more sidebars here which I think are are very important people talk about this subject and everybody suddenly becomes an expert they'll tell you just like people talk on the rapture and they say they have whatever ideas people actually will say well there the rapture is not in the Bible and failed to read certain passages with then their passages they read by all the time think about this what did Jesus mean when he said in my father's house he talks about mansions and he says I go to prepare a place for you and then I'm gonna come back and get you what on earth does that mean I should think about that I'm just adding something about conversation on rapture what do you think that means I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna get you and I'm gonna take you there what does that mean is it poetry Wow no such thing as a rapture well start reading the Bible and you find that Jesus said many things that maybe didn't use the word but sound very much like otherwise I don't know what it means when he says I'm coming back to get you and to take you to where I am what does that mean can anybody tell me what that means it's not like you said listen put it in your smart device GPS and meet me there at 7:00 right so I think we have to have an intelligent discussion on all of these subjects and really what the Lord puts us on my heart and I've just kind of been trying to stay away I wanted to finish nehemiah and I've tried to stay away from it I would like to start teaching on the book of Revelation but I can't do that without doing so many other things that are essentially the pieces of information that are required before you can even go there people talk about in times that's I'm telling you something I feel bad for anyone who's just starting out who is bombarded on the internet with a thousand different opinions of things and everybody by the way on the internet is an expert everybody's an expert on something I mean I just somebody just I won't even say what it is somebody sent me a link to something because they believe in a certain ideology they believe in something and they wanted me to see this and I gosh wow what do you say after that except that everybody on the internet is an expert and I actually asked one of my friends who's also administrated how do you how do you deep program people's minds how do you people go in to be careful now people go into religious organizations and they get programmed there are some very large churches where very famous people go that program people's minds that's not something awkward you've all heard that right and to get out of that the person has to essentially be deprogrammed their whole mindset they were brainwashed to erroneous thoughts and ideas I mean listen if you want to believe that you know before Jesus or before anything there were spaceships and they all came out of the space ship if you want to believe that if you really want to believe that knock yourself out I'm not gonna stop you is you probably be boarding the spaceship soon anyways doesn't matter but if you're gonna approach these subjects you cannot approach these subjects like a brainwashed person who has been conditioned to do this no I can only see it this way because for the longest time I'm speaking out of experience for the longest time that's how I operated it was well this is this is what I've been told and this is what I know and no everything else is wrong and the reality is there's only one way to uncover the truth in God's Word and that is to compare side by side if there's something to compare it to the scripture confirms itself which therefore makes sound doctrine and the other thing is contextually you can't just lift something up and say now I'm gonna propose that this is what we should all believe now without it being in the context you know it's like I told you I went to a correctional institution facility one time and you know I think I would have felt safer sitting alone with the inmates than I would with the chaplain because when the chaplain sat down I was doing just fine the chaplains sat down the first thing he wanted to talk about was fornication and you know talk about capital a awkward okay I'm not there to talk about what your issues are I'm here to talk about Jesus Christ and for my for my reason my logic I really don't even want to know what you're there for I know you're not there for good behavior so let's not discuss it but the chaplain wanted to discuss fornication and he kept going back to no matter where I where do you go back to that subject and that's a pernicious mind that would take even the Scriptures to think that this is pre-eminently the important truth that could be shared with these men and I'm thinking I'm sorry that's another form of brainwashing that becomes the legalistic you will perform like Pavlov's dog you will you will perform these things you will do it right so there's that type of brainwashing that even occurs in the church I'm warning people to have an open enough mind to look at just even a small thing as I showed you tonight in the indefinite and definite article is kind of mind-boggling guess what there's one more in here that's a Doozer as well that you just have to go why did they do this and I don't know why they did it it sounded better I don't know but it changes the equation it tells me that there is a definite moment in time that I'm gonna just make a generic statement that God knows or we don't and whatever force it is that is holding back this other force must be taken away and the discussion has often been whether this is the Holy Spirit whether this is the church whether this is an angel like Jude Jude small letter talks about the angel and these are things that must be put out there and almost discuss to the point of dissolving the point to where you can you can draw from conclusion on something and does that make a difference for us it does and I'll tell you why these events that must happen and if we go now to current events in our day people say well this you know will this even happen in my lifetime well really honestly if it does or it doesn't you should be concerned either way your your faith and your attitude towards Christ and the attitude of the church and everything that is around you changes radically when you understand what will happen God is not a man to lie the things that he set out in his book you they welcome to pass and if you want to look back historically before we dig into today and you want to look back historically when you talk about Daniel and Daniel's discussing those weeks of years and you add up the time it's very specific adding up the time the years that these people neglected to let the earth lay follow those years those seventy years adding up to four hundred and ninety years but explains why they were seven years in captivity and you begin to do some numbers looking at the years the weeks of years and we can go we can start looking at when they built the city to the weeks of years bringing it down to 483 whatever it is BC to 444 the decree of artaxerxes and add that or times that by 360 and you get that one hundred and seventy seven thousand eight hundred and thirty days or whatever it is I don't know don't quote me but what I'm saying is with that precision of all the things that have been unfolded that came to pass that was Daniel foretelling of the things and six things in Daniel that he says three are of the first coming and three are of the second coming and when it says everlasting righteousness well that has not yet occurred that came in the flesh to show us and give us a glimpse but everlasting righteousness to never end is when Christ will reign on earth everlasting righteousness so there's all these incredible things that are so precise back there being at the time prophetically told but some parts are now wedged in history and you jump into the current events and you realize even such a what seems so insignificant when it says the warning to us we will not be able to buy or sell without the mark and people have made I've got books on my shelf there some of where dr. Scott some were given to me some I bought and some proposed the most ridiculous theory that back then they were saying certain things must happen in order for these things to happen and the mark that you it'll be a tattoo really do you really think you need a tattoo if you think you need a tattoo you should go and get one but but do you think that these forces at work need to brand people that way in such a fashion and yet we are becoming a cashless society cash is a dirty word and if you're not swiping your card and tapping it wherever you go and by golly it what's a checkbook we write checks we write all of our checks on the way right we write all of our checks when we writing checks today you've got the thumb aches to prove it you want your statements to come on paper click here for paperless transactions because everybody want have you noticed this everybody wants you to be paperless now it's plausible let's save trees let's go hug and save trees I'm not against saving trees it seems plausible because that that cuts down a lot of the people they'd have to pay and would make it would make good sense that that would reduce down the cost of everything but instead the cost of everything has gone up so tell me what's the rationale for that well we're going to keep it in database we want to put it in the cloud we want to have it in some universe somewhere where it's it's really very safe and then you find out that nothing is safe because everything can be hacked cashless society when John was writing about this you'll neither will not be able to buyers or sell he didn't know what we're experienced and we're just we're just beginning to really see it I'm seeing it in the operations of this ministry no we won't we won't take a check anymore we were dealing with a vendor that said we will not that true we won't take a check anymore it was you I think one of your one of your vendors and we won't send you a catalog either well good we won't do business with you but how did John know that well John didn't have a lucky guess these things were foretold just like the things I told you that are that are that were prophesied that are part of history what's yet to come is not yet done so the things that Paul's describing here are part of what's yet to come we shouldn't be concerned with it and territories and countries are important and currency is important so this matters this is not fantasy this is not let's let's engage in something that tantalizes us and leaves us with some we got to know what the mystery is Paul's telling these people don't think what's happening to you is because as the day of the Lord trust me it's not before that day comes these things are going to happen and when these things happen which by the way you know when we read about in verse 4 what Paul is talking about who opposeth and exalteth himself is that not by virtue exactly what he said by Jesus in Matthew 24 you start putting all these things together when you therefore verse 24 15 when he therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the Holy Place whoso readeth let him understand well isn't that essentially the essence of what's being said in our fourth verse that I just read to you out of second Thessalonians is not the essence of it going into the very innards now again Paul is giving some detail that Jesus is Jesus gives the detail of whom who is saying this who declared this in the first place Paul is now giving us some perspective but you have some things to connect dots with these are not random statements so what I want to establish tonight before anything is the translation we should start there of this Thessalonians 2nd Thessalonians from the King James is miserable if I may by the way because I didn't do this and have all my books out here be a tragedy to close the books without reading a few of these verse that we just talked about specifically verses six and seven in these other translations so yep for that okay let's just hear what I'll read first from and this by the way would be the the new revised standard from the Greek and English that I'm reading from but verse six because the Greek actually when I time permitting the next time will write it out for you so you can see the construction of the sentence helps to understand that maybe the King James has led many people to some other conclusion so and you know what is now restraining him so that he may be revealed when his time comes for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work but only until the one who now restrains it is removed now this is what's interesting that when it says only there is one we saw that singular neutral there is one holding it back just now until out of the midst her out of the way that he is gone well that thought for a minute I smile because I can not because the subject makes me smile but I smile because I can cuz that's the wonder of language it it opens up vistas that otherwise in our own frame we would not we would not see let's go do this again out of the revised which is not the new revised it has one difference to it I believe the punctuation you know to as and you also know about the restraining power which ensures that he will be revealed only at his appointed time for already the secret forces of wickedness are at work secret only for the present until the restraining hand is removed from the scene I heard a couple of hmm I think I heard of this is the amplified and now you know what is restraining him from being revealed at this time it is so that he may be manifested revealed in his own appointed time for the mystery of lawlessness that hidden principle of rebellion against constituted authority is already at work in the world but it is restrained only until he who restrains is taken out of the way and we're not done this is the English standard version of that same passage and you know what is restraining him now now Paul saying this thing you know what's restraining him you know what's holding him back now so that he may be revealed in his time for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work only he who now restrains who restrains it will do so until he is out of the way 26 translation and now you know that which restrain us to the end that he may be revealed in his own season now you know the hindrance why he has not yet revealed in his own season now you know what the restraining influence is which prevents his appearing before his appointed time so now you know the power that is holding him back that is to be unveiled at his own appointed time at present there is a power you know what I mean which which holds him in check so he may not show himself before the appointed time to him that's Knox Knox's translation you will probably also remember how I used to talk about a restraining power see they all lean towards something that Paul has already disclosed to them they all lean towards this you will probably also remember how I used to talk about a restraining power which would operate until the time come should come for the emergence of this man you must now be aware of the restraining hand which ensures that he shall be revealed only at the proper time let me read that second part which is only he now that letteth will let your gonna love this only there is one that restrain us now until he until he be taken out of the way he but only until he who at present restrains it is removed out of the way only he who checks it now will be able to check it as in check me out until he is removed from the enemy's path but its activities are restricted until what I have called the restraining power is removed secret only for the present until the restrainer disappears from the scene and it's interesting that the last translation the restrainer they capitalized the our think about these things now this has to be continued there's way too much stuff for us to talk about but I hope you're gonna tune back in when I tackle this again and it won't be in a month or in a year it'll be probably the next time I sit down here because it's almost like laying the layers down they need to be laid down quickly so that there's things that come back to your mind that I've said so that we can put all these things together and at least make some semblance of sense of what's being said in Our Blessed holy King James Bible [Music]

Channel: Pastor Melissa Scott, Ph.D.

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Keywords: pastor melissa scott, pastor scott, faith center, faith center glendale, faith center church, bible teaching, bible lessons, apostle paul, 2 thessalonians 2, introduction, eschatology, end times, study of end times events, pastor melissa scott exposed, king james bible, son of perdition, the day of the lord, the day of christ, coming of the lord, second coming, bible prophecy, jesus christ, 2 thessalonians 2 7 who is the restrainer, opposeth, exalteth, Eschatology Series

Id: BrUBZasdA4I

Length: 83min 35sec (5015 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 19 2018