Let no man deceive you by any means: {3} for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and {e} that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

(3) The apostle foretells that before the coming of the Lord, there will be a throne set up completely contrary to Christ's glory, in which that wicked man will sit, and transfer all things that appertain to God to himself: and many will fall away from God to him.

(e) By speaking of one, he singles out the person of the tyrannous and persecuting antichrist.

Scofield Reference Notes

[1] for that day

The order of events is:

(1) The working of the mystery of lawlessness under divine restraint which had already begun in the apostle's time 2Th 2:7

(2) the apostasy of the professing church 2Th 1:3 Lk 18:8 2Tim 3:1-8.

(3) the removal of that which restrains the mystery of lawlessness 2Th 2:6,7. The restrainer is a person--"he," and since a "mystery" always implies a supernatural element See Scofield Note: "Mt 13:11" this Person can be none other than the Holy Spirit in the church, to be "taken out of the way" 2Th 2:7 1Th 4:14-17.

(4) the manifestation of the lawless one 2Th 2:8-10 Dan 7:8 9:27 Mt 24:15 Rev 13:2-10

(5) the coming of Christ in glory and the destruction of the lawless one 2Th 2:8 Rev 19:11-21

(6) the day of Jehovah 2Th 2:9-12 Isa 2:12

2 Thessalonians 2:3 Parallel Commentaries

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