Introduction
A. If he hit passages that don’t fit your theology perhaps you need to change your theology [paraphrase of NT Wright].
B. Christianity in the first century was a [Second Temple] Jewish sect.
Paul was a devout Jew. In his letters he says many things that you would have to have been Jewish, or very familiar with Judaism, to understand even though he is the apostle to the Gentiles. He always went to the synagogue and preached first to the Jews and then, afterwards, the gentiles. This was an acting out that salvation comes from the Jews [Jesus’ words in John 4:22] AND you needed Jews to understand much of his teaching…
23 Thus says YHWH of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from “all the languages of the nations” will take hold of the hem of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you!” ’ ”
Zechariah 8:23
C. God’s judgement against Israel in Second temple Judaism [516BC to 70AD].
There is no punishment that comes upon the world that doesn't have at least one twenty fourth of a part of the punishment for the golden calf.
Rabbi Yoḥanan, Tractate Berakhot 7a, Babylonian Talmud
There is not a generation of Israel that doesn't suffer at least a particle of punishment for the sin of the golden calf.
Midrash Tanhuma, Parashat Ki Tisa, section 19
D. The immediate context in Thessalonica.
Some of the believers in Thessalonica feared that this παρουσία, this imminent judgement, had already happened [v2]. To demonstrate that the Day of the Lord had not yet arrived, Paul explains in 2:1–12 how two events must first take place before that day arrives. 1. he says there will be a great rebellion [ἀποστασία] [v3]. 2. a figure known as “the man of lawlessness” will come to oppose God’s people.1
Questions
1 Now we ask you, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to him, 2 that you not be easily shaken from your composure, nor be troubled either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter, alleged to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord [ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου] has arrived.
How might we apply this to our time and place?
3 Do not let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion [ἡ ἀποστασία] comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and who exalts himself over every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits down in the temple of God, proclaiming that he himself is God.
What was apostasy for a Jew like Paul?2 First as a Jew and then as a Messiah-believing Jew?
The “man of lawlessness” first appears in Daniel [9:27, 11:31, 12:11]”. What would he do? Who was he? When was the prophecy fulfilled according to Second Temple Judaism?3
What other examples do you recall of a prophecy being fulfilled and then fulfilled again more fully?4
5 Do you not remember that while we were still with you, we were saying these things to you?
Is eschatology important and part of the gospel message? How would you explain the essentials of our hope for the future.
6 And you know that which restrains [τὸ κατέχον] him now, so that he will be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is at work already; only the one [ὁ κατέχων] who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the midst, 8a and then the lawless one will be revealed,
Scholars generally agree that it is difficult to ascertain with any certainty who or what the restrainer is as it is first neuter [v5] and then masculine [v7].
Why is the world not more evil than it is? Does God have a plan as to when evil will be allowed to happen? Why does God permit evil?
8b whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath [πνεῦμα] of his mouth, and wipe out by the appearance of his coming [παρουσία],
How is Jesus slaying the “man of lawlessness”/”abomination that causes desolation”?
9 whose coming [παρουσία] is in accordance with the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders,
Two παρουσίες! First, the “lawless one” only to be destroyed by Jesus!
Permitted by God but executed by Satan. Where else do we see this?5
10 and with every unrighteous deception against those who are perishing, in place of which they did not accept the love of the truth, so that they would be saved. 11 And because of this, God sends them a working of deceit so that they will believe the lie,
Beale6 also links the “working of deceit” to the judgement of Israel, e.g. Isaiah 6:9-10, Deuteronomy 29:4.
12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but delighted in unrighteousness.
Who was punished in the destruction of Jerusalem?7
More
Josephus “The War of the Jews”
Chapter 5
3. Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as belied God himself. While they did not attend, nor give credit to the signs that were so evident, and did so plainly foretel their future desolation. But like men infatuated, without either eyes to see, or minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to them. Thus there was a star, resembling a sword, which stood over the city: and a comet, that continued a whole year. (15) Thus also before the Jews rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crouds to the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] (16) and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar, and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time. Which light lasted for half an hour. This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskilful: but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes, as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it. At the same festival also an heifer, as she was led by the High-priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb, in the midst of the temple. Moreover the eastern gate of the inner [court of the] temple,9 which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor; which was there made of one intire stone: was seen to be opened of its own accord, about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch in the temple came hereupon running to the captain of the temple, and told him of it: who then came up thither: and, not without great difficulty, was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy: as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord: and that the gate was opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publickly declared that this signal foreshewed the desolation that was coming upon them. Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable; were it not related by those that saw it; and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals. For, before sun setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armour were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost; as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the] temple,10 as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said, that in the first place they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise: and after that they heard a sound, as of a multitude, saying, “Let us remove hence.” But what is still more terrible; there was one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a plebeian, and an husbandman, who, four years before the war began; and at a time when the city was in very great peace and prosperity; came to that feast whereon it is our custom for every one to make tabernacles to God in the temple, (17) began on a sudden to cry aloud, “A voice from the east; a voice from the west; a voice from the four winds; a voice against Jerusalem, and the holy house; a voice against the bridegrooms, and the brides; and a voice against this whole people.” This was his cry, as he went about by day and by night, in all the lanes of the city. However certain of the most eminent among the populace had great indignation at this dire cry of his; and took up the man, and gave him a great number of severe stripes. Yet did not he either say any thing for himself, or any thing peculiar to those that chastised him: but still went on with the same words which he cried before. Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine fury in the man; brought him to the Roman procurator. Where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare. Yet he did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any tears: but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke of the whip his answer was, “Woe, woe to Jerusalem.” And when Albinus, (for he was then our procurator;) asked him, “Who he was? and whence he came? and why he uttered such words?” he made no manner of reply to what he said: but still did not leave off his melancholy ditty: till Albinus took him to be a mad-man, and dismissed him. Now, during all the time that passed before the war began, this man did not go near any of the citizens; nor was seen by them while he said so. But he every day uttered these lamentable words, as if it were his premeditated vow: “Woe, woe to Jerusalem.” Nor did he give ill words to any of those that beat him every day, nor good words to those that gave him food: but this was his reply to all men; and indeed no other than a melancholy presage of what was to come. This cry of his was the loudest at the festivals; and he continued this ditty for seven years, and five months; without growing hoarse, or being tired therewith. Until the very time that he saw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege; when it ceased. For as he was going round upon the wall, he cried out with his utmost force, “Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house.” And just as he added at the last, “Woe, woe to myself also,” there came a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him, and killed him immediately. And as he was uttering the very same presages he gave up the ghost.
Derek R. Brown, 2 Thessalonians, ed. Douglas Mangum, Lexham Research Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013), 2 Th 2:1–17.
Apostasy [v3] was Israel rejecting YHWH. The gentiles could not commit apostasy as as they were in darkness and never knew God to begin with.
The “man of lawlessness” appears in Daniel [9:27, 11:31, 12:11]. Lawlessness, for Paul, is likely a rejection of Torah [Ernest Best, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians (Baker Academic, 1993)]. Rejection of God and his will. The prophecy was fulfilled, it would seem in 167BC when, the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes IV, sacrificed pigs in the temple and set up an altar to Zeus [1 Maccabees; Flavius Josephus, "Antiquities of the Jews", Book 12; Polybius, the Greek historian, was a contemporary of Antiochus and provides a description in his "Histories" [fragments only].]. The idea of a re-appearance of the abomination of desolation was prevalent in Second Temple Judaism [A Habakkuk Commentary [1QpHab], has a "coming desolator" who is a foreign ruler who will defile the Temple. The Messianic War Scroll [4Q246] describes a future war between the forces of good and evil, culminating in a messianic victory and the restoration of the daily sacrifice by the Messiah as per Daniel's prophecy. The Temple Scroll [11Q] outlines an ideal vision for the Temple and its practices.].
Hosea 11:1 ["When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son”] is reused by Matthew [2:13-15] as a prophecy fulfilled by Jesus. Isaiah [7:14-15] uses a young woman with child and the time for the child to grow to know right and wrong to indicate that YHWH would deliver his people in a matter of years. Matthew [1:23] uses the verses as a prophecy of the virgin birth!
God sends deceiving spirits. Saul was tormented by an evil spirit sent from God [1 Samuel 16:14-23]. God sent deceiving spirits to Ahab’s prophets [1 Kings 22:19-23]. God sent a lying spirit to deceive Ahaziah [2 Chronicles 18:18-22]. What is the purpose?
G. K. Beale, 1-2 Thessalonians (IVP Academic, 2010).
Josephus records that the Christians, seeing the signs foretold by Jesus, had already fled Jerusalem before the final destruction [Josephus, "The Jewish War," Book VI, Chapter 5, Section 3.]