Before we get back into our study of the Day of the LORD, I want to toss out a reminder about the Come Away {retreat} that I am hosting in the fall. It is a time for women who long for a more intimate relationship with Jesus to draw up close and spend time with Him and other women in prayer, worship, and the Scriptures. There are a few spots left, so hop over HERE and find out how to register.
Okay, let’s get back to our study of the Day of the LORD. We are taking this opportunity to study both the Rapture and the Day of the LORD because the two events are inextricably linked. Let me give you a couple of links in case you are just now hopping onto the Revelation and Rapture wagon.
Go HERE to find links for every post in this Revelation series.
Go HERE to read my first post on the Rapture.
Go HERE to read the previous post on the Day of the LORD.
The last time we were together we looked at numerous references from the Old Testament for the Day of the LORD. Today, let’s breeze through the New Testament references.
Acts 2:17-21 with a focus on verse 20
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
This passage details several things that must take place before the day of the Lord comes. In short, there must be a pouring out of the Spirit on all flesh, wonders in the heavens, signs on the earth (blood, fire, and smoke), the sun will be darkened and the moon turned to blood. We have heard this in last week’s post, so let’s move on.
1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11 with a focus on verse 2
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
The day of the Lord will come unexpectedly and will not be a welcome event.
2 Peter 3: 10
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Again, a reference to the unexpected nature of the day of the Lord.
I want us to camp for a bit on 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 for the rest of our time together today.
This passage details specific events that must take place in order for the Day of the Lord to come. Let’s take a look at it.
1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers,
2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,
10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,
12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
There were those among the Thessalonians who had spread the rumor that the day of the Lord had already come. In this passage Paul is reassuring his flock that that was the furthest thing from the truth. In verse 3 Paul begins to detail what must happen before the day of the Lord happens. Let’s look at three important events that Scripture says must occur:
- A restraining influence is removed
- The rebellion
- The man of lawlessness is revealed and responds
First, the restraining influence. What in the world is this? The two theories that seem to have the widest acceptance is that this reference is to the church or the Holy Spirit. Given the ‘he’ referenced in verse 7 and the fact that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer, I believe the reference is to the Holy Spirit AND the church. Once the church is taken out of the world (via the Rapture??), the Holy Spirit, by and large, is gone unless God chooses to keep the Spirit in the world outside His indwelling of believers.
The Greek word that Paul used here for restraining is one that means “to hold down (fast), keep, let, possess, retain, seize on, stay, take, withhold”. (Strongs) Whatever is restraining the evil of that day will be removed and literally, all hell will break loose according to verse 10.
Next week we will finish our look at 2 Thessalonians 2 and the Day of the Lord.
SDG/FCA!!
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