Welcome to Prophecy Q & A with Jimmy DeYoung!
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3)
I will take you to the Word. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1 “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him.“ The gathering together would be the rapture.
“That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us (three weeks after he had led them to the Lord, he wrote them a letter, 1 Thessalonians, and introduced the rapture of the church), as that the day of Christ (any time in history when God interferes with the affairs of man, referred to as the Day of the Lord) is at hand.”
1 Thessalonians 5 talks about the Day of the Lord, but the rapture is not included in the Day of the Lord. All prophecies to be fulfilled will be fulfilled after the rapture. The rapture is the next event on God’s calendar of activities to be fulfilled, and then the Day of the Lord begins, including the seven years of Tribulation, the return of Christ (Zechariah 14 when Jesus Christ steps down on the Mount of Olives in the city of Jerusalem). The Day of the Lord has a specific interpretation and a general application. The general application is from after the rapture, including the seven years, the return of Christ, the Millennial Kingdom will come to a conclusion before the Great White Throne Judgment. Revelation 20:11 says that the heaven and the earth had fled away and there was a Great White Throne. When the heaven and the earth are destroyed is the end of history. We are not in that part of history. The specific usage is the day that Jesus Christ steps back on the Mount of Olives. Sometimes, in the context, you can conclude that it is what will happen at the last half of the Tribulation period, but it could be sometime in the entire seven years.
Verse 3 says, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (the Day of the Lord) shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” “A falling away” in the Greek is “apostasia.” It is also used one other time in the Bible (Acts 21:21) where it is talking about the people forsaking or departing from Moses, and what Moses said and did to lead the Jewish people with. It is not talking about apostasy (that word is not in the Bible) but a departure.
1 and 2 Timothy says that Paul selects Timothy and has Titus join him. They go from church to church, churches that Paul had started, and give them the qualifications for deacons and elders and make sure that the leadership is proper according to what God’s inspired Word says. He wants to make sure that the leadership and the local churches would be living according to the Word of God. But they had fallen away from that. If you use that text to say that the rapture happened after the falling away, you would have to say that the rapture happened almost 2,000 years ago because during Paul’s day, there was a falling away. “Apostasia” means to depart from one place and go to another. At the rapture of the church, we depart the earth and go to the heavenlies. I believe the word “apostasia” should have been translated “the rapture,” or “the catching up” of us to be with Him. He explains what the “man of sin” will be doing; he walks in (verse 4) as the Antichrist and goes into the Temple that is sitting on the Temple Mount in the city of Jerusalem at the midway point of the Tribulation. He goes into the Temple and desecrates it (Abomination of Desolation). He told them that these things were going to happen … “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.” (2 Thes. 2:6)
What keeps the Antichrist from coming on the scene? “One that hindereth.”
“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8)
That is not the departure of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has the same characteristics of God the Father and Jesus the Son. They are omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipresent (they never leave and are always present). What hinders? The Holy Spirit living in the body of Christ, living in Christians. This is what hinders the Antichrist from coming on the scene. It hinders evil. The Holy Spirit in us hinders evil. When the rapture takes place (verse 7), and that which hinders and has been taken away, then (verse 8) “shall that Wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3 is the rapture of the church, instead of the falling away. It’s departing from one place and going to another, and then when we which are hindering evil on this earth are departed, then the Antichrist comes on the scene.
Jimmy DeYoung was a prophecy teacher and journalist who travelled the country and the world educating the Body of Christ of the future events foretold in God’s prophetic Word. His goal was to equip Christians with the knowledge and understanding of what God’s Word says will happen someday soon, so that they can make better decisions today. Dr. DeYoung went home to be with his Savior on August 15, 2021.
