The emphasis of the second chapter is evident in verses 1-2, which read, “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.”

The Coming of Lord Jesus

There are several things worthy of comment with regard to verses one and two. First, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians to teach them clearly with regard to the rapture. It would be proper to consider such teaching as the primary focus when the text mentions the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and being gathered together to Him. Some Bible teachers attempt to distinguish the coming of the Lord Jesus and the gathering together to Him as two events, but the manner in which it is written in the Greek would be better understood to be “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, even our gathering together to Him.” When the text states, “with regard to,” it is referring to one event. The “gathering together” is with regard to the rapture, which is the emphasis of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, wherein Scripture reveals how the Lord will descend from heaven to gather His church unto Himself.
     Apparently, according to verse 2, there were individuals in danger of being troubled, who were being shaken and disturbed. It is interesting that in John 14, wherein lies the only reference to the rapture in the four Gospels, the very same language is employed when it says do not let your heart be troubled. John 14:1 uses the same language of 2 Thessalonians 2:2, instructing believers not to be quickly shaken from their composure, and not to be disturbed. The word “disturbed” is the same as found in John 14:1, so there are some parallel thoughts between the passages. Jesus explained in John 14 that He was going to prepare a place for His church. Wherever this place would be, which seems to be the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21, Jesus would take the church unto Himself to be with Him forever. Unfortunately, there were individuals in danger of being troubled with regard to this teaching.
     Three things may have caused the disturbance: a spirit, a message, or a letter (2 Thess 2:2). First John 4:1 exhorts believers to examine the spirits; examine them all to know if they are truly of God. Simply because somebody claims to be a “Christian” or to communicate “Christian teaching,” or even if something is printed by a “Christian” publisher, believers are still to examine all things in light of God’s Word. Even if something is in the Christian bookstore and one of the top ten bestsellers, it still needs to be examined to determine if it is truly biblical. Many times those things that are the bestsellers tend to be the most unbiblical. Not always, but they tend to be, at least in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
     There were individuals who were troubled by a spirit, and it states they were also troubled by a word, by a message (so perhaps a false preacher or teacher), which proclaimed things that were contrary to what Paul had taught the Thessalonians. Moreover, a third form of disturbance was the letter. Paul said “a letter as if from us,” so apparently, there was a letter being distributed that was forged, which was actually said to be written by the Apostle. Of course, there are many evidences of these so-called “gospels” that are actually forgeries of an Apostle.
     The three things—the spirit, the message, and letter—were troubling some individuals. The idea, the troubling aspect of it, is stated at the end of verse two: that the spirit, the message, and letter, were saying, “the day of the Lord has come.” (Although there are some translations that read, “the day of Christ,” there is not good manuscript evidence for that reading; the best manuscripts favor the reading, “day of the Lord.”) The day of the Lord is a prophesied event in the Old Testament; it is a time of judgment God will bring upon the world that will culminate in the establishing of His kingdom, His literal kingdom, which will be a kingdom of peace and righteousness. The false teaching from the three sources was that the day of the Lord had come.
     When the text reads, “the day of the Lord has come,” in the Greek, the teaching was that the day of the Lord is at hand. The verb is in the perfect tense in the Greek, which would signify past action with present results. In other words, the false teaching was that the day of the Lord was being accomplished, it was occurring to these first century believers; it had past action with present results. The teaching was that the Thessalonian believers were actually in the tribulation period, the day of the Lord. According to the perspective of this writer, it does not seem possible to explain their concern unless Paul had taught them a pretribulational rapture, a rapture to occur prior to the day of the Lord, prior to the tribulation. Why else would they be concerned? If they were to go through any aspect of the tribulation period, then why be concerned, why be troubled? The troubling aspect only makes sense with a pretribulational rapture. Paul had taught them that they would be taken prior to the beginning of that period, but there was false teaching that they were actually in the day of the Lord.
     The fact that they were experiencing intense persecution led them to assume they were indeed in that period. The same phenomenon occurred during the Protestant Reformation; many of the Reformers believed they were in the tribulation. They believed the pope was Antichrist because of the persecution they were enduring. Apparently, the Thessalonian church believed something similar, as a consequence of the influence of false teachers saying that they were actually in that period. Of course, again, that only makes sense with a pretribulational rapture.
     It is beneficial to understand that rapture issues are only related to premillennialism. Often when the doctrine of the rapture is mentioned, individuals want to discuss premillennial or amillennial issues. However, the doctrine of the rapture of the church is only a premillennial issue. In other words, only those who believe in premillennialism look at these passages and say, when will the coming occur? Will it be prior to the day of the Lord, in the middle, three-fourths of the way, at the end? It is only a premillennial issue. When one reads the Book of Revelation, it is fairly evident (according to chapter 19) that Christ is coming to this earth. What is stated as the very next event after His coming? Chapter 20 emphasizes the millennial reign—six times it uses the Greek word for thousand, so it should be interpreted literally. Six times it uses the Greek word for thousand (chiliades), which informs the reader that the duration is a literal thousand years, in comparing that to all the Old Testament prophecies. It is important to understand that premillennialism is true; then, therefore, one can confidently discuss issues with regard to the rapture. The foundational teaching is premillennialism, and from that understanding, one is able to biblically and intelligently address issues with regard to the rapture and the second coming.

The Apostasy: Physical or Religious?
The focus of verses 3-10 is to demonstrate to the believers that they were not experiencing the tribulation, the day of the Lord. Verse 3 indicates that two things have to occur before the tribulation period can begin: “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come”—in other words, the day of the Lord will not come—“unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.” Two things have to occur: there has to be apostasy first, and then you have the man of lawlessness revealed, the son of destruction.
     According to Daniel 9:26, the “coming prince” will confirm a covenant with many for seven years, and then break that covenant in the midst of that week. Therefore, the revealing of the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is not when he breaks the covenant; according to Daniel 9:26, it is actually when he enforces the seven-year covenant. Paul wrote that the seven-year covenant could not occur “unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction” (2 Thess 2:3).
     The Greek word for apostasy in verse 3 is apostasia. There are generally two solutions given for understanding the Greek word apostasia. The first, and the traditional and probably the most popular view—or the popular view taken by commentators—is that the apostasia should be identified as a “falling away”; in other words, it is a religious apostasy. Even the King James Version translates the Greek in that manner. The most common view in commentaries is to understand 2 Thessalonians 2:3 as teaching not to be deceived because the “falling away” will come first—religious apostasy will come first—and then the man of lawlessness will be revealed.

“Departure” as Physical
Another view is that the departure is actually a reference to the rapture of the church. There are valid reasons for accepting the interpretation that apostasia should be regarded as referencing the pretribulational rapture of the church. One of the first reasons to understand this Greek word, apostasia, as a physical departure, is that the word can truly have the meaning of a physical departure. Whether it is a religious departure or a physical departure depends upon the context. In A Greek-English Lexicon, Liddell and Scott listed “departure, disappearance” as the second meaning of apostasia.¹  According to one of the standard Greek lexicons, apostasia can have reference to an actual, physical departure, not just a religious one.
   Part of the interpretative problem is that the word apostasia is used only twice in the New Testament. Forms of it—noun forms and verbal forms—have other uses in the New Testament, but the actual word, apostasia, is only used in two places in the New Testament—here in 2 Thessalonians 2, and then a second reference in Acts 21:21, where Paul was accused of teaching departure from Moses. According to the context of Acts 21, the accusation against Paul was clearly in the sense of religious departure. He was accused of teaching religious apostasia from the Law of Moses; therefore, the context lets the reader know how to understand the Greek word. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint), one will find the word used in various passages, and the idea is religious departure in all those usages (Josh 22:22; 1 Kgs 21:13; 2 Chron 29:19; 33:19; Isa 30:1; Jer 2:19; cf. 1 Macc 2:15). In reading through all these verses, the context indicates religious departure. Sometimes there will be a descriptive phrase used in addition to this Greek word apostasia, to inform the reader that religious apostasy is the meaning. Either context or a descriptive phrase is needed to indicate the meaning, which means apostasia has a more general rather than specific (technical) meaning.
     The verbal form of apostasia is used fifteen times in the New Testament (Luke 2:37; 4:13; 8:13; 13:27; Acts 5:37-38; 12:10; 15:38; 19:9; 22:29; 2 Cor 12:8; 1 Tim 4:1; 6:5; 2 Tim 2:19; Heb 3:12). Of those fifteen references, only three have reference to a religious departure, and those three are always qualified by the context, because apostasia seems to be a general word that requires contextual consideration to indicate the meaning. For example, the context in Luke 8:13 indicates religious apostasy in reference to the rocky soil: “[There are] those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation”—they apostasize—they “fall away.” First Timothy 4:1 is another example of religious apostasy: the apostasia is departure from the cardinal doctrines of Christianity. The descriptive phrase, “from the faith,” explains the manner of departure. Hebrews 3:12 is another example wherein the descriptive phrase indicates religious apostasy from the living God.
     There are other references, such as Acts 12:10, which states, “When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from them.” The verbal usage of apostasia in Acts 12:10 is a physical departure. Therefore, apostasia can sometimes have the meaning of a religious apostasy from the living God (as in Heb 3:12), from the faith (as in 1 Tim 4:1), an apostasy from salvation itself (as in Luke 8), or it can have the idea of physical departure (as in Acts 12:10). In 2 Corinthians 12:8, Paul prayed that the thorn in the flesh might apostasize (depart) from him. It should be obvious that the intent of apostasia is used generally, and not technically (i.e. only one meaning). It is interesting that William Tyndale, Thomas Cranmer, Theodore Beza, and the Geneva Bible translated apostasia in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 as departure.

“Departure” and Use of the Definite Article
Another issue that helps in determining whether apostasia should be understood as a physical or religious departure in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, is the use of the Greek definite article. The definite article, “the,” is he in the Greek, so that the text reads, he apostasia. The use of the definite article seems to indicate that apostasia is a reference to the rapture. The use of the article with a word makes that word conspicuously distinctive, because the basic function of the definitive article is to identify an object or to bring attention to it.² What that means is that Paul was not referring to an apostasia; he was referring to the apostasia—something very specific. The definite article indicates that the apostasia will be a very specific event, that is, something the Apostle had discussed previously with the Thessalonian believers.
     Although he seemed to understand apostasia (ajpostasiva) as “a religious revolt,” Robertson stated, “the use of the definite article (he) seems to mean that Paul had spoken to the Thessalonians about it.”3 The highly esteemed Greek grammarian, A. T. Robertson, indicated that the use of the definite article indicates something that Paul had previously discussion with the Thessalonian believers. He spoke to them previously with regard to the apostasia. If apostasia is understood as religious apostasy (apostasy from the Christian faith), where is the prior reference? The reference cannot be found in 1 Thessalonians, and there is no reference to a religious apostasy thus far in 2 Thessalonians. Nevertheless, the use of the definite article indicates that Paul was referring to something very specific. He wrote with regard to the apostasia, “the departure.”
     Consider the emphasis of 1 Thessalonians 4 to answer the question with regard to prior reference. In his first epistle, Paul taught the church with regard to Christ coming for His church and taking them from the earth, and gathering all church saints to heaven to always be with the Lord. He did not make any reference to a religious apostasy. Certainly, in the “Pastoral Epistles”
(1 and 2 Timothy, Titus) there is reference to religious apostasy, but not here in Thessalonians. If he was referring to something that he had already discussed with the Thessalonian believers, the only previous reference would be the rapture of the church in 1 Thessalonians 4, or as he said in
2 Thessalonians 2:1, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gathering together unto Him.

“Departure” Is First
There is also evidence in Paul’s style of writing that lends support to the idea that apostasia is the rapture, because in verse 3, Paul stated that two events have to occur first. He used the Greek word proton (prw'ton), and taught that one event has to come first. Paul taught that the apostasia must come first, which is followed by the revealing of the man of sin. In Part 2 of this article, verses 6-7 will be examined, which read, “And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.” In those verses, Paul apparently referenced the apostasia more fully in referring to a physical departure of the church.

Conclusion
When all the various factors with regard to the use of apostasia in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 are considered together, the traditional interpretation of this Greek word as religious apostasy seems to be not wholly accurate. Apparently, there is a clear pretribulational rapture statement in verse 3, when one considers the different lexicons and contexts; verbal forms in the New Testament; the use of the definite article; the idea that verse 3 states the departure has to come first; and the context of Thessalonians. Paul referred to a physical departure, and said that physical departure has to come first, and then afterwards, there is the revealing of the man of lawlessness. Part 2 of this article will examine verses 6-7 of 2 Thessalonians, which provide greater support in defense of the doctrine of the pretribulational rapture.         

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ENDNOTES
1    Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, comps., A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (1843; reprint, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940, 1996) 218.
2    H. E. Dana and Julius R. Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1927) 137.
3    Archibald Thomas Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, 6 vols. (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1931) 4:49.