Are you Deceived about His Return?

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The second important truth we learned this past Sunday about having an Exit Strategy until the Lord Returns, is Our Exit Strategy is to NOT BE DECEIVED about His Coming (2:3-5). 

We discovered “the Day of the Lord” is an important Biblical term that describes God's cataclysmic future judgment on the wicked (2 Thess. 1:6-10). It will be a period of time at the end of world history, when God pours out His wrath upon the wicked, which is why it is also called “the Day of vengeance” on three separate occasions in the Bible (Isa. 34:8; 61:2; 63:4). The Day of the LORD is the horrible event that begins the moment the Lord Returns, and we meet Him in the air (2 Thess. 2:1; 1 Thess. 4:15-17). 

If the Thessalonians knew that the Parousia (coming of Jesus) came at the end of the Great Tribulation, persecution would not have caused them to fear they were experiencing the Day of the Lord. Instead, that persecution would have been a cause for joy, not concern. Because the Thessalonians had been deceived, and greatly disturbed by the situation they found themselves in, Paul had to reassure them, and reeducate them about the Coming of Jesus (2 Thess. 2:1), and the Day of the Lord (2:3), which are two separate and distinct eschatological events.

Paul makes it clear that “the Day of the Lord will not come unless the falling away comes” first and “the man of sin is revealed” (2 Thess. 2:3). The Bible is clear that believers will not experience the wrath of God that will be unleashed upon the world (1 Thess. 5:9). 

But at the same time, Paul clearly teaches that it will be “through many tribulations (we will) enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22), and this is exactly what was taking place to this young church from Thessalonica (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12; see also 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16; 3:1-4). Read 2 Peter 3:1-14, and consider what Peter says to the church about not being deceived by the word of scoffers (3:1-7), about being reminded of the Word of God (3:8-10), and about how we should live our lives until this day (3:11-14).

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