(By Thomas Ice)
Focus
on Jerusalem, in its continuing endeavor to make available interesting and
doctrinally sound articles associated with Bible Prophecy offers this
provocative, but very profound article on the subject of the Rapture by Dr.
Thomas Ice of the Pre-Trib Research Foundation. FOJ hopes that its presentation
will inspire your further interest in the wonderful study of the amazing
prophetic world of the Holy Bible. (06-01-2006)
(By Thomas Ice)
“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless
the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of
destruction” (2nd Thessalonians 2:3).
I believe that there exists a strong possibility that 2nd
Thessalonians 2:3 is speaking about the Rapture. What do I mean? Some
pretribulationists, like myself believe that the Greek noun apostasia, usually
translated “apostasy,” is a reference to the Rapture and should be translated
“departure.” Thus, this passage would be saying that the day of the Lord will
not come until the Rapture first takes place. If apostasia is a reference to a
physical departure, then 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 supports strong evidence for
pretribulationism.
THE MEANING OF APOSTASIA
The Greek noun apostasia is only used twice in the New Testament. In addition to
2nd Thessalonians 2:3, it occurs in Acts 21:21 where, speaking of Paul, it is
said, “that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake
(apostasia) Moses.” The word is a Greek compound of apo, or “from” and
istemi, or “stand.” Thus, it has the core meaning of “away from” or “departure.”
Liddell and Scott’s “A Greek English Lexicon” defines apostasia
first as “defection, revolt”; then secondly as “departure, or disappearance.”
Gordon Lewis explains how the verb from which the noun apostasia is
derived supports the basic meaning of departure in the following:
The verb may mean to remove spatially. There is little reason
then to deny that the noun can mean such a spatial removal or departure. Since
the noun is used only one other time in the New Testament of apostasy from Moses
(Acts 21:21), we can hardly conclude that its biblical meaning is necessarily
determined. The verb is used fifteen times in the New Testament. Of these
fifteen, only three have anything to do with a departure from the faith (Luke
8:13; 1st Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 3:12).The word is used for departing from
iniquity (2nd Timothy 2:19), from ungodly men (1st Timothy 6:5), from the Temple
(Luke 2:27), from the body (2nd Corinthians 12:8), and from persons (Acts 12:10;
Luke 4:13). “It is with full assurance of proper exegetical study and with
complete confidence in the original languages,” concludes Daniel Davey, “that
the word meaning of apostasia is defined as departure.” Paul Lee Tan adds the
following:
What precisely does Paul mean when he says that “the falling
away” (2:3) must come before the Tribulation? The definite article “the” denotes
that this will be a definite event, an event distinct from the appearance of the
Man of Sin. The Greek word for “falling away,” taken by itself, does not mean
religious apostasy or defection. Neither does the word mean “to fall,” as the
Greeks have another word for that [pipto, I fall; TDI]. The best translation of
the word is “to depart.” The Apostle Paul refers here to a definite event which
he calls “the departure,” and which will occur just before the start of the
Tribulation. This is the Rapture of the Church. So the word has the core meaning
of “departure” and it depends upon the context to determine whether it is used
to mean physical departure or an abstract departure such as a departure from the
faith.
TRANSLATION HISTORY
The first seven English translations of apostasia all rendered
the noun as either departure” or “departing.” They are as follows: Wycliffe
Bible (1384); Tyndale Bible (1526); Coverdale Bible (1535); Cranmer Bible
(1539); Breeches Bible (1576); Beza Bible (1583); Geneva Bible (1608). This
supports the notion that the word truly means “departure.” In fact, Jerome’s
Latin translation known as the Vulgate from around the time of AD 400 renders
apostasia with the word discessio, meaning “departure.” Why was the
King James Version the first to depart from the established translation of
“departure”? Theodore Beza, the Swiss reformer was the first to transliterate
apostasia and create a new word rather than translate it as others had done. The
translators of the King James Version were the first to introduce the new
rendering of apostasia as “falling away.” Most English translators have
followed the KJV and Beza in departing from translating apostasia as
“departure.” No good reason was ever given.
THE USE OF THE
ARTICLE
It is important to note that Paul used a definite article with the noun
apostasia. What does this mean? Davey notes the following:
Since the Greek language does not need an article to make the
noun definite, it becomes clear that with the usage of the article reference is
being made to something in particular. In 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 the word
apostasia is prefaced by the definite article which means that Paul is pointing
to a particular type of departure clearly known to the Thessalonian church.”
Dr. Lewis provides a likely answer when he notes that the
definite article serves to make a word distinct and draw attention to it. In
this instance he believes that its purpose is “to denote a previous reference.”
“The departure Paul previously referred to was ‘our being gathered to him’ (v.
1) and our being ‘caught up’ with the Lord and the raptured dead in the clouds
(1st Thessalonians 4:17),” notes Dr. Lewis. 8 The “departure” was
something that Paul and his readers clearly had a mutual understanding about.
Paul said in verse 5, “Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I
was telling you these things? The use of the definite article would also support
the notion that Paul spoke of a clear, discernable event. A physical departure
like the Rapture would fit just such a notion. However, the New Testament
teaches that apostasy had already arrived in the first century (cf. Acts
20:27–32; 1st Timothy 4:1–5; 2nd Timothy 3:1–9; 2nd Peter 2:1–3; Jude 3–4,
17–21) and thus, such a process would not denote a clear event as demanded by
the language of this passage. Understanding departure as the Rapture would
satisfy the nuance of this text.
E. Schuyler English
explains as follows:
Again, how would the Thessalonians, or Christians in any century
since, be qualified to recognize the apostasy when it should come, assuming,
simply for the sake of this inquiry, that the Church might be on Earth when it
does come? There has been apostasy from God, rebellion against Him, since time
began.
Whatever Paul is referring to in his reference to “the departure”
was something that both the Thessalonian believers and he had discussed in depth
previously. When we examine Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he never
mentioned the doctrine of apostasy; however, virtually every chapter in that
epistle speaks of the Rapture (cf. 1:9–10; 2:19; probably 3:13; 4:13–17;
5:1–11). In these passages, Paul has used a variety of Greek terms to describe
the Rapture. It should not be surprising that he used another term to reference
the Rapture in 2nd Thessalonians 2:3. Dr. House tells us:
Remember, the Thessalonians had been led astray by the false
teaching (2:2–3) that the “Day of the Lord” had already come. This was confusing
because Paul offered great hope, in the first letter, of a departure to be with
Christ and a rescue from God’s wrath. Now a letter purporting to be from Paul
seems to say that they would first have to go through the “Day of the Lord.”
Paul then clarified his prior teaching by emphasizing that they had no need to
worry. They could again be comforted because the departure he had discussed in
his first letter, and in his teaching while with them, was still the truth. The
departure of Christians to be with Christ, and the subsequent revelation of the
lawless one, Paul argues, is proof that the “Day of the Lord” had not begun as
they had thought. This understanding of apostasia makes much more sense than the
view that they are to be comforted (v. 2) because a defection from the faith
must precede the “Day of the Lord.” The entire second chapter (as well as 1st
Thessalonians 4:18; 5:11) serves to comfort (see vv. 2, 3, 17), supplied by a
reassurance of Christ’s coming as taught in his first letter.
DEPARTURE AND THE
RESTRAINER
Since pretribulationists believe that the restrainer mentioned in verses 6 and 7
is the Holy Spirit and teaches a pre-trib Rapture, then it should not be
surprising to see that there is a similar progression of thought in the
progression of verse 3. Allan MacRae, president of Faith Theological Seminary,
in a letter to Schuyler English, has said the following concerning this matter:
I wonder if you have noticed the striking parallel between this
verse and verses 7–8, a little further down.According to your suggestion verse 3
mentions the departure of the Church as coming first, and then tells of the
revealing of the Man of Sin. In verses 7 and 8 we find the identical sequence.
Verse 7 tells of the removal of the Church; verse 8 says: “And then shall that
Wicked be revealed.” Thus close examination of the passage shows an inner unity
and coherence, if we take the word apostasia in its general sense of
“departure,” while a superficial examination would easily lead to an erroneous
interpretation as “falling away” because of the proximity of the mention of the
Man of Sin.
Kenneth Wuest, a Greek scholar from Moody Bible Institute, added
the following contextual support to taking apostasia as a physical departure:
But then the apostasia of which Paul is speaking, precedes the
revelation of Antichrist in his true identity, and is to katechon that
which holds back his revelation (2:6). The hee apostasia, therefore,
cannot be either a general apostasy in Christendom, which does precede the
coming of Antichrist, nor can it be the particular apostasy, which is the result
of his activities in making himself the alone object of worship. Furthermore,
that which holds back his revelation (vs. 3) is vitally connected with hoo
katechoon (vs. 7), He who holds back the same event.The latter is, in my
opinion, the Holy Spirit and His activities in the Church. All of which means
that I am driven to the inescapable conclusion that the hee apostasia (vs. 3)
refers to the Rapture of the Church which precedes the “Day of the Lord,” and
holds back the revelation of the Man of Sin who ushers in the world-aspect of
that period.
CONCLUSION
The fact that apostasia most likely has the meaning of physical departure is a
clear support for pretribulationism. If this is true, and I believe it is, then
it means that a clear, prophetic sequence is laid out by Paul early in his
apostolic ministry. Paul taught in 2nd Thessalonians 2 that the Rapture would
occur before the “Day of the Lord” commences. It is not until after the
beginning of the “Day of the Lord” that the Antichrist is released, resulting in
the events described by him in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. This is the only
interpretation that provides hope for a discomforted people. Maranatha!
