First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

MOSHIACH'S LETTER THROUGH THE SHLIACH SHA'UL TO THE BRIT CHADASHA KEHILLAH IN THESSALONIKA (II)

This letter was written shortly after I Thessalonians in C.E. 50.

The believers have been persecuted severely, so much so that they

seem to think that the Day of the L-rd has arrived. Shliach

Sha'ul says, no, the Anti-Moshiach is not here yet and is being

restrained from coming on the scene. When Moshiach Yehoshua

returns he will destroy the Anti-Moshiach, who must be revealed

first.

This whole scenario of end-time events is an imminent possibility

so that the coming of the L-rd is at hand. Yet this gives no

warrant for anyone to live in idleness and sponge off the

wealthier believers. Those who refuse to obey Rav Sha'ul's

instructions to get busy and stop being "busy bodies" (3:11) are

to be admonished as brothers (not enemies) and then withdrawn

from until they repent (3:14). No one is allowed to make himself

a burden on others (3:8). Everyone is to follow the example

Shliach Sha'ul and his associates set when they worked night and

day, with secular jobs and in the ministry (3:7-10).

It should be noted that the end-time scenario of events that

Shliach Sha'ul gives in II Thessalonians is given in that ever

evocative, always contemporary, language of apocalyptic prophecy

and not in language to be interpreted too prosaically. Those who

fasten on a humdrum, vapid reading of the language of Revelation

or Daniel or Mark 13 or II Thessalonians 2 usually declare that

the European Common Market is this or Mussolini is that and are

proven as wrong as a person is who reads a cryptogram as though

it were a simple shopping list.

There is a literal rapture and there is and will be literal

tribulation and there have been, are, and will be manifestations

of Satan, including a climatic figure called the "man of

lawlessness" (2:3). But, in Scripture, what happens in these

events is not prosaically described in the clinical detail or the

journalistic realism with which a scientist or a television

newsman would speak today, but in the ceaselessly evocative

language of Biblical allusion, motif, symbol, etc. To use a

ridiculous illustration, the "son of perdition" (2:3) does not of

course mean that the Anti-Moshiach's father will be named Mr.

Perdition. This is a Hebraism and a poetic way of saying his

characteristic nature and destiny is ruin and destruction or

hell. Ch. 2:8 says Moshiach Yehoshua will destroy the

Anti-Moshiach with the breath of his mouth. That will literally

happen, the Anti-Moshiach will be destroyed, but that is a poetic

and not a literal picture of how it will happen. To read that

with prosaic and graphic literalness, as though one man, by

means of a kind of lethal halitosis, kills another man, is as

silly as it is blasphemous Ch. 2:8 is meant to evoke, in a signal

stroke, all the density of Isaiah 11:4, Exodus 15:8; Job 4:9, and

other allusions. Those who knew the Scriptures like true prophets

could understand this kind of language. Those who didn't had to

study the Word until they could follow the cryptic, telegraphic

symbolism of Apocalyptic language.

By the same token, those who say that the Beis Hamikdash must be

literally rebuilt and the Anti-Moshiach must literally sit in it

may not at all be assured that they are right. The Lord's

destruction of Anti-Moshiach might be much closer to us than any

Beis Hamikdash rebuilding project in Jerusalem might lead us to

believe. "He takes his seat in the Beis Hamikdash of G-d,

proclaiming himself to be G-d" (2:4) could be Apocalyptic

language evoking poetic passages like Ezekiel 28:2 and could be

an allusion to Caligula and Antiochus Epiphenes and the

presumptuous evil with which the Anti-Moshiach will try to seize

and steal G-d's worship and central authority. With a handful

of words, Shliach Sha'ul communicates all this and more.

Dispensationalists may have an over-literal way of misreading

apocalyptic imagery and liberals have an over-symbolic way, one

that faithlessly dispenses with all literal fulfillment. The

Anti-Moshiach will definitely come and will definitely attempt to

"steal G-d's seat" but whether that involves the literal

construction of the Beis Hamikdash in Jerusalem is speculative

and may not be at issue doctrinally.

When the Anti-Moshiach appears and the fiery Word of G-d fills

the sky from horizon to horizon to destroy him, that will be the

end. It hasn't happened yet, though it is at hand, and could

happen imminently. What or who is holding the Anti-Moshiach back

from appearing before his appointed time? What or who must first

be removed before the Anti-Moshiach appears openly? This is the

interpretive problem of 2:5-7 and many answers have been offered

to solve it: the Brit Chadasha kehillah, the Ruach Hakodesh, etc.

The mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but someone or

something (the Greek uses both a neuter phrase and a masculine

form to refer to it/him) is holding back the man of lawlessness.

When whatever this is finally is removed, the man of lawlessness

will appear, the "son of perdition" will come on the scene and be

destroyed.

Whatever we say that "restrainer" is, we must do so with humility

and the desire to be no more dogmatic than the Bible. In the

story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 we

have a typological picture or historical parable about the Brit

Chadasha kehillah (the called-out family of Abraham) in a G-dless

Anti-Moshiach world doomed to destruction, experiencing

"terrible times" (II Tim. 3:1). The people are so wicked they are

murderous perverts and homosexuals who would rape angels, if

possible, and Abraham's family is caught in the lethal

cross-fire between the sons of Satan and the angels of G-d. But

G-d himself is using his angels to hold back or restrain the

wicked until the message has gone forth and the elect are

delivered. Until the truth is received by those who love it,

those who hate the truth are not destroyed. The Anti-Moshiach

will be held back from appearing and being destroyed to end the

world until this Besuras Hageulah has been preached to the whole

world, to all the Sodom and Gomorrahs of the earth, and then the

end will come (Matthew 24:14). Similarly G-d will restrain that

fallen and wicked angel until the end of the Millennium (Rev.

20:1-3) and then his wrath will come and the Millennium will end

to usher in the Judgment and the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Another possible interpretation (and one that better fits Rav

Sha'ul's cryptic way of speaking about these matters) is that the

reference is to the Emperor and the same Roman government of the

Empire.

So what does this mean to us? It means that, while the

restraining hand of G-d and his angels is on this wicked age,

while it is still "day," we must preach the Besuras Hageulah.

Night is coming when no man can work. Let us redeem the time

because the days are evil and getting increasingly so. (See

Yochanan 9:4; Eph. 5:16). Let us be busy and do something useful

so we can pay our own way and not be a burden while we preach the

Besuras Hageulah and watch in prayer, ready at any time to meet

our L-rd or to take our stand against Satan or his "son" the

Anti-Moshiach.

Diogmos (persecution) caused two problems for the Thessalonian

believers: some apparently believed the persecution they

experienced meant that the "Day of the L-rd is present has come

already (II Thes. 2:2); secondly, the persecution they

experienced was causing some to despair and lose hope for

brethren who had departed in the L-rd before the

parousian tou Kupiou (I Thes. 4:15).

In these two letters to the Thessalonians, Shliach Sha'ul, in

order to encourage this persecuted Brit Chadasha kehillah in the

upomonen tou Xristou (the perseverance of Moshiach--II Thes.3:5,

see upomone steadfast endurance I Thes. 1:3; II Thes. 1:4),

straightens out their sequential understanding of an event which

he calls variously parousia tou kurio (I Thes. 4:15) and emera

tou kuriou (I Thes. 5:2). The two terms are also used

interchangeably in II Thes.2:1-2 for the same event! This

event will be a time of wrath, anger for persecutors and others

who do not obey the Besuras Hageulah of our L-rd Moshiach

Yehoshua (II Thes. 1:8) and they will not escape either wrath or

destruction (I Thes. 5:3). Because these unbelievers refused to

love the truth and took pleasure in unrighteousness and were

wickedly deluded by an anti-Moshiach lie (II Thes.2:10-12), they

will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the

presence of the L-rd and glory of His might (II Thes. 1:9)

because they by their unbelief in the truth (II Thes.2:12)

participated in the general anti-Moshiach apostasia or rebellion

of the world at the end of the age (II Thes. 2:3). Like those who

persecuted the Messianic Jews in Jerusalem, those who are

persecuting the Messianic Greeks in Thessalonica (I Thes.

2:14-16) are liable to the wrath that is coming, the wrath from

which Yehoshua will rescue us believers at His Coming (see I

Thes. 1:10).

Although the Day of the L-rd itself comes unexpectedly like a

thief in the night, a certain rough sequence is knowable by

believers: The apostasia or rebellion of the world comes proton

(first -- II Thes. 2:3) and at the same time there is an

apokalupsis (revelation) and a parousia (coming) of (the Lawless

one, the anti-Moshiach) who usurps G-d's earthly throne (see II

Thes. 2:3-12) and lures unbelievers to participate in not only

his worship but also his annihilation and the wrath that is

coming on him and them at the time of the epifaneia (appearance)

of the parousia tou Kuriou (II Thes .2:8). At that time the

sequence will be like this: the dead in Moshiach will rise proton

(first), then we who are alive and remain until the parousia tou

Kuriou will see these who have departed in Moshiach being caught

up from their graves to a meeting with the L-rd and we will see

the ones having fallen asleep in Moshiach Yehoshua coming with

Moshiach Yehoshua and with his angels in flaming fire (I Thes.

4:14; 5:10; II Thes. 1:7-8); then we ourselves will be caught up

to be with the L-rd. This is called our episunagoge (our

assemblying, our gathering together II Thes. 2:1; Matt. 24:31) at

the parousia tou Kuriou (II Thes. 2:1; Matt. 24:30-31; Mark

13:26-27). This event is imminently expected. It could happen at

any time.

When Shliach Sha'ul wrote this it had been only 20 years since

Moshiach Yehoshua had arisen from the grave, only 10 years since

Caligula had been narrowly restrained from becoming an Antiochus

Epiphanes redivivus figure attempting to have his image

worshipped in the Jerusalem Beis Hamikdash, and less than 1 year

since Claudius had begun persecuting the Jews in Rome by

expelling them from the city. When Claudius himself or his sane,

lawful, world-wide Government itself was removed or taken out of

the way, then the lawless world could rebel, then the world's

G-d, the "lawless one," the end-time son of Satan "Nero" of the

last days could reveal himself, and the time for fleeing great

persecution would begin (Matt.24:15-17). So the End could come at

any time, Shliach Sha'ul is saying. In fact in less than 17 years

Shliach Sha'ul himself would see a partial fulfillment of these

prophecies as the Roman Brit Chadasha kehillah became suddenly

engulfed in the persecution to which it was appointed (I Thes.

3:3) and Rav Sha'ul himself was lawlessly martyred there by the

man who was only a teenager when I Thessalonians was written,

that is, Caesar Nero whose name (NUN, RESH, AYIN, FINAL NUN AND

KOF, SAMECH, RESH) in Jewish gematria spells 666. The above

Hebrew letters in Caesar Nero (nun = 50, resh = 200, vav = 6,

nun = 50, kof = 100, samech = 60, resh = 200 = (50 + 200 + 6 + 50

+ 100 + 60 +200) = 666, which is Nero Caesar transliterated into

Hebrew script and then added up as Jewish gematria from the

Hebrew equivalent of Neron Kaisar. Rev. 17:10-11, that is, that

"there are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is,

the other has not yet come, and when he comes he must remain only

a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an

eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to perdition."

1. Nero (C.E. 54-68)

2. Galba (C.E. 68)

3. Otho (C.E. 69)

4. Vitellius

5. Vespasian (C.E. 69-70)

6. Titus (C.E. 79-81)

7. Domitian (C.E. 81-96)

8. Nero Redivivus Anti-Moshiach

The five that have fallen are Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian

and Titus. Domitian, the emperor at the time of the writing of

Rev., now "is." The "beast that was and is not" is Nero, beast

#1. As Nero redivivus, this beast has "not yet come, and when he

comes he must remain only a little while." He becomes #8 but he

is really one of the seven, because he is #1 redivivus, the

"head" of Rev. 12:3, whose "mortal wound was healed." All

of this is possibly alluded to in the simple phrase in Rev.

13:11, "And I saw a beast...with seven heads..."

Notice that everything is imminent (about to happen), both agony

and ecstasy, rapture and tribulation, threat and deliverance. The

worst and the best that can happen are both at hand! Notice there

is no time allowance before the coming of the L-rd for a literal

Beis Hamikdash to be constructed in Jerusalem or a literal seat

be built on which the Anti-Moshiach can literally sit.

Everything can happen imminently! Be ready! Be strong if there

is trouble! Be prepared if there is judgment! And notice that

through everything there is the hope of heavenly, rapturous,

deliverance with Satanic trials mercifully cut short to

manageable proportions!

Our digression into the book of Revelation is necessary to deal

with this bussiness of wrath, which does not fall on the elect in

Moshiach but on those in Anti-Moshiach. What ensues after Rev. 4

is an unfolding picture of suffering that is humanly, demonically

generated. G-d the judge sends plagues like he did on Pharaoh

as the world heads inexorably toward Armageddon, the Millenium,

the Final Judgment, and the creation of the New Heavens and the

New Earth. But in the midst of the suffering there is also

various divinely provided protection on earth and ultimately

rapturous deliverance in heaven. The seven seals (6:1-17; 8:1),

the seven trumpets (8:2-9:21; 11:14-19),and the seven bowls

(16:1 -21) give us this unfolding picture of ever increasing

retribution and catastrophe leading to climactic ruin as a

prophetic picture of the birthpangs (chevlei Moshiach the

pre-Messianic era birthpangs) leading to the Messianic Kingdom

realized on earth followed by the New Creation. Rev. 15:1 says of

the final seven plagues, "with them the wrath (thumos) of G-d is

ended." We have not been appointed to wrath (orge --I Thes. 5:9).

The Brit Chadasha kehillah will be raptured before those who

destroy the earth are themselves destroyed (Rev. 11:12,18).

We handle persecution by standing fast in the perseverance of

Moshiach" (II Thes. 3:5), remembering Mark 13:13 "he who endures

to the End will be saved." Also we remember 1) to receive the

Lord's peace which he gives at all times and in all ways (II

Thes. 3:6). 2) that persecution is the very racetrack whereby

the Besuras Hageulah is relayed by persecuted runners whose very

example encourages one another in the rapid spread of the Besuras

Hageulah (I Thes. 1:7-8; II Thes. 3:1). 3) So stand firm in the

L-rd (I Thes. 3:8) in order to counter Satan's temptation for you

to fallaway (I Thes.3:5). 4) Pray according to II Thes. 3:1-5,

remembering that the prayer of I Thes. 3:11 counters Satan's

hindrance of our witness in I Thes. 2:18. 5) Above a11, hold

fast to your Bible. 6) Use persecution as a pointer to

sincerity, certitude, and credibility, not only in your case,

but, more importantly, in the case of the Shluchim and in

certifying their credibility since they did not profit materially

in their office nor please evil men nor seek human vainglory (I

Thes. 2:4-9) but boldly preached the Besuras Hageulah of G-d "in

spite of great (persecution) conflict/agony" (I Thes. 2:2),

proving their message was not the word of man but the Word of G-d

(I Thes. 2:13).

Here in II Thes. 2 we see Shliach Sha'ul standing in the true

prophetic tradition of the nevi'im of the Tanakh, who gained

credibility in predicting an ultimate Day of the L-rd (or end of

the world) because they accurately predicted an imminent Day of

the L-rd (destruction of Jerusalem/time of great distress and

world-wide persecution). We believe Ezekiel's and Jeremiah's

ultimate prophecies because of their reliable, fulfilled,

imminent prophecies. Similarly with Shliach Sha'ul, when this

shliach wrote I-II Thessalonians, the Emperor Claudius and the

Roman Empire were in fact restraining the Anti-Moshiach

persecution of Nero, which, when Claudius (Roman Emperor C.E.

41-54) was later removed or taken out of the way (see II Thes.

2:2-12), the rebellion of Rome and the revelation of Nero's

Satanic persecution engulfed the Brit Chadasha kehillah in great

tribulation. Since Rav Sha'ul correctly predicted these events

leading to his own martyrdom in Rome, we can rely on Rav Sha'ul's

words as divinely inspired and as pointers to the shape of world

events at the End of Days, even our own day.

Compare episunagoges gathering together in II Thes. 2:1 and

similar Greek words in Luke 3:17 and Matt. 24:31 and you will see

that, according to these Greek texts, the wheat (believers) and

the chaff (unbelievers) have to be separated and gathered by the

L-rd's angels when He comes and that II Thes. 2:1 makes it clear

that His coming and this gathering are all of a piece, all one

and the same event, not two separate events, as in Dispensational

teaching.