This thread is mostly for those who believe in a pretrib premillennial rapture. The rest of you may of course post anything you want and argue, . . .
I just ran across the idea that the KJV words "falling away" (apostasia) means literally "a departure". Some earlier translations before the KJV translated it this way. This was a new idea to me, and I am wondering what the rest of you think. Is this verse evidence for a pretrib rapture?
I do lean toward a pretrib rapture, but never saw the rapture in II Thess. 2:3 before. I am a bit skeptical, but want to know what the rest of you believe.
I believe the falling away from the faith is the reference meaning in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, but in context;
2 Thessalonians 2:1Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
I read two events stated in verse 1. His actual coming and by the gathering together unto Him.
[SUP]2 [/SUP]That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
I read that verse above as the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ since it pertains to comforting us presently.
[SUP]3 [/SUP]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;
I read two events again per the verse 1. The falling away from the faith is happening now and so His coming is at any moment and when the pre tribulational rapture happens, then afterwards the Lord will deal with that son of perdition when He returns with the saints at the end of the great tribulation.
1 Peter 4:17-19 cites that God will judge His House first; so that is what the pre trib rapture is for. Since the church is supposed to excommunicate unrepentant saved believers so as to lead them to repentance to be let back in, so will Jesus Christ do to each believer found not abiding in Him but found in iniquity. 1 Peter 4:19 gives us assurance that those left behind at the re trib rapture to suffer what is coming on the earth, Jesus will do well in keeping the souls of those saints.
So I see the falling away as meaning a departure from the faith as cited in 1 Timothy 4:1-2 which when it happens in droves where faith is hard to find in the latter days, then God will come to judge His House to restore the wayward saints to the path of righteousness for His name's sake because Jesus Christ really is the Good Shepherd to find His lost sheep.