Deeper Daily Podcast- April 27, 2026

Hello, my friends. Welcome to the Deeper Daily podcast. I'm Paul. It is the 27th day of April and we are in second

Thessalonians 2 to be quite honest with you whenever for all those years

I didn't do much with the Thessalonian books. I told you when I got to the end of the fourth chapter into the fifth chapter of

First Thessalonians that that was one of the reasons because it's such a hotly debated passage

but the real reason is the second chapter of Second Thessalonians and that doesn't mean

there's nothing there to be learned but that it's so vague in some respects

that instead of us just saying well we don't really know what that means

we don't really like those kind of answers and so so many people in the church and scholars

have decided that they have an answer and that whatever that answer is they let that answer

inform so many other verses rather than letting other verses inform their answer

so we don't have any good reason for some of the shenanigans we pull with interpreting

Second Thessalonians 2 and I'm going to read what I'm talking about and then we'll talk about

some of those shenanigans just a little heads up. Verse 5 do you remember that I told you these

things when I was still with you and you know what is now restraining him so that he may be revealed

when his time comes for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work but only until the one who now

restrains it is removed and then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will destroy

with the breath of his mouth annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming all right well

first of all Paul's reminding them of something they already knew I already told you this stuff

and then he makes an assumption that we don't have any proof of in which he says you know what's

now restraining him we don't know but he assumes that Thessalonikans know and then in seven that

mystery of lawlessness is already at work but only until the one who now restrains it is removed

and then the lawless one will be revealed and some translations say when he is removed

but the one is closer to what we see in the Greek it's not a gender but rather something

removing out of the way so the laws may be revealed so what we did because we don't really

know exactly what Paul's talking about and since we already and by we I'm using that loosely

since we already have a theology of Jesus coming back as a rapture and then this is going to happen

and this is going to happen this is going to happen we already got an anacryst so we had to figure

out how to squeeze this versus interpretation into that interpretation and so what happened

is for a lot of futurist dispensation list the he here becomes the holy spirit the holy spirit

is holding back the man of lawlessness but then when the holy spirit is removed the man of lawlessness

will have his way and that has a really big problem there's a real big problem with when the

holy spirit is removed Jesus in John 14 said that he was going to go but he wasn't going to leave

us without a comforter he never said I'm going to take that comforter away in fact in the form of the

holy spirit Jesus is with us always he never leaves us he never forsakes us so the only way to really

make this the holy spirit is then in subsequent interpretations to make it the church the holy spirit

removes the church and once the church is out of the way then the man of lawlessness can do what

every once this is a lot of work going into what might be a lot simpler than that which is Paul

simply saying and this is just a theory all right but that's all we have Paul simply saying look

there's a man of lawlessness it's going to do a lot like what Antiochus Epiphanies did in 168 B.C

some bad stuff's coming down the pipe but right now it's not the time it's getting close

something's holding him back and whenever what's holding him back is out of the way then it's

going to be revealed and then the Lord Jesus is going to destroy him with the breath of his mouth

annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming the Lord Jesus is not going to go to war with him

and destroying with a sword in his hand but the very announcement of the arrival of whatever judgment

is on the way this guy will then be removed out of the way now if you take history the man of law

lessness as I told you yesterday Titus and Vespasian the Roman generals who attacked

Jerusalem in 8070 once that judgment of 8070 and I'm using judgment in a spiritual term Rome

would have said they are the judgment once that happens Titus and Vespasian leave they never

come back to Jerusalem metaphorically they're annihilated by the word of his mouth the man of

lawlessness is there the only question remaining is what was holding back Titus and Vespasian

from attacking Israel and Paul's day here's a novel idea what if Paul was one who needed to be

taken out of the way so that the lawless man could be revealed only a few short years after the

death of Paul the Jewish uprising prompts the Roman legions to march on Jerusalem maybe the ministry

of Paul the presentation and the layout of the new covenant was a thing standing in the way but

between what was and what needed to happen we don't know for sure but the last thing we need to do

is start to invent futuristic prophetic timelines and ideas and scenarios off of a text

we don't completely understand and when we do that and then we come across as if we've got this

great answer I don't think that it is serving us as well as we might think that it is

verse 9 the coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan who uses all power signs

lying wonders in every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse

to love the truth and so be saved so the coming destruction that Paul thinks is inevitable is a

parent in the fact that they see this is how the enemy has always worked the enemy uses power

and signs and lying wonders in every kind of wicked deception he's essentially calling the coming

of the the lawless one a version of Satan that it is an adversary to the people of God also if

the people again if the people of God were going to be removed before all of this occurred through

some secret rapture what's the point and even having told them this lines up much better with

Jesus as prophecy of Matthew 24 that bad things are going to happen and they need to get out of

there and here's Paul going hadn't happened yet there's some things that's got to come down the

pipe doesn't get too specific with them tells them that they already know even though he doesn't

bother to repeat it to all of us that ought to tell us something as well that this isn't something

we ought to be banking our Christianity on all right I'm going to move on tomorrow into the 11th verse

so sit in God bless