2 Thessalonians 2

1 Now [I want to write to you] about the time when our Lord Jesus Christ will return and when [God] will gather us together to [where Jesus] is. My fellow believers, I urge you

As to the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our being gathered to meet him, we beg you, Brothers,

2 that you think calmly [about any message] that [claims/says] that the Lord has [already] come again. Do not be shaken or alarmed/worried by any such message. [It does not matter] if [it is a message that someone claims God’s Spirit] revealed to him, or if [it is some other message that someone] has spoken, or whether [it is a message that someone claims] that I wrote in a letter.

not lightly to let your minds become unsettled, nor yet to be disturbed by any revelation, or by any message, or by any letter, purporting to come from us, to the effect that the Day of the Lord is come.

3 Do not allow anyone to deceive you in any way [with the result that you believe any such message]. 2 Thessalonians 2:3b-5 [The Lord] will not come [MTY] [immediately]. First, [many people] [PRS] will rebel [against God]. The result of their rebelling will be that [they will accept and obey] the man who will sin very greatly [against God].

Do not let any one deceive you, whatever he may do. For it will not come until after the Great Apostasy, and the appearing of that Incarnation of Wickedness, that the Lost soul,

4 He will be the [supreme] enemy [of God]. He will [proudly] exalt himself above everything that [people] consider to be some god and above everything that people worship. [As a result of wanting people to worship him], he will [even enter] God’s Temple and sit down [there to rule]. He will publicly proclaim that he himself is God! But [God] will [certainly] punish that man forever!

who so opposes himself to every one that is spoken of as a God or as an object of worship, and so exalts himself above them, that he seats himself in the Temple of God, and displays himself as God!

5 (I am sure that you remember that I kept telling you these things while I was still with you [there in Thessalonica]./Do you not remember that I continued telling you these things while I was still with you [there in Thessalonica]?) [RHQ]

Do not you remember how, when I was with you, I used to speak to you of all this?

6 You also know that there is something (OR, someone) that is preventing this man [from being revealed] {[from revealing himself]}. This man is being (held back/restrained) [now] for him to be revealed {that he reveal himself} at the time that [God has planned] [MTY].

And you know now what the restraining influence is which prevents his appearing before his appointed time.

7 [Although Satan] is already secretly causing [people] to reject [God’s] laws, (the one/God) who is preventing [this man from revealing himself] now [will continue to prevent him from doing that] until he/[God] removes him.

Wickedness, indeed, is already at work in secret; but only until he who at present restrains it is removed out of the way.

8 It is then that [God will allow] this man, who rejects [God’s] laws [completely], to be revealed {to reveal himself}. Then the Lord Jesus will destroy him, by simply commanding it [MTY]. Jesus, by his own glorious arrival, will cause him to become [completely] powerless.

Then will ‘Wickedness Incarnate’ appear, but the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his lips, and annihilate him by the splendour of his Coming.

9 But [before Jesus destroys him], Satan will make him very powerful. As a result, he [will do all kinds of supernatural] miracles and amazing things [DOU] that will seem as though [God has enabled him to do them].

For at the Coming of the Lord there will be great activity on the part of Satan, in the form of all kinds of deceptive miracles, signs, and marvels, as well as of wicked attempts to delude —

10 And by doing wicked [things], he will completely deceive those who will [certainly] (perish/go to hell). [He will deceive them] because they will have refused to love the true [message]. So they will not be saved {God will not save them}. (questioned)

to the ruin of those who are on the path to destruction, because they have never received and loved the Truth to their own Salvation.

11 So, God, by his power, will enable this man to easily deceive people, so that they will believe what [this man] falsely [claims/says that he is].

That is why God places them under the influence of a delusion, to cause them to believe a lie;

12 The result will be that everyone will be [rightly] condemned {that [God] will [justly] condemn everyone} [to be punished] who did not believe the true [message], but who instead gladly chose [to be doing] what is wicked.

so that sentence may be passed on all those who refuse to believe the Truth, but delight in wickedness.

13 [Our] fellow believers, whom our Lord [Jesus] loves, we thank God very frequently for you. It is appropriate/right for us to do that, because God chose you (from the beginning [MTY] [of creation/before the world existed]) in order that he might save [you] as a result of [your] believing the true [message] and as a result of [God’s] Spirit setting you apart [for God].

But, Brothers, whom the Lord loves, it is our duty always to thank God about you, for, from the first, God chose you for Salvation through the purifying influence of the Spirit, and your belief in the Truth.

14 [We thank God that] he chose you as a result of our [proclaiming] the message about Christ [to you], in order that you might (share in/have) some of the glory that our Lord Jesus Christ has.

To this you were called by the Good News which we brought you, to attain to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

15 So, [our fellow believers, continue to be firm concerning what you believe]; that is, continue believing the [true] teaching that we gave to you by our speaking to you and by our [writing] a letter [to you].

Stand firm then, Brothers, and hold fast to the truths that we taught you, whether by word or by letter.

16 Our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, our Father, loves us and encourages us and causes us to confidently expect [to receive] the eternal things that [he has promised to give to us] as a result of [Christ] acting kindly toward us in a way we did not deserve. (aiōnios g166)

And may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and, in his loving-kindness, gave us unfailing consolation and good ground for hope, (aiōnios g166)

17 [We strongly pray that] God and Jesus together will encourage you! And we pray that they will cause you to continue doing and saying things that God considers to be good.

console your hearts, and strengthen you to do and to say all that is right.