Greetings, Ronald, and hello again.
I agree that "falling away" is a somewhat misleading translation, but I'd have to disagree with the contention that it refers to the rapture. The word "apostasia" should be translated out literally as "apostacy," and as your other citation shows, it refers to just that: religious apostasy.
That's not factually true, apostacy has replaced departure mistakenly, words evolve and change which is why we have to do our homework. What is Paul referring unto? The Thessalonians fearing they are in God's Wrath. Paul is saying do not fear because of what? Verse 1 tells us, we beseech (we ask urgently)
via the Coming of the Lord that you do not fear that the Day of the Lord (God's Wrath) is at hand:
NOTICE......By the coming of the Lord.
2 Thess. 2:1 Now we beseech(Ask you urgently) you, brethren
, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 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. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a
falling away(DEPARTURE..........Pointing back to THE GATHERING unto Jesus) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
BY WHAT? By the coming of the Lord (Rapture). We ask you brothers not to fear(that you are in the Day of the Lord) because of the Coming of the Lord who will Rapture us. It doesn't matter who told you what (by word) or if someone sent you a letter and signed our name (as if by a letter as if from us). Let no one fool you into thinking this way brothers, THAT DAY (God's Wrath) can not come.....until the YOU PICK which one makes more sense in the passage again.........THAT DAY can not come until
1. The Departure of the Church that talked about Gathering unto Christ (which thus means they need not fear)
2.) The Departure from the Faith (which makes absolutely no sense in the context, AND since we do not know the day nor the hour of his return Paul would have had to of been lying unto them about not fearing)
Reread 2 Thess. 2 and point out unto me where any Departure of the Faith is spoken of anywhere in the whole passage. Its only a "Apostacy" because the Church of England and the RCC were bitter enemies, as they have shown through the ages and thus you have one Church trying to smear the other church.
If a book was written in 1850 and the word gay was used, and a modern day person that's say 20 years old read it they would think a person was a homosexual if that word was used, but WORDS MORPH. The word actually means happy.
APO means away from, in this instance Paul told the Thessalonians that we Beseech you by the COMING of the Lord and our GATHERING unto him, that you DO NOT FEAR. It is obvious Satan has twisted this verse in the bible and got the others after that to follow along and eventually morphed the word into a falling away [FROM THE FAITH] instead of a Departure from this earth.
The Pre Trib Rapture is going to happen very soon. God has His plans He is not going to change those plans because we don't quite understand everything. So, everyone needs to be ready now. Look around.
It does refer to "departing" from something in a sense, but the word carries a more specific meaning of standing apart from others of a religious faith, which is the same way the word is still used today. The apostasy in
2 Thessalonians 2 is a reference to when many Jews will apostatize from God on threat of death when the Antichrist assumes power in Israel, just as they did during the time of Antiochus IV.
We have a standing on this earth brother. We can't place something in the context that is not there and Faith is never spoken of in the passage, a Gathering unto Jesus is spoken of.
God Bless, ponder on it brother. We will be out of here very soon.
