It's a nice try, congratulations, and welcome to the forum, but I don't think you can use this to disprove the pre-tribulation Rapture theory. I still say it's happening now, we don't need a rebuilt temple to find the Man of Sin. And we don't need to go through a time of wrath, the great winepress. Paul's primary point here is not "a plea for believers not to believe anyone who claims that the day of Christ is imminent or that He could return at any moment, the primary point at that time was to tell Ancient Israel in those days that the Day of the Lord had not yet come. I also would not say we "are in a very dangerous position if we believe Pre Trib. Paul wasn't warning Christians at the end of time, he was warning people in the 1st century not to believe "letters" that had been written claiming that the Day of the Lord had come already.
Some during those days thought people were saying it came already, and they missed the boat. Paul was reassuring them not to worry, they won't miss it, the dead in Christ will rise first. We can't use 2 Thessalonians to pin down the detail of the timing for the Rapture in our time. Paul is using broad brush strokes which could be applicable from the 1950's to now. Like the Leave it to Beaver times, to the transvestite Sodomite sex change days we are in now. The falling away happened already, we wait now for the Man of Sin to be revealed. He has been here for many a long year, he just needs to be outed. I like the sharpie marker I get from Daniel and Revelation.
The Falling Away, The Apostasy.
The first time, the only other time the NT used that controversial word was by Luke, a travelling companion of Paul. Luke was talking about falling away from the Torah, the falling away from Moses. Which really was falling away from what God said to do.
Acts 21:21: The Old Time Jews confront Paul with a report that he has been teaching Jewish believers living among the Gentiles to perform an apostasia ("an apostasy" or "forsaking") from Moses—specifically telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to Jewish customs.
Paul was usually drawing from some other place in the Bible. The "man" of sin was Isaiah 14's "man", is this the "man" that made the nations tremble? Paul's "man" was the little horn from Daniel 8 that rises up to the place of HIS Sanctuary. Because that's where he took his seat, in the place of the real Sanctuary, the True Tent, the place of His Sanctuary or Matthew 23's "chair" of Moses. Paul was just drawing from Isaiah 14, Daniel 8 and Matthew 23.
The Chair of Moses
"so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God
"so that he sets himself up in God's temple,
"So he will seat himself in the temple of God,
He will "seat himself".
In Matthew 23, Jesus said:
"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat
"The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses"
They have "seated themselves".
Paul was an Old Time Jew Pharisee before Jesus knocked him down and blinded him on his way to Damascus. So as soon as Jesus said: "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses", Paul knew exactly what was being talked about. Moses had a literal chair in the temple he sat in and read the Torah to the Children of Israel. Moses sat in that seat and told people what God said for them to do.
At the end of time, just before Christ comes, another man, the Man of sin, will also figuratively take that same seat of Divine Authority and tell people what they can legally do, which previously had been only in God's Domain.
The important thing to note here is that the Pharisees "seated themselves". Nobody told them to sit in that seat, they TOOK it. They just came in and took the seat and assumed to dictate God's Word without it being authorized. Same as the Man of Sin in our end times. If the Old Time Jews would have recognized Jesus, they should have surrendered that seat to it's rightful Owner, but that's another story. We're trying not to miss the time of OUR Visitation.
So Moses was the teacher of the Law, the Word of God. Moses WAS appointed by God, the "seat" was his. He was long gone when Jesus said this so the Scribes and the Pharisees had really just taken over Moses' job or his "seat", figuratively, which was Moses' place of authority in the Temple of God.
Both the Pre Tribulation Rapture People, and the Post Tribulation Rapture People can both be correct today, because there's different kinds of tribulation, personal and corporate level tribulation. I think a bunch of the things have been happening, and are happening now.
The Man of Sin is here, he has taken his seat of authority, and has been dividing the land, dividing the earth for a price, for a profit. It could just be about that time for the news from the east, and from the north to trouble him. He's king of the north. So it's news happening now from his home base that is troubling him, so he goes out with great fury next to destroy many, and devote many to destruction. Trouble from the east and trouble from the north. That could happen in a week or two. No need for rebuilt temples. We might be much closer than we think. I wouldn't be banking on the Old Hal Lindsey narrative at this time.
theconversation.com
