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The subjunctive indicates the verbal action as being probable or intentional. The intent was to
deceive them with this false message of Christ’s coming, and yet Paul commands with the aorist
form and the negative – do not let anyone even begin to deceive you, no matter what is used or
said. The truth is: Christ has not returned, and when he does, no one will miss it. In the verses
which follow, Paul offers substantiated proof that Christ’s coming has not yet occurred. He
presents the chronological order of events before the final day. D. Michael Martin relates, “What
was important for Paul’s argument was that the visible elements of these happenings were not
evident; therefore the day of the Lord had not arrived.” 33
One must keep Paul’s purpose for
writing this letter in mind as he goes on to describe the events that will precede Christ’s coming.
Gordon Fee states,
Everything that follows must be understood as Paul’s response to this misinformation
rather than as “teaching” about the future in its own right….Most of this is not new
teaching for the Thessalonian church; thus there is much they already know, which will
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help them to “connect the dots” as it were, but which is simply not available to us.
This is important to keep in mind as one studies this section of the second letter to the
Thessalonians. While one does not use this portion of Scripture alone to profess that the
Antichrist has arrived, it is useful to “connect the dots” on those truths presented throughout
Scripture concerning the Antichrist.
While this section was initially written to the Thessalonians to comfort them regarding
the misinformation they had received concerning the Lord’s return, the audience that now reads
the letter is different from the original audience. Yet one must recognize that God has preserved
this letter as part of his Holy Scripture to inform believers of all ages. This letter is not merely
preserved for people to study the Thessalonians’ misconceptions but to comfort present-day
readers that the Lord has not yet returned. Along with the comfort, present-day readers must
take care to recognize the events that Paul describes leading up to and surrounding the last day.
As the letter was initially used to counter the false teaching that the day of the Lord had already
come, it can still be used in that same sense today. For those false prophets of today who might
proclaim that Christ has already come, this letter presents proof that he indeed has not. The
33 D. Michael Martin, 1, 2 Thessalonians. Vol. 33, The New American Commentary (Broadman & Holman
Publishers, 1995), 230.
34 Gordon D. Fee, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009), 278.
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