Farag Hammers on 2 Thess. 2

Here's my .02 cents,

While I know that the word can - in some contexts mean departure, - I'm still open, but not at all convinced that the word apostasia here means Harpazo, ie, the rapture.

The Parallel verse to 2 Thes 2:3, referened in Gary's thread, that is the topic of much discussion is I Timothy 4:1 .
Engl Stand version says "The Holy Spirit expressly says than in later times/ last days many will depart from the faith..." Leave, depart, fall from forsake, turn away, abandon. Many synonyms for the same concept of turning from, departing from the faith.
NASB, "But the Spirit explicitly says than in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons..."

From a linguistic, semantic perspective, 'rapture' or harpazo  just doesn't make sense here at all.  

Put it in your own words, and see how absurd it sounds.  "The rapture won't happen until the rapture happens".   Huh???   

The case can be made that here Paul listing and describing two events. The second coming, and the rapture.   Otherwise, it's also redundantly redundant.   

Regardless of the timing - when people see the Harpazo/rapture happening in relation to the tribulation, it seems blatantly obvious that the gathering together to Him, is the rapture. 

Let's try it this way.  "Yo, Peeps of Thessalonica, relax - the gathering up together, won't happen until the gathering up together happens, yaknowwhatimsayin. " 

For me, personally, the big wow, is not the question of meaning of departure, but rather, if we take 2 Thes 2:3 "the gathering together to him" to mean the rapture, than it's telling us explicitly that the AC/ Man of Lawlessness will be revealed before the rapture.      

So here's a thought,  - I think a whole other thread perhaps, - is what exactly does it mean that he will be revealed.   Does it mean that he's on the scenes, [Kushner, Macron, Gates, Fauci,   - insert your favorite AC candidate] at work, setting the stage and that we- the watchmen, will recognize the signs? 

*** "But YOU are not children of darkness, but of the day, so that day will NOT surprise you like a thief in the night."     So, basically, the sheepdogs, - we-  would know the stage is being set, because we watch and sound the alarm.  

Or does it mean that he will be revealed fully for the world to see, as the AC.     

How much more blatant can a person be than to proclaim on CNN, that the Coronavirus is setting the stage for global currency, global government, global religion and global vaccines, the tool for the mark.   hmmmm.

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I'm not a Greek scholar, but I majored in Linguistics and have studied Hebrew, Biblical Greek, Russian - which is based on Greek, Polish and Sign Language, and know that many languages of the world use cases, where the meaning of the sentence is determined by the special ending. 

In English, we have a somewhat flexible word order, but mostly, the meaning is determined by word order, not case endings.  

Bob saw Frank.     The word order tells us that Bob is the subject and Frank is the Object.   

In Greek, and Polish, Russian, and many languages, the word order can be totally moved around, and the meaning is perfectly clear, by the ending.  "The ball^ gave# small* Frank% crying# Timothy~."  by the different endings on the word, it's clear that small is referring to the ball, but crying is referring to Timothy, not Frank.  ;-)  

We have remnants of cases 500 years ago, and the closest thing is dative case,  "to whom" or "for whom", so "He gave the ball to him."   

yardstick  - the special endings of the word in Greek above is not nuances, but rather the case endings.  Greek has 7 cases,  and the ending determines which case, whether it is the subject, direct object or indirect object.  

Hope that helps a bit.  ;-)

Disciple4life.