Deeper Reflection
OFTENTIMES, AS IT HAS BEEN HISTORICALLY, PHENOMENAL physical, political, economic turmoil and troubles, like wars, famines and earthquakes (Matt 24:6-7) – and most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic – are taken as signs that Christ’s Second Coming is very near. But Jesus says that all these things are just “the beginning of birth pangs” (Matt 24:8). When the Thessalonians misthought that “the day of the Lord has come”, Paul points them to the clear order of things: What must come first – the Lord will not come “unless…comes first” (v.3). Two sure signs to watch out for: “the apostasy” or “the rebellion” (apostasia), and the appearance of “the man of lawlessness” (v.3).Apostasia means “to rise up in open defiance of authority, with the presumed intention to overthrow it or to act in complete opposition to its demand”³⁸. The word “can refer to a political or religious crisis”³⁹. The Greek Old Testament uses the word only for religious crisis – unfaithfulness to God (Josh 22:22; 2 Chron 29:19).⁴⁰ The verbal form of apostasia – aphistēmi − is used for falling away from the faith (1 Tim 4:1) and from the living God (Heb 3:12). The “apostasy” that must come first refers to “a large-scale compromise of faith among God’s people”, which “will not occur in the non-Christian world but rather within the covenant community”⁴¹.Jesus has warned that in the last days “many will fall away” (Matt 24:10). So, let us watch our hearts on the inside, rather than signs on the outside. Growing in “perseverance and faith” anchored in the truth is a critical necessity (2 Thess 1:4; 2:15).

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³⁸ Johannes P. Louw & Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, Second Edition, Volume 1 (UBS, 1988, 1989), 39.34 ³⁹ G. K. Beale, 1-2 Thessalonians, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (IVP Academic, 2003), 203 ⁴⁰ G. K. Beale, 203 ⁴¹ G. K. Beale, 204