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Second Thessalonians, part 5, The Apostasy

In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, “apostasy” is from apostasia, meaning a defection, revolt, rebellion, or departure from an established position. It comes from aphistēmi, “to stand away from,” “withdraw,” or “rebel.” The same noun appears in Acts 21:21, where Paul was falsely accused of teaching Jews “to forsake”—literally, to commit apostasia from—Moses.

Some interpret “the apostasy” as the physical departure of the church in a pretribulation rapture. While the word can carry the general idea of departure, its established Greek usage here most naturally denotes religious or political rebellion, not a geographical removal. Moreover, Paul has just called the saints’ gathering episynagōgē, not apostasia.

The definite article—“the apostasy”—suggests something Paul had already explained orally. Verse 5 confirms this: “Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?”

This apostasy is a rejection of divine authority. It prepares the way for a counterfeit authority that occupies God’s place while opposing His government. This is the “lawlessness” of the one guilty of departing from God. Apostasia primarily denotes a willful departure, defection, or rebellion—not an accidental “falling away” (KJV). A person or group abandons a position, allegiance, covenant, or authority.

A related noun, apostasion, used in Matthew 5:31, means a certificate of divorce:

³¹ Whoever divorces [“puts away”] his wife is to give her a certificate of divorce.

Divorce represents a legal separation or repudiation—putting away a former covenant relationship. Hence, apostasion can be viewed as the formal consequence of apostasia. The Greek (Septuagint) version of Jeremiah 3:8 uses this term in regard to the apostate nation of Israel, saying, “I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce.” The divorce was given on account of Israel’s casting away (apostasia) their former allegiance to God and His law and hence their rejection of her marriage covenant to God.

Past and Present Apostasy

Both the Old and New Testament records the apostasy of those who had been in a covenant relationship with God. However, Paul’s context in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 points to a future apostasy, but this is also rooted in past patterns. Israel was cast out and literally divorced in Jeremiah 3:8, and Hosea 2:2 confirms this: “she is not my wife, and I am not her husband.”

Hence, the Israelites were cut off from the marriage covenant and legally became as the other nations who had never been married to God. Hosea then looked to the future and wrote in 2:7, “Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now’.” They were not allowed to return under the Old Covenant, which had been broken, but God promised a New Covenant. Therefore, salvation cannot be obtained through the Old Covenant.

A century later, the nation of Judah was exiled to Babylon for 70 years, but nowhere does Scripture say that God gave Judah a bill of divorce—even though “treacherous Judah” (Jeremiah 3:11) was worse than Israel. Christ was yet to be born in Bethlehem of Judah (Micah 5:2), and He could not be born lawfully outside of the covenant marriage. Yet the time came when Judah too was divorced and cast out of the house (i.e., exiled).

In the New Testament, Jesus was born under the Old Covenant marriage covenant, but He came as the Mediator of this New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6). The only way to be part of that salvation (both personal and national) is through Him (Acts 4:12). The Messiah, as the Agent of Father-God, is the Husband. So we read of the bride of Christ in Revelation 19:7 and 21:9.

Judah’s rejection of Jesus as the Messiah (John 1:11) meant that they (as a nation) preferred a different kind of Messiah. Hence, they have waited since then for a different husband. This was the core conflict in the New Testament, which continues to this day. This conflict in itself was a virtual repeat of the story of Absalom who usurped the throne of David with the help of Ahithophel, David’s counselor and friend (2 Samuel 15:31).

David’s return to the throne after an unknown amount of time prophesied of the second coming of Christ. Absalom did not survive His return, nor was he made part of David’s government.

Jewish and Christian Zionism

We come now to the future fulfillment of 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4. Paul tells us that the day of the Lord will not come until we see once again the rise of “the man of lawlessness and the son of destruction.” To put it in terms of Old Testament prophetic types, this is the rise of Absalom and Ahithophel which occurred in the time of David. The story played out again when Caiaphas overthrew Jesus who (we believe) was the rightful Heir of the throne of David. Caiaphas, then, represented the man of lawlessness in his day. Paul says of him in 2 Thessalonians 2:4,

⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

By usurping Christ’s throne, Caiaphas figuratively took his seat on the mercy seat of the temple, as if he were God. From our point of view, the mercy seat was reserved for “the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father; He has explained Him” (John 1:18). That is Jesus.

Ahithophel, who assisted Absalom, arose in the form of Judas, Jesus’ friend and disciple who betrayed Him. In His prayer, Jesus called him “the son of destruction” in John 17:12,

¹² While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished except the son of destruction [“perdition,” KJV], so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

Paul uses the same term in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. “Son of” is a Hebrew idiom describing character or destiny. Judas was a “son of destruction” because he embodied betrayal and was headed toward destruction. (This does not necessarily mean that destruction was his final destiny for all eternity; it describes his judicial condition and the consequence of his betrayal.)

Like Ahithophel before him, Judas hanged himself (2 Samuel 17:23; Matthew 27:5). In Acts 1:20 Peter discerned that Ahithophel prophesied of Judas, and he applied David’s words about Ahithophel to Judas himself.

Nonetheless, Paul tells us that the man of lawlessness and the son of destruction must reappear at the time of the day of the Lord in the future. The day of the Lord points toward the final destruction of the earthly Jerusalem, as prophesied in Jeremiah 19:10, 11 and in Isaiah 29:1-4. The man of lawlessness points to the leaders of modern Zionism; the son of destruction (“Judas”) points to Christian Zionists who assist the Jewish Zionists in their betrayal of Christ in the time of His second coming.

The great “apostasy,” then is being fulfilled in the world today through Jewish and Christian Zionism—the representatives of Absalom and Ahithophel as well as Caiaphas and Judas. This rebellion is characterized chiefly by its reversion to the Old Covenant and forsaking the New Covenant. Jewish Zionism seeks to restore the practices of the Old Covenant: supporting the earthly Jerusalem, which Paul calls “Hagar” (Galatians 4:25); the Melchizedek Order instead of the Levitical priesthood; the true Lamb of God instead of animal sacrifices; and the true children of Abraham (Galatians 3:29) who are called to reign with Christ in the age to come (Revelation 20:6).

The spirit of antichrist is described in 1 John 2:22, 23,

²² Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

There have been “many antichrists” for centuries. 1 John 2:18 says,

¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.

There have been antichrists for thousands of years. Absalom was the most prominent example of an antichrist. As a usurper of the throne of David, God’s anointed one (Messiah; Christ), Absalom was an anti-David. The same problem emerged in the New Testament, where Caiaphas emerged as the leader of the rebellion to usurp the throne of Christ. John saw many more antichrists, and there are many more even today, assisted by many who betray Christ Himself.

Remember

2 Thessalonians 2:5 says,

⁵ Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?

Unfortunately, we did not attend those teaching sessions. Nonetheless, we know the actual circumstances that took place. The Thessalonian believers were being persecuted by the synagogue, and Paul himself had to escape to Corinth or risk being killed. No doubt Paul understood that this synagogue was an extension of the temple in Jerusalem. Paul himself knew very well the ugly nature of its hatred, for he himself had been its rising star before Christ apprehended him on the road to Damascus.

Paul confessed this in Galatians 1:13, 14,

¹³ For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; ¹⁴ and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.

Paul knew from first-hand experience the mindset of the Old Covenant and its destructive nature. There is no doubt that he had taught the persecuted Thessalonian believers what they faced and the spiritual forces behind it.

It is important to understand prophecy as well as the character of Christ if we are to avoid being found in the Judas company as sons of destruction. The main solution is to forsake the Old Covenant and its manner of worship. Christians ought to support Sarah, the New Covenant, rather than Hagar. Like their father Abraham, they should seek the heavenly Jerusalem with its true temple, not the earthly city. They should recognize the Melchizedek priesthood rather than that of Levi. And most of all, they ought to place their faith in the Lamb of God, rather than revert to Old Covenant animal sacrifices.