Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Comment: I think reading the whole passage and getting a general idea allows us to go back and dissect the passage. When I read it I get this impression but you make your own as well! In my opinion the main topic on Paul’s mind is wrong thinking about the return of Christ. Someone by some means, likely a letter claiming falsely to be from Paul, has messed up their thinking. Paul had gone over this all before – everything in general, but they have been persuaded to think wrongly!
Going back and looking for the specifics I face at least these issues. 1. What is ‘the rebellion’? It is a widespread acceptance of heresy (untruths about God) initially in the church but both preceding and following the church’s failure there is a worldwide rejection of God, morality and goodness. 2. Who is the antiChrist? The term may be applied to many people and influences but this passage and much in the book of Revelation uses this word directly and other images suggesting that eventually a one world leader will lead the attack against God. Satan is involved. 3. God has put the brakes on the headlong push of evil but at some stage He will take off the brakes and at that stage and not before Jesus will return and win the battle for GOOD and for ever! 4. As in the story of the Cross God is in charge and allows this to happen to lead into His final answer!
Prayer: Lead me to understand Your truth about Jesus return.
As I read it! 