The Coming Apostasy - 2 Thessalonians 2

As we open chapter 2 of this great letter, we discover several key features that will unlock this passage.
First, we learn that the congregation was quite shaken. Apparently, there was someone among them teaching that the rapture already occurred, and they missed the boat. For 2 Thessalonians 1:1-2 says, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him (a reference to the rapture), That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.”

Second, we learn that a time of great apostasy lay ahead, and “that man of sin” will be revealed.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:3 we are told, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”

Third, we learn that there is a mystery regarding iniquity. This subject was not clearly understood in times past, but it is now revealed—that is—this mystery of iniquity is already at work in this world, but there is something holding back the waters of iniquity until the day it floods the entire earth. For 2 Thessalonians 2:7 says, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work” but nothing will happen until the Restrainer is taken out of the way for “only He who now letteth (restrains) will let, until He be taken out of the way.” There are many other interesting things we will find in this passage, so let’s begin.