And your attempt to elevate your own opinion to the level of God-written Scripture has crashed and burned just like it does for everyone who clings to demonic false doctrine even after been repeatedly proven wrong and even after NEVER being able to give ONE VERSE OF SCRIPTURE that validates their false doctrine.
Since you don't know Scripture and can't produce any to validate your beliefs, I'll do you a favor and instruct you on what was said by Paul in 1 Thessalonians. The only thing Paul talked about with the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians was the Rapture. Like the article says, and like you can't contradict with anything other than your own opinions:
"Whatever Paul is referring to in his reference to " the departure," was something that both the Thessalonian believers and he had discussed in-depth previously. When we examine Paul' s first letter to the Thessalonians, he never mentions the doctrine of apostasy, however, virtually every chapter in that epistle speaks of the rapture. (cf. 1:9- 10; 2:19; probably 3:13; 4:13- 17; 5:1- 11). In these passages, Paul has used a variety of Greek terms to describe the rapture. It should not be surprising that he uses another term to reference the rapture in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Dr. House tells us:
"Remember, the Thessalonians had been led astray by the false teaching (2:2- 3) that the Day of the Lord had already come. This was confusing because Paul offered great hope, in the first letter, of a departure to be with Christ and a rescue from god' s wrath. Now a letter purporting to be from Paul seems to say that they would first have to go through the Day of the Lord. Paul then clarified his prior teaching by emphasizing that they had no need to worry. They could again be comforted because the departure he had discussed in his first letter, and in his teaching while with them, was still the truth. The departure of Christians to be with Christ, and the subsequent revelation of the lawless one, Paul argues, is proof that the Day of the Lord had not begun as they had thought. This understanding of apostasia makes much more sense than the view that they are to be comforted (v. 2) because a defection from the faith must precede the Day of the Lord. The entire second chapter (as well as 1 Thessalonians 4:18; 5:11) serves to comfort (see vv. 2, 3, 17), supplied by a reassurance of Christ' s coming as taught in his first letter".[10]
And you can leave your dead idol, Justin Martyr, on the ash heap of history where he already is. The final authority for me is the Scriptures written by the living God, not some long-dead "expert" worshipped by people who have to deny the Bible to make their Godless beliefs work, and one who was such an "expert" that he didn't even address the word apostasia as it is used throughout the New Testament. And as far as a falling away from the church being the meaning of apostasia used in 2 Thessalonians, the falling away from the church has been going on for 2000 years and the Antichrist has yet to appear. And as those of us who read the article know, the word apostasia in 2 Thessalonians was written in such a way as to indicate a specific event, not an ongoing, endless thing that would continue for two millennia. Was that another personal opinion I just heard going up in flames?
Just one more thing, sasportas. Was Jesus Christ lying when He said:
...upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. (Matthew 16:18)
Did Jesus lie when He said that the gates of hell would never prevail against His church?
GN, you are a pretrib premillennialist, I am a post-trib premillennialist. We are both Futurists and Premillennialists, I am not one of these Amillennialists, Preterists, Historicists that come against you. “Rapture isn’t in the Bible,” and so on. Fact is, I come down on your side most of the time. We only differ on whether the rapture takes place before or after the tribulation.
Apparently you are not capable of discussion on this subject without throwing out vicious statements such as:
Your Demonic false doctrine
Since you don’t know scripture
You can’t produce any to validate your beliefs
Your dead idol Justin Martyr
Justin Martyr worshipped by people who have to deny the Bible to make their Godless beliefs work
There is no call for such as this. Do you have any idea what you sound like?
I realize you believe your pretrib system, but you should allow the possibility that you might be wrong. You really shouldn’t be so closed minded. A good example: the Pretrib author back in 1988 who put out the book, “88 reasons why the Rapture will take place in 1988.” All 88 Pretrib reasons were wrong, of course. As is this preposterous notion that apostasia means the pretrib rapture.
As to Justin Martyr (he’s not my “idol,” by the way), when he spoke of “the man of apostasy,” he was merely repeating what everybody who knew the Greek language knew. Which was everybody, they well knew what apostasia meant.
As to your comment about the apostasy an “ongoing endless thing for two millennia,” I never said that, nor do I believe that. The context again, GN, the context of 2 Thess. 2 is the end time. The man of sin, son of perdition, is the main figure, and identifying individual of the end time. Thus the apostasy, an end time rebellion against God, that he rises out of is end time specific also.
You are a Futurist, and not a Historicist, are you not? Well, so am I. Hence, my understanding the Bible teaches a future end time apostasy, rise of the antichrist, tribulation, and millennial. I see us in that end time apostasy now, the man of apostasy is just around the corner.