The Man of Lawlessness 1 UDB Now I want to write to you about the time when our Lord Jesus Christ will return and when God will gather us together with Jesus. My fellow believers, I urge you BSB BSB: Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers,
2 UDB to think calmly about any message that may have come to you. It does not matter if it is a message that someone claims God's Spirit revealed to him, or if it comes from some person, or if it is a letter that someone claims that I wrote: I do not want you to believe that the Lord Jesus has already returned to earth. BSB BSB: not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter seeming to be from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has already come.
3 UDB Do not allow anyone to persuade you to believe such a message. The Lord will not come immediately. First, many people will rebel against God. They will accept and obey a certain man who will sin very greatly against God, the one whom God will destroy. BSB BSB: Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed.
4 UDB He will be the supreme enemy of God. He will proudly work against everything that people consider to be God and everything that people worship. As a result, he will even enter God's temple and sit down there to rule! He will publicly proclaim that he himself is God! BSB BSB: He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
5 UDB I am sure that you remember that I kept telling you these things while I was still with you there in Thessalonica. BSB BSB: Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you?
6 UDB You also know that there is something that is preventing this man from showing himself to everybody now. He will not be able to show himself until the time that God will allow him to. BSB BSB: And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
7 UDB Although Satan is already secretly causing people to reject God's laws, the one who is preventing this man from revealing himself now will continue to prevent him until God removes him. BSB BSB: For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it will continue until he is taken out of the way.
8 UDB It is then that God will allow this man, who rejects God's laws completely, to show himself to everyone in the world. Then the Lord Jesus will speak a single command that will destroy him. Just by showing himself to everyone when he returns, Jesus will cause that man to become completely powerless. BSB BSB: And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.
9 UDB But before Jesus destroys him, Satan will give that man very great power. As a result, he will do all kinds of supernatural miracles and amazing deeds, and many people will believe that God was making him able to do those things. BSB BSB: The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder,
10 UDB And by doing wicked deeds, that man will completely deceive those who are doomed to perish. He will be able to deceive them because they did not agree to love the true message about how Jesus could save them. BSB BSB: and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.
11 UDB So, God will enable this man to easily deceive them so that they will believe what this man falsely claims that he is. BSB BSB: For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie,
12 UDB The result will be that God will judge and condemn all those who refused to believe the truth about Christ, people who instead enjoyed doing everything that is wicked. BSB BSB: in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.
Stand Firm 13 UDB Our fellow believers, you whom our Lord Jesus loves, we should always thank God for you. We should do this because God chose you to be among the first people that he would save, as a result of God setting you apart for himself by means of his Spirit and your believing the true message about Jesus. BSB BSB: But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth.
14 UDB We thank God that he chose you as a result of our proclaiming the message about Christ to you so that God might honor you in some of the same ways that he honors our Lord Jesus Christ. BSB BSB: To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
16 UDB We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father—he who loves us and will encourage us forever and who kindly makes us expect to receive good things from him— BSB BSB: Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who by grace has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope,
17 UDB encourage you and cause you to continue doing and saying good things. BSB BSB: encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and deed.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.