Chapter 2

¹As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, brothers, and our assembling to meet him, we beg you ²not to let your minds be too easily unsettled or wrought up, by any message of the Spirit or any utterance or letter purporting to be from me, to the effect that the Day of the Lord has already come. ³You must not let anyone deceive you at all. For that is not until the rebellion takes place and the embodiment of disobedience makes his appearance—he who is doomed to destruction, ⁴the adversary of every being that is called a god or an object of worship, and so overbearing toward them as to enter God’s sanctuary and take his seat there, proclaiming himself to be God— ⁵do you not remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you this? ⁶So now you know what it is that is holding him back from making his appearance before the appointed time arrives. ⁷For disobedience is already secretly at work, but only until he who is now holding it in check is gotten out of the way. ⁸Then the embodiment of disobedience will make his appearance, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and annihilate him by his appearance and arrival. ⁹The other’s appearance, by the contrivance of Satan, will be full of power and pretended signs and wonders, ¹⁰and full of wicked deception for men who are going to destruction, because they refused to love the truth and be saved. ¹¹This is why God sends upon them a misleading influence, to make them believe what is false, ¹²so that all who have refused to believe the truth but have preferred disobedience may be condemned.

¹³We always have to thank God for you, brothers whom the Lord so loves, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved through consecration by the Spirit and through faith in the truth, ¹⁴and called you to it through our preaching of the good news, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵So stand firm, brothers, and hold fast to the instructions you have received from us, whether by letter or by word of mouth. ¹⁶May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and kindly given us unfailing encouragement and a well-founded hope, ¹⁷encourage you and strengthen you to do and say everything that is right.