If 2
Thessalonians 2:10 is saying that after the rapture no Gentiles will be given a
second chance, will the tribulation saints [those who become believers after
the rapture] all be Jewish?
2 Thessalonians 2:10 - 12
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be
damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Paul,
our apostle, is dealing with what is going to happen in the future. In 1 Thessalonians he is telling the saints
to stay strong as they endure the sufferings of this present time for believing
the message of God’s grace.
2 Timothy 3:12
Yea, and all that will
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
They
were enduring persecutions and afflictions.
They believed God’s word through Paul:
1 Thessalonians 2:13
For this cause also thank
we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye
heard of us [Paul, Timothy and Silas], ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is
in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that
believe.
So these saints at Thessalonica
that Paul established in Acts 17 followed the Apostle Paul and persecution came
to them from Satan and those he energized to withstand the grace of God.
In 2 Thessalonians, Paul is dealing
with the issue of the 70th week of Daniel and the time of Jacob’s trouble
- that future tribulation period, that future time of God’s wrath. The saints were being bombarded with false
doctrine [like the church does today] about the fact that they would have to go
through the tribulation period. Men who
did not rightly divide the word of truth were coming and trying to get these
saints to believe that the Day of Christ was at hand:
2 Thessalonians 2:2-3
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. 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;
That day of Christ in context is
the Lord’s wrath. He is reminding them
that he told them they were not appointed to that wrath.
1 Thessalonians 5:9
For God hath
not appointed us to wrath, but to
obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
1 Thessalonians 1:10
And to wait for his Son
from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from
the wrath to come.
But Paul does go into detail in 2
Thessalonians [particularly chapter 2] about that future day. That’s the context.
So who are those in 2 Thessalonians
2:10 who will not have a second chance?
It will be anyone [primarily Gentiles, but also Jews] who has had a
clear presentation of the gospel of God’s grace in this present dispensation of
grace. In other words, those who were
exposed to the truth—that being, a clear testimony from Almighty God about
their sin, judgment for it before God, and the answer which is in Christ’s
death on the cross. If they reject that
truth they will not get a second chance.
2 Thessalonians 2:8-9
And then shall that Wicked [the Antichrist] be revealed, whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of
his coming: Even him, whose coming
is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
This is dealing with the Antichrist
and the context of this passage has to do with the Middle East. The stage is being set for the last days of
the nation of Israel in the future. God
is not fulfilling Bible prophecy outside of Paul’s epistles now, but God has a
timetable for humanity. There is a focus
on the Middle East in the world today - so much talk about Iran, Iraq and
Afghanistan. Why so much focus on the
Middle East in particular? Because the
last days of Prophecy before the Lord Jesus returns will be centered in the
Middle East – the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That land mass is now inhabited by the Muslim
nations which surround Israel, and it is the land involved in the Kingdom of
God where he will live. It includes
Egypt, parts of Africa, Iraq and what is called Palestine.
2 Thessalonians 2:10
And
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
Again, the context is the Middle
East and the nation of Israel. We have
to remember that when Paul was writing this very early in his ministry, God was
still dealing with the Jewish people with a ‘provoking’ ministry. Although he was not offering them the Kingdom
anymore, He was offering them the opportunity to become members of the body of
Christ as Paul was. Through Paul’s
ministry among the Jewish people in the Middle East, including Thessalonica,
God says:
Romans 11:14
If by
any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save
some of them.
The church started in the Jewish synagogues
where Paul would preach.
Acts 17:1-2
Now
when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to
Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: And Paul, as his manner
was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the
scriptures,
I want you to remember that the
focus is on the Middle East, but when Paul was there with them there were both
Jews and Gentiles. Let me be clear, when
I say “post-rapture Gentiles”, I should use the Bible definition - anyone who
rejects the truth will deal will this man, the Son of Perdition.
But in our day in America the same
thing holds true. It is clear from these
verses in 2 Thessalonians that anyone, both Jew and Gentile, who has had a
clear testimony of the Gospel of God’s Grace [only God knows who that is and he
will be the final judge], will not be given a second chance by God.
Let me qualify that because there
are some people on earth even in our day who have not been given a clear
testimony about the Lord Jesus Christ.
For example, many of the Muslim nations don’t even allow Bibles. Some are smuggled in, but it is against the
law under the threat of death.
There are people on earth who have
never been exposed to the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. God gives them light [Romans 1] and they must
respond to that light; but I am saying that there is a policy of evil to stamp
out the Gospel of the Grace of God.
2 Corinthians 4:4
In whom
the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them.
There are those who ‘believe not.’ They receive the light but they don’t believe
it. But there are others who, for whatever
reason, have been kept from the doctrine of grace by their family or culture
for generations [i.e. Muslims and Jews].
There will be Jews in the land of
Israel whose families have been kept in darkness for centuries about who Jesus
Christ really is. They don’t see Him
like the Jews did in the first century.
Some believed that Jesus was their Messiah; some believed Paul’s
gospel. Now, for the most part, Jews
reject the Lord Jesus Christ as Messiah and Saviour.
So there will be people who have
never been properly exposed to the Lord Jesus Christ. God will deal with them on His own terms -
whether they die in their sins in this dispensation, or if they are given a
chance to hear the truth after the dispensation of grace has ended. Most of them will be Jews [again the focus is
on the Middle East] because God will be dealing with the Jewish people at that
time. And then through the Jews, when
Christ sets up his earthly Kingdom, others [Gentiles] will hear.
It is difficult to pinpoint every
detail because this is all future.
2 Thessalonians 2:10
And
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
There will be people who perish out
there in the future. The focus is mainly
on the Middle East in this passage, even though the same principle applies to
the anywhere in the world if a person has received and rejected a clear
presentation of the gospel of grace in this present dispensation. For that person the day of salvation [2 Corinthians 6:2]
will be over. Why? Because ‘they received not the love of the
truth that they might be saved.’ Just
like in Christ’s day:
John 1:11
He came unto his own, and
his own received him not.
So anyone, Jew or Gentile, who has
been exposed to the Gospel of Grace before the Rapture will not be given a
second chance and this is what God will do:
2 Thessalonians 2:11
And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion [through the Antichrist], that they should believe a lie:
They didn’t want the truth so God
will give them a lie. Why?
2 Thessalonians 2:12
That
they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The words ‘perish’ and ‘damned’ are
used and believe me, those are not good words.
Those are words that say there will be no second chance.
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Regarding the second part of your
question, “Are the tribulations saints, those who become believers, all
Jewish?”
No.
Just like in time past, the focus will be on the Jews; but just like
when God brought Israel out of Egypt and there was a mixed multitude that
included some Egyptians and others who believed His Word, and like all
throughout the history of the Jewish people, there has been a small remnant of
‘strangers’ [Gentiles who wanted to be blessed by the God of Israel through
Israel]. If they were circumcised and
kept the Law, they were a part of Israel.
Uriah the Hittite is an example [2 Samuel 11:3]. In the book of Esther many in that land
became proselyte Jews because of the fear of the Jews.
So the tribulation saints will be
mostly Jewish, but there will be Gentile proselytes.
Acts 2:10
Phrygia,
and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers
of Rome [Jews were strangers in Rome],
Jews and proselytes [Gentiles who became Jews],
Hopefully
this helps!
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