except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

And to you who are troubled
    rest with us,

when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
      with his mighty angels,
      in flaming fire
      taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

When he shall come to be glorified in his saints,
     and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:

That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

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, 

[What day?  The day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him!]


except 
1) there come a falling away first, 
2) and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

And then shall that Wicked 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,

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.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-12
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

satan’s five point plan

Isaiah 14:12-15

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart,
   I will ascend into heaven,
   I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:
   I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
   I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
   I will be like the most High.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

pride and stubborness leads to blindness and chains

Jeremiah 52:1-11

 Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about.

So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him.

And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah.

Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

2 Chronicles 36:10-21

 And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord.

And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel.

Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.

And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:

But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.

Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.

And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon.

And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.

And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:

To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

Israel had done evil by worshipping other gods, sacrificing their children to molech, among other things.  After many warnings God’s judgement was to allow Babylon to overthrow Israel and rule over them.

Instead of repenting and turning to God for deliver them, they continued in their abominations, and stubbornly hardened their hearts against listening to or calling on God.

In times when Israel was in obedience to God, the children of Israel were able to overthrow the wicked inhabitants of the promised land.  They were able to repel previous attempts at invasion.  Had they been in obedience to God, then they well could have resisted even the Babylonian empire with God’s help.

Instead of listening to the prophet Jeremiah’s call to repentance, they ignored the word of the Lord and continued in their evil.  Zedekiah instead listened to the “best life now” false prophets who said that God would bless them and give them victory.

This is no different than modern cheep grace, easy believism preachers who tell people that God will bless them no matter what they do.