2 Thessalonians 2

₁Friends, when our Lord Jesus Christ comes, He will bring us all together to be with Him. But we must warn you: ₂Do not listen to people who make you worry or confuse you so easily about this. These people say that the day_of_the_Lord has already come. They say that the Lord has told them so, or they say that someone has taught them so, or they say that we have written it in a letter. ₃You must not let anyone deceive you and teach you things that are wrong. Remember, there are some things that must first happen before the day_of_the_Lord comes. There will be many people who will rebel_against God. Their leader will not listen to God's laws and that is why God will punish him. ₄This rebel_against God will be against everything that God says. He will say he is more important than God or anything that people worship. He will go and sit down in the temple of God and he will pretend to be God.

₅Remember, I warned you against these things when I was with you. ₆But there is something that is holding back this rebel_against God, so he can not do what he wants to do. You know what it is that is holding him back. He will be able to do what he wants only when God decides that he can do it. ₇People do not know it, but this rebel is already working to turn people away from God and against the laws of God. But there is someone who is holding back the rebel from doing everything that he wants to do. That person will keep on stopping the rebel until God takes him away. ₈Then everyone will see who the rebel_against God is, who does not want to listen to God's laws. And when the Lord Jesus comes, He will destroy this rebel_against God. Jesus will just breathe on him and this rebel will disappear when the Lord Jesus comes to be King.

₉When the rebel_against God begins to work, the devil will tell him what to do. The rebel will have the power to do miracles and other wonderful things that will deceive people. ₁₀The rebel_against God will deceive people who will be lost in the end. He will deceive them with all the wrong things that he does. The people will follow him because they have not turned to God and believed the true message about the Lord Jesus. If they had believed Him, God would have saved them. ₁₁That is why God confuses these people so that they believe the lies of the rebel. ₁₂God will punish everyone who does not believe the real message of the Good_News about the Lord Jesus, but who loves doing things that are wrong.

₁₃But friends, God loves you. We will always thank God that He chose you and saved you. He has saved you first and He will also save lots of other people. God has saved you. Yes, his Spirit has made you God's special people and you believed the message about Jesus Christ. You said it is true. ₁₄We preached the Good_News about Jesus Christ to you and that is how God chose you also to belong to our King and Lord, Jesus Christ. ₁₅Friends, that is why you must not doubt. You must keep on believing everything that we taught you while we were with you and everything that we wrote to you.

₁₆God our Father loves us and He gave us eternal_life and his grace. He encouraged us to keep on hoping that good things will happen. We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father ₁₇will encourage you and give you the power to keep on doing the good things that you do and say.