November 2023 – The Liberty Coalition

Happy Thanksgiving

This is my favorite holiday, bar none. This seemed a bit strange after I thought about it because this is a day set aside by man rather than God. Then again, so is Christmas. Don’t get me started on that, but it is quite evident Christ was not born in December and much of the “Christmas Story” is entirely baseless. Nor has the body of Christ been instructed to observe the birth of our Lord and Savior. Back to Thanksgiving… why is it my favorite?

Thanksgiving is the most ignored and despised holiday by those who love holiday profits. So much so, they invented “Black Friday” and proceeded to beat the day to death. Now the prophets of profit cannot even wait until the actual day but begin their “Black Friday” deals days, weeks, even months before the day actually arrives. Insert eye roll here. My contrary nature loves the non-commercialism of Thanksgiving. More than that, I love the fact that this is the day when families get together and break bread. What I don’t like is the overachieving display of food that so often adorns tables, side tables, and sometimes side side tables. I’m a simple guy. I’d be happy with turkey with stuffing, potatoes, and rolls. Okay, don’t forget the gravy. And pie. Gotta have a piece of pie. Already I’m stuffed.

Today, of all days, at least some of us take the time to give thanks to God Almighty for all He does for us. While I try to do this every day, I do like the idea of making a particular effort on this one day each year. If nothing else, Thanksgiving almost demands turning our attention to our Creator. It is a quiet demand and too often ignore. Please do heed the call. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

God bless,

Andy

Confessions of a Poll Worker – Go Ahead – Arrest Me

The subject line above is in response to the meme below. My short response? Bite me.

I just came off of a 15 hour election day. I’m not complaining. It is just a fact. It all started in September of last year when I was mouthing off here about doing one’s part. I put my money where my mouth was and, well, now I am officially an election official in my county. Whoopee.

It was not an easy road. My party head hemmed and hawed about being “full up” or whatever. Eventually he must have put my name in because I got a letter, did some online training, some group real-time in-person training, worked the primary (even though it was moot by the time primary day arrived – we still had to be there!), got more training, and worked Tuesday’s election. Now I’m ready for the brain dump.

First off all, I get paid. I wasn’t expecting that. It is a now a decent amount. They upped the ante for this last election. Previous officials got peanuts comparatively. We even get “paid” for training. What a joke. In lieu of the whole ten bucks (apiece) they are supposed to cough up, we get fed instead. Don’t get me wrong, the food is okay, pizza, usually. This last dinner was actually catered so I had a choice between chicken or ribs. It wasn’t great but it was okay. Anyway, I’m not doing this for free but when I signed up, I wasn’t expecting payment, my intent was to be a good citizen.

Now let’s talk about my coworkers. There were five of us working this polling center. Two from each party. Our chief is an Independent. While they try to balance the political leanings in each group, I don’t think it has to be entirely balanced. I’m not sure the law requires both parties be represented specifically.

As I said, our group is as balanced as they come. The other R in our group was new this election, replacing the R from the primary. She was a nice person but there was an issue with the facility that prompted her to ask for reassignment. So what about personalities?

Our chief is a dedicated gal, a hard worker and very conscientious. She’s also very helpful and giving. At our dinner she collected all of our plates and took them to the trash. She just does stuff like that.

The two D’s in the group are both women. (In the primary I was the sole male.) Both are black and both are very nice ladies. One is my age and another is a bit older, I think. Both walk with canes and/or walkers.

The other R in the group this time around is another man. It took me a bit but I finally realized I knew him. I worked on his computer a few years ago. He doesn’t live far from me. He’s a good guy also.

As a group we don’t talk politics. We have talked about a few issues around politics such as taxes, allocation of resources, and such. I can tell you that while we may not see eye to eye on all the issues, we are not all that far apart on any of them. One of the D’s is a former corrections officer. She was talking about the bears in her area keeping her from walking like she should so we got talking about her carrying a gun. She was not at all opposed to the idea. Her greatest concern was the prison Glock she had had too many safety features to be useful. Of course I enlightened her about her choices.

Summing up, while our group was mixed politically, we are all Americans. We were all there to do our jobs and our job was to help citizens vote and to ensure the vote was fair and accurate. Period. In fact, there is not a lot of room at Virginia polls for fraud. Period. At least not at the polling place I worked. Is it possible some polling places in other precincts could be sullied? I’d say it is possible, but not easy. Let’s talk about that, shall we?

Let me say first, as an election official, I am still a rookie and on the bottom of the pile at that. I worked at each station there so I can speak about such with confidence. Here, really the only real opportunity to nudge an election, voter-wise, is at the first station – the poll book. The poll book, ours is electronic, is what we use to verify the person standing in front of us is who they say they are AND they are duly registered. Ninety-nine percent (99%) fall into this category. Most hand over their photo driver’s license which is scanned into the system. A couple gave us a voter registration card, also scannable. Now I’d say these cards could be faked so there is a potential for abuse there, but it would take a pretty concerted effort. It is also possible for a voter to simply present a utility bill and vote – a far greater prospect for fraud. These can only vote once but, collect enough utility bills from enough registered voters and wholesale fraud could be perpetrated. I see little standing in the way of dead relatives or friends voting.

As I pointed out in one of our training sessions, much to the chagrin of the Electoral Board member present, our county is really far too small for anyone intent on massive fraud efforts. He said, correctly, that any potential fraud should be addressed. I agree entirely but I think he missed my point. Sure we should be aware and diligent about any fraud BUT I don’t see it as a festering problem in our county. Someone could flip the whole county to one side and it wouldn’t make a difference in a state or national vote count.

The other gaping hole in our voting system is registration Now Virginia does require a Social Security number to register to vote but I’m not convinced there is a foolproof method of validating this. The issue I raised above concerned bad addresses. If someone’s address is different than what our database says, all the voter has to do is sign a form indicating the correct address. I asked if anyone verified the address. Similarly, if election officials (and I mean those who are charged with validating voters at the system level) are not diligent about verifying eligibility or if the gatekeepers are not kept honest, there is room for fraud. Personally, I’m not convinced security is all that tight.

So let’s move on to the topic of the meme below – start arresting the poll workers and watch how fast they tell you who told them to cheat. Bite me. Granted there are instances, apparently documented ones at that, where poll workers are suspect. In those cases, by all means, hold them accountable and, yes, election fraud is a prosecutable offence. I am all for prosecution to the fullest. That said, most of us work hard on that day and we are diligent. Our job is is ensure those who vote are legally eligible to do so and every legal vote is counted. In our little group, we did our job admirably, if I do say so myself. Not one of us would even think of allowing cheating.

On the other hand, those who’ve been caught doing stuff they shouldn’t need to be dealt with swiftly and surely. When this hasn’t happened, the blame rests entirely on those charged with enforcing the law – on every level. If I were to observe fraud, I would report it and I would keep reporting it further up the ladder until someone acted. I would further expect those who did act to act not just on the original perpetrators but on every individual who turned a blind eye up the line. We cannot have this.

A final note. As I said at the beginning, my day was 15 hours on November 7, 2023. I hear other polling places break the job into shifts. We could not even if it were allowed. (I’m not sure if it is.) The bottom line is, more poll workers are needed. I doubt if our little county is the exception. Why not do your part? Too many gripe and whine about elections and election fraud. Of course our elections should be without question but how can this happen when polling places are understaffed or not properly represented? We invite fraud.

Contact your local Registrar. Put your name in to be an election official. Come on now, pony up.

AI and the Rise of the Deep Fake

Just this morning a friend sent me a link to a disturbing video loaded on TicTok. Good thing too because otherwise I would never have seen it. I don’t do TicTok. What was the video? There someone was passing on a video someone else made about it an experience with Alexa. Yep, that’s right, a friend of a friend of a friend thing. Oi. So what was all the hubbub about?

Apparently, this dude asked Alexa what the outcome of the 2024 election will be. Okay. Stop. Right. There.

First of all, you have some idiot who spends good money on Alexa. Really? My cranberry jelly has more brain power than that. Next, our fool asked this computer program, owned and marketed by a globalist, what the 2024 election would turn out. Why not just call up your favorite psycho psychic? Get real.

Then cranberry jelly for brains asked when WWIII would start. Um, yeah, Alexa can answer that, or can it? (Get it? Can it! AI in a can! HA! I kill me.) As my college calculus professor would say, “Sure, Alexa can answer that! Whatever it says will be wrong, but it can answer the question.” That is about the gist of it. So what did Alexa say?

Well, it predicted the the 2024 election will not take place due to WWIII. Elections will be suspended and the current administration will remain in place by default. (My paraphrase) On to when WWIII will start. Alexa predicted it would start on March 1, 2024 (NOT April 1? Awwwww!) when China invades the US on the West coast and Russia invades on the East coast. Makes perfect sense.

On a side note here, I did some checking and someone else posted Alexa predicted WWIII will begin on November 23, 2023. WHEW! Now I feel better. I was thinking I’d have to wait until March 1, 2024 to see if Alexa was right. But wait! There’s more…

Looking into this confirmed my suspicions. Okay, it’s kinda obvious if you think about it, we ARE about to be bombarded – with more and more AI deep fakes. It’s been happening for some time now, but I don’t think we’ve seen nothin yet. We can expect to be inundated with deep fakes more and more. No doubt the globalists and other controlling types are drooling at the thought of implementing “misinformation legislation” that will make anything but government approved speech punishable by death. I’m sure you can guess what I think is worse.

Look, it doesn’t take much sense to figure out this Alexa thingy is nothing but badly deployed war-mongering hype. It’s Stupid, that’s right, with capital “S”. The last thing we need is to be further regulated by the power-hungry grubbers in our nation’s capitol. What we do need is to be ever vigilant about what we accept as truth. Let me give you a hint here: if someone is predicting the future, they are almost certainly wrong. They can only be correct if they are speaking for God Almighty Himself and I don’t think He has a TicTok account either. Double down on that if they provide a specific date.

A good analyst can sometimes view a certain mishmash of seemingly unrelated events and come up with an insightful perspective on the things happening around us. No doubt this happens far more frequently than we know. Okay. Fine. It’s even possible or even likely someone has or develop an AI engine that can mimic a good analyst or even outperform one. And, yes, it is certainly possible to see patterns and use that vision to somewhat accurately provide some idea of what might happen next, or even down the road. Ask me what I think might happen with Taiwan. No, I’m not some geopolitical genius, but even I can see China salivating over that tiny island. They want it. They already consider it theirs so it’s only a matter of time before they claim their prize.

Do not confuse competent (or in my case semi-competent) analysis with the ability to predict the future. If you do you might find yourself sitting on top of a mountain waiting for Jesus while your stomach keeps asking if it’s dinnertime yet.

And now I’ll return your computer screen to your regular program.

Side note here, the graphic in this post was generated by… AI. Let that sink in.

Should This Site Come Down…

(from my Police State Review Post)

Oh yeah! One more thing, while watching the movie I got this creepy feeling and started wondering when I might become prominent on the radar. While I’m sure if the globalists were paying any attention to me at all, they would certainly not like what I have to say. On the other hand, my blog, my posts, and so forth are quite obscure. As far as radar is concerned, I’m a dust speck. Should there come a time when “the authorities” come knocking on my door, it might be an indication to head for the hills because I am no threat to anyone. For that reason if you come back and see my site down, disabled, or vanished for any period of time, OR I’ve stopped posting altogether without warning, chances are I am either dead or detained.

Added note: funny thing, when I went to post my review, lo and behold this site WAS down! The cause was a technical issue totally unrelated to anything but ya never know!

Police State Movie Review

First things first, I go to long on to TLC and my site is down so I have no idea when this will be posted. UPDATE: The issue seems to be with the PHP version used so y’all can nix any conspiracy theories 🙂

If you read my previous post then you know I bought this movie on DVD. It arrived Tuesday. I didn’t see the notice until Wednesday and we finally watched it on Thursday.

Police State is apparently available on Rumble I embedded it below for your convenience. I say “apparently” because I finally decided to try to stream 2000 Mules. It is listed on Rumble but it comes up with a short message from Dinesh to jump through some hoops first. Since I don’t think I can do that on my television setup, I haven’t tried it yet.

This movie is first rate. It is well produced and well presented. It is also just a bit scary – depending on how easily you are intimidated. All that said, I did not find much revealed I did not already know. This is not because I am all that savvy. Everything – or most everything – stated in the movie is readily available to anyone paying attention.

While they didn’t come right out and say it plainly – they made the case that our nation is already a police state. We a living in an illusion of freedom. Granted, the control is not complete and will not be until we are totally disarmed but the squeeze is on. Am I alarmed? Well, yes. And no. Allow me to elaborate.

Of course I am alarmed. We all should be alarmed. As Dan Bongino stated in the movie “This is not the country I grew up in.” That pretty much says it all. Should we choose to stand by and let it happen, the usurpers will seize control of everything and we well be forced on our knees or in a grave. So why then, do I say “no”, I am not all that alarmed.

For the most part, my trust is in God. I know He is in control and none of this can happen without His permission. As I’ve said before, the one-world (global) government is prophesied and we could be witnessing the fulfillment of these prophesies. I also believe God could stop all this cold. However we need to come to Him and ask Him to deliver us from this evil. I do as much every single day. Apparently, my pleadings alone are not enough so feel free to chime in. Meanwhile I do what I can, when I can, and live my life. I refuse, absolutely refuse, to live my life in fear.

Meanwhile, I’m conversing, more or less, with KrisAnne Hall about constitutional and other issues. She stated:

This is why VOTING & ELECTIONS ARE NOT a suitable (or intended to be) control of elected persons.

We The People MUST:

1. KNOW how government is supposed to and constitutionally designed to work AND

2. Be the constant control over those in government!

We have been taught lies for so long (since 1830) we believe we have no power and have no idea how to exercise the power we have- Know!

Okay so she alludes to the existence of other means to control those we elect into office. Now I take it we can extend said control over those hired to carry out official duties. Okay. Fine. What are they? She points to her Liberty classes. I asked where in those classes is this taught.

Now look, I’m not trying to be difficult but my time on this earth becomes more limited every day. The last thing I need is another squirrel to distract me. Certainly if there are things I can do to exert my God-given authority, I’m all ears. Even better if I can increase such leverage by joining with other citizens. Recently, I saw an interview on Lance Wallnau with the head of an organization called Kinetic Faith. His organization teaches others to utilize such leverage. While I’m keeping this in mind, I haven’t reached out to them. I may not for the same reasons I’m not delving into KrisAnne’s Liberty curriculum.

One of the reasons I’m avoiding this is because I know myself all too well. I have great intentions but I have lousy “executive skills”. In short, I’m an idea man, not a organizational man. Believe me, I’ve tried and tried again. I have failed at running an organization of one. (me). Given some sort of structure, I can do well enough, very well at times, but on my own, well there’s those darn squirrels, not to mention the rabbit holes. Let’s not go there.

The other reason is God has not directed me to do these things. Now, nothing against Him, but I’ve been down similar paths before and, well, I wonder how often I just think I’ve heard from Him rather than actually hearing. Now look, I know of at least one time I really, really did here a voice “from God”. He saved my life by warning me of some idiot driver who was about to swerve into our car. My wife heard Him at the same time. Now was this God Himself or an angel? Was it audible or not? I don’t know to this day. All I know is the warning was clear and a collision was avoided. Other than that one instance, I’ve been forced to listen for the “still small voice” and I’m pretty sure there’s a place in my own mind too eager to make up for His silence. The bottom line is, I’d need some more sure direction, if not a burning bush, in order for me to begin some major endeavor.

Meanwhile I do my best by continuing to write and post.

More On the Resurrection of the Dead

In my previous posts on Peter’s first spirit-filled sermon, I remarked on those things Peter stated indicating the dead are not alive now. From this I pointed out the fallacy of today’s common belief that Christians immediately go to heaven after death. Today, I take this further, looking into scriptures pertaining to resurrection and what is commonly referred to as “the Rapture”. While this second term appears nowhere in scripture, there is certainly evidence of the event it refers to. I’ll remind you another term, born again, does not occur in scripture either but few would argue whether it applies to those of us who confess Jesus as Lord and Christ. My goal here is to explore a number of scriptures pertaining to the resurrection and the coming of Christ to see how they could all fit together.

Let’s begin with Paul in Acts 23 where he faces the Jewish leadership of the day, the Sanhedrin.

Acts 23:6 But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.

7 And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided.

8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.

9 And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees’ part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.

The Sadducees were the ruling sect of the Temple in the first century. The other major sect was the Pharisees though they were in the minority. As the passage above states the Sadducees “say there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit”. They did not believe in an afterlife – at all. Nor did they believe in any spiritual beings other the God Almighty. Now to me, even this presents a problem because while they only accepted the first five books of the bible (and rejected the prophecies and the oral teachings), there are significant references to angels in Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers. I’m not sure how they wrangled those scriptures.

So most Jews in the first century either believed in THE resurrection or that once you’re dead, your dead. Period. It looks to me like there wasn’t much room even then for… “well, you go to heaven immediately after you die.”. Huh.

Moving on, Paul was then brought to Felix, the governor of the province…

Acts 24:10 Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself:

…14 But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:

15 And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

Notice this last bit – “here shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust”. Those words “shall be” are significant as they mean something will absolutely occur – in the future. This concept of THE resurrection (capitals mine) refers to a singular specific event. When will this event happen? Consider this conversation Lazarus’ sister Martha had with Jesus…

John 11:20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.

21 Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.

23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Be sure to check the context of this verse but I assure you, Jesus did not “correct” her assumption of a resurrection occurring on “the last day”.

Also note, it was established as a surety Lazarus was dead, not hanging out in heaven or some such. He was dead. Had Jesus not called him forth, Lazarus would have remained dead until the resurrection, just as Martha stated.

Look, I understand the sentiment. We hate to see our loved ones die. It hurts. We grieve. Many of us will grasp on to any straw to ease our pain. I get that – BUT, our pain doesn’t change the truth. When Jesus died, the ONLY hope for anyone (other than Jesus) was the resurrection of the just and unjust on the last day. The good news is, Jesus’ resurrection changed this. How?

1 Corinthians 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

Now just wait a doggone minute here. What? Paul gives an order of events here. Christ, They that are Christ’s at his coming and THEN “cometh the end”. Doesn’t make sense that the last day would be “at the end”? Granted that word “day” here certainly refers to a period of time not limited to 24 hours. Even so, also during this period is “when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God”.

There is a sequence here and this sequence begins with Christ rising from the dead, followed by those who are Christ’s as his coming. What’s missing? The rising of the unjust, as you will see below.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Now there has been lots of debate on the concept of the Rapture, a term never used in scripture. I’ve seen so much wrangling myself I’ve had my doubts as to whether to expect this event or not. While I’ve concluded that for me, personally, it doesn’t matter either way, I’m convinced this saying is true:

Jesus is coming back twice – once FOR his saints and once WITH his saints. The second return is this “last day” (again referring to a period of time not limited to 24 hours). What convinced me?

Look again at the scriptures above. Paul speaks of the resurrection of the just and unjust. Martha states this happens on the last day. Yet in Corinthians and Thessalonians, Paul marks out a precise group – “they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Corinthians 15:23) and “the dead in Christ shall rise first:

(verse 17) Then we which are alive and remain”. In case you were absent that day, those of us who confess Jesus as Lord and believe God raised him from the dead are justified.

1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

The word “justified” means to be made righteous and thus gives us the right to stand before God Almighty without any sense of sin, guilt, or condemnation. Why? Because our Lord Jesus paid the price with his precious, innocent blood.

Those who are the “unjust” will need to wait for “the end”. My understanding is those “unjust” will not be alone as both the “just and unjust” will rise on the last day, referring to all those who could not or would not confess Jesus as Lord.

For those who have passed on already, these distinctions are mostly moot. Their deal is done. It’s not like they are agonizing in the waiting room for their turn. We who are alive today have the hope of Jesus’ return. If I was smarter about it, this hope would keep me more on my toes as I’d be expecting Jesus to pop up at any moment. It may not hurt to note here that in the Revelation of Jesus Christ and elsewhere some specific markers are indicated before Jesus returns again – one of the biggies being the “the abomination of desolation”

Matthew 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

16 then let them that are in Judaea flee unto the mountains:

17 let him that is on the housetop not go down to take out things that are in his house:

While I expect to be with Jesus when this happens, if I happened to see a report of “the abomination of desolation” on the nightly news, I’d getnervous – real nervous.

Now I extracted out just one tiny part of Jesus entire prophesy in Matthew 24. You might just want to go read the whole thing for, you know, context. The long and the short of it is, Jesus spoke of his coming – his return. Unlike those verses we read from Paul’s epistles, there is a whole lot going on before and after. The key to these prophesies, as I see it, is the distinction between the “just and the unjust”. Besides this key specification, the indication of the “last day” also points to two different periods.

Either way, how can anyone deny the concept of a resurrection and still claim Christ as Lord and Savior? I see no path for such a contradiction to be valid. Nor can I see any way to incorporate the false teaching that believers go directly to heaven when we die. Yes, I’ve seen the passages often pointed to. I’ve studied them. Taken by themselves, with enough twisting and turning, it surely is possible to pound those square pegs into the round holes but the result fails to stand up to scrutiny, even less when the very clear scriptures are taken into account. On the other hand, those few verses, when viewed in the light of other scriptures fit in just fine.

I’ll offer one solid example – one scripture that is often brought up is such debates:

Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.

23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:

24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

25 And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;

So many have pointed to this triumphantly exclaiming “Ah HA! Here is your proof! Read it and weep, heretic!” (Okay, okay, yeah, I dramatized this a bit. 🙂

After all doesn’t verse 23 above state: “having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better”? It does indeed. And sure enough, it says what it says. But what is actually being stated here? Did the apostle state he when he died he was going straight to heaven? No.

First he said “to live is Christ and to die is gain”. Okay, this tells me he has no fear of death. Great. Then he says “For I am in a strait betwixt two”. In other words, given a choice between living and dying, it would be a difficult decision. I totally understand. Now comes this: “having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better”. THERE! Doesn’t he say when he dies he will be with Christ? No. It does not say that.

Now if you put this last part in parenthesis, it not only agrees entirely with the context but it also agrees with the other times Paul spoke of Christ’s return. The two “choices” were between life and death. The third option was the coming of Christ! Once one understands Paul has to be referring to a third option, all difficulties vanish! So… HOW can we know Paul refers to this “third option”? Because this is the only way this passage does NOT contradict other passages. In other words, you can’t have it both ways.

This brings up another potential difficulty from II Thessalonians 2. As I read the King James Version almost exclusively, I need to be constantly diligent in ferreting out the issues posed by the translators. Believe it or not, I’ve examined this passage countless times and it still gives me pause because I naturally tend take those words I read at face value first and afterwards do the mental gymnastics to work out what it really says.

In the case below, the process became far easier simply by comparing the KJV with the WEB (World English Bible). The verse in question is 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

KJV

2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

2 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.

3 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;

4 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.

WEB

2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to him, we ask you

2 not to be quickly shaken in your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as from us, saying that the day of Christ had come.

3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the departure comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,

4 he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.

In the KJV, the word for “falling away” is the Greek word “apostasia”. According to Strong’s the word can mean apostasy, falling away, forsake, or defection (from truth). Yet the WEB renders this word as “departure”. Furthermore there are two (at least) views of the usage this word here. One agrees with the folks at Strong’s, contending either way, we should take this to mean the world is forsaking God. I’ll grant you, the idea that the world will forsake God is hard to argue against. In fact I will not do so because, well, just look at the world around us. However is this what Paul was referring to in this verse? Not so fast!

Another way of seeing this “departure” is to view it as a literal departure – as in the Rapture. Seen this way, Paul would be describing a sequence of events that also agrees with his other teachings. This also more readily agrees with the previous verses in this passage.

In 2:1 Paul speaks of our “gathering together unto him”, again this certainly suggests the Rapture. Then Paul goes on to say they don’t want the Thessalonians “quickly shaken in your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as from us”. Troubled why? By “saying that the day of Christ had come”. Next he says that is not going to happen “unless the departure comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction.”.

Now let this roll about in your mind a bit. How much comfort are you finding in the fact that people are turning away from God? When “that man of sin is revealed” will you breathe a sigh of relief? What about the subsequent events? (Don’t forget Jesus warned folks to head for the hills!) If none of these these things make you feel any better then why would the apostle Paul think they would be of comfort to the Thessalonians?

I cannot speak for anyone else but the one comfort I get from all of this is the idea that Jesus will come back before the stuff hits the fan and we will join him! Now I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, IF Jesus and/or our Heavenly Father asked for volunteers to stay behind, I’m pretty sure I’d be raising my hand. I won’t say enthusiastically but, yeah, put me in, coach. That said, let me suggest something to you… what IF, the Rapture is not just for the sake of us believers? What IF God has other purposes in mind? What IF our extraction is exactly what those who are “left behind” really need to see the truth?

My own conclusion is no matter how you view 2 Thessalonians 2:3, the verse does no preclude the Rapture. Jesus and Paul both specifically say THE resurrection will happen on the last day. We also know this resurrection pertains to those who have died. Paul also states the dead in Christ will rise first and the the living. This statement alone should give us pause for thought. If the living in Christ rise in the twinkling of the eye, who or what is left?

The only conclusion I can come to is Jesus, our Messiah, indeed will come back for those of us born again of God’s spirit, those who have accepted him as both Lord and Christ, whether asleep or awake. Then the rest will be dealt with accordingly

Below you’ll find a couple of sources used in my research. I’m listing these for your information and should not be construed as an endorsement. As you should with all such presentations (including mine) search the scriptures to see if these things are so.

Liberty University – The Rapture in 2 Thessalonians 2

Falling Away