2 Thessalonians 2 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Now, brothers and sisters, about the arrival of our Lord Jesus, The One, and our being gathered together to meet him — we need to talk about something.

Please don't let yourselves get quickly rattled or alarmed — not by some "prophecy," not by some message, and not by a letter that's supposedly from us — claiming that the Day of the Lord has already come.

Don't let anyone deceive you in any way. That day won't come until the great rebellion happens first and the man of complete lawlessness is revealed — the one destined for destruction.

He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god and every object of worship, going so far as to sit in God's temple and declare himself to be God.

Don't you remember? I told you about all this when I was still with you.

And you know what's currently holding him back, so that he'll be revealed only when his time comes.

Because the hidden force of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who is currently holding it back will keep doing so until he's removed from the scene.

And then the lawless one will be revealed — and the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and wipe him out by the sheer brilliance of his arrival.

The arrival of this lawless one will be Satan's doing, with all kinds of counterfeit power, fake signs, and lying wonders,

and every kind of wicked deception aimed at those who are headed for destruction — because they refused to love the truth and be rescued by it.

Because of this, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they end up believing the lie,

so that all who refused to believe the truth and instead took pleasure in doing wrong will be judged.

But we always have to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because from the very beginning God chose you to be rescued through the Breath's work of making you whole and through your trust in the truth.

He called you to this through the good news we shared with you, so that you could share in the glory of our Lord Jesus, The One.

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the teachings we passed on to you, whether we told you in person or wrote them in a letter.

And may our Lord Jesus, The One, himself, and God our Father — who loved us and through his undeserved kindness gave us an everlasting comfort and a solid hope —

comfort your hearts and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.