Chapter 2

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

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  that ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as [if it were] by us, as that the day of the Lord is present.  

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  Let not any one deceive you in any manner, because [it will not be] unless the apostasy have first come, and the man of sin have been revealed, the son of perdition;  

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  who opposes and exalts himself on high against all called God, or object of veneration; so that he himself sits down in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.  

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  Do ye not remember that, being yet with you, I said these things to you?  

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  And now ye know that which restrains, that he should be revealed in his own time.  

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  For the mystery of lawlessness already works; only [there is] he who restrains now until he be gone,  

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  and then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall annul by the appearing of his coming;  

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  whose coming is according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood,  

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  and in all deceit of unrighteousness to them that perish, because they have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved.  

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  And for this reason God sends to them a working of error, that they should believe what is false,  

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  that all might be judged who have not believed the truth, but have found pleasure in unrighteousness.  

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  But we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of [the] Lord, that God has chosen you from [the] beginning to salvation in sanctification of [the] Spirit and belief of [the] truth:  

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  whereto he has called you by our glad tidings, to [the] obtaining of [the] glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

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  So then, brethren, stand firm, and hold fast the instructions which ye have been taught, whether by word or by our letter.  

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  But our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us, and given [us] eternal consolation and good hope by grace,  

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  encourage your hearts, and establish you in every good work and word.  

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