1Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to be with him: I beg you, my brothers and sisters, 2not to be so easily confused in your thinking or upset by the claim that the Day of the Lord has come. Perhaps it is thought that we said this while prophesying or preaching, or that we wrote it in a letter. 3Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For the Day will not come until the final Rebellion takes place and the Wicked One appears, who is destined for hell. 4He will oppose every so-called god or object of worship and will put himself above them all. He will even go in and sit down in God's Temple and claim to be God.
5Don't you remember? I told you all this while I was with you.
13We must thank God at all times for you, brothers and sisters, you whom the Lord loves. For God chose you as the first to be saved by the Spirit's power to make you his holy people and by your faith in the truth. 14God called you to this through the Good News we preached to you; he called you to possess your share of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15So then, our brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to those truths which we taught you, both in our preaching and in our letter.
16May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and in his grace gave us unfailing courage and a firm hope, 17encourage you and strengthen you always to do and say what is good.
