My question is about 2 Thess. 2:3. I talked with a Bible-teacher who expected a great revival of faith in our time throughout the world. I quoted this verse and in our language (Dutch) and in English there it is translated as a “falling away”. He said that the word translated wrongly there is ‘harpazo’ (it’s all Greek to me), which means and often is translated as ‘the rapture’. In a way it makes sense: “Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come except the rapture (falling away)(harpazo?) comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed” (Amplified Bible). I don’t have a Bible in greek (yet), else I would have looked it up myself. Your comment, please.
In 2 Thes. 2:3 the Greek word in question is apostasia, not harpazo. It’s the word from which we get apostasy. Even so, some scholars do interpret this verse as describing the rapture, and I understand that prior to the publication of the KJV in 1611, that was the commonly held view.
I think of it as referring to the separation of church goers from true believers just prior to the rapture and see its beginnings in the emerging church movement. Paul also mentioned this end times falling away in both of his letters to Timothy. (1 Tim 4:1 and 2 Tim 3:1-5)