Almost anytime someone alleges they have "PROOF" from the "original Greek" that the rapture is pre-trib, or mid-trib, or whatever, they are probably wrong, because not only is there nothing in it that settles all doubt, but by and large, the overwhelming percentage of Christians in Greece do not believe in a pre-trib rapture.  It's mostly an American Protestant thing.

2 Thess 2:3 says,

"or that day shall not come except there come an APOSTACY (apostacia) first" (2 Thess 2:3)

The Greek word "apostacia" means exactly what it looks like in English; "Apostacy".  Simple fact it;

• Greeks understand this word to mean "apostacy" / "rebellion" / etc, not a physical displacement of one's body.  I will prove this below.
• Its used several times in Scripture, all of which means "apostacy".  I will show this below too.
• We are told that an apostacy will come before the end times.

Matthew 24 talks about SEVERAL types of Apostacies;

• "nation shall rise against nation" (Matt 24:7)
• "Then shall many be offended, and shall BETRAY one another.." (Matt 24:10)
• "Many false prophets shall rise and deceive many " (Matt 24:11)
• "because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved" (Matt 24:12-13)

So here, there are several forms of apostacy being discussed, but the last one is probably the one that matters; people turning away from the faith.

How APOSTACY is used ELSEWHERE in Scripture

People who try to allege that "Apostacia" means "rapture" always want to ignore the fact that "apostacia" is used several times in scripture, and it ALWAYS means "apostacy" / "rebel" / etc, and makes no sense if you replace the translation with "rapture".  Here are some examples;

• "they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to FORESAKE (apostasion) Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs" (Acts 21:21)  Translating "apostacia" as "rapture" here generates a good hearty laugh.  Can you imagine someone standing up and saying, "Hey all you Gentiles, rapture Moses!"
• It's used in the LXX in several places including;

The Greek version of Wikipedia has a page defining "apostacia", and no where on it is the concept of the rapture discussed.  Keep in mind that ANY Greek speaker could edit the page to add "rapture" into the discussion if he felt like that was some sort of serious omission, but not one person has chosen to "fix" that "problem". 

 

Googling "Apostacia" in Greek

I put "αποστασία" into Google once (in the past) in unicode and got 113,000 web pages.  Most were Greek web pages from Greek speakers.  a small number were in English trying to analyze a Greek word.  When I put both the Greek words for "apostacy" and "rapture" (apostacia and arpage) into Google, I got a whopping 3 Greek web pages, none of which talked about the rapture.  The laws of chance would lead me to suspect I'd get at least a few web pages that would switch from one topic to the next, and thereby have both words in the same web page.  But nope.  It appears that 113,000 Greek speaking web pages from people who speak Greek can get posted using the word "αποστασία" and not a single one of them has the topic of the rapture even on the radar screen.  So much for those claiming "the original Greek" proves this word means, "rapture."

 

Just to ensure I hadn't goofed, I put "apostacy" and "Jesus" in (In Greek unicode, of course) and got 32,000 Greek speaking web pages and Google took care of all the various inflections as well.  Most of the 81,000 that went away were political web pages concerning the "Apostacy of 1965", a military overthrow of the Greek government, leaving me with the normal religious usage of the term "apostacy".  I checked many of those web pages and every usage of the Greek term "αποστασία" I found involved apostacy, with no mention of any kind of rapture.  So if "apostacia" can mean "rapture", then why is it that people who speak Greek on a daily basis make absolutely no connection between the word "apostacia" and the rapture?  If those who think 2 Thess 2:3 is talking about the rapture, then I guess the Greek speaking world needs to take lessons on how to speak Greek from English speaking folks who don't know Greek!!!! 

 

Trying to find a writing by anyone from any time period in which a connection has been made by a Greek speaker, writing in Greek, between the word "apostacia" (as used in 2 Thess 2:3) and the concept of the rapture is a fruitless endeavor because there's just no connection.  And if 2 Thess 2 was written in Greek and Elohim was trying to tell us about the rapture there, why would He use a word that Greek speakers don't connect to the concept of the rapture in any fashion whatsoever?

We must fit our theology to the written text, not the text to our desired theology.

 

Shalom,

Joe