In my public debate in the cross-examination period with Thomas Ice I honed in on the Greek noun apostastia in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. I finally got him to admit in our cross-examination that he was incapable of producing a single document in all of Koine literature where apostasia means a “spatial departure.” (See the video below that starts our discussion on this point and the timestamp at 13:05 where Thomas Ice finally admitted that he could not cite a single instance for the debate).
The term apostasia means a political or religious departure in Koine Greek, not a physical departure such as in a rapture. See my article here.
Thomas Ice relies on H. Wayne House’s chapter “Apostasia in 2 Thessalonians 2:3: Apostasy or Rapture” in the book When the Trumpet Sounds edited by Thomas Ice and Timothy Demy.
In the cross-examination, Ice refers to House’s citations of “papyri,” which are on pages 294–295. When one turns there all they find is two instances of the noun apostasia, both of which are translated as “rebels”! So Ice completely blundered by referring to a source that he was ignorant about—which is why he could not actually cite them in the debate. But worse, Wayne House, Ice’s source, completely blundered by using them in his chapter because they actually support my position that the noun means a political or religious departure.
Moreover, the problem with citing House’s chapter is that in all of his 35 pages of the chapter not once does he ever cite a single instance in Koine literature of the noun apostasia meaning a “spatial departure.” Much of his chapter is filler that is not relevant to the issue. House spends a good time digging himself into the cognate fallacy, a fallacy where you assume a noun’s meaning based on the verb’s form or vice versa. He focuses on the verb forms of apostasia, committing the cognate fallacy.
The 800-pound gorilla remains in the room. Where does the noun apostasia mean a “spatial departure” in Koine literature?
It reminds me of the frequent claim by pretribulationists that the early church taught a pretrib rapture. They have never been able to produce a single document that indicates a rapture event occurring before the arrival of the Antichrist.
