Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not, Matthew 24:23.
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand, 2nd Thessalonians 2:2.
In the two verses quoted above, one is an echo of the other. The day of Christ is the day of which he spoke when he said; For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be, Matthew 24:27. That day is not at hand. If any man tells you "here is Christ, or there" don't believe that person. It doesn't matter if a spirit says that day at hand. It doesn't matter if someone said it in by word or in the form of a letter from the Apostles, Christ is not ready to come as the lightning. That day is not at hand.
The almost universal tendency to change 2nd Thessalonians 2:2 from saying the day of Christ and making it say the day of the Lord obscures what Paul and Jesus Christ are saying. The day of the Lord has a broad designation. Indeed, it is wise to warn people that it is coming. The day of the Lord will start with the rapture of the church. Immediately, the antichrist will appear and usher in three and one half years of a false peace. Then there will be three and one half years of hell on earth. The day of the Lord is a sufficiently broad term to not only fit that seven year period, but it is also used to designate the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth. The day of Christ is the day that ends the tribulation. That day is not at hand and cannot come until the man of sin has had his way on this earth.
I received a message from a dear woman in Maine this morning when she noticed that C.I. Scofield had made a note in 2nd Thessalonians 2:2 telling her that the King James translators had translated the day wrongly. It would have been more honest for our ex-Confederate General Scofield to have told the truth. General Scofield was reading the Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament which was the product of their sloppy work. The King James translators used an entirely different set of manuscripts often called the majority manuscripts because so many manuscripts in Greek, Latin, Coptic, Syrian and Germanic tongues agree with it.
Westcott and Hort's work is constantly being upgraded. The King James Bible, that lighthouse of truth and the many centuries of translations in many languages before it, do not need constant upgrades. The Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament said, "ημερα του κυριου" (day of the Lord). The Greek manuscript underlying the King James Bible says,"ημερα του χριστου" (day of Christ). General Scofield's choice of manuscripts isn't much better than his choice of which side to fight on. He chose a losing side.
He wasn't even honest in what he said. He should have said that he thought that the King James Bible translated the wrong manuscript. Instead, he obfuscated and said that it was a bad translation. It is a perfect translation of the right manuscript. The devil has mislead a lot of people with that word switch. Fortunately, this kind lady's Maine forefathers picked up their guns and ended the Southern rebellion. I thank my God for the work being done in Maine by bible believers who are fighting the far more insidious battle for the word of God itself. Scofield chose the wrong side, but if you know those Mainers like I do, you'll see them straighten out General Scofield again.
Here is a bible study on 2nd Thessalonians 2; (Click Here).