1 Thessalonians 2 14-16: This passage clearly tells who the people we call Jews today are.
We see in Acts time and time again how the apostles would go into a city. The people of Judean extraction who believed would follow Christ, but the unbelieving Judeans and the people who said they were of Judah but were not (see Revelation 2 9 and 3 9) would make trouble and even try to have the apostles killed.
It says plainly in verse 15 that the Jews killed Jesus Christ.
The Jews persecuted the apostles. Do Jews persecute Christians today?
"... and are contrary to all men"
The Jews hate everybody, including themselves. The wars in the Middle East aren't between the sons of Isaac and the sons of Ishmael,. Rather, they are between the sons of Ishmael and the people of Revelation 2 9 and 3 9 who are against everybody.
1 Thessalonians 4 13-18: Here we get a clear picture of end time events. The coming of the Lord will be noisy and the dead Christians will rise into the air to meet the Lord first, before everyone else. This rules out the possibility of a secret, silent rapture at the beginning of the tribulation period. The Lord shall descend with the trump of God, which I think is also the seventh trumpet of revelation. Right after the righteous dead are raised and meet the Lord in the air, we who are alive and have survived the tribulation period (again ruling out the pretribulation rapture) will rise into the air to where God and the dead in Christ are.
2 Thessalonians 2 1-12: The falling away started in AD 325 with Constantine starting the Catholic church and is excellerating in Christendom in these end times.
It can be said the lawless one is both the Catholic church itself and one man who will rule the world. This is because this man, commonly called the antichrist, will be in the position of the Pope. I don't know if it will be someone from inside the Catholic church or someone from outside that organization chosen to serve the role in question. I believe it will be someone with an air of celebrity, as we live in a celebrity culture. It will most likely be someone youngish with charm, whom everyone will gravitate towards and want to know everything he is doing, rather like with Obama four years ago.
This man will truly exalt and oppose the true God and exalt himself above all that is worshipped. He will sit in the position of God. The words in verse 4 are also true of the Catholic church itself. Throughout the centuries it has conquered peoples and either incorporated or subjigated their traditional beliefs into it's fold along with what it already believed. Witness what happened with the pagan Romans, the natives of Alberta, the natives of South America, etc.
The Catholic church sits in the midst of Christendom, but the son of perdition will also sit in an actual physical temple. Critics say the temple in Jerusalem won't be rebuilt because in order to build it the holy Islamic sight of the Dome of the Rock would have to be blown up and the Moslems would never let that happen. The antichrist will be on the scene before the three and a half year tribulation and he will be so charming the Moslems will be willing to accomodate this man of lawlessness in whatever he wants.
While the thing that withheld the Catholic church itself was the Roman empire, it is equally true that God is restraining those trying to bring about the new world order from doing even worse things than they are currently doing.
In the church world today, people don't care about the truth. They want doctrines that sound good (ala the pretribulation rapture) and, above any doctrine or teaching, they just want to attend the next praise and worship event and have uninterrupted good, self-satisfying times.
Because these people would not receive a love of the truth so as to be saved, God sends them a strong delusion so they all might be condemned to Hell. God is sovereign: he can condemn all those people to Hell if he wants.
I believe the strong delusion (though, granted, there are many strong delusions in the church today) is the pretribulation rapture, or more accurately the rapture occurring before the end of the tribulation period. It has reached into all circles, from charismatic Catholics to mainline Protestants to the reformed churches and many other little Christian groups besides.
2 Thessalonians 3 11-12: Paul clearly says here that those who don't want to work (because of laziness, not because they have a legitimate physical or mental issue which prevents them from working) should not eat. This speaks directly to all the welfare bums we have in our country today. In other words, get a job or starve to death. And no, volunteering isn't good enough. This passage is clearly talking about work for pay.
Why have I never heard any preachers preach on this passage?
This is the problem with the social gospel these days. Christians are to be charitable and help the poor and needy. However, the big thing with that these days is you get too many lazy people who are perffectly capable of working but who just want to sponge off other people.
This is why Christians need to be very careful about who they give to and what they do for people. You won't go to Hell for not giving the drunk bum on the corner a twenty dollar bill. Perhaps offer to take them to a fast food joint for a burger so they actually have to consume what they're given and it'll actually be something that will sustain life as opposed to just indiscriminately giving them money they'll spend on booze.
Verse 13 of this chapter tells us not to grow weary in well doing. Christians will often feel obligated to do so much for the Lord that they grow tired and aren't doing what they're doing out of a willing heart. God will always give you enough strength to do all he wants you to do in a day, but he also created us with signals to know when we should rest.
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