Good morning and welcome to the second day after Christmas. Margie and I were just laughing last night about the ramp up to Christmas versus the abrupt departure of it. Preparation for Christmas in our retail world starts around Halloween. The music, products and decorations seem to start earlier and earlier every year. Christmas is everywhere, and it stays at the forefront for almost 60 days. But come the 26th of December…wham! Gone! All the music is gone from the radio and the malls pull the decorations it seems, overnight. It’s enough to make your head spin!
Well, Christmas is still going on today for us. We’re having the Potter family party today as it’s the first time we could all get together. We’re all heading down to Mom and Dad’s for the day to enjoy family, food and fun. This will be our first Christmas home in over 2 years and I’m looking forward to just enjoying my family. It’s so cool to see our nieces and nephew grow up into young adults. The conversation is now one of life, not one of play. Good times instore for us today, indeed.
Since we’re heading down to Combine this morning, I got up extra early to make sure and get the 5MC in. I enjoy having the 5MC. It’s a way to keep God’s Word at the forefront of my life routine. Before bed last night I told Margie, “I don’t know what I’ll do with the 5MC tomorrow morn since we’re leaving so early.” She said, “you’re gonna get up early and write, that’s what you’re gonna do.” Ha, she knows me better than I know myself sometimes. My body clock went off at 4:45 and here I sit.
This morning I studied 2 Thessalonians 2, and what a fascinating chapter it is. Paul gets into the business of really addressing the reason he wrote his second letter to the church at Thessalonica. You see some rascal had written a letter to the church claiming to be Paul and had claimed that Christ had already returned and that because of this the people in the church must have missed the “calling away” of the church. Paul had used the scriptures to teach them all about the 2nd coming of Christ, but in the short 3 weeks he had with them, it must have been a rather quick lesson. So here in this letter he is debunking the false letter and restating what God’s Word says about the 2nd coming of Christ, the Rapture of the Church and the coming of the antichrist. Without further delay, lets dig in.
Paul opens chapter 2 quickly, stating his point clearly.
“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.” 2 Thes 2:1-2
Paul says calm down, don’t be alarmed by information that’s not from either me, Timothy or Silvanus. We taught you the truth when we were there, and you have not missed the day of the Lord. You see, there’s a reason almost every one of Paul’s letters touches on false teaching. Christianity was new to the world. Jesus had died and been resurrected only about 20 years before the writing of this letter. If there was to be a ‘new religion’ rise up today it would suffer great criticism and doubt. We seem to think that old things are somehow more reliable than new things. Christianity was a ‘new thing’ and there were many who were teaching against it and doubting its claims. Paul was constantly battling these false teachers and that’s exactly what he’s doing here in 2 Thessalonians.
To reaffirm what he had taught them verbally while in their presence, he is now teaching them in writing. You know, if you really think about it, if this false letter had not been written, we more than likely would not have this letter today! God creates some unlikely situations to further His Word, no doubt.
So Paul moves on to clarify His teachings when he was with them in person about the order of events for the return of Christ.
“Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?” 2 Thess 2:3-5
The scripture is clear about the 2nd coming of Christ. Jesus Christ will be returning to the Earth to claim His church. (Remember that the ‘church’ is the body of believers here on this planet not buildings, structures or organized religions.) In order for the return of Christ to occur, we are told in God’s Word (and right here) that certain things must take place first. Paul says that first “the rebellion must take place” and the “man of lawlessness must be revealed.”
This is end of times stuff and you can find all of this in great detail in the book of Revelation. I think it’s very important to note that Paul only had three weeks to create this church, teach the Word of God and raise up leaders and yet He did not only teach grace, mercy, peace and joy but the hard stuff. He taught about the rapture, the antichrist, the second coming of Christ, and the judgment of those left to suffer the Great Tribulation period. There are churches today that have been in existence for years and years that don’t spend time on this stuff. You might hear, “the book of Revelation is too hard” or “people just won’t understand it.” The job of the teachers of the Word of God is to give out the complete Word of God, not pick and choose. Some popular TV preachers only preach on warm, fuzzy motivational stuff they have plucked out of God’s Word to make their point. You know, the stuff that belongs on a motivational poster or in feel good books. God’s Word is tough, it hits us square in the jaw and it needs to. God corrects and warns those He loves, and He does that using His Word. Paul knew this and taught God’s Word in its entirety, even to new believers.
So, two things have to happen in order for the ‘day of Christ’ to take place. 1) a rebellion or “falling away” takes place and 2) the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction is revealed. Lets look at these one by one.
The rebellion or ‘falling away’ is based on the Greek word "apostasia" which means “departure or removal from.” This will be a two part process. First the body of believers known as the church will be removed. You’ve heard this called the Rapture. The word rapture is never used in God’s Word. In 1 Thess 4:16-17 Paul says “And the dead who are in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord.” The term ‘caught up’ is based on the Greek word ‘harpazo’ which means to ‘snatch away’, this is where we get rapture. So the body of believers will be taken out of this world, snatched up in the air to meet the Lord. Now think about this…all of the believers in Christ Jesus will at this moment be gone from the Earth. Who will be left to run the churches and the organized religions? You guessed it, the lost and unbelievers. This will cause the second part of this, the “falling away.” Without believers in Jesus to anchor things there will be a great apostasy (departure) in the church. Without believers based and rooted in Jesus and the Word of God, things are not going to go well…at all.
The second thing that Paul mentions here is the revealing of the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction. We might better know this guy as the antichrist. When this person hits the scene, the Great Tribulation will be underway. The name antichrist is only used by John, but there are over 30 different names for him throughout both the O.T and the N.T. During the Great Tribulation, satan will be completely unleashed on the World and this guy will be satan’s front man. He will be used to get satan’s work done. He (or she) will be beautiful, charismatic, charming and win the hearts of the people. He will ultimately win the world and become a world dictator. He will deceive the entire world, and without the Holy Spirit active, it will be possible. Paul goes on to describe the son of destruction.
“He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” 2 Thess 2:4
He will claim to “be” God. His ability to unify the World will make him look like a God and people will believe and buy the deception.
Here’s more on the man of lawlessness.
“The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.” 2 Thess 2:9-12
This son of destruction, this man of lawlessness, will be one like the world has never seen. He will have displays of power and the ability to manifest signs and wonders to promote his image, which is a lie. He will be quite the showman. But you might be asking, “are you saying that he might be able to perform miracles?” Yep, very likely. And also, within this power could be the ability to control the weather. Remember that satan controlled the wind when he destroyed the sons and daughters of Job. (Job 1:19) With all of satan’s power at his disposal, this man will not be a God but will look like a God, and my friend, that is good enough for most people. The people that will be in the Great Tribulation have already refused to believe in the true God, Jesus Christ, because they could not see him with their own eyes. But they will be able to see ‘signs and wonders’ from the son of destruction and they will believe in him. This is what the above verse means when it says that “God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.” Some read this verse and take it as God is ‘making’ them believe a certain way. Nope. These folk have already made up their mind and since the Holy Spirit will not be active during the Great Tribulation, they will be allowed to believe the lie.
Wow, what a chapter! Just think, without that false letter being circulated over 1950 years ago, we might not have Paul re-stating these powerful truths of God. I am so thankful for the truth of God’s Word. There is not much I can depend on today. People will let me down, even unintentionally. Governments will fail, political parties will falter and economies will decline. What can you truly trust and believe in today? The Word of God.
I pray today that you are investing time daily in the one thing that will never falter, lie or fail you. Spend your time in the truth of God’s Word and the knowledge and wisdom of it will permeate through your life and leave peace in its wake.
God bless you.
Comments