2 Thessalonians (3)

This chapter before us, 2 Thessalonians 2, is probably

one of the most confrontive passages in the scriptures with regard to the current state of

evangelicalism and their understanding of the end times, and

also as it reflects conflict down through the centuries

between Roman Catholicism and the Protestants.

So, we're going to explore this over the next few weeks, and I think that you'll find it interesting, and I

hope instructive as well.

And so, let's turn to this second chapter of 2 Thessalonians, and we want to

continue with the outline that we've already provided.

I have given you the first part of it here in our notes, and we're at the third section

of this outline in 2 Thessalonians.

It's in bold font there, and here in verses 1 -12 of 2

Thessalonians 2, we have Paul providing correction of mistaken end times

expectations.

He is addressing an error that existed in the church at Thessalonica,

and we can receive instruction from this.

The church at Thessalonica was a relatively new church, you'll recall.

When Paul wrote them the second epistle, he had written the first epistle,

1 Thessalonians, just several months before the second, maybe three months had passed, and he wrote the second epistle.

One reason that he had written the first epistle was to comfort those in the church who

had loved ones, Christians die, and he wanted to comfort them with view to the second coming of

Jesus Christ.

And so we read of that passage that speaks of the rapture of the people of God in 1

Thessalonians 4, a blessed passage.

Paul wrote, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, and that's his reference to

Christians who have died, lest ye sorrow as others who have no hope, speaking of non

-Christians.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no

means precede, or go before, those who are asleep, and

I have it bold and italic because he's talking about the coming of Christ, for the Lord himself, that's Jesus, will descend

from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ will rise first, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the

clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord, and therefore comfort one

another with these words.

So in the first epistle he addressed the coming of Christ, the second coming of Christ.

And then we've just worked through the first chapter of the second epistle, and he

again gave instruction regarding the second coming of Christ, but this time he wrote of the

coming of Christ in order to encourage Christians who were enduring affliction, persecution

was this form of affliction, and he assured them that they were pleasing God through their faithful

endurance, and that one day God would deliver them from their tormentors when he would bring

judgment upon them, and so the deliverance of his people and the destruction of their enemies

would occur at the second coming of Christ.

And so again he wrote of the coming of Christ in chapter 1 of 2

Thessalonians.

God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who

are afflicted as well as to others, and here it is, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God

and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the

glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints

and to be marveled at among all who believe because our testimony to you was believed.

Clearly Paul here was speaking about a single future event when Jesus returned

at his second coming.

Jesus will deliver his people and he will also judge his enemies.

It's one event and that's important.

But the church at Thessalonica did not have a clear understanding of the second coming of Jesus Christ in spite of the

first epistle that he had written to them.

The members of this church at Thessalonica were in error about the nature and about the timing of the coming of

Christ.

Apparently some of them had thought the coming of the Lord was imminent.

He's going to come any moment now.

He's going to come soon, that he would

return very soon.

William Hendrickson, a good Reformed commentator, described their confusion.

Paul had written about the sudden character of Christ's second coming and about the necessity of being prepared for it.

Apparently this message had been misinterpreted as if sudden coming meant

immediate coming.

Very important, this statement, because I would argue that the error that Thessalonians

had with regard to the second coming continues today among most

evangelicals in their view of the second coming.

The result of this expectation of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus was that some in the church had become

unsettled as to their spiritual well -being.

And then there were others in the church who believed that the Lord Jesus' return was imminent,

who had actually ceased to work and had become dependent upon the church to support them.

Later on we'll read where Paul says, hey those who don't want to work, let them starve.

Don't be supporting them, don't be enabling them basically using common up -to -date

language.

Well before us in 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 1 -12 Paul provided both correction and

instruction regarding the coming of the Lord.

There was much misunderstanding and error in this church regarding the second coming.

And again we would say it seems there has been much misunderstanding and error in churches regarding the second coming throughout the

past 2 ,000 years of this church era.

And there is still much misunderstanding and error regarding the second coming of Christ among many today.

And I would say even among most evangelicals throughout the world.

It would seem that once a doctrine or teaching about the second coming takes root in some churches it takes on a life of its own.

It becomes perpetuated through books that are written, preaching, and people just

embrace it and they don't critically assess it in the light of the scriptures.

The false teaching continues to be propagated and popularized.

Most people come to the place that they believe the doctrine is a clear teaching of the Bible and they can't even imagine

somebody not believing it so.

When in reality it is foreign to scriptural teaching.

Frankly folks, I am regarded as a weirdo by most evangelical Christians because of my understanding of the

end times which we present, for example, on the radio and through our sermon notes from

time to time.

But I would argue that there is a need for each of us to retain a teachable spirit in these matters.

For much error abounds.

There was error in this church at Thessalonica.

Why should we be surprised if there is not error among us as well?

Some avoid addressing these issues.

Charles Spurgeon, and I have all 64 volumes of his sermons, he doesn't preach a lot about the

end times.

I have a book of his quotations and I saw a couple of them yesterday.

He once said, I think that some ministers would do far more for the profit of God's people if they would preach more about the first

advent and less about the second advent.

Amen Charles Spurgeon.

On another occasion Spurgeon said this, a man says to me, can you explain the seven trumpets of the revelation?

No, but I can blow one in your ear and warn you to escape from the wrath to come.

He was an evangelist.

He was concerned about preaching the gospel.

Another says, can you tell me when the end of the world will come?

No, but I can tell you how to be so prepared for it that you need not be afraid if it were to come tonight.

I can urge you to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior so that you can await it with

a holy joy.

Amen.

But though some do not address these issues readily, the Apostle Paul did so when he saw it beneficial for the people of God.

Again, this was one of the major reasons he wrote 2 Thessalonians.

And of course our Lord believed it to be an important matter because he was the one who inspired Paul to write this epistle, didn't he?

And so it's important.

And so we'll address this matter also as the text unfolds before us.

But it's going to take a few weeks.

And as we explain what Paul wrote, we'll also attempt to set forth what others in the past have said with

regard to Paul's meaning.

I find it very interesting to read what the early Church Fathers said about this

passage and about the man of sin it is spoken about, as well as the

Protestant Reformers, as well as the Roman Catholics and what they say regarding the man of sin that

is mentioned.

And I think you'll find this chapter interesting and informative as I have.

But before we begin to consider the text, let me point out a teaching that many Christians today assume to be true regarding the Second Coming,

but which is not biblical.

Just as there were some in the Church at Thessalonica who believed the appearing, that is the Second Coming of the Lord

Jesus, was imminent.

That is, he can come any moment,

very soon.

So most Christians today believe that the Lord may come at any moment, that his coming is

imminent.

Now I'm not denying that at this point, but I'm just saying that most people believe this for a different reason than

I do.

We'll explain that as time passes.

For the past 125 years or so, the belief in a two -stage

Second Coming has been taught and believed by most evangelical Christians.

Two -stage Second Coming separated by seven years.

I'm sure most of us are familiar with this.

They've been taught that at any time Jesus Christ will return in the air to rapture his Church, that is, to

catch up his Church, to be with him in heaven.

And by the way, they say, they define by Church everyone who's become a Christian since the day of Pentecost

until the rapture.

All the Old Testament believers, Abraham, all the Old Testament believers, they are not raptured

at the beginning of the Tribulation.

It's argued that they are resurrected at the end of the seven years, so they're allowed to go into the thousand -year millennium.

So when they say that the Church is going to be raptured before the Tribulation, they're talking about only Christians from the day of

Pentecost to that point of the rapture.

They say the rapture of the Church is the first of two stages of the Second Coming.

And then following the rapture of the Church, they claim that there will be a Tribulation period of seven years on the earth.

And I believe that seven -year period is built on a wrong understanding of Daniel's 70 -week prophecy.

It will be a time of terrible wrath, God's wrath on the earth, they claim.

They believe that during this Tribulation period, an end -time political Antichrist, and I want to underscore that

adjective, political, will rule over the world.

And then at the end of the seven years, Jesus will return to the earth.

That will be the second stage of the Second Coming.

As my old friend Doug used to ask people, now are you talking about the first Second Coming or the second Second Coming?

And he'd show just how silly it was to think in terms like that.

No, there's one Second Coming that the Scriptures speak about.

We saw that in the first chapter.

He's going to deliver his people, he's going to judge their enemies.

It's one event, one day.

Well, they say after he returns to the earth, at the second stage of the Second Coming, he will then establish an earthly

thousand -year Jewish millennium.

However, in conflict with this dispensational belief in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus, it's

clear that the early Christians did not believe in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus.

Now, I say it's clear, it's clear from the Scriptures, it's not clear in people's minds, because

most Christians believe, the people in the early Church, believe that Jesus is coming back at any moment,

an imminent return.

That's what the Thessalonians thought, and Paul corrected them.

You're wrong in thinking that he's coming back at any moment.

Several things are going to take place before he returns, is what Paul told them.

But those who today hold to a pre -tribulation rapture of the Church commonly claim that the first

century Christians anticipated and looked to an imminent return of the Lord.

Let's answer the question, did the early Christians anticipate an imminent return of the Lord Jesus?

Peter didn't.

Clearly.

He did not believe in the imminent return of the Lord.

The Lord Jesus told Peter he would die before the Second Coming of Christ.

Peter had a long, fruitful ministry.

Well, you remember, Jesus said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself, walk wherever you wanted.

When you're old, you'll stretch out your hands.

He was crucified, according to tradition.

He didn't want to be crucified like Jesus, so they say that he requested to be crucified upside down, whether

that's true or not.

It's not Bible, but it's tradition.

And another will dress you and carry you where you don't want to go.

And then we have this parenthetic statement inspired of God through the pen of John.

This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.

Peter was not expecting the return of Christ before his death.

He wasn't expecting the imminent return of the Lord.

And then John the Apostle, he didn't know if he was going to be alive or dead before the coming of Christ.

Some, however, John said, rumored that he would be alive at the coming of Christ, and he corrected that.

That was a false conclusion.

We read in John 21, Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them.

That's how John referred to himself in his own gospel.

He never called himself by name, just the one whom Jesus loved.

The one who'd been reclining at table close to him and said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?

When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man, Judas?

Jesus said to him, if it's my will, or pardon me, of John, Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he

remain until I come, in other words continue to live until the second coming, what is that to you?

You follow me.

And then John explains in verse 23, so the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple

was not to die.

Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but if it's my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?

And so, John wasn't looking for an imminent return of the Lord.

He didn't know whether he was going to die or not before the coming of the Lord.

Did the early churches anticipate an imminent return of Jesus Christ?

No.

For they were taught before the coming of Jesus Christ a number of things would take place.

Jerusalem would first be destroyed.

That took place 40 years after the crucifixion of Christ, roughly.

He told them it would.

Not one stone would be standing on another.

There might have been some confusion.

They might have thought this was going to take place at his second coming, but they knew that this was going to occur.

This is recorded in the Olivet Discourse in three of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Secondly, Jesus declared to his disciples that before he returned the second time, the Gospel of the Kingdom would be

proclaimed to the world.

That's going to take some time.

He wasn't coming back before that took place.

Jesus said the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the

nations, all the Gentiles.

And then the end will come.

That's going to take some time and effort.

They weren't anticipating the Lord to come until that got done.

Thirdly, similarly, Jesus taught his disciples that they were to go forth and make

disciples of all nations before his second coming.

And so they had a worldwide commission, didn't they?

They weren't expecting Jesus to come before they did that.

Fourth, the Lord declared that Jerusalem would be occupied by Gentiles for a prolonged period of time

before he would return, and that the Jews would be scattered throughout the nations before his second coming.

The Lord said of the Jewish people who refused to believe on him, they will fall by the edge of the sword

and be led away captive into all nations.

That took place in Jerusalem in A .D. 70 after a three and a half year siege by

Titus of Rome.

And then it says all Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

That suggests a period of time, of some duration.

They weren't anticipating the imminent return of the Lord.

And then we have, fifthly, Paul taught that the man of sin would be revealed before the second coming.

We're going to see that as we read the text before us here shortly.

And he also has, in this passage of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, he taught that a great

apostasy from the faith would occur before the return of the Lord.

And so did the first century Christians expect an imminent return of the Lord Jesus?

Most certainly not.

Yes, they were to be ready regardless of when the Lord came.

They didn't know when he would come, but they weren't expecting that it was an imminent return.

It was a certainty of his return, but they didn't anticipate an immediate or soon.

And there's other hints, a number of suggestions in the New Testament that there was going to be a

prolonged period of time before the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Now let's begin to consider specifically what the Apostle declared here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

And first, we'll consider the false report of the day of Christ in verses 1 and

2.

He identified a subject.

Paul wrote, "...now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our being gathered to Him.".

Talking about the rapture, right?

"...concerning the coming of our Lord, the second coming, and our gathering to Him.".

That's what he talked about in 1 Thessalonians 4, when the Lord returns and catches up His people.

We ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken

word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come, or the

idea is that it's upon us.

Perhaps some were thinking He came, but He came spiritually, and they missed out on it.

But probably the idea is that some thought, hey, it's upon us.

Some, again, had even stopped working.

What's the point?

First, when Paul wrote of the coming of the Lord, he used a Greek word, and it's parousia.

And we pointed out that Greek word.

There are just a few Greek words that it would probably be good for us to know, even though we may not know

Greek.

And one of them is this word parousia, and it's translated as coming.

And we address the meaning and frequency of this Greek word when we were studying 1 Thessalonians 1 back

in January.

And in fact, the section of those sermon notes that dealt with this Greek word, I included at the end of these notes for

your convenient review, if you want to at another time.

And so the parousia, the coming, is a reference to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Second, when Paul wrote, and are being gathered together to him, he was not speaking of a separate event from the parousia.

It's one event, one appearance, one coming.

His subject was the second coming of Jesus Christ when we, Paul included himself, our, will be

gathered to him.

In both verses 2 and 3, he spoke of that day, singular day, not days, not two

days separated by seven years, but a single event, the day when the Lord returns.

And he gathers his people to be with him, and he brings judgment upon his enemies.

And we advocate a singular event, a single second coming of Christ

with the day of judgment, a general judgment in which King Jesus will separate

the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, and their destinies will be

confirmed to them.

Paul then said to them, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word,

or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

Don't you believe that?

He's basically saying, he didn't want them to think that the coming of the Lord was imminent.

They were troubled in thinking it was.

We read in verse 2, the apostle did not want them to be quickly shaken, and this terminology is commonly used,

of those being tossed by the waves of rough sea.

He didn't want them to be unsettled, unstable.

He didn't want them to be unnecessarily disturbed about this matter.

This word Leon Morris wrote, it's a verb which is often used of literal shaking, the motion produced by wind and

wave, especially violent motion.

Its use of a ship driven from its mooring shows us the kind of thing Paul has in mind.

He's thinking of people who lack a secure anchorage, and are readily tossed here and there.

And there are a lot of people that are unsettled in this.

Last week I was watching a PBS program, American Experience.

That's a great program.

You know, so many good programs.

I'm not endorsing all of them.

But I watched one, and for the first time I really saw, read, or heard and saw the detail that happened at Ruby

Ridge, with that family in Idaho.

It was a real tragic event all the way around.

But what put them up on the mountain in Idaho was wrong views of the Second Coming of Christ.

They were trouble.

They were tossed to and fro.

And there was a whole group of people that were withdrawing from society and whatnot because the Lord

was going to be here any moment.

It was tragic.

Paul didn't want them to be shaken.

He didn't want them to be alarmed or troubled.

They had been quite distressed about this.

And so again, as Leon Morris wrote, putting all this together then, Paul is urging them, in the first instance,

to that stability which will enable them to withstand sudden shock or discovery.

Men taken up with advent speculations may easily take an unbalanced interest in the latest idea,

and their conduct will be adversely affected thereby.

But those whose views on the Second Coming are more stable are not easily thrown off balance.

Boy, that's a truism.

And again, you can see it broadly throughout evangelicalism and the books that come out.

I remember in 1972, the first book I bought was, the second book I bought, was Hal Lindsey's Late

Great Planet Earth.

And it impacted all the young people in my little hometown, probably about a hundred young people.

They'd gather it in Bible studies and poured over it and took it as gospel truth.

And I remember the attitude and the thought was, what's the point in

working?

The Lord's coming any minute.

And that was what was suggested.

And those were the kind of attitudes and thoughts that were commonplace.

It didn't settle people, it unsettled them.

And it unsettled them in a way that they weren't concerned about salvation in their souls, necessarily.

It's everything that Paul spoke about here.

Well, Paul next identified three possible sources of misinformation that had needlessly troubled them.

Now, we want to read it in context, so here again are the first three verses of chapter 2.

Now, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to be

quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, and here it is, either by a spirit, one, or

a spoken word, two, or a letter seeming to be from us, three, to the effect that the day of the

Lord has come.

And so, first, apparently some in the church had believed that the second coming of Christ was imminent because a spirit

had conveyed this teaching to them.

Now, Paul instructed them not to give credence to such sources of information about the things of Jesus Christ,

the coming of Jesus Christ.

Now, clearly in the New Testament era, God had raised up prophets to communicate His word directly to

His people, to His churches.

The gift of prophecy.

God raised up prophets in the early church, just like apostles.

And the Lord grounded the church, founded the church in the first century on the foundation of the apostles and the

prophets.

But alongside these legitimate, God -inspired prophets in the churches, there were those who were false prophets,

and there were lots of them, who claimed to give forth the word of God, even while they

promoted error.

We see one of these described in Acts 16 that Paul dealt with.

Now, it happened as we went to prayer, a certain slave girl, possessed with a spirit of divination, she could tell the future,

met with us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune -telling.

This girl followed Paul, and us, cried out, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of

salvation.

Well, that sounds like an endorsement, doesn't it?

And this she did for many days.

But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name

of Jesus Christ to come out of her, and he came out that very hour.

And then her ability was no longer present, she couldn't make money for her masters, and so they stirred everybody up to come

against Paul.

Look what he did, he ruined our business by casting out this demon.

Well, the apostles warned Christians not to accept the word of just any spirit.

Paul tells them, Don't you accept the word from a spirit, that the day of the Lord is imminent, that

it's come, that it's here.

John wrote, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many

false prophets have gone out into the world, and they were false prophets, giving false

information to the churches about the coming of the Lord.

I would argue there are no legitimate prophets today that communicate divine truth directly to God's people.

We have the Holy Scriptures as our sole and all -sufficient source for the word of God.

The church at Thessalonica would have been better off had they had the complete New Testament like you and I have.

Yet, sadly, there are Christians in churches today who give credence to the voices of spirits, which

claim to give forth the word of God to them.

These people will tend to become quickly shaken in mind and alarm.

I was a brand -new Christian, 1973, I was still working as a

grocery clerk in Fort Bragg, California.

I had this dear Christian lady and her husband, they were an unmatched

pair.

He looked like a very refined English gentleman, tweed

coat, vest, hat, and she looked, I've always thought of her like a female

Merlin the Magician.

They owned a pet store next door and she would have the bird droppings and everything on her.

She had long, dark hair with gray streaks and she had this jerk about her.

But she heard I was a Christian and she would come in and encourage me and what not.

She asked me to stop by and I did, I stopped by.

Again, I was a brand -new Christian, uninformed, ignorant, couldn't believe it.

She told me who the Antichrist was.

She said, years ago, 25 years ago, the Lord gave me a vision and I saw his picture

and vividly, I didn't know who he was, but I saw him.

Then last year, I was watching TV and all of a sudden, he came on the TV, I

fell over backwards, that's him, that's him, that's the Antichrist, she told me.

You know, she had, the Holy Spirit told her and it was Henry Kissinger on the

television, the Antichrist.

You know, and there's people today all over the place that try and convey truth, spiritual

truth, through this kind of means and it's nonsense.

We have a Bible which is complete and sufficient in all of these matters

and we'd better not vary from it.

Secondly, Paul told these Christians not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed through a spoken word.

Spirit, secondly, spoken word.

And so just as there were deceptive and deceitful spirits in the first century, there were also many false teachers

who taught their false doctrines to the churches and Paul said, don't listen to them.

Peter wrote of this problem in 2 Peter 2, there were false prophets, talking about the

Old Testament times, among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly

bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord.

I think verse 2 is one of the scariest verses in the New Testament, and many will follow their destructive

ways.

He's talking about professing Christians here.

Many will follow the destructive ways of these false teachers.

And he talks about their exploiting them.

He says, don't listen to those people who stand up and tell you, teach you, claim from the

Scriptures such and such.

Don't just embrace what they say.

And then the third source of false information about the Second Coming that troubled the Christians in this church was a

letter seeming to be from us.

That would have been a problem.

The Church of Thessalonica gets a letter from Paul, only Paul didn't write it.

And Paul's enemies would attempt to discredit Paul or teach another doctrine to the Church,

but they would put it in a letter and claim that the Apostle Paul wrote it.

And Paul says, don't you accept that.

Paul, of course, wrote many letters to many different churches, but again there were those

who signed Paul's name upon their document that contained false doctrine.

And so there was a time in which people were deceived by this.

And so Paul addressed this.

He dealt with this.

And even though most of the time he probably dictated writing his letters to a scribe,

an amunensis is how they're called, at the end of his genuine

letters he would sign off in his own hand.

And they would recognize his handwriting and so they knew it was an authentic letter of Paul because

he signed off on it.

And there are several references to this.

At the end of Epistles, 1 Corinthians 16, the salutation with my own hand,

Paul's.

Colossians 4 .18, the salutation by my own hand, Paul, remember my chains.

And then at the end of this epistle, this is interesting, he warns them, don't

assume or don't believe a letter as if it comes from me.

And then at the end of this epistle he says, the salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a

sign in every epistle.

In other words, this is how you authenticate that it's from me.

You recognize my handwriting.

By the way, there's one other place in which Paul betrayed this practice.

We read in Galatians 6 .11, see with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand.

He was actually writing large letters.

Clearly it was distinct from what had been written.

The whole letter was probably drafted by maybe Silas or somebody as he dictated to him.

But he signed off at the end, see what large letters I have written.

I personally believe this betrays Paul's problem with his eyesight.

You remember when he was converted, he was blind for three days and his scales fell off his eyes.

He wrote to the Galatians earlier, he says, why have you turned against me?

When you were first converted, you would have plucked your own eyes out and given them to me.

It suggests that he had eye problems.

I think it was probably his thorn in the flesh.

And so here he's signing off on his document in Galatians, see what large letters I'm writing.

He's like a half -blind guy trying to sign off on the end of the epistle, trying to validate it

in order to distinguish it from epistles falsely attributed to

him.

But the point that Paul is making is that these Christians at this church should disregard any teaching that the day of the Lord

was imminent, whether it come to a spirit, a word, or a letter seeming from

us, that the day of the Lord has come.

Matthew Henry wrote of this.

The thing itself against which the Apostle cautions the Thessalonians is that they should not be deceived about the time of Christ's coming

and to be shaken in mind or be troubled.

Note, errors in the mind tend greatly to weaken our faith and cause us trouble,

and such as are weak in faith and have troubled minds are oftentimes apt to be deceived and fall a prey to

seducers.

First, the Apostle would not have them be deceived.

Let no man deceive you by any means.

There are many who lie in wait to deceive, and they have many ways of deceiving.

We have reason, therefore, to be cautious and stand upon our ground.

Some deceivers will pretend new revelations.

He's referring to the spirit.

Others misinterpret scripture.

That would be the word.

Some don't believe a word that comes.

And others will be guilty of gross forgeries, a reference to the false letters.

Diverse means or different means and artifices of deceitful men we'll use.

But we must be careful that no man deceive us by any means.

The particular matter in which the Apostle cautions them not to be deceived is about the near approach of Christ's coming, as

if it was to have been in the Apostle's days.

And harmless as this error might seem to many, yet because it was indeed an error, it would have proved of

bad consequences to many persons.

Paul is saying it is not an imminent.

Well, in verses 3 -12 he begins to state what has to come before the Second Coming

of Christ.

So Paul declared that two events must take place before Christ returns.

First there will be the rebellion, as it reads in the ESV.

For that day will not come.

What day?

The day of our gathering to be with Him.

The day when the Lord's vengeance comes upon our enemies.

That day will not occur.

Our gathering to Him will not occur unless the rebellion comes first.

And so the first of two events that must take place before the coming of the Lord is the Great Rebellion.

The major English translations do not all use the word rebellion in their translations.

And here are a few of the major ones.

And King James, and the New King James.

Rebellion in several.

And the New American Standard Version, NAS, which is a very good translation.

Let no one in any way deceive you for it will not come unless the

apostasy comes first and the man of

lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.

I included the Greek text there, not that any of us can read it.

But however, I did embolden the font of the Greek word.

And I put it in English transliteration in parentheses.

And so this apostasia, and you hear the word apostasy, that's

where we get the English word from that Greek word.

And so this Greek word apostasia is translated as rebellion, or falling away,

or apostasy in these various English translations.

And it describes a sinful departure from the truth.

I would argue it's not speaking of a falling away of the world.

Although some argue that in their comments on this passage.

But rather it's a departure from the faith of professing Christendom.

This is important.

And I'll just give you a little preview of what we're going to be talking about next week, following week.

The man of sin presented here in 2 Thessalonians 2 is not a political figure, is not a

world dictator like many think the Antichrist will be at a future tribulation.

He's talking about a religious figure here in 2 Thessalonians 2.

The man of sin, the Antichrist, is a religious figure, not a political figure.

Greg Beal, I highly regard him, professor down at Westminster Seminary, used to be at Gordon.

He wrote, the first reason they should not be misled is because Christ will not come back finally until there has come first

a falling away from the faith.

And Beal rightly underscores it's a falling away from the faith.

The others put in rebellion because they want to read a political kind of worldwide

rebellion against authority.

But Paul isn't dealing with that.

He's dealing with apostasy within the professing churches.

Though the word apostasia can refer to a political or religious crisis, in other words it can and it is

used in that way in some places.

The latter is the only use in the Greek Old Testament.

That's the Septuagint, Greek translation of the Old Testament.

And he lists two places and then one place out of the Apocrypha.

And he's not arguing that Maccabees is inspired of God, he's just stating that that is a Jewish

source that used this Greek word in that way, falling away religiously, not politically.

And New Testament, and then he cites a few uses there.

And then he says that is its meaning here.

In other words, it's apostasy from truth, from the Christian faith.

Such is apparent because of the immediate context of false teaching.

He says that's what Paul is talking about here.

Clear allusions to Daniel's prediction of an end -time opponent that will bring about a large

-scale compromise of faith among God's people.

The apostasy will not occur primarily in the non -Christian world but rather within the covenant

community.

And I would say amen to that.

But that's going to have implications to how we understand this.

And so the apostle declared that the Lord Jesus would not return at his second coming until after a large -scale

apostasy first takes place within Christendom.

But a second event must also occur before the Lord returns.

The man of lawlessness is revealed.

Now he never calls him the Antichrist, but everybody assumes it is, and probably is the Antichrist.

He's described here in the ESV as the man of lawlessness.

In the KJV, he's referred to as the man of sin.

We read once again, "...now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus and our being gathered to Him, we ask you, brethren, not

to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day

of the Lord is come.

Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless

the rebellion comes first, or the apostasy.".

And here's number 2, "...the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction or

perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so -called god or object of worship,

so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.".

See, he's a religious figure.

Very clear.

The various translations convey the description of this man in two different ways.

In our English Standard Version, he's called the man of lawlessness.

In the Older King James Version, the man of sin.

The Greek word translated as lawlessness and sin is the word

anomios.

This Greek word is a combination of the root word namos, which is a Greek word for

law, with the letter a in Greek,

or alpha in Greek, preceding the word law or namos, anomos.

And that a in the Greek language negates the word.

We do the same thing in English.

Immortal, in other words, not mortal.

Infinite, in other words, not finite.

Anomos, alright, not lawful or not law or anti

-law.

Lawlessness is a good word.

And so, although Christians commonly use the expression man of sin, actually the man of lawlessness would be the better translation.

And again, although Paul does not specifically say so, I think it's right to understand this to be the Antichrist

foretold in Scripture.

And so in this verse, Paul is declaring before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and our gathering to be with him,

two events must occur first.

Apostasy of the Church will take place, and second, the man of lawlessness will be revealed.

And so I would argue that these first few verses of 2 Thessalonians 2 is one of the

greatest challenges to those who hold to a two -stage Second Coming of Christ, a pre

-tribulation rapture.

And when you read, these are bright men, intelligent men, but when you read them trying to defend

their two -stage Second Coming in the light of verses 1 -3, it's almost comical

what they have to do to try to fit it within their scheme.

Because the plain reading of the passage clearly says, don't be shaken that the Lord is coming,

don't be upset about it, it's not going to take place immediately, it's not going to take place until first

the apostasy takes place and the man of lawlessness is revealed.

And so the Apostle was not teaching the imminent return of the Lord,

nor was he teaching the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would be in two separate events, stages separated

by seven years as our Dispensational Friends advocate, but rather he was

declaring that these events and this personage must be revealed.

Now there are many different interpretations as to who this man of sin is, and there are different interpretations as

to what the apostasy is all about, and we're going to have to begin to address these next

week, Lord willing.

And because there are many who believe the Antichrist is a single figure who will appear just before the Second Coming of

Christ, and there are those, and actually historically Protestants

right up until the end of the 19th century were unanimous in declaring this man of

lawlessness, and so this chapter is really the

focal point of hostility between Protestantism and Roman

Catholicism down through the centuries.

The Reformers declared the Apostle was the Antichrist, the man of sin, and they argued it from this passage, and you

can imagine the kind of conflict that resulted from that.

And so as we work through this, I do want us to be informed about historic interpretations and

understandings, and so we can stand back and try and assess these

matters and make a biblical and reasonable conclusion as to what the Lord has

revealed for us.

Amen?

Let's pray.

Thank you, Father, for your word.

We pray that you would help us, our Lord, to read it plainly as you have recorded it for us,

and we pray that you would help us, Lord, to have a teachable spirit in these matters, and help

us, our Lord, not to be deceived either by a spirit or a word by some, or

certainly, Lord, not from deceptive and deceitful sources that purport to be your word.

And so guide us and help us, we pray, and we pray that we would be better disciples of Jesus

Christ as a result, that we would see your work and your hand in history,

and we thank you, Father, for the certainty that Jesus Christ is returning, and we pray that you would help us,

Lord, each of us, to be ready regardless of when that event comes, for we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.