With the opening verses of the second chapter we reach the matter
which was the occasion of the writing of this epistle. Mischief-makers
had been at work, endeavouring to persuade the Thessalonians that they
had already passed into the day of the Lord, though they knew well that
the day of the Lord brought heavy judgments with it, and that it would
come as a thief in the night. (See 1 Thess. 5: 1-3). Those who were
attempting to lead them astray evidently reasoned that the persecutions
and trials into which they had been plunged were judgments, which
proved that the day of the Lord was upon them.
Now all this was simple deception, as verse 3 states, and the
methods to which these adversaries stooped, hoping thereby the more
effectually to deceive, were in keeping with their false teaching. They
pressed their ideas upon the Thessalonians, "by spirit" "by word" and
even "by letter as from us." Not only did they assert it by word of
mouth, but they gave out their teachings as having been received by
inspiration of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God did give inspired
utterances in the early Christian assemblies, as the Acts of the
Apostles bears witness, but there were also to be found false
utterances proceeding from a spirit or spirits, which were not the
Spirit of God, as indicated in 1 John 4: 1-6. These deceivers might
claim that they had received their teaching from a spirit. If so, it
was from a spirit who was not the Spirit of God. They went however, one
step further than this. They even sent a letter to the Thessalonians
which purported to be from the Apostle Paul. By a species of forgery,
they tried to make it appear that their erroneous ideas had his
sanction. Satan is not at all careful as to the means he uses to attain
his ends. Crooked teaching can be quite appropriately supported by
crooked behaviour.
Some however, may wish to ask what was the importance of the point
at issue? The persecution and trial were there. Did it after all matter
so much whether it signified the arrival of the day of the Lord, or
whether it did not? How often we find large issues of a practical sort
hinging upon points of doctrine that look small enough! It did matter
very much indeed. If the day of the Lord were really present then the
truth that Paul had been led to reveal to them, in the latter part of 1
Thess. 4 and the opening of 1 Thess. 5 was very evidently overturned.
That day had stolen a march upon them, and overtaken them as a thief.
Is it nothing to have the Word of God discredited?
Further, it would mean that here were believers left on earth to
suffer tribulation, which came as retribution from the hand of God.
Their heavenly hope would be dimmed, and they left to face the fearful
things about to come on the earth. Was this a small matter? No, indeed.
How did the Apostle meet this deceptive teaching? He met it in two
ways. First, by reminding them of the truth he had already established
in his first Epistle. Second, by giving further clear instruction as to
the day of the Lord, and the order of its events.
He besought them not to heed the error, by the coming of the Lord Jesus and by "our gathering together unto Him." To
what does he refer in these words? Clearly to that, as to which he
instructed them in 1 Thess. 4: 15 to 17. If we are to gather together
to Christ in the air, before the coming of the day of the Lord, how can
we find ourselves on earth suffering its throes? In the light of the
truth that had already reached them the Thessalonians ought never to
have listened to these deceivers. But then of course, they were only
recent converts-but babes in Christ-and consequently not yet much
skilled in discerning the drift of the teachings they heard. Many of us
may be like them, and if so it will help us to see that the truth is
one consistent whole, so that we must never be shaken by new teachings,
if they are at variance with the foundations laid by God in our hearts
at an earlier period.
With verse 3 his further instruction begins. Not only is the Church
to gather together to Christ in the air, before the day of the Lord
arrives, but there are also two great events to first of all
materialize upon the earth itself. They are both mentioned in verse 3.
There is to be a "falling away" or, "an apostasy" first. Also "the man
of sin" must be manifested. The former is a movement, the latter is a man.
All history teaches us how movements and men, are linked together,
and in that order. First comes a movement, created all too frequently
by the god of this world; then presently, a man appears who brings the
movement to a head and in whom it reaches its highest expression and
finality. Ancient imperialism reached its head in Nebuchadnezzar: the
French republican movement in Napoleon; whilst the modern Fascist
movement has been headed up in Mussolini. Thus history will repeat
itself on a much grander scale before the day of the Lord arrives.
Let us be clear as to what apostasy means. It is not just a course
of backsliding, a growing cold on the part of Christians, as a result
of which the world invades the church, dragging into its bosom a whole
train of attendant evils. It is rather a complete forsaking of the
truth of God, a total abandonment of the ancient foundations of the
faith. There have been all too often in the history of the church
distortions and perversions of truth, which might be compared to the
transplanting of shrubs and the lopping of trees which largely spoil
the effect of an otherwise beautiful and symmetrical garden. Apostasy
is not like that. It is rather like a landslide of such dimensions that
the whole garden is obliterated.
The idea is still quite widely held that the Lord will not return
until the world has been prepared for His advent by the preaching of
the Gospel and the conversion of most, if not all, its inhabitants.
There is no support for this idea in the passage we are considering,
but quite the contrary. The fact is, that what will precede His advent
in glory is a total abandonment of the faith by those who formerly
professed to hold it. This apostasy will pave the way for the
revelation of a great personage, who will be the direct representative
of Satan, called here "the man of sin," for in him sin will find its
highest expression. This man will be marked by the most arrogant
self-exaltation. He will oppose God by claiming himself to be God. A
claim such as this would be impossible amongst people calling
themselves Christian-it would merely excite ridicule-were the way not
prepared for it by the apostasy.
The apostasy then will be of such a nature that the minds of men
will be prepared to accept such gigantic claims on the part of a mere
man as quite possible and reasonable. The deification of man will be
the logical and reasonable outcome of the movement. This throws a flood
of light as to what the main drift of the apostasy will be. God will be
dethroned and man will be enthroned!
Let us survey great Christendom today in the light of these facts.
Without a doubt we see very ominous signs of the approach of the
apostasy. The coming events cast their shadows before. The whole drift
of "advanced" religious thinking and teaching is in the direction which
this scripture indicates. If God be admitted at all into the scheme of
their thinking, He is relegated to the far distance and evolution is
made to entirely fill the foreground. Evolution is only the flimsy
creation of their own minds, yet they have endowed it with wonderful
powers and mankind is supposed to be the very crown and fruition of all
its workings. Man therefore is to them of supreme importance and not
God. Moreover, they expect that evolutionary processes will not stop
with man as he is today, but continue until a super-man will be
produced. How simple and natural then it will be to acclaim the man of
sin when he appears as the super-man long expected!
The Apostle had warned the Thessalonians of these things when he had
been with them on that brief first visit, preaching the Gospel amongst
them. We may wonder that he found time to speak of such a matter to
them in so short a visit, and that he thought it appropriate to do so
within not many days of their being converted; but so it was. Paul knew
right well that "the mystery of iniquity" was already at work, as he
tells us in verse 7. The meaning of this is that "iniquity" or
"lawlessness" in its "mystery" or "secret" form was even then moving in
men's hearts. The lawless self-assertion which is to blaze forth in the
light of day at the end of the dispensation was there at the beginning,
though hidden in the dark. Hence the warning was necessary.
It is much more necessary then for us upon whom the end of the age is come. Let us take heed to it.
Have we all got clearly fixed in our minds thus far that the
apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin must precede the day of
the Lord? Human evil must reach its flood-tide height before the Lord
deals with it in judgment.
If we have this clear, we shall not have difficulty in seeing that
the coming of the Lord for His saints and our gathering together unto
Him in the air must precede full-blown apostasy. The true saints of God
never apostatize. As long as the true church of God is here a witness
is maintained on earth in the energy of the Holy Spirit, and the
apostasy in its fulness is hindered-its chariot wheels drive heavily,
for the brake presses hard against them.
When the brake is suddenly taken off by the rapture of the saints to
heaven, the chariot will bound forward to the final crash that awaits
it.
In verse 8 the man of sin is referred to as "that Wicked," or more literally, "the lawless [one]." The phrase in verse 7, "the mystery of iniquity," is more literally, "the mystery of lawlessness." Reading
it thus, it is more easy to catch the connection. Lawlessness is the
very essence of sin. It is the refusal of all controlling authority and
restraint, and therefore in deadly opposition to God. The lawlessness,
which has long been at work in Christendom in a mysterious or hidden
way like a suppressed fire, is going to blaze forth in the lawless one.
But this will only be when the saints of God are removed from the
scene of conflict by the coming of the Lord for them. At present the
forces of evil are under restraint-restraint is the meaning of the two
words withholdeth and letteth in verses 6 and 7. There is "He who restrains" and also "what restrains."
The former doubtless refers to the Holy Spirit of God, who is at this
time personally upon earth as He never was before and will not be
again. The latter, we believe, refers to the presence of the church on
earth; the church being the house of God wherein the Holy Ghost is
dwelling.
We have probably but little conception of how great is the restraint
placed upon the working of lawlessness by the presence of the saints of
God. They may be poor and feeble but the Spirit of God who indwells
them is almighty. Occasionally this restraint is manifested in quite
unmistakable style, as when, for instance, a spiritist seance has been
a failure because of the presence in the building of some definite and
earnest Christian. This we believe has happened more than once. Have
not many of us noticed how the flow of ungodly conversation in a room
or office is stopped by the sudden entrance of an out-and-out servant
of Christ?
When the Church is raptured to heaven, and therefore the Holy Spirit no longer has a house on
earth, the consequences will be very serious and very immediate. The
repressed lawlessness will burst forth in the lawless one and for a
brief moment the working of Satan will have full scope. This coming
lawless man will be inspired by Satan and exhibit his energy in every
particular. Notice how sweeping are the expressions used. Satan will
support him with ALL power, even to signs and wonders of falsehood, so
that EVERY possible deceit of unrighteousness will be brought to bear
upon men who have been left behind to perish.
This tremendous energy of Satan will continue but for a short time.
The lawless one being revealed on earth, he will be speedily dealt
with. The Lord Jesus being revealed from heaven, He will utterly
destroy him, casting him alive into the lake of fire, as Revelation 19:
20 shows. How appropriate it is that this utterly lawless and
disobedient man, the very personification of Satanic energy, shall be
dealt with personally by the Lord Jesus, the wholly subject and
obedient Man, the personification of the power and majesty of God. No
intermediary shall be allowed to intervene in that conflict!
We must also notice how just are all the dealings of God with men.
Those who will fall a prey to all this deceit of unrighteousness, are
just those who when they heard the truth did not love it. Loving not
the truth, they did not believe it, rather they had pleasure in
unrighteousness. And now the deceit of unrighteousness captures them;
they believe the lie, and they all fall under the judgment of God.
Formerly God sent them the truth, the Gospel was sounded into their
ears by men who preached it "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven"
(1 Peter 1: 12). Now God sends them a strong delusion. He does for them
what of old He had to do for rebellious Israel, when He "blinded their
eyes, and hardened their heart" (John 12: 40; and see Acts 28: 26, 27).
Is God unrighteous in acting thus? On the contrary; He is acting in
righteousness of the strictest and most exact kind.
These verses should act as a check upon those Christians who seem to
be so very desirous of possessing miraculous powers, particularly in
the directions of "healings" and "tongues." Let them note that though
there were such miraculous displays in the energy of the Holy Spirit at
the beginning of the dispensation, it is predicted that at its close
there shall be a great display of similar powers, but of a spurious and
Satanic kind. We are now near its end and it is significant how there
has been a revival of strange happenings which purport to be miraculous
and divine. We do not assert that all these happenings have been spurious and Satanic, but we do say that many have been and that if we do not test them all in very exact fashion by all the Scriptures we may easily be woefully deceived.
If we review for a moment the first twelve verses of our chapter we
shall see then that directly after the coming of the Lord for His
saints there will be,
1. A great movement in the realm of HUMAN thought, resulting in the falling away or apostasy, and culminating in the man of sin.
2. A great movement in SATANIC realms, resulting in an intense
concentration of the powers of darkness, and culminating in great
displays of lying wonders, so artfully staged as to utterly deceive
apostate men.
3. A great movement of GOD'S government and power, resulting in His
shutting such men up in their delusion and unbelief, and culminating in
His public intervention in judgment through the glorious appearing of
the Lord Jesus.
There will be first the catching away of the true saints of God. Then the falling away of corrupt and forsaken Christendom. Lastly the sweeping away of the whole nauseous thing in the judgment of God.
No hope is held out here for Gospel-rejectors. No second chance
after the coming of the Lord for His people is hinted at. The solemn
statement is, "that they ALL might be damned who believed not the truth
but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
How delightful is the contrast of verse 13 with verse 12. The
Thessalonian believers-and ourselves also-have been chosen of God to
salvation, a salvation which will be consummated when the Lord comes
for us, and we obtain His glory. To this we were called by the Gospel.
In believing that Gospel we believed the truth and so from the outset we have that which fortifies us against the lie which those who perish believe, deceived by Satan.
The "sanctification of the Spirit" does not refer to the progressive
work of the Spirit in the hearts of believers, conforming them more and
more to the will of God. It refers rather to that setting apart for God
which is achieved by the initial operations of the Spirit of God in the
souls of men, operations which have in view His indwelling us when once
the Gospel is believed. By this sovereign work of the Spirit we have
been sanctified.
In view of this the word to us is "stand fast." We are to hold the
apostolic "traditions" or "instructions." The Thessalonian believers
had these instructions in two ways-by word of mouth and by the written
epistle. We have them in one way only. Let us take therefore the more
earnest heed to the apostolic writings. We have indeed a good hope through grace, so we may well be comforted and established.