2 Thessalonians 2 Observing

Introduction

What has Paul been talking about?

Endurance and faithfulness in the midst of persecution

God’s justice in punishing the wicked

Paul’s continued prayers...”to fulfill the work of faith” (which brings glory to God)

1. Remembering

2 Thessalonians 2:1–5 CSB

1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him: We ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to be easily upset or troubled, either by a prophecy or by a message or by a letter supposedly from us, alleging that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s temple, proclaiming that he himself is God. 5 Don’t you remember that when I was still with you I used to tell you about this?

v. 1 “concerning the coming of the Lord” - what is the issue here?

“we ask” - better, we urge

“a spirit” - a prophetic revelation claimed to be from the Holy Spirit

“a word” - an oral report

“a letter” - a written report

Had Paul’s teaching changed? Was the day of the Lord already here? (this would have been most disappointing why? they were still being persecuted)

This has to be the bane of Facebook. Here’s how the “hacking” works:

Someone accesses your public profile, downloads pictures

Someone creates their own fake profile; contact your friends to connect

Contact you to ask for money; create a fake profile for you; ...

How does FB protect against this? After all, they *want* you to share everything that you can!

Religious false teaching:

Roman Catholic church - the Pope speaking ex cathedra (latin, “from the chair”):

A true pope (not an antipope or heretic claiming to be the pope), when speaking on a matter of faith or morals (not economics or science) when speaking to the universal Church (not a letter to a friend) is guided by the Holy Spirit.

Vatican 1 / first Vatican Council

Mormons

To join the church / become baptized: “Do you believe the Church and gospel of Jesus 2. Christ have been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith? Do you believe that [current Church President] is a prophet of God?”

These are just a very few examples, but v. 3 “Don’t let anyone deceive you”(!)

v. 3 “the apostacy” / falling away - the abomination of desolation which takes place mid-way through the tribulation

“man of lawlessness” - the prince who is to come (Dan 9:26), the little horn (Dan 7:8), the beast (Rev 13), the antichrist

v.5 “Don’t you remember…I used to tell you” - repeatedly. In Paul’s brief time at Thessalonica he found it important to discuss end times. How much more so in our day?

2. Timing

2 Thessalonians 2:6–8 CSB

6 And you know what currently restrains him, so that he will be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way, 8 and then the lawless one will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and will bring him to nothing at the appearance of his coming.

v. 6 “and you know what currently restrains him”

recall Fermat’s Last Theorem:

In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than 2. The cases n = 1 and n = 2 have been known since antiquity to have infinitely many solutions.[1]

The proposition was first stated as a theorem by Pierre de Fermat around 1637 in the margin of a copy of Arithmetica; Fermat added that he had a proof that was too large to fit in the margin. Although other statements claimed by Fermat without proof were subsequently proven by others and credited as theorems of Fermat (for instance, Fermat's theorem on sums of two squares), Fermat's Last Theorem resisted proof, leading to doubt that Fermat ever had a correct proof and its becoming known as a conjecture rather than a theorem. After 358 years of effort by mathematicians, the first successful proof was released in 1994 by Andrew Wiles, and formally published in 1995; it was described as a "stunning advance" in the citation for Wiles's Abel Prize award in 2016.[2]

So…what did they know!?

human government/preaching of the gospel/binding of Satan/providence of God/the Jewish state/the church/the Holy Spirit/Michael ???

Whatever power must be divinely supernatural.

Some have speculated that Satan always has a man in the wings (e.g., Hitler), just waiting for God’s appointed time

v. 7 “the mystery of lawlessness” - the spirit of lawlessness already prevalent in society, but still a “mystery” in that it is not fully revealed as it will be in the Antichrist.

Think of those who are rabid in their support of abortion. What have they been doing lately? Picketing, protesting, leaving hateful messages on answering machines, fire-bombing anti-abortion groups

What motivates that kind of behavior? It must be more than simply an intellectual disagreement about when life begins. We see this in other moral issues of the day as well.

v. 8 The final battle will be a short one!

3. Deceiving

2 Thessalonians 2:9–12 CSB

9 The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with every kind of miracle, both signs and wonders serving the lie, 10 and with every wicked deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe the lie, 12 so that all will be condemned—those who did not believe the truth but delighted in unrighteousness.

v. 9 “based on Satan’s working” - the antichrist is not the devil, he *will* get his energy and power from Satan.

“every kind of miracle” - imagine if Joseph Smith could produce real gold plates!

v. 9 “the lie” ? that the antichrist is God

v. 10 “they did not accept the love of the truth” People will still decide to personally go their own way instead of surrendering their lives to Christ.

v. 11 “God sends them a strong delusion” - just as He did with Pharaoh.

JM - “People who prefer to love sin and lies rather than gospel truth will receive severe, divine recompense, as do all sinners”

“As God has always judged willful rejection by giving men over to impurity and degrading passions, so in the last days God will sovereignly seal the fate of those who persist in following Satan and his counterfeit Christ. As in all ages, those who habitually reject the truth are judged by being left to the consequences of their sin.”