These 12 verses are heavily disputed but tonight, we are going to observe the passage in the most commonly agreed sense. We are going to let the text point us to mainstream interpretation. Our goal tonight is to see the pastoral and applicatory value of the text.
In Christian circles, we are often more interested in the juicy, contentious bits, and overlook the common aspects of truth that most Christians agree on. Why is this important for us to know? We are incredibly susceptible to false teachings if we don’t know the basic fundamentals.
(A) Disturbed by the Day: Cling to apostolic truth and spot counterfeits (2 Thess 2:1-3a)
Paul turns to two topics in this highly controversial chapter? He speaks of the “coming of Lord Jesus Christ” and “our being gathered together to Him”. These are not new ideas: they were dealt with extensively in 1 Thess when Paul spoke about the dead in Christ rising and those alive being caught up with them in the air, and here he is returning to the same topic.
From these verses, we see that Paul has one concern, two scenarios and three warnings for the Thessalonian church. His one concern is that they will be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed about the Day of Lord (2 Thess 2:2). There are two scenarios where this might happen—through the Spirit or spoken word, or by a letter seeming to be authoritative teaching from the apostles. And the three warnings or forms it might take would be through the spirit, spoken word or letter.
Paul was only with this church for 4 weeks but these concerns are the concerns that pastors and leaders have for their people — that what people believed in will cause them anxiety. Notice Paul’s logic: What you believe will affect how you feel. For many of us today, we don’t really see how what we believe matters and shapes how we feel. Paul is concerned because he knows that wrong beliefs will throw them off course.
Paul says that what a church believes, they will respond to. This is the opposite of the maxim ‘No one has monopoly over the truth’: if anyone makes the church believe different to what Paul taught, he will be genuinely concerned. Paul is deeply concerned about their theology. worried. Do you realise that someone in your life should be concerned about your theology? You should be concerned about your theology.
What people believe shape their worldview and their worldview shapes how they live their lives. Our worldview shapes our decisions, plans, regrets in our life. What has gone into shaping your belief system? Have you filtered the things that you’ve seen, heard and taken into your heart? At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus closes with the parable of the wise man who built his house on the rock (Matt 7:24-27). The wise man who built his house on the rocks is like the one who hears God’s word and does them. The point of the parable is that if we build our lives on the words of Christ, when the storms hit us, we will stand firm. Otherwise, we will be like the foolish man whose house will fall in the storm. We will all encounter storms in our lives, and this storm will reveal your worldview. Have you built your life on a particular brand of theology, or is it securely built on words of Christ? Is what you believed aligned with apostolic teaching?
Apostolic teaching must be our foundation. Otherwise, we don’t even know if it is from God. And where do we find apostolic teaching? The NT! Every book in the NT needs to be traced to an apostolic source. Whether in the first century, or in our present day, we are surrounded by false teachings. Will you be able to spot it? Have you been deceived? Which part of your theology is apostolic and which part did you pick up from random places? If we don’t set this bar really high, we will miss out on the confidence that Jesus provides. If we don’t build our lives on Jesus and His words, we are going to make up our own beliefs and our own ideas of Jesus.
(B) Deceived about the Day: Recognise the nature of lawlessness and the Liar in these times (2 Thess 2:3b-9)
Paul wants us to not be deceived by lawlessness and he addresses two marks in these verses. Paul speaks about the mystery of lawlessness (2 Thess 2:7a) and the man of lawlessness (2 Thess 2:3c). Paul makes it clear that we need to understand that this era is characterized by these two marks.
The Bible is meant to be read from left to right: to understand what is in the New Testament you need to know what came before. These passages are not meant to be stargazing guides for us to analyze the news to see who the antichrist is.
These passages pull out phrases from Dan 11:21-33 that were used to describe events in Daniel’s own time. Paul reaches into Dan 11 to pull out phrases and ideas to speak about thing and events in his time.
The specificity of these verses leave no doubt about who these verses are referring to (see quote 1). David Chapman, helps us see the fulfilment of these verses in history:
“First, Daniel’s prophetic imagery points to Antiochus IV of Seleucia, who styled himself Epiphanes (“god manifest”), invaded Jerusalem, despoiled the temple, commanded the burning of the Scriptures, forbade the covenant rite of circumcision, put to death many faithful Jews, and ultimately instituted pagan sacrifices in the Jerusalem temple (167 BC)… Second, before Paul writes 2 Thessalonians, events have already presaged Roman imperial opposition to Jewish worship of God. In particular, the emperor Gaius Caligula ordered soldiers to erect a cult image of himself in the Jerusalem temple, despite widespread Jewish opposition (AD 40–41; Josephus, Antiquities 18.261–309). In God’s providence, however, Gaius died while the image was still en route, so it was never installed.”
What Daniel predicted really came true in history.
Yet, Paul is taking these things in his time and tells the people to not be deceived. There is a mystery of lawlessness that is at work and again and again in history, we see how lawlessness continues to persist, and continues to repeat itself.
John Stott, in his commentary, also helps us to understand this:
“This process of reinterpretation and re-application within Scripture itself, from Daniel through Jesus to Paul and John, gives an important flexibility to our understanding… This prepares us for the conclusion that the biblical prediction of the Antichrist may during the course of church history have had (and still have) multiple fulfilments, and that we would be unwise to look for only one in such a way as to pronounce all the others false.”
John speaks on something similar to Paul in 1 John and in Revelation. In 1 John 2:18, we read of one antichrist, but before him there will be many antichrists. Now, we are often fixated upon who the Antichrist truly is and some are quick to point to specific historic figures that seem to fulfil this. But 2 Thess 2 is also helping us to see that we are not necessarily looking for one person per se. It is an era of lawlessness that keeps persisting until the Man of lawlessness is revealed. Are we not to also look at another coming, the coming of our Lord Jesus? He will not come until the coming of the Antichrist.
In Rev 13:1-18, we read about how the Beast will be marked by the authority given to him by the dragon, which refers to Satan, and he will be worshipped and utter blasphemies. The second beast it mentions is a fake Holy Spirit: in other words it’s a reversal of the trinity, even God’s sacrifice, because the Beast will suffer a fatal wound but live (Rev 13:12).
These are serious words and a serious matter. Paul wants us to understand the nature of lawlessness and the nature of the Liar of this age. We will live in a time when we will see a counterfeit version of the gospel and of God until the Man of Lawlessness comes.
If you are not committed to the truth, you will never know what lawlessness is. These are 2 diametrically opposed categories. If you are not convicted and committed to the light, you will not see the light but could easily believe a lie. Our eternal destinies hang in the balance now. Do we belong to the Beast or the Lamb? There will be a time when power will be given to the Beast, and all who bear the mark of the Lamb will suffer. But there will also be a time when those who have the mark of the Lamb will flourish. Are you pursuing godliness or lawlessness today?
(C) Deluded about the Day: heed warnings to believe and be changed by the Gospel (2 Thess 2: 10-12)
Besides restraining lawlessness in our time, God also will send a strong delusion (2 Thess 2:11) to those who “refused to love the truth” (2 Thess 2:10) and “had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess 2:12). These verses show us that lawlessness and rejection of the truth is not incidental. Our desires show what we love, and those who ultimately go away from Christ are those who choose not to love truth and delighted in unrighteousness.
God ultimately gives us what our hearts desire. As we love sin and all that is the opposite of God’s truth and holiness, He allows us to pursue what we wish (c.f Rom 1:21). It’s not just a rational choice between two options but gets at what we really want and desire. Thus, this also reminds us that sin is not just what we do, but it is about what we love. It is about what we love, celebrate and enjoy.
There are two ways to love, desire and become. One way is to love the Lamb, love Jesus and to want more and more of that. In this way, we devote our lives to the one what we live for and love, until the day that He comes and we be found pure, white and undefiled. Otherwise, we will be given over to what our heart truly wants, and be given over to secret sins.
These are the only 2 ways to live.
Do you hear the truth of God but continue to harden your heart? As you hear the gospel, the more you hear it in church and your heart hardens, it’s the “strong delusion” spoken of here. We are either prepared for the Lamb or for the Beast. The gospel either melts our hearts and grabs us and permeates our living or it’s not that and there is no middle ground. Many of us grew up in church and we’ve heard this over and over again. But one new thing is that we could be more fit for hell now as we grow in lawlessness in a world that is full of lawlessness. What are you being prepared for? Let us not be ignorant about what is to come! Let us heed the warnings of what is to come and not be given over to pleasure and delight and lawlessness.