2 Thessalonians 2 - Time for the Lie
2 Thessalonians 2 - Time for the Lie
The second chapter of Paul's second letter to the church at Thessalonica belongs to the most difficult passages of the New Testament. This outline will therefore start with the usual 'explanation. This is followed by the objections against this explanation.
Then another explanation will be put forward, backed by arguments, intended to help everyone think about the meaning of what Paul is allowed to write to the church here.
Because this presentation has the disadvantage of threatening to become somewhat piecemeal, the outline finishes with a short summary of it all.
The usual explanation of 2 Thessalonians 2โค๐
You may find this explanation, for example, in the annotations of the (Dutch) Statenvertaling. There they have translated verse 2 as follows, "(That you may not be hastily moved...) as if the day of Christ was near". Similarly the King James Version has, "... as that the day of Christ is at hand". With this translation as a starting point, one tends to think of the situation in Thessalonica as follows: there were people there who had an unreal expectation of the future, thinking that Jesus would return in a very short time.
As a consequence, they neglected their daily work, because this would have become superfluous (see 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12). It is thought these people added weight to their fanaticism by circulating false letters of Paul so that it would seem as if Paul himself was stirring the congregation (2 Thessalonians 2:2).
Contending with these people Paul makes it clear to the congregation at Thessalonica: that the coming of Christ in judgment would not happen as soon as some would assert (summary of the Statenvertaling). Then in 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul would point to all sorts of things which had to happen first, so that the Saviour's return could not be expected in short order. The main thought of the chapter is therefore: to stress the length of time between Ascension and the Last Day.
The vulnerability of this explanationโโค๐
Although reformed expositors have followed this explanation in good faith, it made them vulnerable to the attacks of Bible-criticism, which is quick to point out that Paul in his first letter to Thessalonica was still counting on an imminent return. However, he was shocked by the fanaticism unleashed in Thessalonica and therefore, in his second letter, he backtracks, and changes his mind to the expectation of a long waiting period until Christ's return. There would then be a contradiction between the two letters of Paul on this point. The expectation of a speedy return is shown to be a mistake made by the apostles.
One can dispute this Bible-criticism, while still maintaining the usual explanation. However, it does leave one vulnerable, because nowhere else in Paul's letters do we come across a deliberate emphasis concerning the length and duration of the time between Ascension and the Last Day. The New Testament is filled much more with the preaching that the time is short, that the Day is at hand and that Jesus comes with haste. Although 2 Thessalonians 2, according to the usual explanation, does not have to come into conflict with this, it still seems as if the accent in this chapter is different, if Paul is indeed disputing the expectation of a speedy return amongst his opponents.
The disputability of the usual explanationโโค๐
The most important objections against the above explanation are these:
- Verse 2 should be translated as follows, "(So that you are not brought into turmoil... ) as if the day of the Lord had already come". The intent is that at a given time the congregation could arrive at the wrong conclusion: now the Day has come. It is therefore not about the speedy expectation of that Day. But about the Banger that they would presume something to be the day of the Lord when it wasn't. That people would become confused and allow themselves to be misled and believe that the great day had come, whereas this was not the case.
(The New King James Version has "... as though the day of Christ had come." This indicates that the KJV was incorrect.) - Though chapter 3 mentions people who do not want to work, nowhere does the apostle point to a link between these people, and what was dealt with in chapter 2. It is not correct to take such a close connection between chapters 2 and 3 without the letter itself giving rise to this. Moreover, the people who were admonished in chapter 3 cannot be new zealots, because also in the first letter to the Thessalonians there is already a warning against people who do not wish to work (1 Thessalonians 4:10-12). What kind of people they are is discussed in the outline on 2 Thessalonians 3, but in any case, they cannot be fanatics who have suddenly become active after Paul wrote his first letter, as some people think,
- It is not plausible that there were already falsifications of Paul's letters in circulation during his second missionary journey. Paul signed his letters with a greeting written in his own hand (2 Thessalonians 3:17-18), and they were delivered by well-known brothers. How could a falsified letter be smuggled into the congregation in those days when letters could not be sent by post?1 Moreover, we would expect a straightforward, clear warning from Paul if falsifications were circulating, and not some veiled hint about something like that.
The main theme of 2 Thessalonians 2โโค๐
If we do not follow the usual explanation, it is necessary to first establish what is the main theme of this chapter, before we start dealing with details. Therefore we shall first deal with verses 1-3a.
Paul writes here as follows (literally translated), "We ask you brothers, with an eye to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering to Him (so that you will not be speedily upset and become stirred up by a word of the Spirit or an explanation or a letter as if they could appeal to us for the message, "the day of the Lord has come") we ask you that no-one may mislead you in any manner whatsoever, for first the apostasy must come..."
Paul spoke in chapter 1 about the redemptive appearance of the Judge Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9), and about the tact that on the day of His return we, together with all the saints, will be gathered to Him (2 Thessalonians 1:10). He says more about that in chapter 2.
In connection with Christ's return, he has a question: Do not allow the church in Thessalonica to be convinced too soon that the day of the Lord has come. In fact, the appearance of Jesus will be preceded by the appearance of the lawless one (2 Thessalonians 2: 8).
At the appearance of that impressive figure, there will be many who will say to the church: now the great day, which you expect, has dawned. They will appeal to the letters of Paul. Thus they will give the impression that they are completely in line with the Scriptures, in line with the apostles, when they announce the spectacular coming of this miracle-working person as the fulfilment of the last promises of Holy Scripture. Beware of the false prophets who will celebrate on the day of the great apostasy.
The intention of the apostle is not to deny that Jesus will come soon. That is not in question here. Paul aims to point out in chapter 2 that even through an appeal to Scripture, one should not become confused if this appeal is used to recommend the lawless one as the fulfilment of all Christian hopes, no matter how mighty and convincing he might appear to be. (Compare 2 Peter 3:16).
The apostle, therefore, does not correct his first letter. He only reminds them emphatically about that which he had already said in his preaching in Thessalonica concerning the heresy and apostasy which will precede Jesus' return (2 Thessalonians 2:5). From verses 11-13 of this chapter it also becomes clear that the subject of this chapter is not the length of time between Ascension and the
Last Day, but the character of that period. It is the era of the power of heresy. God sends lying prophets (cf. 1 Kings 22:19-23) whose mouths will be full of words from the letters of Paul and others.
God sends them to execute His immediate judgment on those people who delight in sin. They will eagerly adopt the preaching of the false prophets and therefore be lost. The judgment is already being executed (compare the outline on 2 Thessalonians 1).
To understand the main theme of 2 Thessalonians 2 compare it with what Christ says in Luke 21: 8ff.
The timeliness of 2 Thessalonians 2โโค๐
When you read this chapter you may gain the impression that Paul is talking about events which will take place in some distant future. You could think: for those people in Thessalonica it must have seemed rather vague and indistinct, but to us in the twenty-first century we can see more clearly how a person can be idolised with the support of those who believe in the Bible. You need only think of the Fuhrer (Hitler), who had the support of many 'Christians' in Germany. But no matter how up-to-date this chapter seems to us in these days of massive power blocs and world leaders, it was no less timely to the readers of that era.
We will take particular note of verses 3b-4. How does Paul describe apostasy there? There will come a person who will not be controlled by the law of God. A lawless person, as are so many people in our country now, even though they have some self-made rules which they still keep. This adversary shall elevate himself mightily. Against anything called God or any other object of worship. He will not be humble, dependent, serving, but self-assured, triumphant, so that religion will be forgotten as being superfluous.
This person will seat himself in God's temple. He will not stand there as a servant, but sit there as Lord, as self-sufficient human, God's equal. God's temple - at the time Paul writes this, God's temple is still standing in Jerusalem. And twelve years before that the temple had become world news. It had been at the centre of a very critical situation in the Middle East.
In the year 37 Caligula had become emporer. His predecessors had been self-controlled, level-headed regents, but this emporer Caligula was like an ugly stain in the history of the Roman caesars. He managed to empty the well-filled treasury in a very short space of time by his many extravagant public games. Licentiousness, already rampant by that time, now seemed to have free reign. In the year 39, this ruler ordered his statue to be placed in the Lord's temple in Jerusalem. In other words, he wanted to seat himself in God's temple, as a God. The Jews from all over the world protested vehemently. The Roman governor in Syria hesitated to carry out this order because he knew that this would inevitably lead to a fierce, passionate war in Palestine and elsewhere. Even Agrippa, always submissive to the Romans, dared to intercede with the emporer. Eventually, the plan was not carried out, because God put a stop to this self-glorifying and lawless emperor by his death in the year 41.
Would not Paul's peculiar formulation of verse 4 have made the people automatically think of this event? But then they could also see how timely these matters were, of which Paul wrote.
The volcano is already smoking! The mystery of lawlessness is already at work (verse 7). It displays itself on the streets of the Roman Empire (see Romans 1:18 ff., Ephesians 4:12). It had already received a leader in Caligula, and it can suddenly receive and happily welcome another like him. Caligula had appeared suddenly; a fuse on the powder keg.
After Caligula, the Lord introduced the reign of caesar Claudius.
This man was responsible for curtailing the licentiousness somewhat. He held back the development started by Caligula. However, his successor Nero was again a lawless man. Yet God set restrictions and boundaries for him, too. He in turn was followed by emperors who had more self-control. If we were to follow history, we would see that in all those centuries since Paul the mystery of lawlessness has been at work. The volcano is smoking.
Sometimes the volcano spews forth lava: Caligula, Nero, etc. Yet there is still restraint: America restraining Hitler's advance. The division of the world into `power blocs' restrains the triumph of either a communist leader or a humanistic president.
However, the revelation of the lawless one "in his own time" is not a revelation of which he himself determine the timing, but it is God's time. That can happen very quickly. One day is enough for God to make more changes to the world than the changes it has undergone in a thousand years.
Verses 9 and 10 provide a broader description of the allurenent of the lawless leader, who charms his people and who performs technological miracles. Under his leadership, it will become a period of prosperity. The world will witness miracles. And the false prophets will say: this is the day of the Lord, for He loves mankind.
We implore you: be warned!
Is the man of perdition the antichrist?โโค๐
This is not the place to go into details about the antichrist about whom you can read quite a bit in 1 John. You will have noticed that in this outline the word "antichrist" has not been used as yet. On purpose. We have to be careful not to lump together everything that the Lord reveals to us concerning this time, neglecting the distinctions and nuances. The lawless one is clearly a humanistic figure, the culmination of human pride, which commenced in Adam. Before the second Adam will appear to save us, we will witness how the ultimate consequences of the first Adam's choice affect this world.
Yet what Scripture tells us about false Christs and antichrists, gives us the impression that these are exactly people who are not worldly, but who pose as church people. They are the spirits of apostasy, the false prophets. They hollow out Christianity from within. That is why I am of the opinion that we cannot just equate the man of lawlessness with the antichrist.
However, that does not mean that there is no connection. Both the man of lawlessness and the antichrist actively oppose God and His Anointed One, albeit by different means. In that, they also find each other. Humanism, as the ultimate religion, and humanistic religion, support each other in fact.
Thus we see in 2 Thessalonians 2 that the lawless leader receives support from people who appeal to the letters of Paul (2 Thessalonians 2:2, 11). They praise the day of Man as the day of the Lord (think, for instance, of modern-day Christianity which praises love for one's neighbour as the highest form of Christianity). If you want to read the name 'antichrist' in 2 Thessalonians, you must do so in verses 2 and 11, and not in verses 4, 8 and 9.
The Holy Spirit made the apostle Paul discern between what the apostle John also discerned in Revelation 13: the beast from the sea as the Man of lawlessness, and the beast from the earth as the false prophet, the one who misleads, the antichrist. (Also discuss Revelation 13 further in connection with 2 Thessalonians 2).
Summaryโโค๐
Paul again writes to the believers in Thessalonica within a short period of time. He remembers their calling and their faith, but he also remembers their persecution. He knows how full their big city is of arrogance and greed, envy and murder, adultery and homosexual sins, pride and egoism. He comforts this church with the coming of Christ, Who will save the suffering persecuted believers in this city, and unite them with all the saints.
But Paul also knows that a church with hope for the future, but lacking wisdom in its heart, is still a defenceless church. That is why he has previously spoken with them about the power of heresy and counterfeit salvation going around in the world, causing the downfall of the hypocrites.
When he was writing his letter about the hope of the Second Coming, Paul was also concerned that, before that time came, the believers would be misled, impressed by what the miracle Man could do, and give ear to theologians and Bible interpreters who turn the Church away from its earnest and holy life. With this concern Paul reminds them once again of his teaching about the man of sin and the false prophets. And he desires only one thing for the church of the Saviour Who bought His congregation: that it increase in strength in all good work and word. For life was worth living during the time of the Roman Empire, and the world has much to offer today. But where are good works and words? That is what He seeks to find in us. Both in Thessalonica, and wherever we are in the world. May God Who loved us, strengthen us therein (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Then the Church will not rejoice too soon, but on time, and forever, as the Mighty Man of righteousness appears: Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
Notes:โโค๐
- Verse 6 speaks about "restraining", and verse 7, "He who now restrains". Much has been discussed about the identity of the one who restrains. But it is important also to note that verse 6 is about what restrains Jesus Christ (first the apostasy must come), and verse 7 is about who restrains the man of sin (caesar Claudius etc.). Verses 6 and 7 do not speak about the same matter nor about the same person.
- The church of Rome appeals to verse 15 in defence of its position that we should not only honour what Paul has written, but also the oral traditions of his sayings. That would support its contention that bath Scripture and papa) tradition form the basis of faith. But whatever Paul taught orally was also recorded by the Holy Spirit after 2 Thessalonians was written. Namely in the Gospels and the bonk of Acts. Think of Luke, Paul's fellow traveller, who knew the teachings of Paul about Jesus' life and doctrine, as well as his discourses on the mission fields and used this knowledge when writing his two books. Thus we also have the oral traditions recorded in Scripture!
Add new comment