Christians have not been the least among the gullible who have
fallen for all kinds of gimmicks. One could write a lengthy history
on the nonsense of the way Christians have been duped. A man in
Fort Worth, Texas is giving away flat gold plated two inch nails. All
you have to do is pound it in the wall of your home and leave it
there, and your prayers will be answered. For five dollars more he
will send you one of his “miracle billfolds” which he claims has been
a financial blessing to thousands. Sincere believers are constantly
being exploited, and deceivers actually make a fortune. Getting a
believers money by deception is bad enough, but when the deceiver
begins to peddle false doctrine, then it is very serious, for then he is
in danger of perverting God’s revelation.
The fact that Christians fall for so much makes it clear why all
the warnings are in the Bible to be cautious in following any other
authority than the Word of God. There is no other foundation
which is safe, for even the most godly and intelligent have
demonstrated their ability to be deceived. The Christian must
recognize this, or he will be a victim who ends up believing many
things that are only the conjectures of men. Conjectures about the
unknown may or may not be true, and there is way to prove or
disprove them, and so in the realm of speculation on is free to think
as he pleases as long as it is consistent with what is known. It is
wisest, however, to be silent where God is silent. If God has not
spoken, it borders on presumption for men to speculate. What God
has revealed is enough, and so let us be content with clear revelation
and listen to Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians, who were all to
ready to listen to men.
In verse 3 Paul warns them not to be deceived by the self-
appointed prophecy experts of his day. It is well to note that Jesus
gave His disciples the same warning in Matt. 24:23, “Then if any
man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show
great signs and wonders; in so much that, if it were possible, they
shall deceive the very elect.” Paul is only following the advice of
Christ, for Jesus made it clear that there would be a long period of
history before He came again. They were to go into all the world
and preach the Gospel. Meanwhile there will be false prophets who
will seek to deceive you and proclaim that His coming has already
taken place. Paul is now dealing with Christians who have been
shaken up by just such false prophets as Jesus said would come.
Paul says do not believe them. There are definite signs to guide the
believer so that he is not at the mercy of every prophetic fanatic that
appears on the stage of history. Paul says not to be deceived by any
who say the Day of the Lord has come or can come before these
signs are evident.
Unfortunately, Christians have not listened to Jesus and Paul,
but they have followed fanatics that have brought disgrace on the
church of Christ. Many Christians are eager to swallow anything
that tickles their ears or pleases their prejudices. They are almost
superstitious in their craving for information on what has not been
revealed. The wise test everything by the Word of God, and if it is
not in harmony with God’s Word they reject it. It is important then
that we listen to Paul and avoid being deceived. He is making it
clear that the Day of the Lord will not and cannot come until there is
a falling away and the man of sin is revealed.
Unless it can be shown that these two things have already been
fulfilled, and that the man of sin is already here, then I must reject
all ideas that indicate Christ could come at any moment. If He could
not come to the Thessalonians without these clear signs in that day,
it is inconceivable to me that these things could be fulfilled in the
modern world without us knowing it. The result is, I do not believe
Jesus will come again until I see these two things fulfilled. If an any
moment coming was rejected by Paul, and if he could urge these
Christians not to believe it, then it can hardly be a sign of superior
piety to believe it today. In fact, it is the Christian’s obligation to
recognize Paul’s point here, and not be deceived. Until these two
things he mentions are fulfilled, that day will just not come. They
could, of course, be fulfilled in a matter of weeks, and so every
believer is always potentially less than a year away from eternity.
This is sufficient to account for the constant admonition to be ready
for the second coming. We don’t know when it will come, but we do
know what must precede it as signs for the believers.
The first sign is a falling away. The Greek is apostasia from
which we get the word apostasy, which means abandonment or
desertion of what one has professed to have believe. It is used in
Greek to refer to revolts and rebellion in a religious sense. This has
happened many times in history. In the Roman persecutions many
professing Christians escape death and torture by apostasy. They
left the church and renounced Christ. One of the big problems of
the early church was deciding if a person who had apostatized
during persecution should be allowed back into membership when
the pressure was off. There have been many other periods where
apostasy was common. This means that the apostasy that Paul
refers to must be one so universal that it could not be missed. Keith
L. Brooks wrote, “The great period of wrath is not due until we
witness the universal revolts from the true faith on the part of those
professing to represent Jesus Christ in the world. The unbelief of
infidels is not apostasy.” Like Calvin and many others he looks for a
great world wide rebellion from within the church.
If this sign was all alone it would be inadequate. It would mean
that Christians in times of great revival could be sure that the Day of
the Lord was not near, but Christians in times of apostasy would
always be thinking that it was near. How could one ever be sure
which apostasy was the last? Paul solves this by giving another sign
that cannot be missed. The man of sin will be revealed. We will
know when the last rebellion against the church is taking place
because on the wave of that rebellion the man of sin will ride to
power. This is the idea the early Christians had about this matter.
In the Didache (teaching of the 12 Apostles) from the second century
we read this: “..as lawlessness increases they shall hate each other
and shall persecute and betray, and then shall appear the deceiver of
the world as a Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders...And
then shall appear the sign.. first, the sign spread out in heaven, then
the sign of the sound of the trumpet, and thirdly the resurrection of
the dead.”
They felt then that lawlessness would become so great that the
deceiver could rise to power, and then after that there would be
signs for the believer to indicate the coming of Christ. Justin
Martyr, back in that early period, in his dialogue with Trypho
wrote, “What brainless men! For they have failed to understand
what has been proved by all these passages, namely, that two
advents of Christ have been announced, the first in which he is
shown as suffering, without glory, without honor, subject to
crucifixion, and second, in which he shall come from the heavens in
glory, when the man of apostasy who utters arrogant things against
the Most High, will boldly attempt to perpetrate unlawless deeds
against us Christians.” The early believers understood this man of
sin to be one who would enter history at a time of great lawlessness,
and he would and he would seek to oppose the church, but would be
unsuccessful because Christ would come in power to destroy him.
This appears to be the clear and obvious point which Paul is
making, and it means that believers will know the man of sin, and
possibly face his pressure before the second coming. We do not
know any such person fitting this description, and so it seems clear
that the second coming is at least weeks or months away. However,
since it would not take long in an international crisis for all law and
order to vanish, and the man of sin to rise to power, we must all
recognize that we are always potentially near the end of history. We
can say on the basis of verse 4 that no man alive today is fulfilling
this, for he opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or
is worshiped. He will be a person that opposes all religions, and all
objects of worship. He is lawless, and so he wants no rules from any
religion to be binding. He wants to be absolute in his power.
It would seem likely that such a person of power would arise
from the secular world. The Roman Emperors came the closest to
fulfilling this picture, and they were certainly types of the anti-Christ,
for some of them actually proclaimed themselves to be God,
and they persecuted those who worshiped other gods. Many feel
that the Roman Emperor is what Paul had in mind, and it can be
argued with much support. The problem is that the Day of the Lord
did not come then, and so we must see them as types of what will
finally be. Some great leader will gain world power and proclaim
himself God. When this happens it will be no secret. He takes his
seat in the temple of God, and some feel this will be the temple to be
rebuilt in Jerusalem. If that be the case, it will take some time to
accomplish. When the man of sin that Paul describes does come
there will be no debate, for all will know. Meanwhile, we are not to
get shook up, but be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding the
work of the Lord, and not be in any anxiety concerning the second
coming.
