One of the biggest threats to confidence in our lives is rumors. Just ask office workers when a rumor starts that the company is going to have to lay people off. Before most of the workers were confident and secure in their jobs, but that rumor produces uncertainty, insecurity, and anxiety. That kind of rumor can destroy morale and productivity in the workplace.
Or ask a married couple about the impact of rumors when the wife hears a rumor about her husband spending a lot of time with a female co-worker. Whereas their marriage might’ve seemed strong before, that kind of rumor can cause distrust. Soon the wife is looking at her husband with skepticism and fear.
Or ask church members in a congregation there’s a rumor of the pastor not getting along with the elder board. Soon the sense of security and spiritual confidence in the congregation is replaced with gossip. The unity of the congregation starts fragmenting, with people aligning with various factions.
It’s been says, "Some people will believe anything if its whispered to them." But rumors on a larger scale can cause even greater insecurity. Think about the panic that came from H. G. Wells’ radio broadcast "War of the Worlds" on Halloween in 1938. Some people were persuaded that we really were being invaded by Mars. Hysteria has a way of overcoming reason, and lots of people panicked.
The Christian community over the years has been very susceptible to rumors about the end of age. Every generation of Christians from the first century through the 20th century have had to confront rumors about the end of the age. Many church historians have chronicled this phenomenon. This century, rumors about the end of the age have intensified. The rumors on a larger scale can shake people’s spiritual confidence.
We’ve been in a series through the New Testament books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians called LIVING CONFIDENTLY IN UNCERTAIN TIMES. In this series we’ve been learning about God’s strategies to face uncertainty with spiritual confidence. Today we’re going to talk about rumors about the end of the age. How can we respond to rumors about the end of the age with spiritual confidence? Today we’re going to look at four specific ways we can respond to rumors about the end of the age with spiritual confidence. So today we’re going to look at four ways to face rumors about the end of the age with spiritual confidence.
1. Keeping Our Head (2 Thess 2:1-2)
Paul starts his discussion in vv. 1-2 by directly confronting the rumor that was circulating among the Thessalonian Christians. Paul describes the end of history several ways here. He calls the end of the age the "coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The Greek word for "coming" here is the word parousia, and it describes the personal arrival of Jesus at the end of history. The Latin equivalent to this word parousia is "advent," so Christians sometimes speak of the second advent of Jesus. This is the word Jesus himself used when he said, "As lightening flashes from the east to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matt 24:27).
Paul also talks about "our being gathered together with him" which is probably the rapture of the church (Frame 244). This word describes an "assembling" together of a group, and it’s the same word used in Hebrews 10:25 of Christians assembling together for worship. Personally, I suspect that this rapture or assembly is what Jesus was referring to when he said that after the great tribulation he would send his angels to "gather together" his elect (Mark 13:27). Now the way these two phrases are written suggests that they’re describing the same event in two different ways (Morris 213).
But Paul also calls the end of history "the day of the Lord" in v. 2. We looked at length at this phrase when we looked at 1 Thess 5, but just to review, the "day of the Lord" in the Bible describes the end of the age from the perspective of God’s judgment on sin. So "the day of the Lord" is that time when God answers evil, judges evil, and ushers in God’s kingdom.
Now we learn here that there was a rumor circulating among the Thessalonians that "the day of the Lord" had already arrived. According to this rumor, this second advent of the Lord Jesus, this gathering together of his people, this judgment of God on rebellion and evil had already occurred. Yet here the Thessalonians found themselves still suffering from government oppression for their faith in Jesus, still rejected by family and friends, still a persecuted minority in a largely pagan culture. The origin of this rumor was a prophecy, a report or a letter from Paul. Prophecy refers to someone standing up in their worship service claiming to have a special message from God. The word report is probably a sermon or teaching. The "letter" here is probably a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of Paul’s first letter, 1 Thessalonians (Frame 246).
Paul doesn’t want them to become unsettled or alarmed by this rumor because it simply isn’t true. The word for "unsettled" here is very important. It literally reads "shaken from your mind." The idea is something moving back and forth, like a building shaking from an earthquake or a boat shaking back and forth in a storm (Hiebert 326-37). The thing that keeps us anchored from such shaking is our mind, and the Thessalonians had lost this connection to their mind. One commentator says that they needed "their mental equilibrium restored" (Hiebert 326); another says that they "lost their mental composure" (Holmes 229). They’re also described as "alarmed," which describes a state of alarm, jumpiness, or worry (Frame 246; Morris 215). So this rumor--whether it came by way of a prophecy, a sermon, or a misinterpretation of 1 Thessalonians--had led them to lose their head.
Here we find the first way to respond to rumors. We respond to rumors about the end of the age with spiritual confidence BY KEEPING OUR HEAD.
Our capacity to think and reason is a gift from God, and when we lose our head in the face of rumors about the end of the age, we’re no longer anchored to God’s gift of clear thinking. People today lose their heads in the face of rumors the same ways the Thessalonians did. Every now and then a "prophecy" surfaces that claims to predict the second coming of Jesus.
I fell victim to one of these prophecies back in 1984, when a prophecy circulated among Christians that God was going to judge California with a terrible earthquake during the summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Someone in this church shared that prophecy with me, and it circulated among lots of southern Californian Christians. I started to lose my head. There was even a Christian survivalist store in the area back then, where you could stock up on canned food, water and so forth. Well the Olympics came and went with no earthquake, and I learned my lesson, but people still lose their heads when so called "prophecies" come.
Other people lose their heads when prominent teachers and preachers speculate about the end of the age. And still others misinterpret or misapply verses from the Bible to suggest rumors about when the end will come. Here we’re told not to lose our head.
You see, God commands us to love him with our minds as well as our hearts, and part of loving God with our mind is keeping our head when rumors come our way. It’s not a sign of doubt or unbelief to be skeptical of prophecies, sermons and new interpretations from the Bible about the end of the age. So as rumors circulate about y2k, don’t lose your head, don’t become shaken away from your mind or alarmed.
2. Observe the Signs of the Times (2 Thess 2:3-5)
Then Paul moves from "don’t lose your head," to "don’t be deceived" in vv. 3-5. The final "day of the Lord"--which includes the coming of the Lord and our being gathered together with Jesus--can’t come until certain conditions are met. Paul lists two conditions here: The rebellion and the revelation of the man of lawlessness.
"The rebellion" is some sort of massive organized revolt against God that goes beyond anything we’ve ever experienced. The word here means "to rise up in open defiance of authority, with the…intention to overthrow it" (Louw and Nida 39.34). Paul doesn’t say anything else about this rebellion because he assumes that his readers know exactly what he’s talking about.
But he also mentions the revelation of this "man of lawlessness." Lawlessness of course is a complete disregard for the laws of God, so this guy is characterized by total rejection of God’s laws, and probably even society’s laws. Whoever this guy is, Paul says he’s doomed to destruction, that he tries to exalt himself over every god and object of worship, and that he actually sits in God’s temple proclaiming himself to be God. So this guy promotes himself to deity.
Now who is this man of lawlessness? All the way back in the Old Testament book of Daniel we have an indications of a coming human political ruler who completely disregards God’s laws.
Daniel 11:36-- "The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods..." (NIV).
Most of the Jewish people thought this verse was fulfilled in 169 BC when the Syrian general Antiochus Epiphanies marched into the Jewish temple, entered the holy of holies, and sacrificed a pig on the altar. But over 100 years after Antiochus, Jesus indicated that there was a coming "abomination of desecration" that would completely fulfill Daniel 11. This same "man of lawlessness" is also described in the New Testament as "the anti-Christ" (1 John 2:18). Some early Christians thought that it referred to the Roman Emperor Gaius Caligula who ordered that his image be put up in the Jewish temple. Still others thought it was the Roman Emperor Nero. Still others have suggested the later Emperor Diocletian, who in 81 AD demanded that all people acknowledge him as Lord.
All of these people are "anti-Christ" type people, but none seems to fully fit the bill. This "man of lawlessness" or "anti-Christ" is also called "the beast" in the 13th chapter of book of Revelation.
Throughout the twenty centuries since the New Testament was written, Christians have looked for this "man of lawlessness" in their own generation. Adolf Hitler was a popular candidate in our own century.
The important thing to realize is that v. 3 says that this person will be revealed. This means that it’s impossible to know his identity before he’s revealed, no matter how clever or ingenious our attempts to identify him might be. He could be alive today, but he also might not come for another 1,000 years. Until this guy actually exalts himself over everything called God and over every religious place of worship, until he sits in God’s temple proclaiming himself to be God, his identity is a mystery. So despite the fact that "pin the tail on the anti-Christ" is a favorite national past time, we can’t know until he’s revealed.
Now what do we learn in this section? We respond to rumors about the end of the age with spiritual confidence by OBERVING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
Observing the signs of the times is different than starting rumors, speculating about the anti-Christ or date setting. Observing the signs of the times means we acknowledge that there might be multiple fulfillments, that we might be confronted with many anti-Christ type figures during our lifetime, and that these figures are signs of the times. We need to be aware--not speculative or losing our heads--but aware of the times in which we live.
3. Reminding Ourselves that God is in Control (2 Thess 2:6-8)
Let’s move on to vv. 6-8. Paul assures us that the "man of lawlessness" won’t be revealed until the proper time. You might think of lawlessness as being like a flood, and whatever’s holding lawlessness back is like a dam holding back the floodwaters of lawlessness. Some water escapes over the top of the dam but the dam holds most of the water back. In a similar way, there’s a power of lawlessness currently operating--it was operating when Paul wrote these words almost 2,000 years ago and it’s operating today--but something’s holding back a flood of lawlessness.
So even though we live in a time when many people disregard God’s laws and live lawless lives, something’s restraining lawlessness in our world. But at some point in the future this restraining power will be taken away, and when the dam bursts, then the lawless one--the antichrist, the beast of Revelation 13--will be revealed.
That of course brings up the question of what or who is this restrainer Paul is speaking about here. The most common interpretation among pre-tribulationists is THE HOLY SPIRIT. According to this view, when the church is raptured prior to the 7 years of tribulation, the absence of the Holy Spirit’s presence on the earth will lead to a flood of lawlessness, which in turn sets the stage for the Anti-Christ. My problem with this is that I believe in the trinity, and as a believer in the trinity, I believe the Holy Spirit is God. Thus, even if the church is raptured before Jesus comes again, the Holy Spirit doesn’t go with the church. God’s Spirit is present everywhere because He’s God. I agree with New Testament scholar Leon Morris, "While it would be easy to think of the Spirit as restraining the forces of evil, it is impossible to envision him as being ’taken out of the way’" (229).
Another possibility is that the restrainer is THE CHURCH. Since the Christian church is called to be salt and light to a dying world, once the church is taken out of the way--presumably by the rapture--this sets the stage for the lawless one to be revealed. The problem with this view is the word for church in Greek is a feminine noun, so if Paul were referring to the church in v. 7 we’d expect Paul to say "The one who now holds it back will continue to do so until SHE is taken out of the way."
The oldest interpretation of the restrainer is that it is the ROMAN GOVERNMENT. This view is that the Roman empire’s law and order held back lawlessness, which prevented the flood of lawlessness from setting the stage for the man of lawlessness. Of course, our problem with that is that the Roman empire did end up eventually falling, yet the man of lawlessness still hasn’t been revealed yet.
Another view is that the restrainer is THE NATION OF ISRAEL. The Princeton theologian Benjamin Warfield believed that Israel as a nation is what held back the tide of lawlessness.
Still another view is that AN ANGEL holds back lawlessness. The New Testament scholar Howard Marshall holds to this view, that the restrainer is some sort of angelic force, like Michael the archangel, and that at some point in the future, he’ll release his restraining hold on lawlessness.
Some people have suggested that SATAN is the one who holds back lawlessness. According to this view Satan is patiently waiting until the time is ripe for the lawless one, and when the time is ripe, Satan will release the full flood of lawlessness.
Others think that Paul saw HIMSELF as the restrainer, and that he’s cryptically referring to himself here. According to this view Paul’s ministry to the non-Jewish people was restraining the flood of lawlessness. Obviously Paul died in the first century, so this view can’t be correct.
Still others think that the PREACHING OF THE GOOD NEWS about Jesus is the restrainer. As the good news of Jesus is proclaimed, this has a restraining influence on lawlessness, according to this view.
Finally, some people think that God working through human GOVERNMENT is the restrainer. According to this view, God established human government to promote good and restrain lawlessness. Government then is God’s means of restraining the flood of lawlessness, but at some point all governments will break down, and a flood of lawlessness will be released, setting the stage for the anti-Christ. This was the view of German Christian Detriech Bonhoeffer held to, as well as Bible teacher John Stott (Morris 227; Stott 170). This is the view I tend to lean towards as well.
But I list all these various views simply to remind us that we don’t know who or what the restrainer is. Every suggestion is speculative, so we can’t be sure whether it’s the church, or the Holy Spirit, or Israel, or human government, or something else. I think government makes sense, but that’s just my opinion, and I could certainly be wrong.
But we don’t have to know who or what the restrainer is to know that when Jesus comes again, that he’ll vanquish the man of lawlessness effortlessly. The phrase "by the breath of his mouth" reminds me of those old cartoons, where bugs bunny just breaths on Elmer Fudd, and Elmer falls to the ground. All Jesus has to do is appear and breath, and the man of lawlessness is vanquished, liquefied, terminated.
Here we find a third way to face rumors. We respond to rumors about the end of the age with spiritual confidence by REMINDING OURSELVES GOD IS IN CONTROL.
Whoever or whatever the restrainer is, we can be sure that God has placed that restrainer there so lawlessness doesn’t flood our world until the time is right. God is in control, he’s not wringing his hands like a chess player trying to figure out his next move. God is in control, control of the past, control of the present, and control of the future, he’s in control of every moment until Jesus comes again.
I wish I’d reminded myself of this back in 1984 during all the rumors about an earthquake in Los Angeles. If I’d reminded myself of that, I’d have been a lot calmer, a lot more clear headed. If I’d reminded myself about that I would’ve been at the Olympics sharing the good news of Jesus with all the tourists instead of pricing generators at M & I Army Surplus. I wish people caught up in the y2k hype would remind themselves of this vital principle as well.
God is in control.
4. Discerning Truth from Error (2 Thess 2:9-12)
Now let’s look at the final verses for our section today. vv. 9-12. The word "coming" here is that same word, parousia, that’s used to describe Jesus Christ’s coming in v. 8 and v. 1. The advent of "man of lawlessness" is a parody, an imitation of the incarnation of God in Jesus. Since Jesus, as God incarnate, did miracles, signs and wonders, Satan’s counterfeit messiah will also perform counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders. This doesn’t mean that these miracles are fake. The miracles are real, but the source isn’t God.
The advent of the "man of lawlessness" will be designed to deceive people, but it will only succeed in deceiving people who don’t love the truth. People who’ve spent their entire lives rejecting the good news of Jesus, mocking the Bible, delighting in breaking God’s laws will easily fall for the man of lawlessness’ claim to be God hook, line and sinker. Because of this, God will confirm their rejection by sending a strong delusion on them to believe the lie.
The lie in this context is that the "man of lawlessness" is God, as he proclaimed himself to be. People who avoid the truth, who reject God’s ways will be duped, and God will confirm their rejection of truth. Only those who "love the truth," who think that truth matters will be safe from this lie.
Here we find our final way to respond to rumors. We respond to rumors about the end of the age with spiritual confidence by DISCERNING SPIRITUAL TRUTH FROM ERROR.
This means of course that in the spiritual life there are some things that are true, and some things that are false. This means putting every spiritual claim under the magnifying glass, examining it closely, so see whether it’s true or false. If you love the truth, you won’t be misled.
Conclusion
Rumors about the end of the age are rampant. You can see them on Christian web pages, grocery store tabloids, Christian bookstores, and whispered from Christian to Christian. How do we respond to these kinds of rumors? God wants us to keep our heads, observe the signs of the times, know that God is in control, and discern truth from error.
