Read with Me
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 (HCSB)
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him: We ask you, brothers, not to be easily upset in mind or troubled, either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter as if from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has come. 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 son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God.
Listen with Me
The Thessalonian Christians were concerned, because a letter was circulating, supposedly from Paul, declaring that Jesus had already returned, and that anyone still in the world had missed it. Of course, Paul had sent no such letters. And he included his signature at the bottom of this letter (3:17) and a note stating that without that signature his authorship should not be assumed or accepted. But undoing the damage caused by rumors, especially those about an emotionally charged subject like this, was often a challenge.
The tone of Paul’s response is calm and reassuring. The Thessalonian believers didn’t need to be upset by rumors like these. They really did belong to Jesus, and therefore would never be left behind by Him. In Paul’s day, just like now, many people both in and out of the Church had taken up the end-times prophecies as their passion and were busily figuring out the day and hour of Jesus’ return. They did this despite Jesus expressly stating that no one, not even Him in His human state, knew or could know the time with any kind of precision. (Matthew 24:36), and His many pronouncements that He would return like a thief in the night without warning, and explicitly at a time when no one expects Him.
And then, just like now, these same people somehow believed that, despite Jesus’ clear teaching, they had somehow found the key and had unlocked the hidden timeline. Of course, for 2000 years now, every single one of those predictions has proven to be precisely wrong. But that has not prevented still more people from making those predictions, and many from believing them.
But Paul did have some important information about the end times that he shares in this letter, although even he admittedly lacked many details. And he never pretends to know the timeline. But he did know that before Jesus returned, there would be a time of great rebellion against God and His people, spearheaded by someone Paul refers to as “the man of lawlessness” or “the man of sin”.
This is not the “Antichrist”. As John points out in his first letter, the “Antichrist” is not a unique individual, but a spiritual mindset that opposes God and refuses to accept that Jesus was and is God in the flesh (1 John 2:18-23). Instead, this man appears to be the same man identified as “the beast” in Revelation 13:5-18, who arises to oppose God’s people and demands that he be worshiped as God under pain of death. This had not yet happened, so Paul feels very comfortable telling the Thessalonians that Jesus’ return had not yet happened either.
Pray with Me
Father, I agree that people still allow themselves to be so caught up in figuring out the day and hour of Jesus’ return that they end up neglecting the work He has left for us to accomplish between now and when He does come back. And sadly, those same people are in danger of having no new talents to show for their efforts when He demands an accounting from us. Lord, as tempting as it sometimes is to allow ourselves to get pulled aside by these kind of surmises and distractions help me to keep the main thing right in the center of all I think, do, and say, today and every day. Amen.