Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you not to be quickly shaken in your mind, and not be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as if from us, saying that the day of Christ has already come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,
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Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you not to be quickly shaken in your mind, and not be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as if from us, saying that the day of Christ has already come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction, he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God. Don’t you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things? Now you know what is restraining him, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming; even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Parallel Translations
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Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you
not to be quickly shaken in your mind, and not be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as if from us, saying that the day of Christ has already come.
Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,
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We beseche you brethren by the commynge of oure lorde Iesu Christ and in that we shall assemble vnto him
that ye be not sodely moved from youre mynde and be not troubled nether by sprete nether by wordes nor yet by letter which shuld seme to come from vs as though the daye of Christ were at honde.
Let no man deceave you by eny meanes for the lorde commeth not excepte ther come a departynge fyrst and that that synfnll man be opened the sonne of perdicion
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Now we beseech you, brethren, by the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ, and by our assembling vnto him,
That ye be not suddenly mooued from your minde, nor troubled neither by spirit, nor by worde, nor by letter, as it were from vs, as though the day of Christ were at hand.
Let no man deceiue you by any meanes: for that day shall not come, except there come a departing first, and that that man of sinne be disclosed, euen the sonne of perdition,
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (51)
- Matthew 24:4-6 (vv2–3) Jesus answered them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many…
- Ephesians 5:6 (vv2–3) Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
- 1 John 2:18 (v3) Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we…
- 1 Timothy 4:1-3 (v3) But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of…
- 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10 (v3) Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his…
Show all 49 cross-references
- Daniel 7:25 (v3) He will speak words against the Most High, and will wear out the saints of the Most High. He will plan to change the times and the law; and…
- 1 John 4:1-2 (v2) Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the…
- Daniel 8:25 (v3) Through his policy he will cause deceit to prosper in his hand. He will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many in their…
- 2 Timothy 3:1-3 (v3) But know this: that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant,…
- 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (v3) For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after…
- Mark 13:7 (v2) “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don’t be troubled. For those must happen, but the end is not yet.
- John 17:12 (v3) While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. I have kept those whom you have given me. None of them is lost except the son…
- 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 (v1) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we tell…
- Revelation 13:5-6 (v3) A mouth speaking great things and blasphemy was given to him. Authority to make war for forty-two months was given to him. He opened his…
- Revelation 13:11-18 (v3) I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon. He exercises all the authority of…
- 2 Thessalonians 3:17 (v2) The greeting of me, Paul, with my own hand, which is the sign in every letter: this is how I write.
- 2 Peter 3:4-8 (v2) and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the…
- Mark 13:27 (v1) Then he will send out his angels, and will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of…
- Luke 21:9 (v2) When you hear of wars and disturbances, don’t be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won’t come immediately.”
- 1 Corinthians 6:9 (v3) Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor…
- Revelation 17:8 (v3) The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. Those who dwell on the earth…
- Jeremiah 23:25-27 (v2) “I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this be in…
- Daniel 11:36 (v3) “The king will do according to his will. He will exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and will speak marvelous things…
- Matthew 24:24 (v2) For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even…
- Matthew 24:31 (v1) He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one…
- Luke 21:19 (v2) “By your endurance you will win your lives.
- John 14:1 (v2) “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.
- 1 Corinthians 1:8 (v2) who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:15 (v2) For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede…
- 2 Peter 2:1-3 (v2) But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies,…
- Revelation 17:11 (v3) The beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he goes to destruction.
- Deuteronomy 13:1-5 (v2) If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of…
- Isaiah 7:2 (v2) David’s house was told, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble…
- Isaiah 8:12-13 (v2) “Don’t say, ‘A conspiracy!’ concerning all about which this people say, ‘A conspiracy!’ neither fear their threats, nor be terrorized.…
- Micah 2:11 (v2) If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies: “I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink;” he would be the prophet of this…
- Isaiah 26:3 (v2) You will keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you.
- Acts 20:23-24 (v2) except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me. But these things don’t count; nor do I…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:19 (v1) For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn’t it even you, before our Lord Jesus at his coming?
- 1 Thessalonians 3:3 (v2) that no one would be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:13 (v1) to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
- 2 Timothy 4:1 (v1) I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom:
- Revelation 19:20 (v2) The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the…
- Matthew 25:32 (v1) Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
- John 14:27 (v2) Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be…
- 1 Thessalonians 5:2 (v2) For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:15 (v2) So then, brothers, stand firm and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word or by letter.
- Genesis 49:10 (v1) The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the…
- Ephesians 1:10 (v1) to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth,…
- Romans 12:1 (v1) Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your…
49 distinct cross-references across this passage (51 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (33 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1 Now I beseech you, by the coming. It…
1 Now I beseech you, by the coming. It may indeed be read, as I have noted on the margin, concerning the coming, but it suits better to view it as an earnest entreaty, taken from the subject in hand, just as in 1 Corinthians 15:31, when discoursing as to the hope of a resurrection, he makes use of an oath by that glory which is to be hoped for by believers. And this has much more efficacy when he adjures believers by the coming of Christ, not to imagine rashly that his day is at hand, for he at the same time admonishes us not to think of it but with reverence and sobriety. For it is customary to adjure by those things which are regarded by us with reverence. The meaning therefore is, “As you set a high value on the coming of Christ, when he will gather us to himself, and will truly perfect that unity of the body which we cherish as yet only in part through means of faith, so I earnestly beseech you by his coming not to be too credulous, should any one affirm, on whatever pretext, that his day is at hand.”
As he had in his former Epistle adverted to some extent to the resurrection, it is possible that some fickle and fanatical persons took occasion from this to mark out a near and fixed day. For it is not likely that this error had taken its rise earlier among the Thessalonians. For Timothy, on returning thence, had informed Paul as to their entire condition, and as a prudent and experienced man had omitted nothing that was of importance. Now if Paul had received notice of it, he could not have been silent as to a matter of so great consequence. Thus I am of opinion, that when Paul’s Epistle had been read, which contained a lively view of the resurrection, some that were disposed to indulge curiosity philosophized unseasonably as to the time of it. This, however, was an utterly ruinous fancy, as were also other things of the same nature, which were afterwards disseminated, not without artifice on the part of Satan. For when any day is said to be near, if it does not quickly arrive, mankind being naturally impatient of longer delay, their spirits begin to languish, and that languishing is followed up shortly afterwards by despair.
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This, therefore, was Satan’s subtlety: as he could not openly overturn the hope of a resurrection with the view of secretly undermining it, as if by pits underground, he promised that the day of it would be near, and would soon arrive. Afterwards, too, he did not cease to contrive various things, with the view of effacing, by little and little, the belief of a resurrection from the minds of men, as he could not openly eradicate it. It is, indeed, a plausible thing to say that the day of our redemption is definitely fixed, and on this account it meets with applause on the part of the multitude, as we see that the dreams of Lactantius and the Chiliasts of old gave much delight, and yet they had no other tendency than that of overthrowing the hope of a resurrection. This was not the design of Lactantius, but Satan, in accordance with his subtlety, perverted his curiosity, and that of those like him, so as to leave nothing in religion definite or fixed, and even at the present day he does not cease to employ the same means. We now see how necessary Paul’s admonition was, as but for this all religion would have been overturned among the Thessalonians under a specious pretext.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–3 The second part of the Epistle, containing an excellent…
The second part of the Epistle, containing an excellent prophecy of the state of the Church, which shall be from the Apostles’ times unto the latter day of judgment.
If we think earnestly upon that immeasurable glory, which we shall be partakers of with Christ, it will be an excellent remedy for us against wavering, and impatience, so that neither the glistering of the world shall allure us, nor the dreadful sight of the cross dismay us.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming…
1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
Ver. 1. Now we beseech you, brethren] Christ’s spokesmen must be fair spoken, so wooing for him that they may win upon men’s hearts, leading by the hand those that are willing, and drawing after a sort those that are less willing, that they may present them as a chaste virgin to Christ, 2Co 11:2. This earnest obtestation imports that it is both easy and dangerous to be carried away by seducers; for the Scripture doth not use to "cleave straws with beetles" to be so serious in a slight matter. "We beseech you," of all loves, ερωτωμεν (from ερως, love). Brethren, womb brethren, as near in nature as is possible. {a} "By the coming of our Lord Jesus," whom you love, look and long for; "and by your gathering together," επισυναγωγη, as ever you desire and hope to hover under his wings, as the chickens under the hen’s, that the infernal kites catch you not at that day.
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By the coming of our Lord] He draweth an argument from the matter underhand wherewith their hearts were now heated beforehand. It must be an elaborate speech that shall work upon the heart.
And by our gathering together unto him] In that last and great day, when all the eagles shall be gathered to that once dead, but now all-quickening carcase, Mat 24:28; when the sign of the Son of man shall be lifted up as an ensign, and all the saints shall repair to it, as the soldiers do to their colours, Eph 1:10.
{a} Αδελφος, from α and δελφυς uterus: fratres uterini.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–3 The apostle now comes to refute the opinion that…
The apostle now comes to refute the opinion that some at least of these Thessalonians had received, as if the day of Christ was near at hand. He having said, 1Th 4:17; We which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, & c., then some might think his coming would be in the apostle’s time, or some other way they might fall into this conceit; and some do conceive this was the chief reason of the apostle’s writing this Epistle. And because this mistake might be of dangerous consequence, therefore he is very vehement and particular in refuting it: for hereupon they might be brought to question the truth of the whole gospel when this should not come to pass: they might be unprepared for the sufferings that were to come upon the church; their patience might fail in expecting this day, and their minds be doubting about the coming of Christ at all. This opinion also would much narrow their thoughts about Christ’s kingdom, and the enlarging of the gospel among other Gentiles; and the profane might abuse it to sensuality, as 1Co 15:32; Let us eat and drink, & c. That he might the better persuade, he calls them brethren, and beseeches them, &c. And next, conjures them, using the form of an oath, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, & c. We conjure men either by what they love, or by what they fear; as they would enjoy the one, or avoid the other. The coming of Christ was what they desired and rejoiced in, as that which would bring rest to them, and tribulation to their adversaries; and by this he doth therefore beseech or adjure them: and therefore we must understand this of Christ’s last coming, as the word παρουσια, in the text, is still applied to this coming, 1Th 2:19; 3:13, &c.; and not of his coming to destroy the Jewish church and state, for that coming was at hand.
And by our gathering together unto him; at his last coming, when the whole body of Christ shall be gathered to him, to meet him in the air, 1Th 4:17. And then the sense is: As ye hope ever to see such a blessed meeting, and to be of that number, so take heed of this opinion. Yet some read the text otherwise, because in the Greek it is not δια, but υπερ της παρουσιας, and so the same with περι, not
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we beseech you by, but concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him, as denoting only the subject matter treated of. I prefer the former; and so the apostle conjures them not to be soon shaken in mind, but to stand fast in the truth about the doctrine of Christ’s coming, which they had been taught, and very lately taught, and therefore it was the greater evil to be soon shaken; as the apostle upbraids the Galatians, Gal 1:6, and God the Israelites, Psa 106:13.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1–3 As if the apostle had said, "Brethern, we beseech…
As if the apostle had said, "Brethern, we beseech you, as you assuredly expect the coming of Christ, and do love, look, and long for, that day when it shall go well with you, and Christ will appear to your glory, that you be not troubled," &c.
Learn hence, that the coming of Christ to judgment is a truth well known, firmly believed, and earnestly desired, by all true Christians; well known, because the apostles, when they went abroad to proselyte the world, usually began with this point; firmly believed, for a day of judgment was never denied by any but those whose interest it was that there should be none; and earnestly desired, in respect of Christ our Judge and Saviour, and in respect of ourselves, who shall be sharers in the happiness of that day.
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Observe, 2. The apostle calls the coming of Christ, a gathering together unto him; intimating, that when Christ shall come, all the saints shall be gathered together unto him: at the day of judgment there shall be both a congregation and a segregation; a congregation of all believers, to make up the number of Christ’s train and attendants, and that in one troop they may be brought unto his heavenly kingdom; and a segregation, he shall separate the sheep from the goats, and sever the wicked from among the just; Mat 13:44.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 From these words it appears that some among the…
From these words it appears that some among the Thessalonians had mistaken the apostle's meaning, in what he had written in his former epistle about the coming of Christ, by thinking that it was near at hand, - that Christ was just ready to appear and come to judgment. Or, it may be, some among them pretended that they had the knowledge of this by particular revelation from the Spirit, or from some words they had heard from the apostle, when he was with them, or some letter he had written or they pretended he had written to them or some other person: and hereupon the apostle is careful to rectify this mistake, and to prevent the spreading of this error. Observe, If errors and mistakes arise among Christians, we should take the first opportunity to rectify them, and hinder the spreading thereof; and good men will be especially careful to suppress errors that may arise from a mistake of their words and actions, though that which was spoken or done was ever so innocent or well. We have a subtle adversary, who watches all opportunities to do mischief, and will sometimes promote errors even by means of the words of scripture. Observe,
I. How very earnest and solicitous this apostle was to prevent mistakes: We beseech you, brethren, etc., Th2 2:1. He entreats them as brethren who might have charged them as a father charges his children: he shows great kindness and condescension, and insinuates himself into their affections. And this is the best way to deal with men when we would preserve or recover them from errors, to deal gently and affectionately with them: rough and rigorous treatment will but exasperate their spirits, and prejudice them against the reasons we may offer. He obtests and even conjures them in the most solemn manner: By the coming of Christ, etc. The words are in the form of an oath; and his meaning is that if they believed Christ would come, and if they desired he would come, and rejoiced in the hope of his coming, they should be careful to avoid the error, and the evil consequences of it, against which he was now cautioning them. From this form of obtestation used by the apostle, we may observe,
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1. It is most certain that the Lord Jesus Christ will come to judge the world, that he will come in all the pomp and power of the upper world in the last day, to execute judgment upon all. Whatever uncertainty we are at, or whatever mistakes may arise about the time of his coming, his coming itself is certain. This has been the faith and hope of all Christians in all ages of the church; nay, it was the faith and hope of the Old Testament saints, ever since Enoch the seventh from Adam, who said, Behold, the Lord cometh, etc., Jde 1:14.
2. At the second coming of Christ all the saints will be gathered together to him; and this mention of the gathering of the saints together unto Christ at his coming shows that the apostle speaks of Christ's coming to judgment day, and not of his coming to destroy Jerusalem. He speaks of a proper, and not a metaphorical advent: and, as it will be part of Christ's honour in that day, so it will be the completing of the happiness of his saints. (1.) That they all shall be gathered together. There will then be a general meeting of all the saints, and none but saints; all the Old Testament saints, who got acquaintance with Christ by the dark shadows of the law, and saw this day at a distance; and all the New Testament saints, to whom life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel; they will all be gathered together. There will then come from the four winds of heaven all that are, or ever were, or ever shall be, from the beginning to the end of time. All shall be gathered together. (2.) That they shall be gathered together to Christ. He will be the great centre of their unity. They shall be gathered together to him, to be attendants on him, to be assessors with him, to be presented by him to the Father, to be with him for ever, and altogether happy in his presence to all eternity. (3.) The doctrine of Christ's coming and our gathering together to him is of a great moment and importance to Christians; otherwise it would not be the proper matter of the apostle's obtestation. We ought therefore not only to believe these things, but highly to account of them also, and look upon them as things we are greatly concerned in and should be much affected with.
II. The thing itself against which the apostle cautions the Thessalonians is that they should not be deceived about the time of Christ's coming, and so be shaken in mind, or be troubled. Note, Errors in the mind tend greatly to weaken our faith, and cause us trouble; and such as are weak in faith and of troubled minds are oftentimes apt to be deceived, and fall a prey to seducers. 1. The apostle would not have them be deceived: Let no man deceive you by any means, Th2 2:3. There are many who lie in wait to deceive, and they have many ways of deceiving; we have reason therefore to be cautious and stand upon our guard. Some deceivers will pretend new revelations, others misinterpret scripture, and others will be guilty of gross forgeries; divers means and artifices of deceit men will use; but we must be careful that no man deceive us by any means. The particular matter in which the apostle cautions them not to be deceived is about the near approach of Christ's coming, as if it was to have been in the apostle's days; and harmless as this error might seem to many, yet, because it was indeed an error, it would have proved of bad consequences to many persons. Therefore, 2. He gives them warning, and would not have them be soon shaken in mind, nor be troubled. (1.) He would not have their faith weakened. We should firmly believe the second coming of Christ, and be settled and established in the faith of this; but there was danger lest the Thessalonians, if they apprehended the coming of Christ was just at hand, upon finding that they, or others whom they too much regarded, were mistaken as to the time, should thereupon question the truth or certainty of the thing itself; whereas they ought not to waver in their minds as to this great thing, which is the faith and hope of all the saints. False doctrines are like winds, that toss the water to and fro, and they are apt to unsettle the minds of men, who are sometimes as unstable as water. Then, (2.) He would not have their comforts lessened, that they should not be troubled nor affrighted with false alarms. It is probable that the coming of Christ was represented in so much terror as to trouble many serious Christians among them, though in itself it should be matter of the believer's hope and joy; or else many might be troubled with the thought how surprising this day would be, or with the fear of their unpreparedness, or upon the reflection on their mistake about the time of Christ's coming: we should always watch and pray, but must not be discouraged nor uncomfortable at the thought of Christ's coming.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Now we beseech you, brethren,.... The apostle having finished…
Now we beseech you, brethren,.... The apostle having finished his first design in this epistle, which was to encourage the saints to patience under sufferings, proceeds to another view he had in writing it, and that is, to set the doctrine of Christ's coming, as to the time of it, in its proper light; and this is occasioned by what he had said concerning it in the former epistle, which was either misunderstood or misrepresented; and as he addresses the saints with a very affectionate appellation as his "brethren", so by way of entreaty "beseeching", and yet in a very solemn manner:
by the coming of our Lord Jesus: which is to be understood not of the coming of Christ in the flesh, to procure the salvation of his people; nor of his coming in his kingdom and power to take vengeance on the Jewish nation, for their rejection of him as the Messiah; but of his coming to judge the quick and dead, than which nothing is more sure and certain, being affirmed by angels and men, by prophets and apostles, and by Christ himself, or more desirable by the saints; wherefore the apostle entreats them by it, that whereas they believed it, expected it, and wished for it, they would regard what he was about to say: so that the words, though an entreaty, are in the form of an adjuration; unless they should be rendered as in the Ethiopic version, as they may, "concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ"; and so express subject matter of the discourse now entering upon, with what follows:
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and by our gathering together unto him; which regards not the great gatherings of the people to Christ the true Shiloh upon his first coming, and the preaching of the Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles, when there were not only great flockings to hear it, but multitudes were converted by it; nor the greater gatherings there will be in the latter day, at the time of the conversion of the Jews, and when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in; nor the conversion of particular persons, who are gathered in to Christ, and received by him one by one; nor the assembling of the saints together for public worship, in which sense the word is used in Heb 10:25 but the gathering together of all the saints at the last day, at the second coming of Christ; for he will come with ten thousand of his saints, yea, with all his saints, when their dead bodies shall be raised and reunited to their souls, and they with the living saints will be caught up into the air, to meet the Lord there and be ever with him; when they will make up, complete and perfect, the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven: this will be the gathering together of all the elect of God; and so the Arabic version reads, "the gathering of us all"; and which, as it is certain, is greatly to be desired; it will be a happy meeting and a glorious sight; by this the apostle entreats and adjures them to regard what follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Our gathering together to him - In the clouds.
Our gathering together to him - In the clouds.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–3 He exhorts the Thessalonians to stand fast in the…
CHAPTER II.
He exhorts the Thessalonians to stand fast in the faith, and
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not to be alarmed at the rumours they heard concerning the
sudden coming of Christ, 1, 2.
Because, previously to this coming, there would be a great
apostasy from the true faith, and a manifestation of a son of
perdition, of whose unparalleled presumption he gives an awful
description; as well as of his pernicious success among men,
and the means which he would use to deceive and pervert the
world; and particularly those who do not receive the love of
the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness, 3-12.
He thanks God for their steadfastness; shows the great
privileges to which they were called; and prays that they may
be comforted and established in every good word and work,
13-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. II.
Verse 1. We beseech you - by the coming of our Lord] It is evident that the Thessalonians, incited by deceived or false teachers, had taken a wrong meaning out of the words of the first epistle, 1Th 4:15, c., concerning the day of judgment and were led then to conclude that that day was at hand; and this had produced great confusion in the Church: to correct this mistake, the apostle sent them this second letter, in which he shows that this day must be necessarily distant, because a great work is to be done previously to its appearing.
Of the day of general judgment he had spoken before, and said that it should come as a thief in the night, i.e. when not expected; but he did not attempt to fix the time, nor did he insinuate that it was either near at hand, or far off. Now, however, he shows that it must necessarily be far off, because of the great transactions which must take place before it can come.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 2Th 2:1-2. We beseech you, by the coming of…
2Th 2:1-2. We beseech you, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ — As you look for Christ’s second coming, and expect comfort from it; or rather concerning his coming, as the preposition υπερ is understood to signify in other places of Scripture, and in other authors. For he does not beseech by the coming of Christ, but his coming is the subject of which he is treating; and it is in relation to this subject that he desires them not to be disturbed. And by — Concerning; our gathering together to him — Namely, in the clouds. The phrases, the coming of Christ, and the day of Christ, may be understood either figuratively of his coming in judgment upon the Jews, or literally of his coming in glory to judge the world; the latter is the proper signification in this place, as the context will evince beyond contradiction. St. Paul himself had planted the church in Thessalonica, and it consisted principally of converts from among the Gentile idolaters, who had turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 1Th 1:9. What occasion was there, therefore, to admonish them particularly of the destruction of Jerusalem? or why should they be under any agitations or terrors of mind upon that account? What connection had Macedonia with Judea, or Thessalonica with Jerusalem? What share were the Christian converts to have in the calamities of the rebellious and unbelieving Jews, and why should they not rather have been comforted than troubled at the punishment of their inveterate enemies? Besides, how could the apostle deny that the destruction of the Jews was at hand, when it really was at hand, as he himself says, (1Th 2:16,) and the wrath of God was already beginning to come upon them? He knew, and doubtless they knew, (our Lord having declared it,) that the destruction of Jerusalem would come to pass in that generation. The phrase, therefore, must necessarily be taken in a more general acceptation, of his coming to judge the world, as it is constantly used in the former epistle. That ye be not soon shaken in mind — Απο του νοος, from the mind, or judgment, you have formerly held: or from the true meaning of my former letter, as Chandler interprets the clause. Or be troubled — Perplexed, or put into confusion. The original word, θροεισθαι, signifies to be agitated with the surprise and trouble which is occasioned by any unexpected rumour or bad news, Mat 24:6. Neither by spirit — By pretence of some revelation from the Spirit of God; nor by words — Some declaration pretended to have been uttered by me; nor by letter — Some counterfeit writing, or some passage in the former epistle; as from us — As written by me, or by my appointment; as that the day of Christ — That is, the coming of Christ to judge mankind; is at hand — It was a point of great importance for the Thessalonians not to be mistaken concerning the time of Christ’s second coming; for if they had inferred from the apostle’s doctrine that it was at hand, and it had not taken place according to their expectation, they would probably have been staggered in their faith, and finding part of their creed to be false, they might have been brought hastily to conclude that the whole was so.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of…
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ - The phrase “by the coming,” is not here, as our translators seem to have supposed, a form of solemn adjuration. It is not common, if it ever occurs, in the Scriptures, to make a solemn adjuration in view of an event, and the connection here demands that we give to the phrase a different sense. It means, respecting his coming; and the idea of Paul is: “In regard to that great event of which I spoke to you in my former epistle - the coming of the Saviour - I beseech you not to be troubled, as if it were soon to happen. As his views had been misunderstood or misrepresented, he now proposes to show them that there was nothing in the true doctrine which should create alarm, as if he were about to appear.
And by our gathering together unto him - There is manifest allusion here to what is said in the First Epistle 1Th 4:17, “then we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds;” and the meaning is: “in reference to our being gathered unto him, I beseech you not to be shaken in mind, as if that event were near.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–3 And we, &c. Some impostors had taken occasion from…
And we, &c. Some impostors had taken occasion from St. Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians, to teach that the day of judgment was at hand. The apostle here maintains that it certainly will come, but that it will come like a thief in the night. He says nothing of the time when it is to arrive; he merely refutes those who spoke of its taking place immediately. --- By the coming, &c. Grotius and some others explain this coming, of the vengeance he took on the Jews by the arms of the Romans. It is true he speaks in many places of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of his coming at the last day, in terms exactly the same. But the context of the whole epistle demonstrates that he is here speaking of the last day. (Calmet) --- And of our gathering together [1] unto him. Literally, of our congregation unto him. That is, that you be not moved by any pretended revelation, nor by any words or letter, as spoken or written by me. (Witham)
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Et nostræ congregationis in ipsum, Greek: kai emon episunagoges ep auton.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2
2 Thessalonians Chapter 2
In answering this error, and in guarding them from the wily efforts of seducers, he puts everything in its place here by appealing to precious truths of which he had already spoken. Their gathering together unto Christ in the air was a demonstration of the impossibility of the day of the Lord being already come.
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Moreover with regard to this last he presents two considerations: first, the day could not be already come, since Christians were not yet gathered to the Lord, and they were to come with Him; second, the wicked one who has then to be judged had not yet appeared, so that the judgment could not be executed.
The apostle had already instructed the Thessalonians with regard to this wicked one, when at Thessalonica; and in the former epistle he had taught them concerning the rapture of the church. In order that the Lord should come in judgment, iniquity must have reached its height, and open opposition to God have been manifested. But the truth had another and more precious side: the saints were to be in the same position as Christ, to be gathered together unto Him, before He could manifest Himself in glory to those outside. But these truths require a more connected examination.
Their gathering together unto Christ before the manifestation was a truth known to the Thessalonians; it is not revealed here, it is used as an argument. The Lord Jesus was coming, but it was impossible that He should be without His church in the glory. The King would indeed punish His rebellious subjects; but, before doing so, He would bring to Himself those who had been faithful to Him amid the unfaithful, in order to bring them back with Him and publicly to honour them in the midst of the rebels. But the apostle here speaks only of the rapture itself, and he adjures them only by that truth not to allow themselves to be shaken in mind as though the day were come. What an assured truth must this have been to Christians, since the apostle could appeal to it as to a known point, on which the heart could rest! The relationship of the church to Christ, its being necessarily in the same position with Him rendered the idea that the day was already come a mere folly.
In the second place, the already known fact is asserted, that the apostacy must previously take place, and then the man of sin be revealed. Solemn truth! Everything takes its place. The forms and the name of Christianity have long been maintained; true Christians have been disowned; but now there should be a public renunciation of the faith-an apostacy. True Christians should have their true place in heaven. But, besides this, there should be a person who would fully realise in sin the character of man without God. He is the man of sin. He does his own will-it is but Adam fully developed; and incited by the enemy, he opposes himself to God (it is open enmity against God), and he exalts himself above all that bears the name of God; he assumes the place of God in His temple. So that there is apostacy, that is, the open renunciation of Christianity in general, and an individual who concentrates in his own person (as to the principles of iniquity) the opposition that is made against God.
It will be noticed that the character of the wicked one is religious here, or rather anti-religious. The apostle does not speak of a secular power of the world, whatever its iniquity may be. The man of sin assumes a religious character. He exalts himself against the true God, but he shews himself as God [3] in the temple of God. Observe here that the sphere is on earth. It is not a god for faith. He shews himself as a god for the earth. The profession of Christianity has been abandoned. Sin then characterises an individual, a man, who fills up the measure of the apostacy of human nature, and, as a man, proclaims his independence of God. The principle of sin in man is his own will. He arises, as we have already seen, out of the rejection of Christianity. In this respect also evil is at its height.
This man of sin exalts himself above God, and, sitting as God in the temple of God, he defies the God of Israel. This last feature gives his formal character. He is in conflict with God, as placing himself publicly in this position-shewing himself as God in the temple of God. It is the God of Israel who will take vengeance on him.
Christianity, Judaism, natural religion, all are rejected. Man takes a place there on earth, exalting himself above it all, in opposition to God; and, in particular, arrogating to himself (for man needs a God, needs something to worship) the place and the honours of God, and of the God of Israel. [4] These verses present the wicked one in connection with the state of man, and with the different relationships in which man has stood towards God. In them all he shews himself as apostate, and then he assumes the place of God Himself-the first object of human ambition, as its attainment was the first suggestion of Satan.
In that which follows, we see not the condition itself of apostacy with regard to the different positions in which God had placed man, but simply man unrestrained, and the work of Satan. The man is but the vessel of the enemy’s power.
Man in whom is the fullness of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus, and man filled with the energy of Satan, are opposed to each other. Before, it was man forsaking God, wicked, and exalting himself. Here, it is opposition against God on the part of man, unrestrained, and inspired by Satan himself. Consequently we have (not the wicked one, but) the lawless -the unbridled-one. The principle is the same, for sin is lawlessness. (See 1Jn 3:4 -Greek.) But in this first case man is viewed in his departure from God, and in his guiltiness; in the second, as acknowledging none but himself.
To this condition in which all restraint will be removed, a barrier has yet existed.
The apostle had already told them of the apostacy, and of the manifestation of the man of sin. He now says that the Thessalonians ought to know the hindrance that existed to his progress and his manifestation before the appointed time. He does not say that he had told them, but they ought to know it. Knowing the character of the wicked one, the barrier revealed itself. The main point here is that it was a barrier. The principle of the evil was already at work: a barrier alone prevented its development. Its character when developed, would be unbridled will which exalts and opposes itself.[5] Unbridled self-will being the principle of the evil, that which bridles this will is the barrier. Now it exalts itself above all that bears the name of God, or to which homage is paid: that which hinders it therefore is the power of God acting in government here below as authorized by Him. The grossest abuse of power still bears this last character. Christ could say to Pilate, “Thou couldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above.” Wicked as he might be, his power is owned as coming from God. Thus, although men had rejected and crucified the Son of God, so that their iniquity appeared to be at its height, the hindrance still existed in full. Afterwards God, having sent His Spirit, gathers out the church, and, although the mystery of iniquity began immediately to work mingling the will of men with the worship of God in Spirit, God had always (He still has) the object of His loving care upon the earth. The Holy Ghost was here below; the assembly, be its condition what it might, was still on earth, and God maintained the barrier. And as the porter had opened the door to Jesus in spite of all obstacles, so He sustains everything, however great the energy and progress of evil. The evil is bridled: God is the source of authority on earth. There is one who hinders until he be taken out of the way. Now when the assembly (the assembly, that is, as composed of the true members of Christ) is gone, and consequently the Holy Ghost as the Comforter is no longer dwelling here below, then the apostacy takes place, [6] the time to remove the hindrance is come, the evil is unbridled, and at length (without saying how much time it will take) the evil assumes a definite shape in him who is its head. The beast comes up from the abyss. Satan -not God-gives him his authority; and in the second beast all the energy of Satan is present. The man of sin is there.
Here it is an outward and secular power that is spoken of, but the religious side of Satan’s energy.
With regard to the individual instruments who compose the barrier, they may change every moment, and it was not the object of the Holy Ghost to name them. He who was the one of them that existed when this epistle was written would not be so at the present time; to have named him then would have been of no use to us in the present day. The object was to declare that the evil which should be judged was already working, that there was no remedy for it, that it was only a hindrance on God’s part which prevented its full development: a principle of the highest importance with regard to the history of Christianity.
Whatever form it might take, the apostacy of the men who would renounce grace would necessarily be more absolute than any other. It is opposition to the Lord. It has the character of an adversary. The other principle of human iniquity enters into it, but this is the source of the “perdition.” It is, the rejection of goodness; it is direct enmity.
“That which hinders” is in general only an instrument, a means, which prevents the manifestation of the man of sin-the wicked one. So long as the assembly is on earth, the pretension to be God in His temple cannot take place or at least would have no influence. Satan has his sphere, and must needs have it, in the mystery of iniquity; but there is no longer a mystery when the place of God in His temple is openly taken. That which hinders is therefore still present. But there is a person active in maintaining this hindrance. Here I think indeed that it is God in the Person of the Holy Ghost, who, during the time called “the things that are,” restrains the evil and guards divine authority in the world. As long as that subsists, the unrestrained exaltation of wickedness cannot take place. Consequently I do not doubt but that the rapture of the saints is the occasion of the hindrance being removed and all restraint loosed, although some of the ways of God are developed before the full manifestation of the evil.
This thought does not rest upon great principles only: the passage itself supplies elements which shew the state of things when the power of evil develops itself. 1st, The apostacy has already taken place. This could hardly be said if the testimony of the assembly still subsisted, as it had in time past, or even yet more distinctly as being freed from all false and corrupting elements. 2nd, Authority-as established of God, so far as exercising a restraint on man’s will in God’s name-has disappeared from the scene, for the wicked one exalts himself against all that is called God and to which homage is paid, and presents himself as God in the temple of God. Compare Psa 82:1-8, where God stands among the gods (the judges) to judge them before He inherits the nations. Before that solemn hour when God will judge the judges of the earth, this wicked one, despising all authority that comes from Him, sets himself up as God: and that on the earth, where the judgment will be manifested. And then, 3rdly, in place of the Holy Ghost and His power manifested on the earth, we find the power of Satan, and with precisely the same tokens that bore witness to the Person of Christ. So that the passage itself, whether as to man or as to the enemy, gives us (in the three points of which we have spoken) the full confirmation of that which we have ventured to set forth.
The assembly, the powers ordained by God upon the earth, the Holy Ghost present here as the Comforter in lieu of Christ, have all (as regards the manifestation of the government and the work of God) given place to the self-willed unbridled man, and to the power of the enemy. In saying this we speak of the sphere of this prophecy, which moreover embraces that of the public testimony of God on earth.
Definitively then we have man here in his own nature-as it has displayed itself by forsaking God- in the full pursuit of his own will in rebellion against God; the willful man, developed as the result of apostacy from the position of grace in which the assembly stood, and in contempt of all the governmental authority of God on the earth. And since that authority had shewn itself directly and properly in Judea, this contempt and the spirit of rebellion in man, who exalts himself above everything, but who cannot be heavenly (heaven, and all pretension to heaven, is given up by man, and lost by Satan), display themselves by man taking the place of God in His temple under the most advanced form of Jewish apostacy and blasphemy. At the same time Satan acts-God having loosed his bridle-with a power (a lying power indeed, but) which gives the same testimony before men as that which the works of Christ did to the Saviour; and also with all the skill that iniquity possesses to deceive. It is in the wicked, the lawless one, that Satan works these things. Our consideration of the development of the latter part of this solemn scene will come (God willing) in the Book of Revelation. We may add, that there we have this wicked one as the false Messiah, and as prophet, in the form of his kingdom-two horns like a lamb. He had been cast down from heaven where he had been anti-priest, and now takes up Christ’s titles on earth of king and prophet. In Dan 11:1-45 he is seen as king; here, as the unbridled man, and in particular as the result of the apostacy [7] and the manifestation of Satan’s power. In a word, instead of the assembly, the apostacy; instead of the Holy Ghost, Satan; and, instead of the authority of God as a restraint upon evil, the unbridled man setting himself up as God on the earth.
Another circumstance, already mentioned, demands particular attention. I have said that he presents himself as the Messiah (that is to say, in His two characters as king and prophet, which are His earthly characters). In heaven Satan has then nothing more to do; he has been cast out from thence, so that there is no imitation of the Lord’s high-priesthood. In that respect Satan had, in his own person, acted another part. He was previously in heaven the accuser of the brethren. But, at the time of which we are speaking, the assembly is on high, and the accuser of the brethren is cast out never to return there. In a man inspired by him he makes himself prophet and king. And in this character he does the same things (in falsehood) as those by which God had sanctioned the mission of Christ before men. (Compare Act 2:22) In a Greek the words are identical. [8] I would also recall here another solemn fact in order to complete this picture. In the history of Elijah we find that the proof of the divinity of Baal, or that of Jehovah, is made to rest upon the fact of their respective servants bringing down fire from heaven. Now in Rev 3:1-22 we learn that the second beast brings down fire from heaven in the sight of men. So that we find here the marvelous works that sanctioned the Lord’s mission, and there that which proved Jehovah to be the true and only God. And Satan performs both in order to deceive men.
This may give us an idea of the state in which they will be; and it indicates also that these things will take place in relation with the Jews, under the double aspect of their connection with Jehovah and their rejection of Christ and reception of Antichrist.
Thus, thank God, the truth is abundantly confirmed, that these things do not relate to the assembly, but to those who, having had opportunity to profit by the truth, have rejected it, and loved iniquity. Neither does it relate to the heathen, but only to those among whom the truth has been set forth.[9] They refused it and God sends a lie, and an efficacious lie, that they may believe it. He does this in judgment: He did the same thing with the nations (Rom 1:24; He did it also with the Jews (Isa 6:9-10); He does it here with nominal Christians. But it does relate to the Jews as a nation that rejected the truth-the testimony of the Holy Ghost (Act 7:1-60)-but still more to Christians (in name); in short to all those who will have had the truth presented to them.
With nominal Christians this has necessarily the character of apostacy, or at least it is connected with this apostacy, and is consequent upon it; as verse 3 teaches us, the apostacy takes place, and then the man of sin is revealed.~
In connection with his character of the man of sin he presents himself without restraint in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.[10] In relation to the lying power of Satan and his efficient work, he presents himself in the character of Christ-he is the Antichrist, assuming consequently a Jewish character. It is not only the pride of man exalting itself against God, but the power of Satan in man deceiving men and the Jews in particular, by a false Christ; so that it it were possible, the very elect would be deceived. We may remark that all these characters are precisely the opposite of Christ-falsehood instead of truth, iniquity instead of righteousness, perdition instead of salvation.
It is to a power like this, of lies and destruction that man-having forsaken Christianity and exalted himself in pride against God-will be given up. The apostacy (that is to say, the renunciation of Christianity) will be the occasion of this evil; Judea and the Jews, the scene in which it ripens and develops itself in a positive way.
The Antichrist will deny the Father and the Son (that is, Christianity); he will deny that Jesus is the Christ (that is, Jewish unbelief). With the burden upon him of sin against Christianity, grace, and the presence of the Holy Ghost, he will ally himself with Jewish unbelief, in order that there may be not only the full expression of human pride, but also for a time the Satanic influence of a false Christ, who will strengthen the throne of Satan among the Gentiles occupied by the first beast to whom the authority of the dragon has been given. He will also set up his own subordinate throne over the Jews, as being the Messiah, whom their unbelief is expecting; while at the same time he will bring in idolatry, the unclean spirit long gone out who then returns to his house which is devoid of God.
And now, with regard to his destruction (whom the Lord Jesus will consume with the spirit of His mouth and destroy with the manifestation of His presence, or of His coming), the first of these means characterises the judgment; it is the word of truth applied in judgment according to the power of God. In the Revelation, it says that the sword proceeds out of His mouth. Here He is not spoken of in the character of a man of war, as in Rev 19:1-21. The spirit of His mouth is that inward and divine power which kindles and executes the judgment. It is not an instrument, it is the divine source of power which executes its purpose by a word. (compare Isa. 33:33) But there is another aspect of this judgment. The Lord, the man Jesus, will return. His return has two parts-the return into the air to take His assembly to Himself, and the public manifestation in glory of His return.
In the first verse of our chapter we have read of His return and our gathering together unto Him. Here, verse 8, is the manifestation of His presence publicly in creation. At the time of this public manifestation of His coming He destroys the whole work and power of the wicked one. It is the Man formerly obedient and humbling Himself on the earth, exalted of God, and become Lord of all, who destroys the lawless man that has exalted himself above everything and made himself as God, instead of being, obedient to God.
This evil- on the side of Satan’s influence-was already working in the apostle’s time; only it was bridled and kept back, until that which restrained it should no longer be on the scene. Then should the wicked one be revealed. To sum up, the taking away of the assembly, and the apostacy, were first necessary; and then this man should present himself as an unbelieving Jew, [11] and the power of Satan would be displayed in him.
Now this Satanic influence was for those who had rejected the truth. Of the Thessalonians -to whom he had given these explanations respecting the day which they fancied was come-the apostle thought very differently. God had chosen these “brethren beloved of the Lord “from the beginning for salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, to which He had called them by Paul’s gospel (and that of His companions), and to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus. How different was this from the visitations of the day of the Lord, and the circumstances of which the apostle had spoken! They were numbered among those who should be the companions in that day of the Lord Jesus Himself.
Footnotes for 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2
3: “As God” is to be left out before “sitteth,” in 2Th 2:4.
4: In 1Jn 2:1-29 we find the double character of the Antichrist as regards Christianity and Judaism. He denies the Father and the Son, rejects Christianity; he denies that Jesus is the Christ, which is Jewish unbelief. His power is the working of Satan, as we find here. As man he sets up to be God. So that his impiousness is manifested in every way. As the question is more upon the earth, it is the God of the earth, the man withal from heaven, who judges him.
5: Note this point. All was ready and complete in the apostle’s time, only restrained. So Christ was ready to judge. Only the patience of God waits, in the accepted time.
6: The principle of this may be widely at work individually, as in 1Jn 2:1-29, it had begun, but the open public manifestation was to come. Jude gives the creeping in to produce corruption John, the going out which characterises the Antichrist.
7: We may remark that the apostacy develops itself under the three forms in which man has been in relationship with God; Nature-it is the man of sin unrestrained, who exalts himself; Judaism-he sits as God in the temple of God; Christianity-it is to this that the term apostacy is directly applied in the passage before us.
8: Only the word for “miracle” or “power” is plural in Act 2:1-47.
9: I only allude here to the connection between the renunciation of Christianity and the development of apostate Judaism, which are linked together in the rejection of the true Christ, and the denial of the Father and the Son-features given in 1 John as characteristic of the Antichrist. But I am persuaded that the more we examine the word, the more we shall see (perhaps with surprise) that this fact is confirmed. Moreover the turning back to Judaism, and the tendency to idolatry by the introduction of other mediators and patrons, and the losing sight of our union with the Head, and thus of the perfection and deliverance from the law which are ours in Christ, have, at all times, characterised the mystery of iniquity and the principle of apostacy. The apostle had incessantly to combat this. That of which we spoke above is but its full manifestation.
10: This is the culminating point in his character as an apostate who has renounced grace. The ninth and following verses develop his positive and deceitful activity by which he seeks to win men. This explains the mixture (which, moreover, generally resists) of atheism in will, and superstition
11: I do not say that his first appearance will be the apostacy of Judaism; I do not think it will be. He will present himself to them as being the Christ, but according to the hopes and passions of the Jews. But afterwards it will be an apostacy even from Judaism, as had partially been the case in the days of the Maccabees-a fact which the Spirit uses in Dan 11:1-45, as a figure precursive of the time of Antichrist. He is from his first appearance an unbeliever and the enemy of God, an apostate as to the assembly, and denying that Jesus is the Christ. We are taught positively by John, that the rejection of Christianity and Jewish unbelief are united in the Antichrist. It appears that apostacy with regard to Christianity and Jewish unbelief are connected and go together; and afterwards Jewish apostacy and open rebellion against God, which, causing the cry of the remnant, brings in the Lord, and all is ended. Now the apostle (2Th 2:3-4) presents the complete picture of man’s iniquity, developed when apostacy from the grace of the gospel had taken place (he exalts himself even to the making himself God), without touching the Jewish side or the manifested power of Satan. These verses shew us the man of sin is the result of the apostacy which will break out in the midst of Christendom. 2 Thess. 9 begins to teach us in addition, that the coming of this wicked one is also in immediate connection with a mighty display of the energy of Satan, who deceives by means of marvelous works and a strong delusion to which God gives men up, and of which we have spoken in the text. It is man and Satan here, with enough to shew its connection with Judaism in the last days (even as the mystery of iniquity was linked with Judaism in the days of the apostles, although it is not the occasion of giving the details of the Jewish development of the evil. We must look for these details elsewhere, where they are in their place, as in Daniel. The Apocalypse and 1 John furnish us with the means of connecting them: we do but allude here to this connection.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Instruction and Exhortation in regard to the antichristian consummation…
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Instruction and Exhortation in regard to the antichristian consummation of evil
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1. 2Th_2:1-12
The warning, against allowing themselves to be easily misled into the notion of the day of the Lord being at the door (2Th_2:1-2), is confirmed by reminding them that, as he had already told them orally, the Man of Sin must previously be revealed (2Th_2:3-5), that the mystery of lawlessness is still for the present restrained by an obstructive power, and will only reach its height when this is removed, and will then also come to its end by the appearing of the Lord (2Th_2:6-8); of what sort the lying power of the enemy will be, is then more exactly described
1Now [But]1 we beseech you, brethren, by [concerning, ὑπέρ] the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our [and our] gathering together unto Him, 2that ye be not soon [quickly]2 shaken in mind [from your mind],3 or [nor yet]4 be troubled [alarmed],5 neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from 3[by, διά] us, as that the day of Christ [the Lord]6 is at hand [is present].7 Let no man [no one, μή τις] deceive you by any means [in any way]:8 for [because, ὅτι] that day shall not come, except there come a falling away [the apostasy, ἡ ἀποστασία] first, and that [the, ὁ] man of sin9 be revealed, the son of perdition, 4who opposeth, and exalteth himself above [against]10 all that is called God or that is worshipped [every one called God or an object of worship],11 so that he as God12 sitteth [sitteth down, καθίσαι] in the temple of God, showing himself 5[showing himself forth]13 that he is God. Remember ye not that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6And now ye know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed [may be rev.]14 in his [his own]15 time. 7For the mystery of iniquity doth already work [For the m. is already working of lawlessness],16 only he who now letteth will let, until he [only until he, who with-holdeth for the present,]17 be taken out of the way; 8and then shall that Wicked be revealed [shall be rev. the lawless one],18 whom the Lord [Lord Jesus]19 shall consume with the spirit [breath]20 of His mouth, and shall destroy with the 9brightness [appearing]21 of His coming: even him, whose coming is after [according to]22 the working of Satan, with [in, ἐν] all power and signs and 10lying wonders [wonders of falsehood],23 and with [in, ἐν] all deceivableness [deceitfulness, ἀπάτῃ] of unrighteousness in them that perish [for those who are perishing];24 because they received [accepted]25 not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send [doth God send]26 them strong delusion [a working of delusion, ἐνέργειαν πλάνης], that they should believe a lie [the falsehood, τῷ ψεύδει]; 12that they all27 might be damned [may be judged]28 who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in29 unrighteousness.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. (2Th_2:1-2.) But we beseech you, &c.; as in 1Th_4:1; 1Th_5:12; over against the prayer of 2Th_1:11-12 he now turns to his brethren; on account of, in regard to the coming, ὑπέρ, as in 2Th_1:4; Rom_9:27; not an adjuration, per, as you dread or desire that day (so Zwingli, Calvin, and others); but this use of the preposition does not belong to the New Testament; Lünemann, too artificially: in the interest of the coming [Jowett and Wordsworth: on behalf of; the former adding: “as though he were pleading in honor of that day, that the expectation of it might not be a source of disorder in the Church.”—J. L.], to obviate all mistakes on that subject; but certainly the coming itself has no such interest.30 He is speaking, as in 2Th_2:8, of the coming of the Lord to judgment (2Th_1:7-8), and the setting up of the kingdom; with Christ’s Advent he connects by means of one article our gathering together away (or upwards, Lünemann)31 unto Him; the two together form one event, the first completing itself in the second. For the topic, 1Th_4:17 may be compared; for the word likewise, Mat_24:31 (the verb; the substantive is used in Heb_10:25 of assemblies for Divine service). The import of the entreaty is expressed in the form of a purpose; εἰς τό, as in 1Th_2:12; 1Th_3:10; that ye should not be quickly shaken; ταχέως does not stand here, as in Gal_1:6, in opposition to a previous better condition; nor does it mean, as Olshausen supposes, so soon after my exhortations to you; but (De Wette, Lünemann): so soon as any one tells you something of that sort, forthwith. Σαλευθῆναι, moreover, is the expression that denotes the heaving of the sea; then figuratively, to excite an uproar (Act_17:13); connected with ἀπό it has a pregnant force (like καταργεῖσθαι ἀπό, Rom_7:2; comp. also Rom_9:3 and 2Th_1:9): shaken and thereby driven from [Wordsworth: drifted off from]; thrown out of your reason;32 for that is the meaning of the word, as in 1Co_14:14; 1Co_14:19; Rom_14:5; not sententia (Grotius), persuasio; that were γνώμη, or some such word. Accordingly: Hold fast a rational, sober thoughtfulness, which is required for your peaceful trial, and the due performance of your daily task. Attached to this, according to the best authorities, by μηδὲ (the manuscripts, indeed, vary exceedingly in the case of such particles), is θροεῖσθαι, which, again, is not simply synonymous with σαλευθ. (that would be implied in μήτε), but ascensive; θροεῖν signifies to cry aloud, make a noise, and then later, to frighten by uproar (Mat_24:6). Zwingli: to perplex, confound; Bengel: moveamini, mente; turbemini, affectu; according to Hofmann, θροεῖσθαι also should signify merely to be discomposed; but then the climax would be destroyed. That a panic could not occur amongst the Thessalonians, it would be too much to assert. Even a crisis that is longed for, when it is one of so great and holy a sort, and so seriously searches the heart, can strike a momentary terror;33 whereas in σαλευθ. we think chiefly of being thrown from the track by an overpowering hope [?].—Neither by spirit, &c.; by this the Apostle intends a spiritual suggestion, pretended prediction, utterance of a prophet, comp. 1Th_5:20 : Despise not prophesyings, but prove them, whether error is not intermingled. It is a mistake to understand thereby a false interpretation of Old Testament prophecy, or—which is still more absurd—delusive spiritual apparitions.—Nor by word nor by letter as by us; Theodoret, Grotius, Wetstein, De Wette, Lünemann [Davidson, Revision, Ellicott] would refer ὡς δι’ ἡμῶν to the two preceding members, as in 2Th_2:15 the Apostle’s word and epistle stand together; and then some should have carried round a pretended oral utterance of his, others even a spurious letter. But 2Th_2:15 cannot determine for 2Th_2:2; and, reading μήτε three times (the evidence for the various readings is very precarious and unequal), we must regard the three members as coördinate, and not take two of them in closer connection with each other. Unless, therefore, ὡς δι’ ἡμῶν is to be confined to the last member merely, it must be referred also to the first [so Erasmus, Reiche, Barnes, Webster and Wilkinson.—J. L.]. But that is not possible, since a prophetic appearance could not be invented for the Apostle like a word or a letter. We therefore adhere to Chrysostom, Theophylact, Zwingli, Calvin, Ewald, Hofmann, in not regarding λόγου as a word hawked around as apostolic, but in understanding it, alongside of πνεύματος, of a διδαχή that reasoned without prophetic rapture, rather perhaps with proofs from (Scripture; comp. 1Co_14:26; Chrysostom: πιθανολογία. There is no occasion to think of a calculation of Daniel’s weeks of years. The last member, finally, first Jerome, then Kern, Hilgenfeld [Hammond, Webster and Wilkinson] and others, would explain to the effect that the Apostle is speaking merely of a misinterpretation of his First Epistle: Be not disturbed by letter, as if we had taught so. But in that case δι’ ἐπιστολῆς would not stand without the article; 1Co_5:9; 1Co_5:11 and 2Co_7:8 show the style in which he appeals to an earlier epistle from his hand. The two members, πνεῦμα and λόγος, denote means of seduction that had actually occurred, and had come, indeed from people in Thessalonica (nothing suggests, as in Corinth, foreign intruders); the same thing must hold good also of a letter, that was falsely attributed to him; Paul would not of himself have thought of speaking of it [against Jowett]; 2Th_3:17 also cannot be naturally explained otherwise than as a precaution against a repetition of the forgery. It is as surprising that such a thing occurred at that time, as that Paul speaks of it so gently. Hug thinks that the forger need, have had no evil design; he merely wished, perhaps, with apostolic authority to agitate the secure, and work a reformation. Still a pia fraus is none the less a fraus. It is possible, however, that the letter was written anonymously, and merely shown around as Pauline. Otherwise, it is probable, Paul would speak more sharply.
The import of this deceptive pretence was: as that the day of the Lord is present [so Alford. Ellicott: is now come.—J. L.]. ὡς before ὅτι expresses what is supposed; 2Co_11:21; Winer, § 65. 9; ἐνέστηκεν denotes a standing at the door, immediate presence (Rom_8:38; 1Co_3:22; Gal_1:4). The emphatic position of the verb in front shows, that the Apostle does not intend generally to put far away the expectation of the last day; we are merely not to let ourselves be surprised by the cry: Here it is now! Probably the fresh outbreak of singularly violent persecutions was explained in Thessalonica to this effect: Here is the beginning of the last day.
2. (2Th_2:3-5.) Let no one deceive you in any way; be not deluded (Eph_5:6); in none of those three specified ways? or, in no other way? Both views are possible; at 1Th_5:3 he had described the deception of a careless drowsiness, and now he points to the opposite snare, when a conscientious vigilance is perverted into an unwholesome excitement, which is then likely, in consequence of the exposure that follows, to threaten faith itself with shipwreck. Against this delusion, as against every other, they are to be on their guard.—Because, he thus confirms the warning. The protasis with ἐάν has no apodosis, as often happens with Paul; so Rom_2:17, according to the best reading; he lost sight of it in the course of the long description; sometimes also (Rom_9:22) there lies in the ellipsis a certain reserve of judgment. Here the very obvious supplement is οὐ μὴ πάρεσται ἡ ἡμέρα, or οὐ δύναται ἐλθεῖν δ κύριος, or some such expression. [Webster and Wilkinson: “The omission arises from the fact that he is reminding them of communications previously made concerning two future events, and wishes to fix their attention upon that which must precede the other. It may also be regarded as rhetorical, supplied in the Apostle’s dictation by a solemn pause, a gesture, and the significant and emphatic delivery of the words ἐὰν … πρῶτον, or as suggesting the sentiment, I am sorry to have it to say it will not come before; and so Bengel, abstinet verbis quæ non libenter audiret amator adventus Christi.”—J. L.] Altogether unsuitable is any thought of the oath-formula, אִם לֹא, certissime [Storr], besides that this also needs explanation as an ellipsis.—Except there come the apostasy first (ἀποστασία, later Greek for the older ἀπόστασις); this is erroneously applied by Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Augustine, to Antichrist, as if it meant an apostasy in one individual, whereas the two verbs suffice to distinguish also the two subjects; nor yet is it to be understood politically or semi-politically, but according to universal biblical usage it denotes apostasy from the faith or from God [Act_21:21. Comp. 1Ti_4:1; Sept. Jer_29:32.—J. L.]. Hofmann, correctly: 2 Thessalonians 1 having commended their steadfastness in the faith, the apostasy can only be one from the faith in Christ; and this is acknowledged also by Calvin. Indeed, the article denotes that apostasy known to the Thessalonians by oral instruction from the prophets; comp. Dan_8:23; Dan_11:30; the spreading apostasy from the faith. Then in ἀνομία of 2Th_2:1 we find an intimation of the further result, that the revolt from God leads to the rejection of all Divine order. Already in those times of fresh faith is this foreseen and foretold by Paul.—And the Man of Sin be revealed; frightful counterpart to the revelation from above (2Th_1:7); when there is a disclosure of that which is maturing as the wicked consummation of the evil principle in humanity—of that which at present is still μυστήριον, the counterpart of the heavenly (2Th_2:7), but shall one day have its παρουσία (2Th_2:9). The Man of Sin, again with the article, the one already known to them; plainly a single personality; if Zwingli after some of the ancients explains it collectively, as if it stood for filii perditi, there is no warrant for this in the context. The complete opposite to Christ is not a spiritual tendency, but a person. Nor is he called merely ἁμαρτωλός, but the Man of Sin, in contrast with Jesus, the Man of obedience; so to speak, the incarnate Sin, wherein the entire nature of sin is concentrated, incorporated, culminates; just as what follows marks the opposite pole to Genesis 3. There the desire came up, but still in childish form, to wish to be their own God; what began there will here be fully ripened. Thus is his nature described; and in connection with that his final destiny: the son of perdition, like Judas, his type, Joh_17:12. With the fact, that he wholly belongs to sin, coheres as fruit the fact, that he falls a prey to perdition; out of perdition springs his life in death; εἰς ἀπώλειαν ὑπάγει (Rev_17:11). Others would take it actively, or at least unite the two ideas [Theodoret]: one who is a sinner and falls into perdition, and also drags others down into sin and perdition; according to 2Th_2:9 sqq. he really does that; but in the phrase, son of perdition, there is rather a designation of the power to which he belongs; Estius: quasi ex perditione tanquam matre genitus; as if it were even said, a child of death. The mention of his fate is followed by a description of his manner of working (as 2Th_2:8 by 2Th_2:9); it is said of him: who opposeth, like Satan, Zec_3:1, Sept.; what the latter is for the world of spirits, that the Man of Sin is for the world of men; no incarnation, therefore, of Satan. We can take ὁ ἀντικείμενος absolutely, and in thought supply of God or of Christ; the former, because he assails not merely the redemptive work of Christ, but the foundation of all fear of God; and for the second it may be said, that in an altogether peculiar sense he will be the antagonist, adversary, caricature of Christ; according to John’s expression, the ἀντίχριστος (1Jn_2:18), the Antichrist; fain would he destroy Christ’s kingdom, and opposes him, as Bengel says, corde, lingua, stilo, factis, per se, per suos. But considering that the article is not repeated before the second participle, and that thus the two predicates are combined into one idea (negative and positive), we might prefer to refer the ἐπί by an easy zeugma to both participles.34 Who exalteth himself above all that is [against every one] called God or an object of worship; against the true God, and every one so called, comp. 1Co_8:5; to this the Apostle adds (every) σέβασμα, that is, object of worship, numen; Luthardt: whatever is holy to men, and passes amongst them as an object of fearful reverence; comp. Act_17:23. To think of the defamation of the imperial majesty (the Σεβαστός) is still more inappropriate, than of angels; it was done in the interest of the interpretation which saw in Antichrist the Pope, as the despiser of worldly sovereignty. We have rather to understand it thus: above all that is called God and is divinely honored. He will thus no longer act as the old kings, Pharaoh and Sennacherib, acted, who indeed blasphemed the God of Israel, but still worshipped their heathen gods; he will despise also the gods of the heathen. To adore these was a profound corruption; still even in that caricature the need of worship announced itself. But the Man of Sin, being the consummmate ἀντίθεος, as Chrysostom calls him, will worship nothing any more, bow before nothing any more. All religion he treads under his feet. Herein consists the ripe poisonous fruit of evil, that with full consciousness self sets up to be the centre of all power, wisdom, and glory. The Apostle’s brief picture reminds us of (though it still transcends) Dan_7:8; Dan_7:11; Dan_7:20 sqq.: the horn with man’s eyes and a mouth speaking great things, which makes war with the saints and overcomes them till the judgment breaks forth. The modern interpreters see in this for the most part Antiochus Epiphanes; more correctly we shall recognize in this little horn of the 7th chapter the yet future adversary, of whom Antiochus, described in similar terms, is but a type (see Auberlen’s Daniel). Antiochus, the Old Testament Antichrist, is meant in Dan_8:9 sqq., Dan_8:23 sqq.; Dan_11:36 sqq.35 The last passage, in particular, depicts him as speaking presumptuous things against the God of gods, and as despising also the gods of his fathers; only on the God of strongholds, that is, on military power, does he rely. Still, self-deification is not expressly asserted of him; Antiochus even turned the Temple of Jerusalem into a temple of the Olympian Zeus. Paul adheres to Daniel’s description, and can do so, just because Antiochus is a type of the last adversary. For the further stroke, with which he goes beyond Daniel, the self-deification of the Roman Emperor furnished him with a ready example.—So that he sitteth down in [εἰς τὸν ναόν, pregnant: intrudes into, and sits down in, &c.—J. L.] the temple of God; καθίσαι is intransitive; αὺτόν (not αὑτόν) is not redundant (Pelt), but emphatic; he, the audacious; he in person sits down enthroned in the temple; does not merely have his image set up; in the temple of God, the article and the addition, of God, showing that at any rate no heathen temple is to be thought of, but, if one of stone, then no other than that of Jerusalem, which, if the Epistle is genuine, was not yet destroyed. That that one is not to be thought of in an Epistle to a church of Gentile Christians (Von Gerlach), is a groundless objection. The temple which Christ had cleansed, and in which the first Christians prayed, and likewise Paul himself, that house of prayer for all people was an object of interest to every Christian church. Still, one can just as little perceive, why the sitting in the temple must be interpreted with all the rigid literality that, amongst others, Wieseler (Chronol. des apostol. Zeitalters, p. 258) and Döllinger (Christenthum und Kirche, p. 282) assert. We do not at once say with Chrysostom and others, that the temple signifies the Church in all lands, or with Hilgenfeld (p. 253), that the writer means figuratively the consummation of heresy establishing itself in the spiritual temple of Christendom (it then concerns him to show the feasibility of the Epistle having been composed under Trajan); but we suppose that, proceeding on a sensuous way of viewing the matter, and painting, as a prophet (Eze_28:2), in colors of his own time, Paul depicts an act which, as a symbol of permanent spiritual significance, is confined to no locality, and means to say: He places himself in God’s room, and forces himself on mankind as a Divine ruler.36 See the Exegetical Note 3.—Showing himself forth that he is God, as described more at large in Rev_2:13. What belongs to Christ, this impious person arrogates to himself, advancing the claim, that for those on the earth he is God; and thus wickedness becomes frantic. The self-exhibition we understand, with Chrysostom and most, not merely of assertions in words or proclamations, but of manifestations which should confirm the point by deeds; for the lying wonders, 2Th_2:9 sqq., shall deceive many. We cannot see why Lünemann finds in this a contradiction of καθίσαι.—Gently chiding them, the Apostle finally reminds them of the instruction which he had orally imparted to them. So far had he gone during the three weeks into the details of eschatology. But to the Apostle this same point of doctrine was of more importance than to our moderns; comp. Paul at Athens, Act_17:31. [Notice here also the force of ἕλεγον, I was telling, used to tell.—J. L.] Even the mediæval missionaries laid very great stress on the judgment. As the Thessalonians had to endure peculiar afflictions, Paul would seem to have led them into a special acquaintance with Daniel.
3. (2Th_2:6-8.) And now ye know what withholdeth; καὶ νῦν is taken by Bengel, Storr, Kern, Hilgenfeld and others as a temporal adverb in opposition to ἕτι of 2Th_2:5. Lünemann’s objection, that in that case it must have been said: ταῦτα μέν ἔτι—νῦν δὲ καί, does not amount to a great deal, except, indeed, that one does not exactly know how the point in contrast should be conceived of. Are we to understand it thus: Now, since you have learned the beginning of that matter, you know it as you did not previously? But what, then, had occurred, that could give them such information, even without the Apostle’s explanation? Here Roos and Brandt think of the recent expulsion of the tumultuous Jews from Rome, and similar facts, which might show them how the pseudo-Messianic element was held down by the Roman power. But that would be at least very obscurely expressed, in a case especially where they needed a renewal of their earlier instruction; and now would he in such an altogether disguised manner announce the new topic, which present circumstances supplied in contrast with his oral instruction? This has little to recommend it. Still more arbitrary is Hilgenfeld’s inference, that in this opposition the later date of the Epistle betrays itself, as if καὶ νῦν could only be understood thus: and now, some 40 years after the Apostle’s death! De Wette, Lünemann, Ewald [Alford, Ellicott] see in καὶ νῦν the indication of a logical advance to a new thought: And now ye know surely (Lünemann: by way of passing on to a further point). They appeal to Act_7:34; Act_10:5; Act_13:11; Act_20:25; but in all these places νῦν may also be taken temporally, whereas in our text it is not apparent why the simple καί should not have been used. Olshausen, Wieseler, and others assume an inversion, as in the case of ἕτι in Rom_5:6 (various reading), Winer, § 61. 4. Of course, it would have been easy to write: καὶ τὸ νῦν κατέχον; but it is true that we most naturally expect in the first member of the verse an, offset to ἐν τῷ ἑαυτοῦ καιρῷ. This Hofmann would obtain by taking also 2Th_2:6 interrogatively, and the οὐ of 2Th_2:5 as still operative: Remember ye not—, and know (ye not) now (when his time has not yet arrived), what withholdeth, &c.? This, however, is too artificial.
On the contrary, we obtain a very simple explanation of νῦν as a particle of time, if we understand it thus: And now, when ye recall my oral instruction, ye know. And so it follows also, what must have been probable beforehand (against Hilgenfeld), that the oral instruction already extended to the κατέχον, on which account he can speak of it the more briefly in writing. The meaning of the latter word is not, as Döllinger supposes, what possesses, controls, but, as in Rom_1:18, what restrains, hinders; Chrysostom: τὸ κωλύον; Calvin: impedimentum, causa moræ; but not: what hinders me from expressing myself freely; that were an altogether arbitrary interpretation, and is thoroughly confuted by 2Th_2:7; but: what still retards the outbreak and manifestation of Antichrist. The neuter in 2Th_2:6 denotes the power, the principle; the masculine in 2Th_2:7, a personality at the head of that power; at least, this is a priori the most natural suggestion. Moreover, εἰς τό denotes, not so much the duration (until), as the purpose of God in the κατέχειν: that he may be revealed in his [own] time; he, none other than the Man of Sin, is to step forth from his concealment in his time, the time fixed for him, measured out to him as his own; a time will come, that belongs to him, as the present does not yet; measured out, indeed, to him also only by God; comp. Luk_22:53; the counterpart of the fulness of the time, Gal_4:4. With the for that follows Paul accounts for his having spoken of the restraining of the Man of Sin, and of his revelation as still future. The ungodly element was really present already, and had a strong desire to break forth, but must still work as a dark mystery; not exactly in secret, but so that the wickedness does not yet expose its full nature. Μυστήριον forms an antithesis to ἀποκαλυφθῆναι of 2Th_2:6; there is an emphasis in its being put first, and separated from its genitive, as in Gal_2:6; Gal_2:9. The latter is a genitive either of apposition [De Wette, Lünemann, Alford]: the mystery which consists in lawlessness, or of possession: which belongs to it;37 ungodliness also having its mystery, the frightful counterpart to that of godliness, 1Ti_3:16; comp. the βάθη τοῦ σατανᾶ, Rev_2:24, over against the βάθη τοῦ θεοῦ, 1Co_2:10. Hofmann would understand it merely thus: the confounding, incomprehensible, inconceivable extreme of wickedness; but the contrast with the revelation should not be set aside. Olshausen goes beyond Scripture, when on account of the antithesis he speaks of an incarnation of Satan, when it will be said: ὁ διάβολος ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί; there is nothing of that here, and even Joh_6:70 is rather against than for it. Estius correctly: non diabolus, sed diaboli præcipuum organum est. Antichrist is, indeed, depicted as the caricature of Christ. But 2Th_2:7 does not yet treat of his person, but of the principle of lawlessness now already in action privately. Thereby is denoted the profligacy which violates every Divine law, knows nothing but a complete autonomy, endures no will over it; Dan_11:36 may be compared: He will do κατὰ τὸ θέλημα αὑτοῦ. Here the remark is not convincing, that the expressions ἀνομία and, 2Th_2:8, ἅνομος point us for Antichrist to the Gentile domain (Rom_2:12; 1Co_9:21); still more groundlessly others say, to the Jewish. When Hofmann, starting from Daniel, remarks that the faithless will fall a prey to Antichrist, as the apostate Jews did to Antiochus, that is no doubt true; only it does not necessarily follow that he himself will proceed from among the Gentiles. Rather we may say that the result of apostasy from the gospel will be a new and consummate heathenism, the rejection not merely of faith, but of every Divine ordinance. At the height of the Antichristian wickedness, however, the differences between Jews and Gentiles disappear, as they do on the other hand under the gospel. The mystery is already working (ἐνεργεῖται never passive,38 but middle); ἥδη is in opposition to 2Th_2:6, in his [own] time, and then ἅρτι answers to ἥδη, and the τότε of 2Th_2:8 to in his [own] time. Paul regards the phenomena of the time with the eyes of the Spirit; in the opposition to the moral order of things, but especially in resistance to Christ, he perceives the beginning of the final rebellion against final grace. This is to him the working of a terrible mystery, such as not many yet recognize. He sees before him (De Wette) the scattered, shapeless mass of ungodliness, which is first to gain form and personality in Antichrist, and by which his appearance is prepared and introduced, as is the case with every historical personage. In Thessalonica especially he had lived to see the fanatical hostility of the Jews prove false amongst the heathen to their Messianic hope (Act_17:7). The self-deification of the Emperor, and perhaps also already the false Gnosis of a Simon, were other features of that depravity.
In the sequel μόνον belongs not to what precedes [thus Jowett suggests as possible a connection with μυστήριον: only as a hidden mystery; Wordsworth connects with ἐνεργεῖται: worketh inwardly only;—both constructions equally untenable.—J. L.], which is already defined by ἥδη, but to what follows; the clause introduced by it limits in a certain way the preceding statement. As the Vulgate translates: tantum ut qui tenet nunc teneat, so many supply out of κατέχων a verb, κατέχει, καθέξει, κατεχέτω, or even (Bengel), from the following ἐκ μέσου γένηται, an in medio est. [Many supply simply the verb of existence, and with that Webster and Wilkinson connect ἅρτι: is now.—J. L.] Zwingli understands it thus (an interpretation already known to Augustine): “only he, who now holds aught, should hold it fast (whatever he has apprehended of the truth), till he (Antichrist) is taken out of the way.” But all these supplements are arbitrary. Calvin, who construes correctly, is just as mistaken in his explanation: until he (Antichrist), who now (that is, in the future for a short time) holds sway, is removed; and then he must refer the τότε to 2Th_2:6. This view has simply everything against it; I urge only the one point, that he thus takes ὁ κατέχων in a totally different sense from τὸ κατέχον, 2Th_2:6; whereas the remark cannot be avoided, that the one must correspond to the other, only that the masculine indicates a personality standing at the head. If again there are not two clauses but one, we have merely to recognize an inversion, namely, that as regards the sense ἕως ought to be first, whereas ὁ κατ. is put first for the sake of emphasis; comp. Gal_2:10 [and so the clause is now generally construed; see Revision.—J. L.]. Accordingly: The mystery is already working, only until (so long must it remain a mystery), only until he, who withholdeth for the present, is out of the way. That the latter phrase might denote a violent death, is not to be denied; that it must do so, is not to be asserted; indeed, comparing Col_2:14, and not even reading here αἴρεσθαι, but γενέσθαι (comp. 1Co_2:2; 1Ti_2:14), we perceive that as to the manner, in which the κατέχων gets out of the way, the expression says absolutely nothing; by a peaceful withdrawal on his part, we shall of course not say, since there is a judgment in his being called off. Who now is the κατέχων, is really the darkest point in the whole passage, now that we have no longer the oral interpretation; a proof, what oral tradition would amount to without a written record. Comp. the Doctrinal Note 3.—And then shall be revealed the Lawless one; the ἀνομία in person, the Head of wickedness in full expression; certainly none other than the Man of Sin, 2Th_2:3.—From the mention of the revelation, 2Th_2:3; 2Th_2:6; 2Th_2:8, and of the παρουσία, 2Th_2:9, Hofmann finally infers (die Heilige Schrift neuen Testaments, I, p. 330 sqq.), that there is here described a counterpart of Christ, that cannot be fully understood unless we recognize Antichrist also as already in existence, so that he will enter into the world anew from the supermundane sphere. It is not said, he suggests, that the ἀνομία, but that the ἄνομος will be revealed. This is the reason why Hofmann was so bent on setting aside the antithesis between μυστήριον and ἀποκαλ. Antiochus Epiphanes himself, he thinks, may again be expected. This, however, is an exaggeration of the Scriptural statements, that lapses into extravagance. The Man of Sin will come (παρουσία) and be revealed (will discover himself to be what he is, and what from a child he was not taken for) in and by the complete disclosure of the ἀνομία, which previously kept working as μυστήριον;—this surely is sufficient for us to find in him the counterpart of Christ. Even Hofmann will not go so far as to assume an incarnation of Satan. Comp. Auberlen, Daniel , 2 d edition, p. 456 sq., and Luthardt, die Lehre von den letzten Dingen, p. 150. The latter properly refers to Mal. 3:23 [Mal_4:5], where there is a promise of the sending of Elijah, which, however, is afterwards explained, in Luk_1:17; Mat_11:14; Mat_17:11-12, of John, the new Elijah,39 just as Rev_11:6 holds out no prospect of the return of the former Elijah. It is not the Elijah of history, says Luthardt, that we have to expect, but the Elijah of prophecy; comp. also Eze_34:23. Such literal interpretation as that practised by Hofmann should be left to the popular fancy of the Jews (Mat_16:14).—Whom the Lord (Jesus) shall consume; he thus becomes νἱὸς ἀπωλείας; the consolation that he is to be destroyed, is attached by Paul immediately to the mention of his appearance. The Godless one comes at the time appointed for him by God, and is consumed by Jesus; his tyranny, therefore, is no sign of weakness on the part of God. Isa_11:4 has not merely had an influence on the reading, but it is also a parallel for the subject matter.—With the spirit [breath] of His mouth, &c.; in German we do not have, as in Hebrew and Greek, the same word for spirit and breath. We must not with a coarse sensuousness think of a fiery wind, nor yet at once idealize the matter, as if what is meant were a word, shout, word of command; why in that case should not λόγος have been used? The explanation of the old Protestants was, that the word of God has inwardly, spiritually slain Antichrist (namely, the Pope), and the Advent will make a full end of him. The glowing parallelism of the clauses, however, intends not two acts, but only one. It is a counterpart to the description of creation in Psa_33:6 Sept. The view proceeds on the ground of sense Nothing is required but the breath of the Lord, which has power, as being the spirit of life, quickening for them that are His (Joh_20:22), but, amongst His enemies, who can bear it? One breath of the Lord scatters haughty power. Comp. Rev_19:15; Rev_19:21, the sharp word out of His mouth; Grotius refers also to Hos_13:3. Equally sublime is the second clause: and (shall) destroy (him) with the appearing of His coming; καταργεῖν, to destroy, abolish (1Co_2:6; 1Co_15:24), does not imply the utter annihilation of his personal existence, for indeed he is cast into the lake of fire (Revelation). Elsewhere the Lord’s coming is denoted either by παρουσία, or by ἐπιφάνεια, 2Ti_4:8; here the two are combined: by the appearing, the visibleness of His coming; He could, of course, come also invisibly. Zwingli’s application of this to the daily coming of His word into the hearts of believers must be rejected. Mere caprice also is the Irvingite distinction between the parousia [coming], by which believers from among the Gentiles shall be caught away to the Lord, and the subsequent appearing of the parousia [coming], in which the Jews are concerned (comp. the Doctrinal and Ethical Notes on 1Th_4:17, and also Luthardt, p. 37 sqq., especially 43). Bengel’s remark might be more worthy of attention, that the expression denotes the first gleam of the Advent, as distinguished from the final judgment; though here also somewhat too great stress is put upon it.40 But this much is true, that there is needed merely the first outburst of the Advent, nothing but that He show Himself [Psa_94:1], no organs for the exertion of His power; Bengel: prima ipsius adventus emicatio. An earnest of this in Joh_18:6.41
4. (2Th_2:9-12.) Whose coming is, &c.; οὗ, as well as the ὅν of 2Th_2:8, referring again to the ἄνομος of that verse. Only now, after he has already by way of consolation shown the end of the wicked one, is the description of his agency resumed. It will be terrible and destructive, but for that very reason will end in a holy judgment, and therefore the description can again resolve itself into thanksgiving, 2Th_2:13 sqq., that the Thessalonians do not belong to the apostates. Hofmann accordingly takes 2Th_2:9-17 together, there being here shown, he thinks, as in 2 Thessalonians 1, that punishment of unbelief, in which the appearance of the Lawless One will issue, in opposition to the salvation which will be for the Church the result of the proclamation of the apostolic message. It is true that the theme of 2Th_2:3 (the Lord comes not, till Antichrist has appeared) is discharged at 2Th_2:8; but the description of his working, 2Th_2:9 sqq., serves still for the completion of the picture, and indirectly for the warning of the readers: his power will be in the highest degree seductive; let every one, therefore, beware of the first beginnings of apostasy (2Th_2:2-3); for whosoever believes the lie is lost (2Th_2:10-11). But ye, thank God, are of those who believe the truth, and are chosen to salvation (2Th_2:13); therefore abide therein, stand fast, and hold fast what ye have received (2Th_2:15). The appearance of the Lawless is, takes place, says the Apostle in the present tense, doctrinally, without regard to the time; comp. 1Co_15:35.—According to the working of Satan, κατά, as in Col_1:29. Satan gives him power, as the Father does to Christ (Rev_13:2); it is the most perfect mimicry of Christ: salvation (in wonders) without repentance and the cross. But it is asked, whether κατὰ, &c. is a definition of the ἐστίν, or of ἐστὶν ἐν, &c.; whether his appearance is already of itself in the might of Satan, or rather his appearance with wonders. Hofmann prefers the former view; that his coming Isaiah 1. according to the working of Satan, and 2. a coming in wonders. But it is better, with Lünemann and others, to understand his coming as attended with wonders to be that, the source of which is assigned by κατ’ ἐνέργ.42 There will be in it a putting forth of every power; πᾳσῃ without the article belonging by zeugma to all the three substantives. Δύναμις denotes the root of the operations; σημεῖα, signs, in their significance as indicating the divinity of him who performs them—here of course deceptive; lastly, τερατα, portenta, the marvelousness of these indications. The three terms are often used of the deeds of Christ and the Apostles. Here we have the caricature; comp. the wonders of the false prophets, Mat_24:24, whereby even the elect would be deceived, were that possible. These prophets are, as it were, Antichrist’s apostles; in Rev_13:13 sqq. it is the false prophet in the singular, who represents hypocritical, Godless wisdom, and by his signs procures homage for the first beast (the Godless despot). Paul does not yet say by whom (as distinct from the ἄνομος himself) the wonders shall be wrought.—The wonders are called wonders of falsehood (ψεύδους again belonging to all the three words) in opposition to the wonders of truth in the case of Christ and His Apostles (as Paul asserts that he had wrought wonders, 2Co_12:12). To find in the genitive ψεύδους a designation simply of the origin, or simply of the object, or simply of the quality of those wonders, is an unwarrantable separation of what belongs all together.43 Moreover, Augustine is already aware of a double interpretation, what is meant being either a deception of the senses by empty illusions without reality (so Theodoret), or real miracles misleading to a false belief in them as performed by Divine power. Augustine, referring to Job, prefers the second view, and so with reason most others. To this conclusion we are at once led by the emphatic description by means of three synonyms. We also expect as counterparts to the miracles of Christ real operations, which yet are called miracles of falsehood (Roos), because men who regard them as proofs of the divintity of the unrighteous One are thereby miserably deceived. Performed by dark, gloomy powers, they are indeed at bottom nothing really creative, but assumptions, imitations, manifestations of a sham strength which at last is a wretched impotence, monstrosities without any saving object, but not, therefore, mere juggleries. The Bible throughout treats sorcery in a more serious way than as if it were empty legerdemain.—What follows likewise: and in all deceitfulness of unrighteousness, &c., does not mean an idle illusion, but an agency which has the glittering show of righteousness, and yet is full of unrighteousness, proceeding from that, and leading to it; the absolute culmination of unrighteousness is in robbing God of His glory. (The oldest authorities omit the article at ἀδικίας, as well as at ψεύδους). The Apostle shows us as a mark of the Man of Sin, besides the false miracles, the profanity also of his spirit and walk, and, besides lying (which again is an intentional falsification of knowledge), the wickedness also of his will generally; both in contrast with the ἀλήθεια. This influence he has, however, only amongst those who are perishing, in their circle (if ἐν were genuine; comp. 2Co_2:15; 2Co_4:3); but the oldest authorities give simply the dative (incommodi): for the perishing (not a dative of judgment, as in 1Co_1:18; 1Co_9:2). It belongs also to what is said at 2Th_2:9.44 The ἀπολλύμενοι (1Co_1:18) are not those who have already perished, nor yet those who deserve to perish, but such as are perishing, are actually on the way to perdition, and that through their own fault, as is said in the next clause: because they accepted not; ἀνθ’ ὧν, equivalent to ἀντὶ τούτων ὅτι, תַּחַתּ אֲשֶׁר, Luk_1:20. He does not say: they received not the truth, but: the love of the truth. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact err in supposing that by this Christ is meant, who has truly loved us (in that case the phrase should rather have been, the truth of love). The Apostle rather gives us to understand, that the natural man by himself is not merely destitute of the truth, but has not so much as the love of the truth; even this must first be implanted in him. The sentence is to be understood comprehensively of all truth, wherever and however it comes to men. Its introductory stages are shown in Romans 1, 2, and in Christ it culminates. In like manner, the want of love for the truth reaches its consummation in obduracy against Christ, when clearly revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. For a long while a man may go along undecided; Antichrist will drive him to a decision. God does not force the truth on a man, who suffers it not to grow up in his heart. What hinders a man from receiving the truth? That is indicated by the profound opposition between truth and unrighteousness; comp. Rom_1:18, and the Doctrinal and Ethical Note, 5.—[That they might be saved; εἱς τὸ σωθῆναι αὐτούς, in order to their being saved; the end and result of a reception of the love of the truth, which reveals a Saviour, and brings His salvation near.—J. L.]—And for this cause doth God send them; (καί is wanting. only in D.1 67) for this cause—as a punishment—we refer rather to what precedes than to what follows (so that εἰς τὸ, &c. would be epexegetical). He sends it to them—according to the best authorities the present, like ἐστίν of 2Th_2:9; but it does not signify already now, but is to be taken doctrinally, irrespective of time. Again, Luther’s translation is, strong errors [kräftige Irrthümer]; more correctly: strength or working of delusion. Does God do that? Or does He merely permit it to come, as the Greek interpreters and others soften the expression? No, indeed; the Apostle describes the mighty act of the Judge, punishing evil by evil. Not to believe the truth is sin [to refuse the love of the truth, still darker sin.—J. L.]; to have to believe the lie is the punishment of sin, the exposure of nakedness, like the abandonment to vice in Rom_1:24; in the lusts (ἐν), wherein they are ensnared, He gives them up unto uncleanness (εἰς), lets them slide down on the sloping path of their own desires, and that because they would not have it otherwise. The object of the sending is, that they should believe the falsehood; not merely the error, but the conscious, wilful, God-defying untruth. The singular with the article denotes, not a single lie, but the entire force, the entire element of the devilish perversion of all truth (Joh_8:44).45 Grotius compares Pro_1:29-31.—That they may be judged, object of the πιστεῦσαι, that is, God’s purpose therein. God has this decision in view, that they may be condemned as those in whom evil has come to maturity; Chrysostom: convicted as without excuse. They all together, who believed not the truth, who at that time shall not have believed; but had pleasure in unrighteousness [Webster and Wilkinson: the ultimate and secret source of all the evil which results in condemnation.—J. L.]; over against the εὐδοκία ἀγαθωσύνης, 2Th_1:11. A powerfully warning conclusion; Chrysostom: ἔρχεται ἐλέγξων αὐτούς. The Apostle has thus more exactly defined the nature of the judgment already spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 1 : The appearance of the Man of Sin must help to bring about the complete separation. It is true, therefore, that the matter does not proceed so swiftly and smoothly as you fancy; but yet with all terrible earnestness it will proceed gloriously.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. (2Th_2:2.) The Apostle’s exhortations to the use of reason are far more frequent than Luther’s translation allows to be seen. It is its business to understand the manifestation of God in the creation (νοεῖν, Rom_1:20). The voice of conscience likewise is heard as the law of the reason (Rom_7:23).46 It is true that the power is not thus given to man, truly to overcome the law of sin in the members. That is possible only for the spirit which is renewed by the Spirit from God (Romans 8). Without this the spirit falls a prey to the carnality, vanity, pollution, which affect it and the conscience (Col_2:18; Eph_4:17; Tit_1:15). But even in the regenerate it has its work. Though the peace of God passeth all understanding, yet it too keeps the heart and thereby the thoughts (νοήματα, Php_4:7). The Spirit of God renews the reason, bringing it under obligation, and enabling it, to apply itself to a reasonable service of God (Rom_12:1-2), to attain a certainty of knowledge with full assurance (Rom_14:5), yea, to search into the mysteries of God (Rev_13:18; Rev_17:9). Whoever neglects to cherish it may, while standing himself in the Spirit of God, become unfruitful for others (1Co_14:14-19). The fulness of the Divine Spirit in the Apostle shows itself in this, that he does not so readily as we, on account of the abuse of which he too is aware, become distrustful towards the right use. The limits of the reason are indicated even in its German name [Vernunft]: it perceives [vernimmt] realities, which it does not itself originate.
2. Our chapter suggests a special instance of the sobriety required in 1 Thessalonians 5. At 1Co_15:34 the Apostle describes the denial of the resurrection as a case of intoxication [ἐκνήψατε, awake as from drunkenness]; here, on the contrary, he warns against an error in the opposite direction. For it is not merely the being overcharged with worldly pleasures and cares (Luk_21:34 sqq.) that hinders watchfulness; but the excitement also, which would anticipate the glory, is in danger of turning into so much the greater disappointment and lassitude, and is far from being that joyful uplifting of the head (Luk_21:28), which implies endurance to the end, literally an ὑπομένειν, a bearing up under (Mat_24:13). An immoderate and presumptuous spiritualism easily ends in making shipwreck of faith. How many, who allowed themselves to be induced by a fantastic excitement to dispose of their goods and abandon their homes,47 sank down afterwards into a stupid worldliness! It is also very deserving of remark, that already in the apostolic age fanaticism was the fruitful mother of fraud. The man, who will carry out his nice favorite notions under the false pretence of an apostolic name, does not stand before God. The really pseudonymous Scriptures have a different character from those, which a perverse criticism would add to them. It is no good sign, when so many have no longer the sense for distinguishing an unwholesome, impure element from the truth of God. Moreover, as regards the warning of the Apostle, and the similar words of Christ: Go not forth! believe them not (Mat_24:23; Mat_24:26)! it may well seem strange, how often many have disregarded them. It is true, indeed, that a careless security goes not forth in advance, does not even believe that there is yet to be any Advent, and knows just nothing of the prayer, Come, Lord Jesus! Still, a bustling, eschatological excitement is merely a seeming faith, and in reality a self-willed precipitancy. When He actually comes, it will be as the lightning. Of the previous signs Paul says to his readers: “They will be severer than you think;” as Jesus likewise saddens the heart of His disciples, that He may then duly comfort them. Luthardt properly remarks (p. 54), in reference to the Irvingite doctrine of the translation, that to promise glory without the full experience of the cross is a sign, that the flesh has to do with these notions; and he describes (p. 49) as fanatical that expectation, in which the eye is held in mere searches into the future, and draws from it no genuine strength for work in the present. From experiences of his time, John George Müller of Schaff hausen (as reported in Gelzer’s Monatsblättern, October, 1863, p. 211), describes the reprehensible sect-spirit as of a denunciatory (or as Lavater calls it, a hangman) nature, delighting in strained inferences, the suppression of all reason, spiritual pride, superstition, the domination of a loud, talkative chief, &c. Apocalyptic study is of high importance, the more the mystery of lawlessness begins strongly to bestir itself; but it must throughout and constantly find its counterpoise in ethics. Indifference to the claims of the present, to the duties of the daily Christian walk, to one’s temporal calling, to the weal of our fatherland, and such like interests, is not Christianity. It is not she, that in the fulness of her truth turns Christians into unfruitful visionaries. The very remembrance, that they are but strangers and pilgrims on the earth (1Pe_2:11), is expressly used to introduce those exhortations, which require from every one according to his position the greatest fidelity in details.
3. (2Th_2:3-10.) The instruction concerning Antichrist is a highly important part of the prophetic word. The point, on which historically all are agreed, is the affinity of this section with the Book of Daniel; its dependence on the Jewish eschatology, say many; we express it more correctly by saying, that the Pauline prophecy has its root in that of the Old Testament. Let it be mentioned as a curiosity, that Tychsen would set aside the prophecy by the assumption, that Paul quotes sentence by sentence from a letter of the Thessalonians opinions which he then refutes. We need not prove that Paul is in earnest in delivering his doctrines. Besides the commentaries, we refer to Wieseler, Chronologie des apostolischen Zeitalters, 1848, p. 256 sqq.; Baumgarten, Apostelgeschichte, 2d ed., 1859, I. 603 sqq.; and especially the instructive excursus in Heubner, p. 168 sqq., and in Döllinger, Christenthum und Kirche in der Zeit der Grundlegung, 1860, p. 277 sqq., 422 sqq. Consideration is due also to what Ed. Böhmer has edited in Liebner’s Jahrbücher für deutsche Theologie, i2Th 2Th_2:3, from Schneckenburger’s remains (zur Lehre vom Antichrist); and yet, however learnedly the Jewish opinions and those of the primitive Christians are here discussed, the essay presents not much that is satisfactory for the understanding of our passage. [Perhaps the best sketch in English of the history of opinion on this important section is that given by Alford in his Prolegomena to this Epistle, and mainly taken, as he intimates, from Lünemann. See also the article Antichrist in Appendix B to Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, where will be found a list of the principal writers on the subject.48—J. L.] We classify the interpretations as follows:
I. The interpretation of the ancient Church. The Fathers are essentially agreed in expecting, immediately before the still future appearing of Christ, the appearance of the personal Antichrist; only Augustine (De Civ. Dei, 20, 19) already takes the idea in a collective sense, so as to embrace the prince with all his adherents.49 On the other hand, many understand the apostasy personally of the Antichrist. Theodoret [after Chrysostom] describes the adversary as a man who receives into himself the whole energy of the devil; if he even speaks of an imitation of the incarnation of Christ, he yet again restricts the idea to this, that Satan chooses for himself a man, who shall be possessed of all his own might. Some would also have it, that he shall be born of the tribe of Dan, and appear as a false Messiah of the Jews; but these are Jewish notions, which find acceptance only at a later period. Cyril of Jerusalem, for example, teaches likewise (Catech, x2Th 2Th_2:4-8), that he will be very skilful in magic arts, will at first appear with flatteries, but afterwards will rage against the Christians with exceeding cruelty, and that for three years and a half. Some of these traits are derived from Daniel and the Apocalypse. The sitting in the temple most explain as do Theodoret and Theophylact50 of his usurping the presidency or lordship in the Church, and giving himself out as Christ and God. Yet Irenæus (Adv. Hær. 2:25) and Cyril of Jerusalem understand it literally of sitting in the temple at Jerusalem, which he is to display great zeal in rebuilding (Cyr.). The preparatory μυστήριον ἐνεργούμενον, or, as we may even say, a strong type of Antichrist, Chrysostom (and many after him) sees in Nero (inconsistently with the date of composition);51 Theodoret, on the contrary, in the Gnostic heresies, wherein, he thinks, is hidden the snare of lawlessness. The most uncertain point is the explanation of the κατέχων. Most saw in that the Roman Emperor (in the neuter, the Empire). Chrysostom: As the Babylonian, the Persian, the Macedonian, the Roman empires followed one another, so shall Antichrist follow the rule of the Romans. He, like Augustine and Jerome, supposes that the Apostle speaks so obscurely of the end of the Roman Empire, in order not to draw on himself the reproach of seditious preaching. He acts thus, not from cowardice, but to teach us that we should not provoke needless hostility. Chrysostom is aware also of the explanation, that the κατέχον denotes the continuance of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit; but this he refutes. Theodore of Mopsuestia and Theodoret propose another explanation to this effect: What is meant is not the grace of the Spirit, which cannot withdraw, since without that no one could overcome; nor yet the Roman power, since this is followed by no other; but what is meant is the purpose (ὅρος) of God to restrain the outbreak till the gospel be generally spread abroad, and idolatry destroyed. In this there is something aimed at that is correct as regards the thought; but the phraseology does not suit it. The ὅρος θεοῦ should not ἐκ μέσου γενέσθαι but πληρωθῆναι, as indeed Theophylact expresses himself in explanation. On, the whole, the interpretation of the Fathers is simply textual. Only as to how the prophecy adjusts itself to the temporary horizon of the Apostle, on that point they have little to say. It is not till the third century that some (and first Commodian) adopt the idea, that Nero will come again as Antichrist. Then in the middle ages fantastic notions were propagated about Antichrist as an ungodly tyrant; all sorts of fables being told concerning the place and manner of his birth, and the nature and region of his operation (comp. Heubner, p. 170; Döllinger, p. 432). But as the established Church and its hierarchy anticipated the glory of the kingdom, the coming of the Lord and also that of Antichrist retired more into the background. On the other hand, the way was preparing for
II. The interpretation of the Reformers. The sects of the middle ages, which arose in opposition to the secularized Church (Wiclifites, Hussites, likewise Savonarola and Gailer of Kaisersberg) declared the Pope to be Antichrist, and the German Emperor (as being heir of the Roman Emperor) to be the κατέχων. This was also the prevailing interpretation of the Reformers, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin; amongst the Lutherans even a, doctrine of their standards, Artic. Smalc., II. 4, p. 314, and in the Appendix, p. 347 (Rechenberg’s ed.). It was said, that the removal of the κατέχων of the western Roman Empire cleared the way for Antichrist; and then the abominations of the papacy were enumerated: A falling away from the gospel to commandments of men, lust of power, oppression of the conscience, cruelty, insane pride, wicked assumption of power in heaven and on earth, and that reaching even into the life of eternity, the abuses of indulgences, charges to angels in certain bulls, the asserted power of the priest in transubstantiation, authority to change the faith and laws. In all this, it was thought, the Pope puts himself in the place of God, yea, arrogates to himself Divine attributes and idolatrous worship. One is amazed to see how much of this applies, and yet this interpretation must be rejected; that is to say, there is indeed no mistaking the fearfully antichristian features of the Papacy, and consequently its typical relation to Antichrist; but still one cannot affirm, that the Papacy is the Antichrist. In the first place, it should have been possible to show still more of the Popish μυστήριον ἤδη ἐνεργούμενον, already in Paul’s days. Appeal was made perhaps to Galatians 1, 2; Zwingli referred to the false apostles already existing at that time, who were still restrained by the great faithfulness and care of the Apostles; Bengel to Rom_16:17 sqq. and 1Ti_4:1 sqq. In all that, however, the Papal tendency did not yet reach a clear expression. The way, likewise, in which the κατέχων is explained, is by no means felicitous. The German Emperor, who took the place of the Roman, also fell, and Antichrist did not come. But even if that admitted of explanation, still the features of the prophecy are not at all fulfilled in the Papacy itself. In the first place, the word of the Apostle brings into view one personality. It is said, indeed, that the series et successio hominum are not inconsistent with that, since, as in a monarchy, there is still but one head; but perhaps that one may be a pious Pope? and besides our passage speaks of the one (without followers) who is swept away; which does not agree with the Papacy. And there are yet other points that do not suit. Whilst there have been wicked Popes (occasionally, also, those of a better character), still the Pope cannot be charged with utter apostasy from Christ. He confesses the Triune God, and does by no means despise σεβάσματα. Calvin tries in vain so to explain the Apostle’s description, as if it did not imply an express self-deification. If it is said with Bengel (and similarly Brandt), that the abomination of the Papacy will yet attain to the highest pitch, namely, to the casting away of the mask, and the open antichristianism of the Wicked One, then we really give up the interpretation of the Reformers, and reduce the Papacy to the rank of a (momentous) prognostic of that antichristianism. Of course, the Roman Catholic Döllinger cannot consent even to that; he also thinks that the supposition of an apostasy of such universal prevalence contradicts the promises given to the Church; as if the word about the “little flock,” or about the “few that find” the strait gate, had no place in the gospel. Roos, going beyond Bengel, expressly remarks, that there is much that is antichristian in the Pope, but that there are still important deficiencies; since he still acknowledges the supremacy of God, nor does he deny the Son. The apostasy, he thinks, is here with us, but not yet the Man of Sin. In the latter Roos properly recognizes a single person; according to the Apocalypse, the last head of the beast; the false Messiah. He is of opinion, that that will be the highest pitch of the Papacy, and that it presupposes, not the destruction, but merely a great alteration, of the fourth Empire (of Daniel); the Pope, having seized all the Imperial rule that has hitherto stood in his way, will then have become Antichrist. To us it simply appears to be undemonstrated, that this consummation of evil is to be looked for as the highest pitch of the Papacy, and not rather of a Cæsaropapism. It is yet to be noticed, that already some Greek interpreters, and then Western Catholics, and also Protestants, pointed to Mohammed as the Antichrist. Calvin reckons him and sectarianism as belonging to the great apostasy; whereas Melanchthon, Bucer, Musculus, Bullinger and others distinguish the Eastern Antichrist from the Western. Our fathers knew why they sang: “The murderous violence of Pope and Turk restrain.”52: In Mohammed also there are antichristian features; he too belongs to the “many Antichrists” (1Jn_2:18); but neither is he the Antichrist, whom the Advent shall destroy. Just so think Roman Catholics, when they in return designate Luther as Antichrist. Döllinger (p. 438) admits, that what was perhaps said in polemical paroxysm is not really valid as the Church interpretation; and certainly Estius, for example, does not say here that Luther is the Antichrist described by Paul, but merely that Luther learned from the devil as his master, to designate the Pope as the Antichrist. In his opinion Luther would fall under the principle expressed by him at 1Jn_2:18 : omnis hæreticus antichristus.53—The untenableness of the Reformation references to this or that phenomenon of Church history led to various
III. Rationalistic interpretations. We distinguish, a. such explanations resting on the history of the time as assert, that the prophecy has reference to single individuals or phenomena of the past, and was fulfilled in them or else not fulfilled; for the fulfilment can only be asserted, when the substance of the matter is eliminated from the text, and merely it most outward features are retained in a poor, dry, spiritless way. Ingenuity can be shown in this, historical erudition, and a sort of talent at combination, but the whole is paltry; the spirit of the passage is last. It is right to recognize the fact, that the immediate reference to the Apostle’s time should not be overlooked, but it is wrong to limit his word exclusively to the history of his time. The view which [Hammond], Clericus, Whitby, Schöttgen, Nösselt, Krause, Harduin support, understands by the Coming the judgment on Jerusalem, and consequently looks for the Antichrist somehow in the Jewish people. They are themselves the Antichrist (thinks Whitby), or the Pharisees and Rabbis (Schöttgen), or the Zealots (Nösselt, Krause), or the Highpriest Ananias, Acts 23. (Harduin), or the wicked ringleader, Simon, the son of Gioras (Clericus). The apostasy is understood either of the political revolt from the Romans, or of a religious falling away, or of both. The restraining power Clericus refers partly to the Roman governor, partly to Agrippa II. and the Jewish authorities, who disapproved of the rebellion; Whitby and Nösselt, to the Emperor Claudius, who was favorable to the Jews; Schöttgen to the Christians, who by their prayers delay the catastrophe. But this limitation of the catastrophe to the Jewish people is untenable. The Coming, of which the Apostle speaks, does not concern Jerusalem merely, but likewise the Thessalonians, because it regards the whole world; nor, according to Daniel to whom Paul goes back, is the Man of Sin the Jewish people, or a party in it, or even a member of it, but a tyrant ruling all the nations of the world. This is recognized by those who by Antichrist understand a Roman Emperor; first of all by Grotius, who herein found Caligula, that frantic madman, who would be worshipped as the supreme God, greater than Jupiter (Suetonius, Cal. 22 and 23), and tried at first to bring his statue into the temple at Jerusalem (Josephus, Ant. xviii. 8)—an attempt which the prudence of Herod Agrippa I. succeeded in frustrating (comp. Schneckenburger, Neutestam. Zeitgeschichte, 1862, p. 41 and 212). The κατέχων is the Proconsul Vitellius, who advised against it. But even after his removal the outrage was not carried out? Grotius answers, that before God the will is as the deed, as in the case of adultery with the eyes. He distinguishes, finally, the ἄνομος of 2Th_2:8 from the Man of Sin of 2Th_2:3, and sees in the former Simon Magus, along with the impius Princeps the impius Doctor, who is then consumed by the appearing of Christ, to wit, in the ministry of Peter. As this last explanation is utterly capricious, so the entire combination falls to pieces, as soon as we think of the chronology: Caligula was dead at least 10 years already, before Paul even made his first visit to Thessalonica. Wetstein would recognize in Antichrist Titus (the mild Titus!), who caused sacrifice to be offered in the temple-site (but not himself to be worshipped!), or, in a wider sense, the Flavian house; the κατέχων being Nero, who must first be killed, and the falling away relating to the struggles of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. Such is profane exegesis. The spirit of the passage, however, is less destroyed, when Hammond would find in Antichrist Simon Magus, the father of heresy, who should reveal himself, that is, cast off the mask of Christianity, when the κατέχων, to wit, the νόμος should be set aside.54 But against all these explanations may be urged the question. What is left of the parousia [the Advent] in the full sense of the word? They therefore tend strongly to the view that is frankly explained by saying, that there is here an expectation expressed, which long ago found its confutation in history; so especially Kern, Baur, Hilgenfeld. According to them, we are to understand by the fallling away the profligacy of the Jews, wherein Christians also shall participate, and by the mystery of wickedness the Gnostic heresy (on this point the interpretation wavers); but the Antichrist is Nero, whose coming is looked for, when the κατέχων, namely Vespasian, is removed. But that such personal severities of language towards contemporaries should be concealed in our passage has, among other objections to it, this also against it, that it is á priori improbable that we should find one Emperor in Antichrist, and another in the κατέχων, two individuals, therefore, of the same class. In the κατέχων we expect to perceive a power of a different order from the Man of Sin. This holds likewise against Döllinger, who does not, as those last named, see in Antichrist the returning Nero (which implies a post-Pauline date of composition), but adjusts himself better to the circumstances of the time, in so far as in his view the stripling Nero stands for Antichrist, and the still reigning Claudius for the κατέχων; Nero was a devotee of magic arts, and, as he began the Jewish war, so he at least made a beginning of the profanation of the temple by the worship of the Emperors (p. 284). But this is surely a very inadequate fulfilment of 2Th_2:4; Döllinger also concedes, that at the end of the days a perfect fulfilment will occur. But that the young Nero, who as yet had done nothing of so shocking a character, should have been regarded by Paul as Antichrist, and the dull Claudius, moreover, as the κατέχων (which he understands as meaning, who is now in possession), this too, viewed historically, is in the highest degree insufficient. Nor, finally, is it well that in the apostasy Döllinger sees a misleading by the Gnostic heretics, that is entirely independent of Antichrist, b. A rationalistic speculation in the opposite direction is that of those, who, like the otherwise sound Pelt and others, divest the prophecy as much as possible of everything concrete, and, retaining the general idea, explain whatever is found therein of personal features, as the dressing up of a tendency. Thus Schneckenburger also speaks of the personification of evil in its resistance to Christ. The idea then is, the climax of hostility to the gospel, prior to the Advent; but the Advent is by many regarded not as a single visible act, but as the final and general passing over of the nations to the gospel.* Previously there will occur a falling away, that is admitted, but without the biblical sharpness of conflict, and without any leading55 personalities. According to Schneckenburger the κατέχων should be the imperial power of Rome as the binding head of the political order; according to Pelt (as with Theodoret), the purpose of God, who makes use of various means; in Paul’s time, of the Roman sovereignty; at all times, of that resistance to utter confusion, which proceeds even from a striving for honor and possession, or, as we might say, of conservatism; on the whole, of the better leanings of humanity, the never entirely extinct longing for salvation. The μυστήριον, &c., on the other hand, is the moral depravation already observable in Paul’s time; according to Schneckenburger, Jewish sorcery, which sought entrance also amongst the heathen (Elymas, Acts 13; the ἀντικείμενοι πολλοί, 1Co_16:9). To these general descriptions one can altogether assent; the neuters, τὸ κατέχον and τὸ μυστήριον, are explained satisfactorily, but ὁ κατέχων and the Antichrist are missing. Why? Because many, as Lücke (on 1 John), by setting aside individualities think to make the idea “more conceivable.” But this interpretation damages also what is said in 1Jn_2:18 (comp. with 1Jn_2:22; 1Jn_4:3; 2Jn_1:7): “It is the last hour, in which the Antichrist cometh; there are even already many antichrists;” this does not mean: “These come instead of the One,” but: “These come as forerunners of the One, the future chief personality.” They show that the fulfilment draws near, already now is τὀ τοῦ ἀντιχρίστου in the world” (4:3); which answers to the μνστήριον of Paul, and is the sign of the Antichrist’s coming. Consequently, the explanation, which sets aside the personalities plainly indicated in the words of the Apostle, tends strongly, c. to that particular rationalistic view, in which the sense of the Apostle is on the whole correctly given, but is rejected as an opinion of the time. So De Wette and Lünemann. The former will see in the entire section nothing but a subjective outlook of the Apostle into the future of the Church, wherein he paid a tax to human weakness, in that here, as in 1 Thessalonians 4; 1 Corinthians 15; Romans 11, he wished to know too much beforehand. A fanciful interpretation of Daniel, in connection with philosophcal speculation, furnished the form. Lünemann also thinks that Paul erred, as the non-fulfilment has shown, and that he was disposed to lay down more exact conclusions regarding the course of events, than it is granted to man, even when filled with the Spirit of Christ, to know. But this at bottom is nothing less than the rejection of all prophecy, in spite of an assurance like that of 1Th_4:15; and for what reason? because people proceed on a view of Daniel diametrically opposed to that of the Apostle, and on a corresponding modern speculation. At the same time, an undue stress is laid on the fact, that the expectation was not realized in the apostolic age. Therefore (Lünemann) it is altogether capricious to look for the fulfilment of the prophecy only in a remote future. Others will rather find in this assertion nothing but caprice. At all events the question concerns not merely the coming of Antichrist, but the Advent of Christ Himself. If the expectation of the latter is not to be rejected for the reason that it was not realized in the Apostle’s time, one cannot see why, before the yet future appearing of Christ, Antichrist also might not first appear in the future. Paul, indeed, merely hoped that it might happen, that he should yet live to see the coming of Christ, but nowhere does he say that it will be so; rather, that the times and seasons are unknown to us. If the prophecy of Immanuel (Isaiah 7-9) is brought into connection with the chastisement by the Assyrians, without having gone into fulfilment at that time, and yet after more than 700 years Christ was the true Immanuel, why cannot the same thing occur in the case of the Advent? Comp. our remarks on 1 Thessalonians 4, 5.—To prove that Paul’s vision does not reach beyond the horizon of his own time, an improper stress would be put on the sitting in the temple, to wit, at Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus had foretold the destruction of the temple (Mat_24:2; Mat_24:15), and that, in a passage which agrees so thoroughly with Matthew 24, Paul should take no notice of this is the less to be assumed, when we reflect what a judgment he holds out in prospect to the Jews. But we have said already, that his words need not be pressed with so narrow a literality, as if they stood or fell with the Herodian temple. He portrays, indeed, an outward act that connects itself with the temple; but this act is the expression of an abiding disposition and purpose, that is not confined to the one house of stone. It is possible that this or a kindred act of outward pomp, and ostentation in the sanctuary, serves as an expression of self-deification. Who will see beforehand, where and in what form of outward action it will come to pass, that the Man of Sin shall force himself on all the world as God? The language of a prophet must be understood according to the analogy of the prophets.
De Wette, to be sure, does not scruple to assert, that, without regard to the chronological difficulty, the prediction is in itself untrue. The personification of sinfulness and ungodliness, in connection with all the forces and arts of devilish imposture, as an exact counterpart of Christ, is a contradiction, he says, to the reflective understanding as much as to pious feeling and the honor of humanity. But this is true only of that sort of reflective understanding, which first misrepresents the Scripture doctrine of the devil, as a philosopheme; which thinks, that what is said of blasphemy against the Spirit (Matthew 12) is not to be taken according to the strictness of the letter; which indeed would be compelled in consistency to deny all actual perdition. But there is also another way of thinking which learns from Jesus, and a pious feeling which, instead of embracing ἐθελοθρησκεία, bows itself in adoration before the holy God. But as for the honor of humanity, where is it in the case of an Alexander VI. or a Marat? in the abomination of the Papacy, or the abolition of God in 1793, and the worship of a prostitute as the goddess of reason? In a word, the apostolic age is past, but the apostolic prophecy is still extant, and speaks to us with a high significance—most of all at a time, when the mystery of lawlessness is bestirring itself in greater strength than formerly.56 This brings us to the view which we hold to be the true one:
IV. The interpretation resting on the proper idea of the history of the kingdom. Generally speaking, there is concerned in it a resumption of the patristic interpretation, avoiding the reference to single phenomena of previous Church history, observing the point of connection within the horizon of the apostolic age, and leaving open the prospect of a still impending realization of the prophetic picture. Of this view Bengel and Roos were already the pioneers, and it is since maintained by Olshausen (who makes merely the unsuitable addition of the incarnation of Satan), Hofmann (deducting his Antiochus redivivus), first in Weissagung und Erfüllung (II., 291 sqq.), then in Schriftbeweis, and lastly in the Heil. Schrift Neuen Testaments (I., 312 sqq.); also by Luthardt, Baumgarten, Von Gerlach; likewise, on the whole, by Heubner, as in part by Döllinger (at least in so far as he affirms a second and future fulfilment); then by Thiersch (Die Kirche im apostolischen Zeitalter, 2d ed., 1858, p. 62 sqq., p. 139; and in the pamphlet, Döllinger’s Auffassung des Urchristenthums, 1861, p. 38 sqq.), Von Oettingen (De peccato in spiritum sanctum, 1856, p. 156 sqq.), the Englishman Alford [Ellicott. See also my Lectures, pp. 507–540], and others. Let us direct our attention chiefly to three points: 1. the failing away, 2. Antichrist himself, 3. the κατέχων.
(1) It is a momentous fact, that already in this almost the earliest Epistle Paul writes to the glorious young church about a failing away in Christendom, as Moses and the prophets did about the falling away of the people of God. For it is a falling away in Christendom that he intends, a reaction against its general extension. Thus Joel, Isaiah (2Th 27), Ezekiel (2Th 38), Psalms 2, 110, foretell a judgment on all nations, and so do Jesus and His Apostles the rise of false prophets who should deceive many, a grievous diffusion of the ungodly, worldly spirit; comp. Mat_24:10 sqq.; Joh_5:43; 1Ti_4:1; 2Ti_3:1; Act_20:29-30; Jude and 1 Peter 2; 1 Peter 1 and 2 John, and the Revelation. A prelude to this Paul had witnessed in Thessalonica itself. The Old Testament teaches the comprehension of the revolters under one enemy of God as their head only, perhaps, in Psa_110:657 and with peculiar distinctness in Daniel; in the New Testament this is done in our text and in Revelation. The expression ἀντίχριστος is found only in the First and Second Epistles of John. But in our passage the falling away is by no means identical with the Antichrist (as the Fathers understood it), or even merely (as De Wette thinks) the working exclusively of Antichrist; rather, the general rush of violent departure from the faith precedes that final disclosure of the Antichristian despot. Thiersch: The abomination in the holy place, which introduces the judgment on Jerusalem, is the type of that desecration of the Church, which invokes the judgment by Antichrist, and soon also upon him. Olshausen and Hofmann are correct in stating, that in the time of the Maccabees faithless Jews broke the covenant, prior to the raging of Antiochus; they then sided with the tyrant, whereas the Lord’s people took courage, and many actually died as martyrs. Bengel reminds us that in the gospel likewise there is first a proclamation, that the kingdom has come nigh, and then the King himself comes forward. Thus it is only in the later periods of the Old and New Testaments, that the concentration of evil in a single head is plainly taught, but not as an isolated, peculiar opinion, but as a recapitulation. Answerable, that is, to the apostasy spreading ever more widely, and springing from it, is
(2) The Man of Sin, the ripest fruit of his time, the consummate product of evil; not so much a false prophet, as Wieseler imagines, as the Godless self-deifying ruler of worldly empire. The abominable worship of the Emperors, to which so many were enslaved, was a serious foretaste of this. Vainglorious falsehood, seduction, blasphemy, are the characteristics of this being. In every worldly empire a tendency to apotheosis had been observable (Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander); of this current Paul notes the shameless consummation. Why should it be “more conceivable,” that in this last empire the personal climax should be omitted, which was wanting in none of its predecessors? In all history there exists a reciprocity of action between the actual movement of the time and the achievements of an energetic personality. For every historical individual there is a thousand-fold work of preparation, and he makes his appearance not otherwise than as a child of his age. And again the drift of the time only reaches an irresistible supremacy, when one man conceives the spirit of the time at its height, with bold grasp brings to bear what is fermenting half obscurely in a thousand minds, and so stamps the age with his seal. He can do it, if he has the courage—after all, it will be the effrontery—to express and carry out what is in a thousand hearts. Those who were his forerunners then become his servants and helpers.
Of course, we do not yet know himself, the future head; a prolepsis there was again, when many were disposed to see in Napoleon 1. more than a type of him. But that the apostasy is advancing in Christendom, who can hide from himself? It is important to attend to this, in opposition to an overvaluing of the outward Christianity of the popular life and that of states. Faithfulness in little and the least, the thankful administration of what is still entrusted to us, will not be weakened in the smallest degree, if we hold less to an untenable ideal. But of this character is the opinion, that the development of the kingdom of God advances on the smooth and level road of “progress” in what is good, and that the question is about the easy and brilliant “transfiguration of the world” [Weltverklärung] by means of Christian culture.58 On the contrary, the prospect held out to us rather is, that in the last severe conflict evil will even obtain an outward victory, as over Christ on Good Friday, but shall then be destroyed by the Lord Himself. It is well worth while to give heed to the prophetic word, and that so much the more, as the day comes nearer; not throwing it into the shade with a shrug of the shoulder, as if it were a matter of fanaticism. Paul himself would have us prudently try the spirts, and hold fast our νοῦς. But the same thing holds good also of watchfulness, that we be not befooled by the fanaticism of reason, intoxicated with the giddy potion of the great words of philosophers and poets, nor suffer our sensibility to be dulled, till it is no longer wounded by any blasphemy. We refer the reader to the earnest words against the false boast of the world’s glorification by Christian culture, instead of by the cross and regeneration, in Auberlen’s Daniel , 2 d ed., p. 234 sqq., 239, 264. On p. 261 it is said: We are not to suppose that during the present dispensation Christianity will ever, or is meant to, succeed in Christianizing the world in a true and proper sense. An ameliorating influence it may and probably will exert on all the departments of life; but a proper glorification must necessarily be preceded by a regeneration, that is, by death and resurrection; in this way it behooved even Christ Himself to be glorified. In accordance with this Heubner says (p. 177): However the delicate and tender-hearted may shudder at the idea of such a degenerate, atheistical, as it were devilish, generation, yet according to the course of things it is probably what we have to expect. In humanity good and evil go forward parallel to each other (Mat_13:30). As the culture of the understanding, science and art increase, man attains greater opportunity on the one side for improvement, but on the other also for deterioration.—In truth, we can trace more and more of this μυστήριον ἤδη ἐνεργούμενον: a widespread, daring, fundamental unbelief; a more and more conscious hatred of the Divine; even in the better class of spirits a deep, gnawing scepticism, that undermines the lowermost foundations of Divine and human truth and authority; thus little holds its ground in the consciousness unmolested as sacred, as was formerly the case even with rude transgressors; all piety is with many utterly shaken, and revolt elevated to a principle; to this is added the worship of genius, the emancipation of the flesh, the arrogance of rule over nature, a coarse self-deification. As a single instance, we may note the proclamation of Napoleon I. in Egypt, cited by Menzel in his Die letzten 120 Jahre der Weltgeschichte, II. 375. And how widely is this spread! How strongly does history tend to the result, that everything should assume the dimensions of a world-empire! Hindoos often nowadays despise, along with the idols of their fathers, the living God, and devour the productions of German and English infidelity, etc. Nor is it on slight grounds that a feeling is so widely spread as is that of uneasiness, yea, of horror, at the volcano fermenting in the depths of society.
One must be wilfully blind, to see in our populations nothing but an ill-understood bent of aspiration after Christianity in a more human form. Let us according to our ability become all things to all men (1Co_9:22); let us change our voice (Gal_4:20), in order if possible to gain some by new methods. But do not let us forget, that he alone finds entrance to the faith, and to the clear, bright intelligence of faith, who does not disdain the strait gate of μετάνοια. But our testimony may give place to that of others, and, before all, of De Wette, who in the Preface to his exposition of the Apocalypse holds different language from that in his exegesis of the Thessalonian Epistle. There, under the impressions of the year 1848, he says, p. 2Th 6: “I could not help seeing in our time, though in a different outward form and in yet darker colors, the Antichrist depicted by John. The self-deification of Antichrist appears to me child’s play, compared with the God-denying, unbelieving, arrogant egotism of our day, with its rejection of all restraint; and what is a material persecution of the Christian faith with fire and sword, compared with the destructive dialectics of Young Hegelianism, or with the flattering speech and infatuation of the so-called love of freedom, which springs from the worst inward bondage, and is leading the poor people to a bondage both inward and outward? According to the counsel of those who pretend to stand at the head of the culture of the time, and whose claim to that effect passes current, the State should rid itself of Christian principle, and take up its position on the ground of indifference, if not even of atheism. What a progress—to a new and hitherto unexampled barbarism!” That, indeed, we have no reason to be excessively amazed at this, Luthardt asserts (p. 149), that, however much Christianity may come to be the world’s religion, and even gather the remotest barbarians within the pale of the Church, the future that lies before us is the complete inward estrangement of the masses from the Christian faith, and finally their open apostasy. And Von Gerlach expresses himself thus: In our days there has actually been made a beginning of a worship, in which humanity is deified and adored; and the complete dissolution of the Christian Church into the kingdoms of this world is already expected by many. For, say these errorists, the State is the only form in which the infinitude of reason, freedom, and the highest blessings of the human spirit in reality exists, and no higher fortune can befall religion and the Church, than that they should essentially coöperate with this phenomenon of the reason, and stand forth as institutions of the State.—The same: Assaults on the foundations of the Christian faith, more comprehensive and of deeper reach than ever before occurred—assaults, which notwithstanding their folly meet with the greatest applause amongst those whom the god of this world has blinded—these are signs of the appearing of the Antichrist, such as never existed in the times of Papal power.—[Alford: “If it be said, that this is somewhat a dark view to take of the prospects of mankind, we may answer, first, that we are not speculating on the phenomena of the world, but we are interpreting God’s word: secondly, that we believe in One in whose hands all evil is working for good,—with whom there are no accidents nor failures,—who is bringing out of all this struggle, which shall mould and measure the history of the world, the ultimate good of man and the glorification of His boundless love in Christ: and thirdly, that no prospect is dark for those who believe in Him. For them all things are working together for good; and in the midst of the struggle itself, they know that every event is their gain; every apparent defeat, real success; and even the last dread conflict, the herald of that victory, in which all who have striven on God’s part shall have a glorious and everlasting share.”—J. L.]—It is of great importance, that without any faint-hearted anxiety, or hasty, restlessness, or censoriousness, we should yet have our senses exercised to discern what—sometimes under a fair show, sometimes shamelessly enough—is not merely unchristian, but antichristian. We shall be so much the more thankful if at any time we fall in with the hindering, restraining power. That is, indeed, the obscurest point in the interpretation; the question, namely:
(3) What is the κατέχον? Who the κατέχων?
It must at any rate be a beneficent force, which only according as God permits, prevails, or is taken out of the way, or, when He recalls it, retires; a power it must be, which already during Paul’s lifetime was working (ἄρτι), and is still to-day working, since the Antichrist is, indeed, not yet present. Two (eligible)eading interpretations at once present themselves: it is either a political power that is seen here (with the majority of the Fathers), or (with other expositors) one of a religious nature. The former view (in Tertullian, De Resurr. 2Th 24: Romanus status) is adopted by many Protestants and Catholics, who think that in the Apostle’s time the Roman Empire was to be understood by the neuter, and its ruler by the masculine. Paul knew by repeated experience, even in Thessalonica itself, that the Roman Government had a beneficent side (Act_17:9; Act_18:14 sqq.; Act_21:32; &c.; comp. Romans 13). By means of the protection of law and its established political order it not merely suppressed lawlessness and sedition, but it afforded also to the gospel, by its rigorous resistance to Jewish malignity, a certain degree of shelter and opportunity. Daniel likewise had a similar experience of worldly power. By this method, however, it is rather the meaning merely of τὸ κατέχον that is cleared up, not so much that of ὁ κατέχων. The latter would have to be the Emperor existing at any time prior to the final Antichristian Regent. But wicked, in some cases most ungodly rulers, like Caligula, or even like Claudius, could scarcely appear to the Apostle as representatives of the power that still hinders the full outburst of evil. Even those less wicked were too much alike in quality to the bad men, in whom was exhibited the μυστήριον ἤδη ἐνεργούμενον. Hofmann says with reason, that certainly amongst the evil Emperors, who ruled in Paul’s time, it could not but be particularly manifest, that not men, but only a superhuman power, still checked the outbreak of utter wickedness. Wieseler also insists on the idea, that what hinders the outbreak of consummate ungodliness must be something good, and the supporter of what is good. Olshausen would make the distinction, that the same Emperors might have been personally types of Antichrist, and in their official position representatives of law, and so κατέχοντες; but this is certainly too refined and artificial.
If, therefore, we try the other view, which sees in the κατέχων a religious power, the perplexity becomes almost greater still, whether we say (with Koppe, Schott, Heydenreich and others), that the κατέχων is Paul with his intercession; or (with Zwingli, Diedrich, Grimm in the Stud. u. Krit., 1850, iv.), the Apostles generally, their fidelity, and vigilance, and spiritual power; or (with Calvin), the proclamation of the gospel; or (with Schöttgen), the intercessory Church. In the latter case, the masculine singular would be strange; might that perhaps be Christ? but how would this agree with ἐκ μέσου γενέσθαι? it is just after the brief tyranny of Antichrist that He is to appear to judgment; or Christ in them (Col_1:27), the young spirit of the Christian cause (Baumgarten-Crusius)? But if that withdrew altogether, there would no longer be any Church; and the Church cannot be taken out of the way before the appearance of Antichrist; it is impossible that the Antichrist should not come till after the Church is removed; for that which, not perhaps hinders his outbreak, but rather excites his wrath, is just the Church itself, which he persecutes, without being able to set it aside. Even the Irvingite reference to the company of the chosen ones, which should be caught away before the coming of Antichrist, is thoroughly untenable; that whole doctrine would have to be previously established, as is not the case, to make the reference of the κατέχων to that company even at all plausible.
If, however, we limit the import of the expression ὁ κατ. to a small part of the Church, or even to a member of it, the removal of the same becomes indeed conceivable, but there arises a new difficulty. If, for example, we were to suppose Paul to have meant himself by it, we could not, indeed, pronounce it à priori impossible that he should have ascribed so great an influence to his apostolic intercession in restraining the revelation of Antichrist; but it is impossible that he should have said to the Thessalonians: I am the κατέχων, and I must first ἐκ μέσου γενέσθαι. The latter phrase cannot be referred merely to his imprisonment, since his intercession would still not have been terminated thereby; it would have to be understood of his death, and then it is no longer intelligible how he could have said here: Antichrist does not come, till I am dead; whereas in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 he says: I regard it as possible that I may live till the Advent. And besides, whether we take Paul or the Apostles in general, they died, and the Antichrist did not come. This holds likewise against the interpretation of Wieseler, who seeks the κατέχων in Jerusalem, where also the session in the temple should occur. He understands by it the pious in Jerusalem collectively, or, if it must be an individual, then James the Just, who was called the bulwark of the people59 (Hegesippus, in Eusebius’s Church History, II. 23). Now James too died, and Antichrist came not. But to say nothing of the mistake, which we are not without reason to charge on the Apostle, it is likewise à priori unimaginable, that Paul should have spoken to the Thessalonians of James alone in a way which we should find scarcely conceivable as coming from the Jewish Christians; by whom the latter was regarded with an extravagant veneration.
Thus it seems that we are driven back on the first explanation, which understands τὸ κατέχον as the shelter and protection of the authority, at that time of the Roman, but still even now of essentially the same power; thus, in the judgment also of Lange (Positive Dogmatik, p. 1270): It is the old social order, Church and State, the latter especially, Romans 13; and, on the Catholic side, of Lutterbeck (Neutest. Lehrbegriffe, II. 231): It is every orderly power in the world. In the same sense Luthardt says (p. 157 sqq.): In the doctrine of antichristianity, as being the issue of worldly power, there would be for Christians a danger of putting themselves in thought, and perhaps also in outward conduct, in a false relation to public life and to the rulers of the civil commonwealth, did there not stand alongside of it the other doctrine, that in the civil order the will of God is fulfilled, and a blessed force has sway. Therefore also the Apostle enjoins subjection to the higher powers, as the Divinely appointed guardians of justice (Romans 13), and that prayer be made for them, that through them the Church may enjoy quiet and dwell safely (1Ti_2:2; comp. 1Pe_2:13 sqq.). In the present consciousness of Christians, moreover, there is scarcely anything more certain than this, that the moral and legal order is a Divine dike, which at present still holds back the floods of a gloomy abyss, and who knows for how long? For it is the spirit of ungodliness, which declares itself also in the subversion of the order of human law. And thus it will be the moral forces of the natural life, which the Apostle understood to be that cheek upon ungodliness.—This appears to us to be a perfectly sufficient explanation of what τὸ κατέχον is; but ὁ κατέχων? how is this power to be comprehended in a single masculine subject? We saw how far it is from being satisfactory even for the Apostle’s time, to find this subject in any Roman Emperor of that period.
Ewald, who feels the necessity of recognizing here, not merely, with Wieseler, a good, but, with Hofmann, a supernatural power, has proposed an explanation of his own; that what is spoken of is nothing else but the expected return of Elijah, who is at present still in heaven, but, when he comes, will withstand the Antichrist, so that the latter will not reach his full power, until Elijah is removed (Mat_17:11; Rev_11:3-12). There is thus an Elias redivivus, as with Hofmann an Antiochus redivivus, only that Hofmann himself seriously believes in the latter. But, looked at closely, it is untenable that even Paul himself should have thought of Elijah. For how could the tarrying of Elijah in heaven be described as the κατέχον, and Elijah himself, who must first come, as the very κατέχων ἄρτι? That must be a personage who was already working, while Paul was alive.
Who he is, has been best shown by Hofmann (already in Weissagung und Erfüllung, etc.), and he is joined by Luthardt, Baumgarten, Auberlen (Daniel, 67), Von Oettingen. He starts with this idea, that since Paul appeals to his oral instruction, which, so far as the Antichrist is concerned, unquestionably rested on Daniel, it is to be expected that we shall best find in the same source the solution also of the κατέχων; and so it is too in fact. In Dan_10:5; Dan_10:13; Dan_10:20 an angel prince says to Daniel: “I withstood the prince of Persia;”60 that is not the human king; 2Th_2:13 shows that there is a distinction made between the מַלְכֵי פָּרַס and the superhuman prince, שַׂר מַלְכוּת פָּרַס; but an evil spirit is meant, who tries to incite the king of Persia to evil, and to whom the good angel has offered successful resistance. This good angel, therefore, is in Persia ὁ κατέχων, who strengthens whatever there is of τὸ κατέχον, and disposes the Persian king to treat with kindness the people of God. It is the good spirit, still active in the worldly power of heathenism. In the Greek empire, he intimates, he will no longer have this influence; there, to use Paul’s phrase, he will have to ἐκ μέσυο γενέσθαι, quit the field, and then this will be followed by the coming of the Old Testament Antichrist (Antiochus). The very same prospect Paul holds out for the period of the Christian Church: through the conservative action of a good spirit opportunity is given for the Spirit of Christ; when the former is compelled to withdraw, then will Antichrist come. Indeed, we speak also of the spirit of a time, in a good as well as a bad sense, meaning thereby a prevailing, or, so to speak, epidemic force, mightier than any individual; only we understand it as impersonally, anonymously, as in a neuter form; whereas Scripture adds to this the masculine, and shows us in the background of individual and national life a struggle of good and evil powers of a real and personal kind. It is obvious that this conflict of the two principles—on the one side the mystery of ungodliness, and, on the other, the restraining force—is the soul of history. It were a great matter to bring the lovers of truth to a consciousness of this; that they should no longer be satisfied with talking in a mere empty, formal way about progress, but bethink themselves: Progress—whither? Let both grow together! until the harvest!
[By the κατέχον and κατέχων Alford understands respectively “the fabric of human polity, and those who rule that polity, by which the great up-bursting of godlessness is kept down and hindered.”—Ellicott inclines to the view which refers τὸ κατέχον to “the restraining power of well-ordered human rule, the principles of legality as opposed to those of ἀνομία—of which the Roman Empire was the then embodiment and manifestation,” and on the change of gender to the masculine he remarks: “Perhaps the simplest view is to regard it, not as a studied designation of a single individual (e. g. St. Paul, Schott, p. 249), or of a collection of such (e. g, the saints at Jerusalem, Wieseler, Chronol., p. 273, or, more plausibly, the succession of Roman Emperors, Wordsworth), but merely as a realistic touch, by which what was previously expressed by the more abstract τὸ κατέχον is now, as it were, represented as concrete and personified; comp. Rom_13:4, where the personification is somewhat similarly introduced after, and elicited from a foregoing abstract term (ἐξουσίαν).”—J. L.]
(4) (2Th_2:9-12.) If false prophets can work miracles, as did the Egyptian magicians, it is evident that miracles alone do not prove a cause to be Divine; rather, they themselves need confirmation, in order to become in their turn demonstrative signs. Already in Deuteronomy 13 it is announced that there may be wonders wherein a temptation lurks; if they aim at misleading to idolatry, the honest Israelite is to know what to think about them. And so with the powers of a Simon (Acts 8) or Elymas (Acts 8). In these cases it is impossible for us accurately to determine how much is idle jugglery, and how much real power of a baneful sort, nor is it required that we should so determine. When we perceive the criminal object in view, we should restrain ourselves from meddling with the matter. There is an unwholesome impulse to fall in with everything that has merely some show of the wonderful and extraordinary, we should understand that such a spirit may open the door to the Antichristian delusion. It is unskilful apologetics, that in this merely outward way would found on the supernatural the argument for the Divine. But it is not less mistaken, to reject altogether the evidence of miracles. What is obvious to common sense is stated by Jesus in express words, Mat_11:5; Mat_11:20-24; Joh_10:25; Joh_14:10-11; Joh_15:24 (over against Joh_4:48, and similar texts), and so by the Apostle, 2Co_12:12 (over against 1Co_1:22), namely, that we should have regard to Divine signs. To demand signs in wilful conceit is a perverse thing; but to disregard the signs which God vouchsafes is not less improper. Of those that are really given by God the convincing power lies in the harmony of the inward with the outward; on the one side, the powers of a higher order, which, healing and helpful, penetrate the death-life [1Ti_5:6]; on the other, an impress of holiness, which attests itself simply and clearly to the conscience. In the agreement of these two sides there is a strength of evidence, which neither the one nor the other possesses apart; and in what is called in John [Joh_17:4] the work of Christ the two sides are thoroughly combined. That the wonder-worker is a holy man of God, lies in the foundation of our trust in him. We judge the matter by the rule which God has planted in our conscience, not by one that we have made for ourselves. For this reason also, far from exalting ourselves above him, we bow in his presence. The want of this stamp of holiness would be a warning to us against a deceiver. And again, on the other hand, an individual, in whom we recognize the energy of sanctification, may probably be of service to us in the powerful edification and furtherance of our inner life. But without the power of extending a healing virtue likewise into our outer life, and guaranteeing to us a future perfection of life, the Saviour would still not be a complete Saviour. The work of Divine redemption must not be reduced to the proportions of a human tragedy.
(5) The contrast between truth and unrighteousness is of frequent occurrence (Rom_1:18; 1Co_13:6; comp. Joh_3:20-21). Though at first sight it appears to be not altogether valid, yet it proves to be very striking, when the inward development is examined. Whoever seeks satisfaction in sin and loves unrighteousness, thereby suppresses the truth of God which might germinate within him. With the truth, the question would be, to seek God and His righteousness,—to discern the way in which we are delivered from evil, and enabled to do well; but whoever cleaves to unrighteousness, in his case the uncleanness of the will is the beginning also of the obscuration of the intelligence, which thus becomes enslaved to falsehood. And inversely, for becoming righteous, for regeneration and sanctification, the first beginning is nothing else but in hearkening to the truth, yielding to the truth, submitting to be reproved by the truth. The man who pauses, and from a desire to see how he stands before God comes to the light, attains with this knowledge to the beginning of a change of mind. Only in him, who allows this love for the truth to be aroused within him, can the truth itself take effect, and become a power for righteousness.—Rieger: There is in the truth, as in the natural light, something lovely, delightful, comforting. In nothing has man so great a satisfaction as in the truth. But, of course, it comes with us into conflict with other violent tendencies. Truth, and faith therein, are obstructed by man’s evil desires, by the pleasure he takes in unrighteousness, and by his impatience of being reproved by the light. And where the truth is not received into the love of the heart, there also it exerts no saving power. Only in the love of the heart can the truth take root, and bear fruit. But the truth does not force itself against their will on those who despise it. God knows how, in connection with the truth, to regard also His own honor, and maintains His reserve. At first a man takes matters easily with respect to the truth and to being misled into error; he trifles with both, does not yield to the truth his heart’s love, but thinks that neither shall the error and the deception overmaster him. Behind error, however, lurks a power that is perilous to every one who is not armed with love for the truth.—Roos: They who perish have had the saving truth, but they received not the love of the truth. One cannot love the truth without believing it, nor can one believe it without loving it. It is certain, and should therefore be believed; it is beautiful, lovely, consistent, salutary, containing most excellent things, and should therefore be loved. But the world loves it not, but makes its greatest boast of the fact, that it still tolerates or endures it; whereas it is only of that which is evil that we say that it is tolerated or endured, to wit, when we cannot or are not disposed to prevent or exterminate it. Truth, on the contrary, should be loved, not tolerated. But there can be no greater unrighteousness than this, to take delight in inventing, reading, hearing, and still further propagating doubts against the sure, true, dear and precious word of God. The end of such must be, to believe the lie.
(6) Does God Himself send an energy of delusion? The Greek Fathers thought this too harsh, and softened the expression by taking the sending for a bare permission; but improperly. Our fathers of the Reformation especially insisted on recognizing the will of God as powerfully active even in judgments of this kind. Already in the Old Testament He sends evil spirits (1Sa_16:13 sqq.; 1Ki_22:22); to wit, for the punishment of sin by sin (comp. Rom_1:24 sqq.). He is the holy God, and therefore is never the first Author of evil; but the evil that already exists He turns to His own holy ends. He does not produce in the heart falsehood and wickedness; but where they are already in the heart, there He puts a lying spirit in the mouth of the false prophets. From the corrupt seed that is in the heart he brings forth this fruit, that it serves His purpose. Thou art to have thy will, and reap what thou hast sown. This judgment is never a faint, impotent permission, but a powerful operation, though to the last with a salutary aim (Rom_11:32); only in cases where the period of grace is trifled away, does it issue in irreclaimable obduracy (Mat_13:14-15). But even the rebel must in his way, since he would not otherwise, serve the gracious counsel of God. Frequently an evil is for a long while not yet manifest as such; it lies dormant, it lurks in ambush, its consequences have not yet broken forth. The power of delusion is so much the more effective, when truth and falsehood are mingled, and interesting individuals defend this mixture; even that which is worst can adorn itself with a fair seeming, and with plausible words deceive the hearts of the simple (Rom_16:18). The exhortation is: Take heed, and turn from them; and the promise: The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet. This He does especially even by means of that judicial manifestation of the evil fruit. His action over against the free creature consists in the mere solicitation of its freedom. This proceeds from God; but it is in man’s power to say yes or no to it.61 Thus faith is the work of God, and yet also that which God requires; and so the hardening of the sinner is described sometimes as the act of God, at other times as the act of man. Of immense significance, moreover, and justice, is this form of judgment, that they who would not believe the truth must believe the lie. How many, who cry out against an implicit faith, when the Bible is in question, are ignominiously enslaved by an implicit faith over against anonymous journalists! How many, who in opposition to the word of God have nothing but unbelief, sink down into disgraceful superstition towards somnambulists, fortune-tellers, and rapping tables! Already Chrysostom remarks, that they who said: Since there is but one God, we could not believe in the divinity of Christ, are deprived by Antichrist of all excuse. And in our day, they who believe not that an almighty, wise God created the universe, do believe (for they have not seen it) that chance whirled together the atoms; and they, who believe not that Jesus changed the water into wine, do believe that the unconscious power of nature transformed the ape into a man. This collier’s faith of unbelief is a judgment. Before all the world must it be made manifest, that the motive of their unbelief was not a noble protest against a dependence unworthy of the spirit, but pleasure in unrighteousness. Verily, they too believe; only they would not believe in the holy truth of God; and therefore their punishment is, that their need of faith squanders itself on the most pitiful vanities. That which we already now see of this sort is a foretaste of what is coming. [Alford: God is sending must not for a moment be understood of permissiveness only on God’s part—He is the judicial sender and doer—it is He who hardens the heart which has chosen the evil way. All such distinctions are the merest folly: whatever God permits, He ordains.—Ellicott: The words are definite and significant; they point to that judicial infatuation, … into which, in the development of His just government of the world, God causes evil and error to be unfolded, and which He brings into punitive agency in the case of all obstinate and truth-hating rejection of His offers and calls of mercy.—Lectures: According to our Apostle, this child of hell comes to execute on earth a judicial, punitive, Divine mission. Paul does not say, that God compels any man to believe in Him; but he does say that, in lifting the veil that hides the Antichrist, one of God’s designs is to begin to avenge the wrong already done to “the truth,” by showing that in the free, spontaneous exercise of a depraved nature, the wilful despisers of His own saving grace will yield ready credence to the lie of the cruel and treacherous Blasphemer.—The same: The whole, then, is just as if it had been said: Men hate the truth, which God sends to them for their salvation, and even refuse to be reconciled to it. He then and therefore, instead of destroying them at once, takes measures to bring out all the sin and madness of their hearts; and this, in order to their being ultimately brought into judgment, when He shall be justified in His speaking, and shall be clear in His judging (Ecc_11:9; Psa_51:4). In other words, God’s purpose is, by means of an extreme manifestation of human wickedness, to draw forth and vindicate the declaration of the Divine judgment. “When judged,” says Augustine (De Civ. Dei, 20:19. 4)—judged, that is, for rejecting the truth—“when judged, they shall be seduced; and when seduced, they shall be judged.”—J. L.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
2Th_2:1. The glory of Jesus and our glorification are most intimately connected. Now already the union with Jesus begins within; it will one day break forth also outwardly, and be thenceforth without hindrance.—Who can think highly enough of the Christian’s calling! Who can be faithful enough in that which is least!
[Burkitt: At the day of judgment there shall be both a congregation and a segregation.—M. Henry: Christ the great centre of their unity. They shall be gathered together to Him to be attendants on Him, to be assessors with Him, to be presented by Him to the Father, to be with Him for ever, and altogether happy in His presence to all eternity.—The same: The doctrine of Christ’s coming, and our gathering together to Him, is of great moment and importance to Christians; otherwise it would not be the proper matter of the Apostle’s obtestation.—Lectures: How much and how earnestly were the Apostles and their churches occupied about the coming of the day of God! Can we persuade ourselves that it is any improvement on their habits, that we scarcely ever think about it at all, but have taken to making the best of the present evil world?—J. L.]
2Th_2:2. Zwingli: True Christians do not suffer themselves to be frightened by idle alarms, knowing that they are reconciled to God, whether they live or die.—If we cannot but be frightened, that is a sign, that we are not standing in the full spirit of disciple-ship. Art thou prepared?—But only God’s grace in Christ can take away completely all terror from the heart.—Luthardt: Let the Lord come by day or by night, when He does come, that is His day.—Divine truth, even when most clearly delivered, can easily, be misunderstood. The duty of the teacher is, as far as possible to remove the misconception.—Heubner: The Christian must exercise a holy criticism.—Roos: On this false notion (that the day of Christ is present) there would have arisen divisions amongst true Christians; some would have regarded it as important and necessary, others as futile.—Wherever there is an awakening from the sleep of [spiritual] death [Eph_5:14], there is very apt to be a mingling of flesh and spirit.
2Th_2:1-2. To gaze from earth away towards heaven, and to turn away from heaven to earth—both may be wrong, and both right (comp. Acts 1). The certainty, that the Lord cometh, must never withdraw us from present duty.
[Alford: Every expression of the ages before us, betokening close anticipation, coupled with the fact that the day has not yet arrived, teaches us much, but unteaches us nothing: does not deprive that glorious hope of its applicability to our times, nor the Christian of his power of living as in the light of his Lord’s approach, and the daily realization of the day of Christ.—J. L.]
2Th_2:3. [Leighton: He seems not to assert any great tract of time to intervene, but only that in that time great things were first to come.—J. L.]—Calvin: Christ also warns His disciples to prepare themselves for severe conflicts. When the Church is torn in pieces, we are not to be frightened as by something unexpected. The Church must first fall into horrid ruin, before it is fully re-established. How useful is this prophecy! One might otherwise think: This cannot surely be the building of God (it being so wasted); or others might say: Christ can not so grievously abandon His bride (and find in this a pretext for all corruptions).—The preparation and warning close with the promise of victory.—Rieger: God allows the evil free course, and scope for further development. The loss, which His glory thus seems for a time to suffer, He again makes good by judgments, and meanwhile His time of patience becomes salvation to many others.
2Th_2:3-4. Diedrich: The Man of Sin will make Adam’s sin his very religion, and will glorify sin. This can only be an apostate Christian, a consummate Judas.—Berl. Bib.: These things always follow one upon the other: Apostasy in Christianity, and an absurd, mad throne of government for the punishment of the previous folly, which imposed the yoke on itself.
2Th_2:5. Calvin: How forgetful are men, when their eternal salvation is in question!—Hence the need of their being ever anew reminded of what has been said—of an ever-fresh watering of that which has been planted.—Chrysostom connects with this verse a very impressive exhortation to the right hearing of the word.
2Th_2:6. Nor can wickedness come at its own will, but only at the set time assigned to it by God. The servant is not above his master (Luk_22:53).
2Th_2:7. Heubner: Wickedness is a mystery: 1. The origin of evil is a mystery, and hides in the dark; so with 2. its connections, and the means which it employs; 3. its progress; and 4. its tendency.—At present the mystery of lawlessness is stirring more strongly than formerly.
2Th_2:8. Roos: Antichrist, indeed, is coming, but Christ also comes behind him. Therefore let no man’s heart fail him, who is concerned for the honor of Christ’s cause.—Berl. Bib.: The strong one can be opposed only by One stronger than he.—Calvin: God exhorts His people to patience, because it is only for a little while that He afflicts His Church.—Berl. Bib.: Supposing that Antichrist and all his adherents were brought under (subdued),62 what would it avail us, if we have an antichrist in our own body?
2Th_2:9. Diedrich: The whole being of Antichrist comes from falsehood; falsehood is all that he does; and again the object of the whole is likewise to promote falsehood.
2Th_2:10. Diedrich: Whoever does not, like Paul, seek for truth above all things, but is bent on gold and honor and the friendship of the world, has come under the power of the devil, and serves Antichrist to his own steadily advancing and utter ruin.—The truth itself excites love for the truth, but does not force it.—Stähelin: Oh that we had but a greater horror of the Antichristian abominations, prayed more fervently for the poor, misled people, and made use of the truth for ourselves in a more thankful and devout spirit!
2Th_2:11. Stockmeyer: All unrighteousness is a lie; in promising man satisfaction, it lies.—Diedrich: The just God rules also in this, that con tempt for His pure, saving truth must be punished thus (by belief in falsehood).—Rieger: God’s word and our own conscience sufficiently assure us, that God has no share in what is evil; and yet He can employ the agency of evil spirits and evil men for the attainment of His purposes.—[The reader is referred to two admirable Discourses of South on this verse: “Ill-disposed affections, both naturally and penally the cause of darkness and error in the judgment.”—J. L.]
2Th_2:12.—Roos: To doubt, deny, start objections, and be indifferent to all the articles of the Christian faith, such is the reigning fashion; but hereafter people will believe lies.—Stockmeyer: To love sin, and concoct for one’s self a righteousness that is nothing but unrighteousness whitewashed, this is to block up the way of truth.—The same: Wherever the truth reaches, it effects a separation; judgment is separation, κρίσις.—Calvin: When he says all, he intimates that contempt for God will not be excused by the great multitude of those who refuse to obey the gospel. God is the Judge of all the world, and can just as well inflict punishment on a hundred thousand, as on one individual.
2Th_2:1-12. Heubner: What practical value has this prophecy of Paul for us?
1. It affords us important instruction on the nature of the human heart, and also on the nature of Christianity. Our race is in a state of corruption, which must still more and more develop itself; this must fill us with shame and humiliation. But Christianity, because it contains the strongest antidote to the evil, for that very reason stirs up the evil spirit, and excites it to its most strenuous efforts; these, however, the Lord Himself will bring to naught. No religion has so unmasked and combated the evil, as the Christian.
2. This prophecy warns us against indifference to the earliest, weak beginnings of evil, and to the motions of unbelief. We are to regard these as approximations to that time of extreme degeneracy. We are to watch and be on our guard against them, even against the least assent to principles that disparage Christianity.
3. So much the more is it our duty to hold firmly and immovably by true Christianity, which can alone preserve us from that aberration. The man, in whom is the Spirit of Christ, cannot be harmed by the spirit of Antichrist. We should also be concerned for our descendants, to maintain the true faith among them.
4. This prophecy, moreover, may console us, as we look on the signs, the preludes, or finally the actual irruption, of the Antichristan period God long ago foresaw it, announced it, permitted it; it cannot, therefore, destroy His work, but must rather serve for the more certain and speedy consummation of the kingdom of Christ. Christ will protect His own, will comfort them under violence, secure them against falsehood, and finally achieve their complete redemption.
Footnotes:
[1]2Th_2:1.—[Revision: ‘ “Yon see, then, what is to be expected, and prayed for, as your portion at the coming of the Lord. But, in regard to that coming itself, &c.’ Or perhaps the Greek arrangement may rather suggest an opposition between ἐρωτῶμεν ὑμᾶς here and προσευχόμεθα περὶ ὑμῶν of 2Th_1:11.” The latter is Riggenbach’s idea; whereas Webster and Wilkinson thus: “Such is our hope and consolation, but because it is such, by every consideration connected with the great fact which gives it its character, I beg of you, &c.”—J. L.]
[2]2Th_2:2.—[ταχέως; immediately on being thus tempted. Comp. E. V., Luk_14:21; Luk_16:6.—J. L.]
[3]2Th_2:2.—[ἀπὸ τοῦ νοός; rendered as above, from your mind, in several of the older versions (Tyndale, Cranmer, Geneva, Bishops), and recently by Starke, Jowett, Wordsworth, Alford. Ellicott: from your sober mind; Riggenbach: vom vernünftigen Sinn.—J. L.]
[4]2Th_2:2.—The best copies [including Sin., and Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott, &c.] give μηδέ, which is also the proper particle, and then μήτε three times. Comp. Winer, §55:6.
[5]2Th_2:2.—[θροεῖσθαι, a stronger word than σαλευθῆναι. Such equivalents as terrified, dismayed, perterreri, erschrecken, &c., are given for it in the versions.—J. L.]
[6]2Th_2:2.—Instead of the Rec. Χριστοῦ, which has few authorities, the most and the best (also Sin.) give κυρίου [and so all the recent editions.—J. L.]
[7]2Th_2:2.—[ἐνέστηκεν; Riggenbach, after Luther, vorhanden wäre. On this word, see an elaborate note in Revision.—J. L.]
[8]2Th_2:3.—[κατὰ μηδένα τρόπον; comp. E. V., Rom_3:2; Php_1:8.—J. L.]
[9]2Th_2:3.—Instead of ἁμαρτίας, which, however, has many old authorities, and amongst others Or. 5, in its favor, B., Sin., and some other Alexandrian sources give ἀνομίας, arising probably from 2Th_2:7-8.
[10]2Th_2:4.—[ἐπί with the accusative. Ellicott, in the Commentary: above (and against); in the Revision: against; and so Wordsworth, and recent English translators generally, and the Am. Bible Union, &c.—J. L.]
[11]2Th_2:4.—[πάντα λεγόμενον θεὸν ἢ σέβασμα. Revision: “E. V. and the older English versions apparently follow the Vulg. omne quod=πᾶν τό, which however, I find in no printed text but that of Beza, and there it is avowedly for no reason except that Jerome might seem to have read it, and that in Beza’s own opinion it yields a richer sense: mihi tamen uberius videtur.” Riggenbach, likewise, retains Luther’s über alles das. But very many from Faber to Alford and Wordsworth have preferred the masculine construction.—J. L.]
[12]2Th_2:4.—The ὡς θεόν before καθίσαι in the Elzevir is brought under suspicion as a gloss by A. B. D.1 Sin., most of the versions, and the oldest Fathers. [It is condemned by Mill, and cancelled by the majority of critical editors. Riggenbach likewise omits it.—J. L.]
[13]2Th_2:4.—[ἀποδεικνύντα. Comp. 1Co_4:9. Here, for the Vulgate ostendens, Augustine and others use ostentare. Ellicott: exhibiting, displaying; Wordsworth, as above.—J. L.]
[14]2Th_2:6.—[εἰς τὸ ἀποκαλυφθῆναι; comp. 1Th_3:10.—J. L.]
[15]2Th_2:6.—[τῷ ἑαυτοῦ; the time assigned to him—then, and not sooner.—Sin.1 A, K.: τῷ αὐτοῦ.—J. L.]
[16]2Th_2:7—[τὸ γὰρ μυστήριον ἤδη ἐνεργεῖται τῆς ἀνομίας. The emphasis of τὸ μυστήριον, as opposed to the double αποκαλυφθῆναι of 2Th_2:7-8, is strengthened by the Greek order.—J. L.]
[17]2Th_2:7.—[μόνον ὁ κατέχων ἄρτι ἕως, κ.τ.λ. See the Exegetical Note 3.—J. L.]
[18]2Th_2:8.—[ἀποκαλυφθήσεται ὁ ἄνομος. Here again the revelation, as being now the main idea, is put foremost.—J. L.]
[19]2Th_2:8.—Ἰησοῦς is supported by Sin. A. D.1 E.1 F. G. L.2, and most of the Versions and Fathers [and nearly all the critical editors.—J. L.]; it is wanting in B. D.3 E.2 K. L.1, and most of the minuscules.—The variation ἀνελεῖ (from Isa_11:4, Sept.?), for ἀναλώσει, makes no change in the sense; if Sin. a prima manu gives αναλοι [Sin.2 Thessalonians 2 : ανελοι] that is a corruption, holding the middle between the two readings.
[20]2Th_2:8.—[πνεύματι. Comp. the English version of Isa_11:4; and so very many here, including the Am. Bible Union.—J. L.]
[21]2Th_2:8.—[ἐπιφανεία̣. This word occurs six times in the New Testament—once, in reference to the Lord’s first coming; five times, in reference to His second—and is always elsewhere rendered in our Version, appearing. In the present instance E. V. follows the Bishop’s Bible. Alford and Ellicott have appearance, after Tyndale, Cranmer, Geneva; Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson, Am. Bible Union: manifestation.—J. L.]
[22]2Th_2:9.—[κατά Comp. Eph_1:19; Eph_3:20; &c.—J. L.]
[23]2Th_2:9.—[τέρασι ψεύδους. The genitive belongs to all the three nouns.—J. L.]
[24]2Th_2:10.—The authorities [including Sin.1] preponderate for the simple dative, whereas the Rec. prefixes ἐν.—[τῆς before ἀδικίας is wanting in Sin.1 A. B. F. G., Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott.—J. L.]
[25]2Th_2:10.—[ἐδέξαντο. See 1Th_2:13, Exeg. Note 2.—J. L.]
[26]2Th_2:11.—The present πέμπει [Scholz, Schott, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Theile, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott.—J. L.] deserves the preference over the future πέμψει. Here, as in the previous instance [2Th_2:8], Sin. a prima manu goes with the oldest authorities; the correction by a later hand, with the Elzevir.
[27]2Th_2:12.—For ἅπαντες (all together), are sin. A. F. G. [Tischendorf, Alford]; for πάντες, B. D. E. L. The former is to be preferred as the rarer. [According to the American edition of Ellicott, there is in regard to the reading here an instance of the too frequent discrepancy between the Commentary and the Translation.—J. L.]
[28]2Th_2:12.—[κριθῶσι. Revision: “Out of 113 instances E. V. makes κρίνω=κατακρίνω only in 7, including Rev_18:20 (where see Revision, Note k); the others being Joh_3:17-18 (twice); Act_13:27; Rom_14:22.”—For may, comp. 1Th_2:16.—J. L.]
[29]2Th_2:12.—ἐν is given by the Codd. A. D.3 E. K. L. and Sin. a secunda manu; it is omitted (probably to conform it to τῇ ἀληθ.) by B. D.1 F. G. and Sin. a prima manu. [Lachmann brackets it.—J. L.]
[30][Alford and Ellicott partially adopt Lünemann’s suggestion. I should rather say that ὑπέρ here, instead of περί, carries with it an indication of the strong personal interest felt by the writer and his readers in their Lord’s coming. So Green, who refers also to Act_5:41; Rom_9:29; 2Co_5:12; 2Co_8:23; &c.; Webster and Wilkinson.—J. L.]
[31][There is neither away nor upwards (hin oder empor) in the ἐπί, which simply “marks the point to be reached—losing its idea of superposition in that of approximation to or juxtaposition” (Ellicott). Webster and Wilkinson: “to meet Him.”—J. L.]
[32][Revision: “The nearest approach that our idiom allows is, when we speak of a man being driven out of his mind.”—J. L.]
[33][If the Thessalonians were induced to believe that the day of the Lord had really come (the proper force of ἐνέστηκεν), there would be a sufficient ground of alarm in the apparent failure in their case of the promise in 1Th_4:17. For a careful discussion of 2Th_2:1-2 the reader is referred to my Lectures on the Thessalonians, pp. 491–504.—J. L.]
[34][And so Benson, Koppe, Pelt, Webster and Wilkinson. But the best interpreters generally reject the zeugma (De Wette, Lünemann, Alford, Ellicott, &c.). In the New Testament ἀντίκειμαι is construed with the simple dative.—J. L.]
[35][Ellicott: “This characteristic of impious exaltation is in such striking parallelism with that ascribed by Daniel to ‘the king that shall do according to his will’ (Dan_11:36), that we can scarcely doubt that the ancient interpreters were right in referring both to the same person,—Antichrist. The former portion of the prophecy in Daniel is apparently correctly referred to Antiochus Epiphanes, but the concluding verses (Dan_2:36 sq.) seem only applicable to him of whom Antiochus was merely a type and shadow.”—J. L.]
[36][Ellicott, without excluding the figurative interpretation of Chrysostom, at the same time leans strongly to an ultimate fulfilment in a future temple (Eze_37:26) at Jerusalem.—J. L.]
[37][Ellicott: “Simply a gen. definitions, or gen. of the characterizing principle or quality.”—J. L.]
[38][As Bishop Bull makes it both here and at 1Th_2:13.—J. L.]
[39][That the promise in Malachi was exhausted by the ministry of the Baptist, is not quite so certain. Comp. Olshausen on the passages cited, also Judge Joel Jones’ Notes on Scripture, Philadelphia, 1861.—J. L.]
[40][That there is an interval of time between our Lord’s descent from the right hand of the Father into the region of the air, where His gathered saints are admitted into His presence, and His coming with them to the judgment of the nations, is not only in itself a perfectly reasonable and scriptural idea, but one of use in harmonizing the various, and at first sight apparently discrepant, descriptions of the manner of the Advent, and of the condition of the world in that day.—J. L.]
[41][Comp. Revision, and Lectures, on this verse.—J. L.]
[42][So the German versions and commentaries generally. In behalf of the other view it was remarked in Revision, that the clause κατ’ ἐνέργειαν τοῦ Σατανᾶ, “taken by itself, or at least as the leading feature in the statement, yields this fuller and more appalling intimation, that the entire coming of the Man of Sin—his spirit and aims and measures throughout—will be instinct with the energy of Satan (Chrysost.: ἄνθρωπός τις πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ δεχόμενος τὴν ἐνέργειαν: Some man receiving all Satan’s energy. So Theodor. and Œcumen.), and that, even as the Church is ‘the body of Christ, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all’ (Eph_1:23; comp. Eph_5:19; Eph_3:20; &c.), so in Antichrist, his masterpiece, will Satan, so to speak, exhaust himself; putting forth through him all his own resources of strength and guile, in both the spheres of his operation, the external (ἐν πάσῃ δυνάμει καὶ σημείοις καὶ τέρασι ψεύδους) and the spiritual (ἐν πάσῃ ἀπάτῃ τῆς ἀδικίας). In this regard, the Syriac is worthy of note,=Murdock: for the coming of that (evil One) is the working of Satan.”—J. L.]
[43][Alford likewise combines all three ideas; Ellicott hesitates between the second and third, but inclines to the last.—J. L.]
[44](Revision: “Looking at the passage in the light of Mat_24:24 and 2Co_4:3, I am disposed to retain the close connection of these words with ἀπατῃ τῆς ἀδικίας; and then it is intimated that Antichrist, though sitting in the temple of God, and displaying his pomp and his wonders before all the worshippers, shall nevertheless succeed in deceiving only the ἀπολλύμενοι; the reasons of which success immediately follow, as they exist on man’s part (2Th_2:10), and (2Th_2:11) on God’s.”—J. L.]
[45][Alford and Ellicott: “the falsehood implied in the preceding words, οὑ ἐστὶν—ἀδικίας not falsehood generally.” Revision: “The reference may be to the ψεύδους of 2Th_2:9 (comp. 1Jn_2:21-22, ψεῦδος—ὁ ψεύστης), or possibly to that characteristic lie of Antichrist, 2Th_2:4, in which the Satanic promise in the garden (Gen_3:5) may be considered as finding its last and highest, but still appropriate, fulfilment.”—J. L.]
[46][What Paul calls “the mind” (νοῦς) in Rom_7:23; Rom_7:25 is nothing different from “the inward man” (ὃ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος) of Rom_2:22; and that is not the natural man or carnal mind (Rom_8:7), but the soul as renewed.—J. L.]
[47][Another allusion (see p. 336) to the sort of Millerite agitation that prevailed in some parts of Germany in 1836.—J. L.]
[48][In the Amer. edition of Smith’s Dictionary, now in course of publication, the article Antichrist (by Rev. Fred. Meyrick), with additions by Prof. Hackett and E. Abbot, is found in its proper alphabetical order, vol. i. p. 102–113.—P.S.]
[49][St. Augustine gives this simply as the opinion of others, De Civ. Dei, lib. 20. cap. 2Th 19: “Nonnulli, non ipsum principem, sed universum quodam modo corpus ejus, id est, ad eum pertinentem hominum multitudinem simul cum ipso suo principe hoc loco intelligi Antichristum volunt.”—P. S.]
[50][Chrysostom: καθεσθῄσεται εἰς τὸν ναὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, οὐ τὸν ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰς τὰς πανταχοῦ ἐκκλησίας.—J. L.]
[51][Chrysostom’s own words are: Νέρωνα ἐνταῦθά φησιν, ὡσανεὶ τύπον ὄντα τοῦ Ἀντιχρίστου.—J. L.]
[52] [From Luther’s hymn:
Erhalt uns, Herr, by devnem Wort,
Und steur’ des Papsts und Türken Mord, &c.—J. L.]
[53][For a good statement and defence of the Protestant interpretation, see Wordsworth in loc. He gives references also to some of the earlier literature of the English Church on the same side.—J. L.]
[54][Hammond’s notion is, that the temporary conformity of the Apostolic Church to the Jewish law, by appeasing Jewish hatred, delayed the opportunity for which the early heretics were watching, of stirring up persecution against the Christians.—J. L.]
[55][This idea our author properly brands as rationalistic. On the contrary, very many, who pride themselves on their evangelical orthodoxy, admire it as being what they call spiritual.—J. L.]
[56][Jowett’s improved method of emptying the prophecy of all Divine force and reality is simply a combination of several of the worst elements of the rationalistic interpretation with a “conjecture” of his own to the effect that the restrainer is “the Jewish law, the check on spiritual licentiousness which for a little while was holding in its chains the swarms of Jewish heretics, who were soon to be let loose and sweep over the earth”!—J. L.]
[57][מָחַץ ראֹשׁ, “He has smitten the head.”—J. L.]
[58] [This very familiar but plainly unscriptural delusion was recently asserted with characteristic frankness by America’s most popular preacher in the following terms (see the New York Independent, May 31, 1866):
“The last period is that which has just come. I know not whether the second advent of Christ is at hand, or not. I know not even what the meaning of it is. That there is to be a literal visit of Christ to the earth again they may believe who are wedded to physical interpretations of Scripture. I do not so read the Word of God. But that there is to be a power of Christ upon the earth that may be fitly called His second coming; that the world is to be so filled with His glory that no man shall have occasion to say to his fellow-men, ‘Know the Lord,’ because all shall know Him, from the greatest to the least; and that there is to be a new heaven and a new earth, in which dwell righteousness, I do profoundly believe. I believe in a glorious period of development, that is to make the world’s history as bright as noonday. What it may be, I know not; and how near we may be to it, I know not. The signs of the times are auspicious, and they all point in one way.” Comp. 1Th_5:3 and Eze_13:10-16.—J. L.]
[59][That being the import of his other name Oblias, from עָם עֹפֶל.—J. L.]
[60][Literally: “The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me.”—J. L.]
[61][Sein Thun gegenüber der freien Kreatur besteht in lauter Sollizitiren der Freiheit; von Gott geht es aus, der Mensch aber kann es bejahen oder verneinen—an unguarded statement, I should say, and itself an undue softening of the plain representations of Scripture in regard to man’s spiritual bondage and helplessness. True enough, our fallen nature, which now says No to God, still retains the very same faculty of will with which it was originally endowed for the purpose of saying Yes. But, perverted and paralyzed by sin, it has never yet in any single instance since the fall said Yes, and in no single future instance will it make that response, except as, not merely solicited, but renewed, strengthened, and enabled by Divine grace. What, then, is the value of that figment of ability to please God, which, owing to the absolute and universal conditions of the case, brings forth only fruit unto death (Rom_7:5) 1. And how much better is it than inability?—J. L.]
[62][Untergebracht (besiegt)—the former word being scarcely now used in this sense.—J. L.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–3 soon--on trifling grounds, without due consideration.
soon--on trifling grounds, without due consideration.
shaken--literally, "tossed" as ships tossed by an agitated sea. Compare for the same image, Eph 4:14.
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in mind--rather as the Greek, "from your mind," that is, from your mental steadfastness on the subject.
troubled--This verb applies to emotional agitation; as "shaken" to intellectual.
by spirit--by a person professing to have the spirit of prophecy (Co1 12:8-10; Jo1 4:1-3). The Thessalonians had been warned (Th1 5:20-21) to "prove" such professed prophesyings, and to "hold fast (only) that which is good."
by word--of mouth (compare Th2 2:5, Th2 2:15); some word or saying alleged to be that of Paul, orally communicated. If oral tradition was liable to such perversion in the apostolic age (compare a similar instance, Joh 21:23), how much more in our age!
by letter as from us--purporting to be from us, whereas it is a forgery. Hence he gives a test by which to know his genuine letters (Th2 3:17).
day of Christ--The oldest manuscripts read, "day of the Lord."
is at hand--rather, "is immediately imminent," literally, "is present"; "is instantly coming." Christ and His apostles always taught that the day of the Lord's coming is at hand; and it is not likely that Paul would imply anything contrary here; what he denies is, that it is so immediately imminent, instant, or present, as to justify the neglect of everyday worldly duties. CHRYSOSTOM, and after him ALFORD, translates, "is (already) present" (compare Ti2 2:18), a kindred error. But in Ti2 3:1, the same Greek verb is translated "come." WAHL supports this view. The Greek is usually used of actual presence; but is quite susceptible of the translation, "is all but present."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. Now—Rather, but. Paul has just vividly pictured the…
1. Now—Rather, but. Paul has just vividly pictured the awful yet glorious advent; but their imagination must not bring that event into the present time.
By—A preposition of adjuration. It is so rendered by the Vulgate and many eminent critics, as in our translation. It may, then, mean, I pray you by that so stupendous event that you do not be discomposed by expectation of its immediateness. The ordinary meaning, however, of the Greek υπερ, is, in behalf of. The true sense, then, is neither by nor exactly concerning; but in behalf of that event, that it may not be covered with misrepresentations and false alarms.
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Our gathering—Described in 1Th_4:17.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming…
1. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ] Lit., But we beseech you, brethren, on behalf of the coming. The prospect of this Coming has been held out in language of ardent hope (ch. 2Th_1:7; 2Th_1:10, &c.); “but” the readers must not entertain wild and unreasonable notions respecting it. The preposition (touching, R. V.) signifies “in the interest of,” and not merely “with reference to;” for the confusion of mind and the alarm existing at Thessalonica upon this matter tended to discredit the Second Advent; they obscured the features of “the blessed hope” which the Apostle has just delineated (ch. 2Th_1:10-12).
He adds and our gathering together unto Him, remembering what he has written in 1Th_4:17; 1Th_5:10 concerning the reunion of the living with departed saints at Christ’s coming. The corresponding verb appears in the promise of Jesus (Mat_24:31; Mar_13:27): “He shall gather together His elect from the four winds;” comp. the echoes of our Lord’s sayings on the Last Things noted in 1Th_4:13 to 1Th_5:11. The intense sorrow of the Apostle at his separation from the Thessalonians (1Th_2:17; 1Th_3:6; 1Th_3:11) may also have prompted this thought; comp. note on “rest with us” ch. 2Th_1:7.
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On beseech (or ask) see note to 1Th_4:1.
Section III. The Revelation of the Lawless One Ch. 2Th_2:1-12
In this Epistle, as in the former, the specfic object of the letter comes into view at the beginning of the second chapter, so soon as the introductory prayer and thanksgiving have been offered. The Thessalonians were too eager and positive in their expectation of the Parousia, and the Apostle begs them “for its sake” to be cautious (2Th_2:1). Some of their teachers declared that “the day of the Lord was already come;” and it was reported that Paul himself had written to this effect (2Th_2:2). The Church was in danger of falling into mischievous deception (2Th_2:3). That they may “prove the prophesyings” addressed to them on this subject (1Th_5:20-21), the Apostle gives them a token or omen of the Second Coming, which indeed he had already supplied in his previous ministry (2Th_2:5). He foresees that before Christ’s return in judgement there must be a supreme manifestation of evil (2Th_2:3-12). This development, as he indicates, will be twofold—producing (1) within the Church “the apostasy;” and (2) the “revelation” of “the Man of Lawlessness” (or “Sin”), a personage in whom the sin of humanity will be consummated, reaching its furthest possibilities and taking on an absolutely Satanic character (2Th_2:3-4; 2Th_2:9-10). This gigantic impersonation of evil is exhibited as the personal antagonist and antithesis of Christ, in such a way that though the Apostle does not himself give to his conception the name of Antichrist, yet it is probable that the designation, afterwards made familiar by St John’s use of it in his great Epistle, was derived in the first instance from the passage before us. Meanwhile, we are told, there exists a “withholding” influence, that delays the appearance of Antichrist, although the lawlessness which in him will reach its climax “is already actively at work” (2Th_2:6-7). When the revelation of the “mystery” at last takes place, while on the one hand it will herald the return of the Lord Jesus (2Th_2:8), on the other it will prove to be for His rejecters a signal means of judgement, captivating by its magical delusions all who are not armed against them by “love or the truth” (2Th_2:10-12).
This paragraph is the most obscure to us in St Paul’s Epistles. It is written in a reserved and elliptical fashion, and bears reference throughout to the Apostle’s oral communications, without which, in fact, he did not expect what he wrote to be fully understood. In their recollection of the writer’s words the Thessalonian Church had a key to his meaning not transmitted to our hands. We must grope for it as best we can. We find, however, considerable light thrown on this dark passage by its relation to other prophetical teachings of Scripture, and to the history of the Apostle’s own time. Yet this added light casts its shadows over the field. We shall return to the subject in the Appendix attached to these Notes, on “The Man of Lawlessness.”
APPENDIX
The Man of Lawlessness (or Man of Sin)
2Th_2:1-12
To give a full account of the interpretation of 2Th_2:1-12 would be almost the same thing as to write a history of Christendom. This is one of those dark passages of Scripture which in ordinary Christian teaching, and in peaceful and prosperous times, receive little attention; they are traversed with hasty step, and willingly dismissed as things hard to be understood. But in seasons of conflict and danger, such as those which gave them birth, and when some critical struggle arises between the kingdoms of God and Satan, the Church turns to these neglected prophecies; from their obscurity there breaks out a new and awful light; again she hears in them the “voices and thunders” that “proceed out of the Throne” and the shout of His coming Who “brings forth judgement unto victory.” To such epochs we must look for the interpretation of these words of destiny. History is the expositor of Prophecy. For the seeds of the future lie in the past; and not the seeds alone, its buddings and beginnings, its leaves and blossomings are there, if we had eyes to see them. “First the blade, then the ear,” said Jesus,—“then the full corn in the ear.” The growth is continuous, until full ripeness.
Let us endeavour, therefore, to trace in its historical outline the development of the doctrine of Antichrist—first, as it appears in Scripture; and secondly, as it has been unfolded in the belief and teaching of the Church.
1. The Apocalypse of Daniel
We must go back to the Book of Daniel[9] for the origin of St Paul’s conception of the Man of Lawlessness, as well as for that of the kindred visions of St John. Daniel’s Apocalypse has its starting-point in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar (ch. 2): the Fourfold Metal Image, with its feet of mixed iron and clay, broken in pieces by the “Stone cut out of the mountain without hands.” This dream takes another and enlarged form in Daniel’s first Vision, that of the Four Wild Beasts (ch. 7). Amidst the “ten horns” of the fourth Beast there springs up “a little horn,” before which “three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots,” having “eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things” (Dan_7:8). In a moment the scene is changed: the “thrones” of the Last Judgement are placed; “the Ancient of Days” is beheld sitting; and there is “brought near before Him” the “One like unto a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven,” whom the Lord Jesus at the High Priest’s tribunal identified with Himself. To Him the prophet assigns universal and everlasting dominion (Dan_7:9-14). As the judgement is proceeding, and before the appearance of the glorified Son of Man, the fourth Beast is slain and “his body destroyed, and given to be burned with fire” (Dan_7:11), “because of the voice of the great words which the little horn spake.” The idea is here presented of a cruel, haughty and triumphant military power, to be overthrown suddenly by the judgement of God, whose fall, apparently, gives the signal for the establishment of the kingdom of heaven, which is to be ruled by one like unto a son of man yet sharing the Divine attributes.
[9] See the article in Smith’s Bible Dictionary, by Bishop Westcott, on the Book of Daniel. There is nothing written on the subject, within our knowledge, more penetrating and suggestive.
In the next vision, ch. 8, of the duel between the Ram and the He-goat the Little Horn reappears, and takes on a distinct personal shape. He becomes “a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sayings,” who will “destroy (or corrupt) the people of the saints … and stand up against the Prince of princes; but shall be broken without hand” (Dan_8:22-25). The third vision, ch. 11—of the wars of North and South—leads up to a further description of the great Oppressor, in which his atheism forms the most conspicuous feature: “Arms shall stand on his part, and they shall profane the sanctuary … and they shall set up the abomination that maketh desolate … And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods: and he shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished” (Dan_11:31-36). This series of tableaux gives a continuous view of a polity or empire evolved out of the warring kingdoms of this world, from which emerges at last a monster of wickedness armed with all earthly power and bent on the destruction of Israel’s God and people, in whose person the realm of evil receives its decisive judgement.
2. The Messianic Times
Antiochus Epiphanes[10], it is agreed, was the primary subject of Daniel’s visions of judgement. In his overthrow, and in the Maccabean revival of the nationality of Israel, this Apocalypse had its verification; it received a fulfilment adequate and appropriate to the age. But when the period of the Maccabees was past, and no further sign appeared of the Messiah, it grew plain to believing readers that the revelation had a further Import. In this faith the sufferings of the Jewish people under the Herodian and Roman oppression were endured, as “birth-pangs of the Messiah;” it was felt that Israel’s hope was nigh at hand, even at the doors. Our Lord by assuming the title Son of Man appealed to and justified the expectations of those who in His day “looked for Israel’s redemption,”—expectations founded to no small extent upon the Apocalypse of Daniel, and coloured by its imagery. Again “the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet,” was to “stand in the Holy Place” (Mat_24:15); and the “sign of the Son of Man” would be “seen in heaven,” and at last the Son of Man Himself, “coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mat_24:30; Mat_26:64).
[10] Antiochus IV., or Antiochus Epiphanes—i.e. the Brilliant, called also in mockery Epimanes, the Madman—was the seventh king of the Græco-Syrian dynasty of the Seleucids, and reigned from 175 to 164 b.c. His father was Antiochus III. (called the Great), after whose defeat by the Romans (188 b.c.) he was given to them as a hostage, and brought up at Rome. He returned to take his father’s throne, full of wild ambition and of reckless impiety and prodigality. On the character and career of Antiochus Epiphanes see Stanley’s History of the Jewish Church, vol. iii; Ewald’s History of Israel, vol. v. (Eng. Trans.); Smith’s Bible Dictionary.
But the Messianic anticipations of our Lord’s time, being drawn from this source, could hardly fail to be attended with their counterpart in the image of Daniel’s Antichrist. In later Judaism Antichrist was known as Armillus (or Armalgus), under which name he figures largely in the Jewish fables of the Middle Ages, the Rabbinical conception being developed in forms partly analogous and partly hostile to the Christian doctrine. Armillus appears already in the Targum of Jonathan upon Isa_11:4, the passage quoted by our Apostle in 2Th_2:8 above: “With the breath of His lips shall He (Messiah) slay Armillus, the wicked one.” This interpretation was traditional, and may have been older than Christianity. The existence of an earlier Jewish doctrine of Antichrist, in however incipient a form, would make it easier to understand the rapid development which this conception receives in the New Testament, and the manner in which it appeals to the mind of the Apostolic Church.
The words of Christ fixed the attention of His first disciples upon Daniel’s prophecies, and supplied the impulse and starting-point from which proceeded the revival of the O.T. Apocalypse in the teaching of SS. Paul and John. Besides His express citations of Daniel, there were other traits in our Lord’s picture of the Last Things—the predictions of national conflict, of persecutions from without and defections within His Church (Mat_24:3-13)—which reproduced the general characteristics of this prophet’s visions, and lent emphasis to the specific and most solemn references that He made to them. His use of this obscure and suspected Book has raised it to a position of high honour and importance in the regard of His Church.
3. Antichrist in the Book of Revelation
St Paul treats the subject in the passage before us in an incidental fashion, and nowhere in his extant Epistles does he again advert to it. His language, so far as it goes, is very positive and definite. There is scarcely a more matter-of-fact prediction in the Bible. While he refuses to give any chronological datum, his description of the personality of Antichrist is vividly distinct; and he asserts the connection between his appearance and Christ’s return from heaven with an explicitness that leaves no room for doubt as to his meaning. But John’s Apocalypse was cast in a different mould. Like that of Daniel, his revelation came through visions, received apparently in a passive and ecstatic mental state, and clothed in a mystic robe of imagery through which It is difficult and indeed impossible altogether to distinguish the body and substance of truth, which one feels nevertheless to be everywhere present underneath it. St John’s visions border upon those “unspeakable things” of “the third heaven,” which it may be lawful for the human soul in rare moments of exaltation to see and hear, but not “to utter” in clear discourse of reason (2Co_12:2-4).
The visions of the Wild Beast, contained in Revelation 13-20, do nevertheless present a tolerably distinct and continuous picture; and it is just in this part of John’s Apocalypse that it comes into line with the Apocalypses of Daniel and Paul, and, as at least It seems to us, into connection with the course of secular history then proceeding. It accords with the nature of the two Revelations that St John’s mind is possessed by the symbolic idea of the Horned Wild Beast of Daniel (chh. 7, 8), while St Paul reflects in his Man of Lawlessness the later and more definite form which Daniel’s conception of the great enemy of God assumes in ch. 11. But the representations of the two Apostles coincide in their essential features. The first Beast of St John, seven-headed and ten-horned, receives the “power and throne of the Dragon and great authority,” from “him that is called Devil and the Satan, that deceives the whole world” (Rev_12:9; Rev_13:1-2), just as St Paul’s Lawless One comes “according to the working of Satan” and “in all deceit of unrighteousness” (2Th_2:9-10). He “opens his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and tabernacle” and everything Divine; and “all that dwell in the earth worship him,” whose names were “not written in the book of life;” and “torment” is promised to them, who “worship the Beast and his image” (Rev_13:5-8; Rev_14:11): so the Man of Lawlessness “exalts himself against all that is called God or worshipped,” he “takes his seat in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God;” and men are found to “believe the lie,” who will be “judged” for their “pleasure in unrighteousness” and are of “them that perish” (Rev_14:4; Rev_14:10-12). Again, the authority of the Wild Beast is vindicated by means of “great signs,” through which “they that dwell on the earth are deceived” (Rev_13:13-14): similarly, in our Apostle, Satan’s great emissary “comes with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood” (Rev_13:9-10). This token of false miracles was furnished by our Lord as the sign of “false Christs and false prophets” generally (Mat_24:24). Finally, having “come up out of the abyss,” the Wild Beast “goes into perdition” (Rev_17:8), like the Lawless One, with his Satanic coming, who is “the son of perdition” (Rev_17:3; Rev_17:9).
The ten-horned Beast of John is set forth as the secular antagonist of the Man-child, son of the Woman[11], who was born “to rule all the nations,” as His would-be destroyer and the usurper of His throne; by Whom at last when He appears as Conqueror upon the “white horse[12],” the Beast is taken and cast with his followers “into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone” (comp. Revelation 12 with 13, and then see ch. Rev_19:11-21). This conflict translates Into an expanded picture the antagonism between the Lord Jesus and the Lawless One, Christ and Antichrist, which breathes in every syllable of St Paul’s condensed and pregnant lines. The outlines etched in rapid strokes by Paul’s sharp needle, are thrown out upon the glowing canvas of the Apocalypse in idealized and visionary shape; but the same conception dominates the imagination of the seer of Patmos which haunts the writer of this sober and calm Epistle.
[11] Mr W. H. Simcox with good reason sees the woman who brings forth the Man-child, and then “flies into the wilderness unto her place” till the appointed time, in the Jewish Church: see his notes, in Cambridge Bible for Schools, on Revelation 12. Comp. Rom_9:5, “of whom is the Christ according to flesh.”
[12] In the Conqueror’s name of Faithful and True, and in the “righteousness” with which “He judges and makes war,” and “the righteous acts of the saints”—the “fine linen, clean and white” which clothes His army—we may see another antithesis to the moral picture given in Rev_19:10-12.
The first Wild Beast of Revelation 13 is the centre of a group of symbolic figures. There “comes up out of the earth another Beast,” kindred to him, and called afterwards the “false prophet,” who acts as his apostle, re-establishing his power after the deadly wound he received, and performing the “signs” by which his worship is supported and enforced. To this second actor, therefore, a religious part is assigned, resembling that of a corrupt Church serving a lawless, despotic State. The False Prophet supplies a necessary link between the Apostasy and the Lawless One of a 2Th_2:3; by his agency the “lying miracles” of 2Th_2:10 are provided, and superstition is enlisted in the service of atheism.
While the Beast has the False Prophet by his side for an auxiliary, he carries on his back the Harlot-woman, the antithesis of the Church, Christ’s Bride. She is identiied in the plainest manner with the imperial city of Rome. On her forehead stands written the legend, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and the abominations of the earth.” This is but Paul’s “mystery of iniquity” writ large and illuminated. What Babylon was to O.T. prophecy, that Rome became to the prophets of the New, being the centre of the world’s evil and the nidus of its future development. And the imperial house of Rome—Nero in particular for St Paul, and Domitian, probably, as Nero redivivus for St John—held to the prophetic spirit of the Apostles a relation similar to that of the Syrian monarchy and Antiochus Epiphanes toward the prophecy of Daniel, serving as a proximate and provisional goal of its anticipations, the object around which the secular forces of evil were about to gather and the fittest type of their further and ultimate evolution. But as history pursued its course and the Church passed beyond its Apostolic horizon, the new Apocalypse was found like the old to have a wider scope. The Wild Beast survived many wounds; it survived the fall of the great city, mistress of the earth,—the Woman whom John saw riding upon its back. The end was not yet; the word of prophecy must run through new circles of fulfilment.
It is only in the barest outline that we may pursue the subsequent history of the doctrine of Antichrist[13]. It has passed through four principal stages.
[13] For the history of this question, see the Article Antichrist, Vol. i. (2nd ed.) of Smith’s Bible Dictionary, also Herzog’s Real-Encyklopädie (2nd ed.). There are valuable dissertations on “The Man of Sin” by Lûneroaon (Meyer’s Handbook), Riggenbach (Lunge’s Commentary), and Olshausen ad loc., also in Alford’s Prolegomena to the Epp. Döllinger elucidates the subject with great learning and exactness in Appendix I. to his First Age of the Church (translated by Oxenham); and Eadie in the Appendix to his Commentary on Thessalonians. For the interpretation of the parallel texts in the Apocalypse, see Simcox’s Notes in this Series and his most interesting and valuable Introduction. As to the bearings of the subject on the doctrines of Eschatology at large, see the profound remarks of Domer in his System of Christian Doctrine, vol. iv., 373–401 (Eng. Trans.). We find ourselves in general agreement with Dorner, Olshausen, Rigeenbach, Alfard, Ellicott, Eadie; and, to a large extent, with Hofmann.
4. Antichrist in the Early Church
In the age of the early Church, ending with the conversion of the Empire and the Fall of Rome (410 a.d.), one consistent view prevailed upon this subject,—viz. that Antichrist was an individual destined one day to overthrow the Roman Empire and to establish a rule of consummate wickedness, which would quickly be terminated by the appearing of the Lord jesus from heaven. Chrysostom probably represents the popular belief when he speaks of Nero as “a type of Antichrist,” and “the mystery of iniquity already working.” In the earliest times men associated with this tradition the expectation, long current in the East, of Nero’s return and re-inthronement.
Many of the Fathers, after the manner of 1Jn_2:18-22, pointed ont the workings of Antichrist in the various forms of heresy. It was frequently inferred from 2Th_2:4 that the Jewish Temple would in the last days be rebuilt in Jerusalem, and made the seat of Antichrist’s empire and worship. In connection with this opinion, a Jewish origin (from the tribe of Dan, Gen_49:17) was assigned to the Man of Sin. Others regarded the Church, either in a spiritual or local sense, as “the temple of God” signified by St Paul (see note on 2Th_2:4).
“The withholder” was commonly understood to be the Roman Empire, with its fabric of civil polity,—Romanus status, as Tertullian says; its downfall imported the end of the world to the Church of the first three centuries. By some the withholding influence was seen in the Holy Spirit, or in His miraculous gifts.
5. Antichrist in the Middle Ages
The Western Empire was submerged under barbarian invasions. But the fabric of society still held together; and out of the chaos of the early Middle Ages there gradually arose the modern polity of the Romanized European nations, with the Papal See for its spiritual centre, and the revived Roman Empire of Charlemagne—magni nominis umbra—holding the leadership of the new world (800 a.d.). Meanwhile the ancient Empire maintained a sluggish existence in the New Rome of Constantino on the Bosphorus, where it arrested for centuries the destructive forces of Mohammedanism, until their energy was comparatively spent. This change in the current of history, following upon the union of Church and State under Constantine, disconcerted the Patristic reading of prophecy. And the interpretation of Scripture, along with the general cultivation of the human mind, fell into decline after the fourth century. Things present absorbed the energy and thought of the Church to the exclusion of things to come. The Western Church was occupied In converting and assimilating the Barbarian hordes, the Eastern Church was struggling for its very existence against Islam; while they contested with each other for supremacy. For the most part, the teaching of the Fathers respecting Antichrist was repeated by medieval divines, and embroidered with their fancies.
Gradually new interpretations forced themselves to the front. The Greeks naturally saw “the lawless one” in Muhammad, and “the apostasy” in the falling away of so many Eastern Christians to his delusions. In the West, the growing arrogance of the Bishops of Rome and the traditional connection of Antichrist with Rome united to suggest the idea of a Papal Antichrist. This view has high Papal authority in its favour; Gregory I. (or the Great, 590 a.d.), denouncing the assumptions of the contemporary Byzantine Patriarch, wrote as follows: “Ego autem fidenter dico quia quisqnis se universalem sacerdotem vocat, vel vocari desiderat, in elatione sua Antichristum præcurrit;” he further styles the title of Universal Priest “erroris nomen, stultum ac superbum vocabulum … nomen blasphemiæ.” By this just sentence the later Roman Primacy is marked out as another type of Antichrist.
In the 13th century, when Gregory VII. (or Hildebrand, 1073–1085 a.d.) and Innocent III. (1198–1210 a.d.) had raised the power of the Roman See to its highest point, this doctrine was openly declared by the supporters of the Hohenstaufen Emperors; and the German State resumed the office of the Roman State as “the restrainer” of the Man of Sin. This century witnessed a general revival of religious zeal, of which the rise of the Waldenses, the theology of Thomas Aquinas, the founding of the Dominican and Franciscan orders, the immortal poem of Dante, and the widespread revolt and protest against the corruptions of Rome were alike manifestations. This awakening was attended with a renewal of Apocalyptic study. The numbers of Dan_12:6-13, Rev_12:6, &c., gave rise to the belief that the year 1260 would usher in the final conflict against Antichrist and the end of the world; while the invasion of the Mongols and the intestine divisions of Christendom threatened it with destruction. In the East, by adding 666, “the number of the Beast” (Rev_13:18) to 622, the date of the Hejira, it was calculated that Mohammedanism was about to meet its doom. This crisis also passed, and the world went on its way. But it remained henceforth a fixed idea, proclaimed by every dissenter from the Roman See, that Antichrist would be found on the Papal throne. So the Waldenses, Huss, Savonarola, and our own Wickliff taught[14].
[14] We must distinguish, however, between an Antichrist and the Antichrist. A sincere Roman Catholic might assign to this or that unworthy Pope a place amongst the “many Antichrists,” adopting St John’s expression in Rev_13:18; as indeed Romanists have done in the case of Luther and others of their opponents, without supposing the Apostle’s prophecy to be in this way absolutely fulfilled.
6. The Lutheran Doctrine of Antichrist
Martin Luther’s famous protest adversus execrabilem bullam Antichristi inaugurated the Protestant Reformation (1520 a.d.). It was one of his firmest convictions, shared by all the great Reformers, that the Papal system was the Antichrist of prophecy; Luther expected that it would shortly be destroyed by Christ in His second advent. This belief was made a formal dogma of the Lutheran Church by the standard Articles of Smalkald (1537 a.d.)[15]. It has a place in the English Bible; the translators in their address to King James I. credit that monarch with having given, by a certain tractate he had published, “such a blow unto that Man of Sin, as will not be healed.” Bishop Jewel’s Exposition of the Thessalonian Epistles, delivered in the crisis of England’s revolt from Rome, gives powerful expression to the Lutheran view. In the 17th Century, however, this interpretation was called in question amongst English Divines. Amongst its recent advocates, the late Bishop Wordsworth, in his Lectures on the Apocalypse and Commentary on the Greek Testament, has supplied a learned and most earnest vindication.
[15] Melanchthon admitted a second Antichrist in Muhammad. He distinguished between the Eastern and Western Antichrists. The conjunction of Pope and Turk was common with our Protestant forefathers.
This theory has impressive arguments in its favour, drawn both from Scripture and history. It contains large elements of truth. But many reasons forbid us to identify the Papacy with the Man of Lawlessness. Two must here suffice. (1) St Paul’s words describe, as the early Fathers saw, a personal Antichrist; they cannot be satisfied by any mere succession of men, or system of Antichristian evil. (2) His Man of Lawlessness is to be the avowed opposer and displacer of God. Now, however gross the idolatry of which the Pope has been made the object, and however daring and blasphemous the arrogance of some occupants of the Papal Chair, one must seriously weaken and distort the words of the Apostle to adjust them to the Romanist pretensions. It is not true, in any strict sense of the words, that the Bishop of Rome “exalts himself against every one called God and every object of worship.” The Roman Catholic system has multiplied, instead of abolishing objects of worship; its ruling errors have been those of superstition, not of atheism. At the same time, its exaltation of the Pope and the priesthood has debased the religious instinct of Christendom, and has nursed the spirit of anthropolatry—the man-worship, which St Paul believed was to have in the Man of Lawlessness its supreme object. Romanist teaching has prepared a fruitful soil for the seeds of atheism. It enervates the conscience, and loosens the bonds of moral obligation[16].
[16] Whatever is said In condemnation of the Romanist system, is said in remembrance and joyful recognition of the fact that within the Roman communion there are multitudes of sincere and exemplary Christians.
7. Antichrist in Modern Times
It would occupy several pages merely to state the various theories promulgated upon this mysterious subject in recent times.
Not the least plausible is that which saw “the apostasy” in the later developments of the French Revolution, with its apotheosis of an abandoned woman in the character of Goddess of Reason, and which identified Napoleon Buonaparte with the Man of Sin. The Empire of Napoleon was essentially a restoration of the miliary Cæsarism of the first century. He came within a little of making himself, Iike Julius Cæsar, dictator of the civilized world. To our minds, this unscrupulous despot, with his superb genius and insatiable egotism—the offspring and the idol, till he became the scourge of a godless democracy—is in the true succession of Antiochus Epiphanes and Nero Cæsar. He has set before our times a new and commanding type of the Lawless One.
Nor is godlessness wanting in a bold and typical modern expression. Following upon the negative and destructive atheism of the last century, the scientific, constructive and humanistic atheism of this century has built up for itself an imposing system of thought and life. The theory of Positivism, as it was propounded by its great apostle, Auguste Comte, culminates in the doctrine that “Man is man’s god.” God and immortality, with the entire world of the supernatural, this philosophy abolishes in the name of science and modern thought. It sweeps them out of the way in order to make room for le grand être humain, or collective humanity; which is to command our worship through the memory of its heroes and men of genius, and in the person of woman, adored within the family. This scheme of religion Comte worked out with the utmost seriousness, and furnished with an elaborate hierarchy and ritual, based on the Roman Catholic model. Although Comte’s religion of humanity is disowned by many of his followers, it is a phenomenon of great significance and interest. It testifies to the persistence of the religious instinct in our nature; and it shews the direction which that instinct is compelled to take when deprived of its rightful Object (see the Apostle’s words in Rom_1:23). Comte would carry us back, virtually, to the Pagan adoration of deified heroes and deceased Emperors, or to the Chinese worship of family ancestors. Moreover, Positivism provides in its Great Being an abstraction which, so far as it takes possession of the human mind, must inevitably tend to realise itself in concrete personal shape. It sets up a throne of worship which the man of destiny will be forthcoming “in his season” to occupy.
Since the time of Hugo Grotius (1583–1645 a.d.), the famous Dutch Protestant scholar, theologian, and statesman, numerous attempts have been made to demonstrate the fulfilment of N.T. prophecy within the Apostolic, or Post-apostolic age. This line of interpretation was adopted by Catholic theologians, as by Bossuet in the 17th century and Döllinger[17] in our own times, partly by way of return to the Patristic view, and partly in defence against Protestant exegesis. These præterist theories, restricting the application of St Paul’s prediction to the first age of the Church, in various ways strain and minimize his language, in attempting to make it square with actual events. Or else they assume, as rationalistic interpreters complacently do, that such prophecies were incapable of real fulfilment, and have been refuted by the course of history. Almost every Roman Emperor, from Caligula down to Trajan—some even of later times—has been adopted in turn for the Man of Sin or the Restrainer by one or other of the commentators. Nero figures in both characters; so does Vespasian. Others hold—and this view is partly combined with the last, as e.g. by Grotius—that Simon Magus, the traditional father of heresy, was the Lawless One; while others, again, see “the mystery of iniquity” in the Jewish nation of the Apostle’s time. Outside the secular field, the power of the Holy Spirit, the decree of God, the Jewish Law, the believing remnant of Judaism, the Christian Church, and even Paul himself have been put into the place of “that which withholdeth,” by earlier or later authors. But these fancies have never obtained much acceptance.
[17] Döllinger sees “the Lawless One” in Nero, in the first instance; and “the Withholder”—or, as he prefers to render the word, “the Occupier” (viz. of the seat of power)—in Claudius, Nero’s predecessor; the latter a very improbable identification. He does not suppose the meaning of the prophecy exhausted by this first fulfilment, but expects a second at the end of the world, All intermediate applications he regards as speculative and illegitimate.
Like other great prophecies of Scripture, this word of the Apostle Paul has, it appears to us, a progressive fulfilment. It is carried into effect from time to time, under the action of Divine laws operating throughout human history, in partial and transitional forms, which prefigure and may contribute to its final realization. For such prophecies are inspired by Him Who “worketh all things after the counsel of His will;” and they rest upon the principles of God’s moral government, and the abiding facts of human nature. We accept, with Chrysostom, an earnest of the accomplishment of St Paul’s prediction in the person of Nero. We recognize, with the later Greek Fathers and Melanchthon, that there are plain Antichristian tokens and features in the polity of Muhammad. We recognize, with Gregory I. and the Protestant Reformers, a prelude of Antichrist’s coming and conspicuous traits of his character in the spiritual despotism of the See of Rome; and we sorrowfully mark in the history of the Church how the tares ever grow beside the wheat, and in what manifold forms “the apostasy” which prepares the way of Antichrist and lays the foundations of his rule, has continued its baleful working. We agree with those who discern in the Napoleonic idea an ominous revival of the lawless absolutism and worship of human power that prevailed in the age of the Cæsars; while Positive and materialistic philosophy, with sensualistic ethics, unless we are much deceived, are making for the same goal[18].
[18] The following extract from Comte’s Catéchisme Positiviste is a striking proof of the readiness with which scientific atheism may join hands with political absolutism: “Au nom du passé et de l’avenir, les serviteurs théoriques et les serviteurs pratiques de L’Humanité viennent prendre dignement la direction générale des affaires tesrrestres, pour construire enfin la vraie providence, morale, intellectuelle, et matérielle; en excluant irrévocablement de la suprématie politique tous les divers esclaves de Dieu, Catholiques, protestants, ou déistes, comme étant à la fois arrières et perturbateurs.”—The true Pontifical style! It Is not a very long step from these words to that which the Apostles intimate in 2Th_2:4 and Rev_13:16-17, &c. It is significant that Comte issued this Catechism of the new religion Just after the coup d’ état of Louis Napoleon, whom he congratulates on “the happy crisis”! In the same preface he does homage to the Emperor Nicholas of Russia, as “the sole truly eminent chief of whom our century can claim the honour, up to the present time.” Comte’s ignorance of politics is some excuse for these blunders; bat the conjunction remains no less significant. Faith in God and faith in freedom are bound up together. See Arthur’s Physical and Moral Law, pp. 231–237; and his Religion without God, on Positivism generally.
The history of the world is one; the first century lives over again in the nineteenth. All the factors of evil co-operate, as do those of good. There are, in truth, but two kingdoms, of Satan and of Christ; though to our eyes their forces lie scattered and confused, and we distinguish ill between them. But the course of time quickens its pace, as if nearing some great issue. Science has given an immense impetus to human progress in all directions, and moral influences propagate themselves with greater speed than, heretofore. There is going on a rapid interchange and interfusion of thought, a unifying of the world’s life, and a gathering together of the forces on either side to “the valley of decision,” that seem to portend some world-wide spiritual crisis, in which the glorious promises, or dark forebodings of revelation, or both at once, will be anew fulfilled. But still Christ’s words stand, as Augustine said, to “put down the fingers of all the calculators[19].” It is not for us to know times or seasons. What backward currents may arise in our secular progress, what new seals are to be opened in the book of human fate, and through what cycles the evolution of God’s purpose for mankind has yet to run, we cannot guess.
[19] “Omnes calculantium digitos resolvit:” on Mat_24:36.
The first disciples deemed themselves to live already in the dawn of the world’s closing day. We in its later hours keep watch for the Lord Who said, “Behold, I come quickly,”—yet seems to tarry. Be it ours, none the less, with unwearied love and faith to repeat the cry which has never ceased from the lips of the Church, the Bride of Christ:
COME, LORD JESUS!
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 (1) Brethren.—The Apostles have won a hearing for the…
(1) Brethren.—The Apostles have won a hearing for the true Advent doctrine by their sympathetic treatment of it in the former chapter; now they soften their correction of the false doctrine by using tender names.
By the coming.—Literally, for the sake of the coming, just as in English we adjure persons to do a thing “for God’s sake.” It is a stronger form of adjuration than the simple “by,” inasmuch as it implies that the thing or person adjured by will suffer if the action be left unperformed. The Coming of Christ and the meeting with the beloved dead would not be so bright, so perfect, perhaps so soon, if the Thessalonians allowed themselves to be misled with regard to it.
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Our gathering together.—The peculiar Greek word is the same as that used in Heb_10:25 of the assembling to the Lord’s Supper, and nowhere else, so that some have interpreted it in the same sense here. In verb form it is thus used in 1Th_4:17. The close connection between the two “gatherings together” may be seen in 1Co_11:26. The “our” means the meeting of the dead and the quick together.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–3 CONTENTS. The apostle now proceeds to the principal object…
CONTENTS. The apostle now proceeds to the principal object which he had in view in writing this Epistle. The Thessalonians had adopted erroneous notions concerning the advent; they supposed that the day of the Lord was imminent, and, in consequence of this belief, they were thrown into a state of excitement and alarm. The apostle reminds them of his former instructions on this subject; how he bad told them that before the coming of the day of the Lord there should be a great apostasy, and the man of sin, whose nature and characteristics he had described to them, should be revealed; but that at present there was a restraining influence which prevented his appearance.
When that restraining influence was removed, the man of sin would be revealed, accompanied with powers and signs and wonders of falsehood, and would succeed in deceiving those who were destitute of the love of the truth. Then would the Lord Jesus Christ come and destroy him by the breath of his mouth and the appearance of his presence. The apostle thanks God that the Thessalonians, on the contrary, were chosen to salvation and to a participation of the glory of the Lord; he exhorts them to stand fast in the instructions which he had delivered them; and he concludes with a prayer for their consolation and confirmation.
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This chapter is involved in difficulties; it is the obscurest passage in the writings of Paul; it is pre-eminently one of those things in his Epistles which are hard to be understood. (2Pe_3:16) But it is to be observed that the description of the man of sin, though obscure to us, was not necessarily obscure to the Thessalonians. They had information on this point which we do not possess. The apostle, when at Thessalonica, had instructed them in this subject, and to these instructions he refers in the description which he here gives (vers. 5, 6). Nor was the information which he imparted to them indefinite and general, but definite and precise. He had described the nature of the apostasy, the characteristics of the man of sin, and the influences which retarded his manifestation (vers. 3, 4); and if these points were known to us, as they were to the Thessalonians, most of the obscurity which rests on this prediction would disappear. At present we give the exposition of the passage, reserving the discussion of the various theories concerning its interpretation to an excursus at the end of the chapter.
Now; literally, but; a particle of transition. We beseech you. Passing from what he besought God for them to what he beseeches them. Brethren, by. Considered by some, as in the A.V, as a form of adjuration. Thus Calvin: "He adjures believers by the coming of Christ; for it is customary to adjure by those things which are regarded by us with reverence." But such a construction is unknown in the New Testament, and is besides unnatural. Others render the preposition "in behalf of" or "in the interest of," "as though he were pleading, in honour of that day, that the expectation of it might not be a source of disorder in the Church" (Jowett); but such a sense is too artificial. It is best to render it "concerning," or, as in the R.V, "touching." The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some (Whitby, Hammond) suppose that by the coming of the Lord Jesus was here meant his coming in spirit at the destruction of Jerusalem, and that the apostasy was the revolt of the Jews from the Romans; the restraining power being differently interpreted. But this is a forced and extravagant interpretation, and is completely overthrown by what the apostle says in the next verse, for the destruction of Jerusalem was imminent. Besides, the Thessalonians, who were chiefly Gentile converts, were too distant from Jerusalem to be much troubled by the destruction of that city. By the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, then, is here meant, as is the uniform meaning of the phrase in the writings of Paul, the second advent. And by (or, concerning) our gathering together unto him. The word translated "gathering together" occurs only once again in the New Testament, where it is used with reference to the assembling of Christians for worship. (Heb_10:35) Here it is used with reference to the assembling of believers to Christ, when he shall be revealed from heaven; it refers, not to the raising of the dead, but to the gathering together of those who are then alive. (see 1Th_4:17)
Vers. 1, 2.
The second advent.
1. The time of the advent. The erroneous notions of the Thessalonians concerning the advent. Our Lord"s references and the references in the
2. Epistles to the advent. There is no reason for the assertion that the apostles believed in or taught the immediate coming of Christ. They announced the certainty of the advent, but the precise time was not within the sphere of their inspiration.
3. The practical influence which the doctrine of the second advent shouldhave upon us. Negatively, it should not deprive us of our sober reason or fill us with alarm. Posttively, its certainty should inspire us with hope and fill us with joy; its uncertainty should stir us up to watchfulness and preserve us in patience. We must not measure by our impatience the purposes of him with whom "one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
HOMILIES BY T. CROSKERY Vers. 1, 2.
A misapprehension, respecting the time of the second advent.
The apostle"s main design in this Epistle is to correct a most disquieting error that had arisen upon this point.
I THE PANIC IN THE THESSALONIAN CHURCH.
1. It was concerning the date of the second coming of Christ. "Touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him." The facts of this august event had been prophetically described in the First Epistle.
(1) It was the personal coming of Christ in "the day of the Lord" to judge the quick and the dead.
(2) It was an event involving their "gathering together unto him" to meet the Lord in the air: a happy meeting, a marvellously glorious sight.
1. The misapprehension caused a sort of panic. "That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled like a ship tossed upon a stormy sea. It was this deep agitation of mind, this consternation and surprise, which led to the unsettled spirit that manifested itself in the Thessalonian Church. Errors in the region of dispensational truth often have this tendency.
2. The panic was due to one or other of three sources. "Neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us.
(1) It may have had its origin in some pretended revelation or spiritual utterance in the Thessalonian Church. Our Lord had predicted false alarms of this sort. "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe him not". (Mat_24:23)
(2) Or it may have come "through word," that is, word of mouth, supposed to be spoken by the apostle during his visit to Thessalonica.
(3) Or "through letter as from us," apparently forged letters such as had already become rife in the early Church.
II THE GROUND OF THE PANIC. "As that the day of the Lord is now present." This is the correct translation; not "it is at hand.
1. It could inspire no terror for the Thessalonians to know that the daywas at hand, for this had always been the apostle"s teaching, as well as that of all Scripture (Matthew 24.; (Rom_13:12; Php_4:5; Heb_10:25, Heb_10:37; Jam_5:8; 1Pe_4:7) They had been already familiar with the doctrine, which ought rather to have filled their hearts with transcendent gladness.
2. Their disquietude and distress arose from the belief that the Lord hadalready come without their sharing in the glory of his kingdom. Their relatives were still lying in their graves without any sign of resurrection, and they themselves saw no sign of that transformation of body in themselves that was to be the prelude to their meeting the Lord in the air. The apostle tells them distinctly that the day has not come, and that the signs of its approach had not yet been exhibited. T.C.
HOMILIES BY B.C. CAFFIN Vers. 1, 2.
The day of Christ not immediate.
I THE MISTAKE OF THE THESSALONIANS.
1. In itself. The day of the Lord is present; it is already dawning; it is close upon us. This thought had taken possession of their souls; it filled their hearts; it left no room for ordinary commonplace duties. They were neglecting these in their strong excitement, in their eager anticipation of the
2. approach of the great day. What was the use of attention to business, of daily labour, of the quiet performance of their accustomed tasks, when the Lord was to be expected at once, when they were to be caught up, away from earth and its employments, to meet the Lord in the air. "We which are alive and remain shall be caught up," St. Paul had said in his First Epistle. They misunderstood his words; they supposed that it must be during their own lifetime; that it might be, that it would be, immediate.
3. Its origin. Spirit, word, or letter. "Believe not every spirit" (St. John said); "try the spirits whether they are of God." There were utterances which claimed to be inspired and were not so. The discerning of spirits was one of the manifold gifts of the Holy Ghost. It was their duty not to despise prophesying, but yet to prove all things. There were also words quoted as if spoken by St. Paul; letters, too, purporting to come from him. Men misrepresented him; they attributed the sayings of others, their own, perhaps, to the holy apostle; even letters, it seems, were current, said to be the apostle"s, but not really his. People are perplexed often nowadays by the many differences of opinion which exist among Christians. The fact of this diversity is to some an excuse for unbelief or for sloth in spiritual things; to others, a real temptation, a great trial of faith. But we see it has been so from the beginning. There were errors of belief in this infant Church of Thessalonica while the apostle, who had founded it, was still near at hand at Corinth. Even in these early days things which he had said were misunderstood; his authority was claimed for words which he had never spoken; and, strangest of all, there were written letters bearing his name which were falsely ascribed to him. We have our trials now. We are troubled, some of us, by the difficulties which arise from various readings or interpretations, by the doubts thrown by modern writers on this or that book of Holy Scripture, by the conflict of opinions in the Church. It is some comfort to think that we of this age are not alone in our temptations; our position is not one of such singular perplexity as some of us are apt to think. If we persevere in prayer, if we try to live by faith looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, the doubts which vex us will soon be cleared away.
II ST. PAUL"S WAY OF DEALING WITH THAT MISTAKE.
1. He beseeches them. He is very gentle with his converts, very earnest too, and affectionate; full of deep anxiety for their spiritual welfare. And it was a matter of great importance. St. Paul had dwelt much upon the coming of the Lord. The Parousia was a subject of much excited talk,
2. much stirring of heart among the Thessalonians. St. Paul had spoken in his First Epistle of "our gathering together unto him;" how "we that are alive and remain shall be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." It was a prospect very blessed, very awful too; it had been opened out in strong, startling words. They inferred from his way of expressing himself that it was very close at hand, to be looked for immediately; their excitement was intense. He beseeches them to listen.
3. They rest be calm. Religion lies in a calm, quiet walk with God. It has its emotions, they are at times deep and strong; it has its enthusiasm, but it is ordered and grave. They must not allow themselves to be shaken from their settled judgment; they must not give way to this trembling, uneasy excitement. They must return to the quiet, steady discharge of the common duties of life; their best strength was in quietness and confidence. This was the best preparation for the coming of Christ. That coming was not immediate; much was to happen first.
LESSONS.
1. Learn to be sober, thoughtful, to distrust excitement, to live in patientcontinuance of well doing.
2. There will be difficulties, perplexities; they are trials of faith; they mustbe endured in patience and overcome by faith.
3. Prepare for the coming of Christ. The best preparation is to performeach duty as it comes in faith and prayer as unto the Lord. B.C.C.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON Vers. 1-12.
Antichrist.
I ERROR REGARDING THE COMING OF CHRIST. "Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by Epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is now present; let no man beguile you in any wise." The apostle beseeches the Thessalonians as brethren, in the interest of correct views of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is his principal topic in both Epistles. The comforting side of the coming is the gathering together of all believers unto him, never to be followed by a separation, as set forth in (1Th_4:17, "Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them" (the dead in Christ who have been raised) "be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord? By the way in which he introduces this gathering together, it can be seen that it was very attractive to him. It was that in the coming which he especially wished to be conserved. In the beginning of 1Th 5. the apostle had distinctly taught the uncertainty of the time of the coming. But representations had been made to the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord was actually beginning. Three forms which these representations might take, or, more probably, did take, are specified. There were representations founded upon pretended prophecy. There were also representations founded upon an alleged oral communication of the apostle. There were farther representations founded upon an alleged Epistle of the apostle. The existence and circulation of a fabricated Epistle seem to be hinted at in the words at the close of this Epistle: "The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every Epistle: so I write." If the Thessalonians accepted of these representations, there was danger of their being precipitately shaken from their composure of mind and even thrown into a terrified state, as at sea men are discomposed and even horrified by the bursting of a storm upon them. The apostle, therefore, considered it necessary to write this Epistle, to put them on their guard against their being led away by these representations. Let no man beguile them in these ways, or, making it wider, in any other way.
II THE ANTICHRISTIAN MANIFESTATION.
1. The coming of Christ to be preceded by apostasy. "For it will not be, except the falling away come first." "Apostasy" (after the Greek) is the more technical wordthe apostasy of which the Thessalonians had been told. There is, particularly, meant falling away from the faith of Christ. It is a movement begun by those who have been within the Christian circle, and who, after having been advantaged by Christianity in outward enlightenment and quickening, have ungratefully turned away. Or the movement away from Christ may dishonourably be encouraged by those who still remain within the Christian circle, but have lost faith in the distinctive teachings of Christianity. The name of "apostate" has been given to the Emperor Julian for his signal renunciation of Christianity, but it is a name which belongs to every one who in the struggle of life parts with his early Christian convict, ions, his good traditions. Let us see that we are not, in the smallest degree, contributing to the movement away from Christ.
1. The revelation of the man of sin. "And the man of sin be revealed." It is now an exploded idea that the man of sin means popery. The principal interpreters Olshausen, Ellicott, Alford, Eadie hold to the idea of the man of sin being a person. He is supposed to be the last and worst product
2. of the apostasy. He is a caricature of Christ, having a mystery, and revelation, and miracles, and claim of divinity, a coming and preparation, even as Christ has. He is as inclusive of all the bad forms of humanity, as Christ is of all its good forms. It cannot be said of this most unlovely conception that it has the similitude of truth. It cannot be dogmatically laid down as a matter of interpretation that the man of sin is a person, any more than the restrainer is a person. The designation "man of sin points, in the first place, to sin as the essence of the apostasy. The moving away from Christ is an opposing of the Divine authority. The designation man of sin" points, in the second place, to sin as working under human (not angelic) conditions, and, taken along with apostasy, points especially to the development of sin in human history. The designation "man of sin" points, in the third place, to this historical development, not as actual, but as idealized. As the language, "O man of God," is a call to consider the true ideal of manhood, so the man of sin may be viewed as the ideal of the development of sin among men. In so far as popery is after this ideal may it be said to be the man of sin. In so far as any of us take after the bad ideal of manhood may it be said to us, "O man of sin!" calling us to consider what we are following after. Let us see that we do not in the least merit the designation. By the revelation of the man of sin is to be understood the bringing out of the real nature of sin. It may put on specious forms, but it is essential vileness; it is uglier than the ugliest of creatures, it is more venomous than the serpent, it is more grovelling than the earthworm, it is blacker than darkness. And in the working of Providence in human history, it is intended that this should be, with accumulating evidence and unmistakably, brought out. And we are here taught that there cannot be the revelation of Christ at his coming until all that is evil in sin has been brought out.
1. The son of perdition. "The son of perdition." The common Hebrew form is followed. Sprung from perdition, he has perdition as his destiny. The designation marks the result of the movement away from Christ. Every such movement must prove in the end abortive. How many of those movements that once had vitality in them have already ended in perdition! The designation was given by our Lord to Judas Iscariot: "And none of them is lost, but the son of perdition." And it is certainly not to be wondered at that he whose apostasy was aggravated by the proximity in which he stood to Christ should strikingly be shown in his suicidal end to be the son of perdition. In so far as any of us are moving away from Christ we are placing our paternity in perdition, and are working out perdition as
2. our destiny. Let us, then, be warned by what will yet be seen to come out of sin.
3. The opposer of Christ. "He that opposeth." It is not said, "He that opposeth Christ," but, from the way in which Christian thought is interwoven with the whole paragraph, we may understand that to be the meaning. We may, therefore, regard the movement as described by the designation "antichrist" with which John supplies us. As it is in its origin a movement away from Christ, so it comes to have the character of being directed against Christ. It is a movement in which advantages gained from Christ are unworthily used against him. As it is the object of God in the Church to put forward Christ for the acceptance of men, so it is the object of antichrist to draw away men from Christ. Popery is antichrist in so far as it does not give Christ and his words and his death their proper place in Christian belief and life. It may be said of us that we are antichrist in so far as we do not yield ourselves up to Christ, and do not to our utmost ability help forward the cause of Christ. "He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
1. The deeper of self. "And exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God." There is strong confirmation here of the doctrine of Muller, that all sin is of the nature of selfishness. Antichrist is selfishness rising to the impious height of self-deification. He raises himself above and against him who is truly called God, without thereby falling into idolatry; for he also raises himself above and against those that have only the name of gods, and, it is added (going beyond the actually named), above and against all that can be turned into an object of worship. He does not, therefore, shut out the sacred sphere; rather does he fill it with himself. He is the centre of all wisdom, power, and glory for which worship is due. The startling language is that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. There is supposed to be meant a session in the actual temple in Jerusalem by those who, laying undue stress upon the language here, regard the paragraph as having already received its fulfilment. But there is reference to the actual temple only by way of illustration. As God was represented as sitting between the cherubim, requiring the adoration of all Israelites (as he was the object of adoration to the highest intelligences), so antichrist entertains the thought of divinity and strictly requires adoration. While in Christ"s consciousness of divinity there was the element of infinite self-sacrifice, in antichrist"s presumptuous thought of divinity there is only the element of utter selfishness. We are not to think here merely of him
2. who sits in the Church and arrogantly wields spiritual power. Rather are we to see the tendency of the whole movement away from Christ. This is how it aims at expressing itself. This is the dreadful interpretation of what it would be at. And it is true of us all, in so far as we are selfish, that we are aiming at making a temple for ourselves in which to sit down and to require adoration. As we in our present state of feeling can only recoil from such self-deification, let us beware of that selfishness which is at the heart of sin.
3. The Thessalonians reminded of former teachings on the above points. "Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?" In his teachings on the coming he was not corrected or supplemented by recent revelation. He had occupied the same position from the beginning; such is undoubtedly his own contention, and is against the contention of some who attribute to him that he believed that he would live to see the coming. He reminds the Thessalonians here, not without some measure of blame, that when he was with them (and he singles out himself in making this statement) he told them some things which he was now putting down in his letter.
III THE RESTRAINING POWER.
1. What restrains the antichristian manifestation. "And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season." This was another point on which he had given them information. It is left indefinite what the restraining power is. The prevailing opinion, as expressed by Ellicott, is well-ordered human rule, the principles of legality as opposed to those of lawlessness of which the Roman empire was the then embodiment and manifestation." It is true that civil rule keeps back many of the manifestations of evil. The civil ruler is a terror to evil doers. If men were allowed to give vent to their evil passions without dread of punishment, this world would be a pandemonium. But, at the same time, it is true that the worst manifestations of evil, of proud defiance of God, of bitter rancour against Christ (which are chiefly to be thought of in connection with the anti-christian movement), are those with which the civil magistrate has little to do. The condition upon which these manifestations depend is rather the increased setting forth of Christ. There is a manifestation of good going forward, as well as a manifestation of evil. It must yet be shown in human history that there is an essential loveliness belonging to the Christian life. Many Scriptures promise a period of conquest for the Church. When the Church extends its conquests there will
2. be a solidarity of influence on the side of Christ of which no adequate conception can now be formed. The result of that wilt be, among those who participate in the antichristian movement, deepened hatred against Christ. As when he conquered on the cross there was a calling forth against him of the worst elements especially of superhuman evil, so when he advances to conquest in human history there will be a similar calling forth of the worst elements especially of human evil. The time when evil is thus powerfully to be revealed has been fixed by God. It may be said that the apostle should, according to the interpretation, have regarded the Christian manifestation as coming to a head. But it was open to him to regard it under a special aspect as that which in its yet partial character held back the full manifestation of antichrist.
3. The present working of the mystery of lawlessness. "For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work." "Lawlessness," which corresponds to "sin," formerly used, is not to be taken as favouring the view that the restraining power is human rule. It points to the antichristian movement as characterized by a disposition to cast off all authority, especially the highest authority. The stress is to be laid on "mystery." Evil was then working, and in working was revealing itself, but its true nature as opposition to Christ was largely concealed, was only very partially revealed. A lurid light was thrown upon it by the ten great persecutions which, under the Roman emperors, were directed against Christianity. Light is thrown upon it by the attacks which in the present day are made upon Christianity. But it would seem that we have not seen all that is in it of opposition to Christ. The mystery of lawlessness still works.
1. The removal of the restrainer. "Only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming." Ellicott regards the use of the masculine gender as a realistic touch, by which what was previously expressed by the more abstract "restraining power" is now represented as concrete and personified. It is strange how this should not be regarded as applying also to the "lawless one" to whom the restrainer is here opposed. If the restrainer is human rule, then his removal must mean the upturning (apparently general) of human rule. And that is what is contemplated by some as the conclusion to human history. But the restrainer being "Christianity not come to the season of its full manifestation," his removal must mean the arrival of that season. When Christianity, working among the multitudes of men, brings its full influence to bear on the antichristian movement, in what it calls forth of opposition, that movement will come to the completeness of its exposure. And antichrist, thus morally defeated, eternally disproved, will have taken away from it its sphere of operation. It will be slain with the breath of Christ"s mouth, and brought to nought by the manifestation of his coming.
IV THE LYING CHARACTER OF THE ANTICHRISTIAN MOVEMENT.
1. Lies of Satan. "Even he, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders." As Satan is a liar and the father of lies, so the antichristian movement which he inspires is characterized by lying. As Christ has power and signs and wonders of truth, so the antichristian movement has power and signs and wonders of lying. It is remarkable that the Church of Rome puts forward a claim of miracle working, which helps it to preserve its influence over minds, but which it cannot establish. The power and signs and wonders by which men are apt to be deluded now are more of an intellectual nature. It is objected to Christianity that the miracles with which it is bound up are shown by science to be impossible, it is objected that it presents too severe a view of our human condition, in representing us as standing in need of salvation. It is objected that it presents too severe a view of the character of God, in representing him as punishing sin in Christ. It is objected that it presents too severe a view of human duty, in calling upon us to forsake all and follow Christ. When these objections are powerfully presented, and so as to have the appearance of saving the character of God from aspersions, there may be the effect, which false miracles have often had, of men being deluded.
2. Lies of Satan leading to unrighteousness. "With all deceit of unrighteousness." When men entertain false views, especially of the character of God, there is an easy transition to unrighteousness. There are many ways in which they can persuade themselves, that they may exercise liberty in their manner of living. They do not need to pray to God; they do not need to read God"s Book; they do not need to keep God"s day; they do not need to be strictly honourable in their transactions; they do not need to make sacrifices for others. It is enough that they keep up an appearance of probity and purity, and, it may be, of religion, before men. They can leave all their failings to the general mercy of God.
3. Unrighteousness leading to destruction. "For them that are perishing. From unrighteousness there is a necessary, though, it may not be, an immediate, transition to destruction. When men do not observe the rules which are laid down for them by God, they are contending with God, and, contending with God, they cannot in the end succeed; for God is stronger than they. There were those who were perishing in their unrighteousness in Paul"s day. And there are still those who seem to be perishing in their unrighteousness.
4. The just dealing of God.
(1) What those who are in the antichristian movement reject. "Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." The apostle holds that it was their own fault if they were perishing. And, in doing so, he brings forward very precious truth. God has in view our salvation, he willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. For this end he makes us the offer, not of the truth, but of the disposition which is necessary for finding it the love of the truth. Of all dispositions it is that which is most needed to begin with. It is that which is needed against the deceitfulness of the heart. It is that which is needed against the delusive lies of Satan. If we accept of the love of the truth, if we have the disposition to know the truth about ourselves, and to follow the Divine leading and God promises us this disposition then we shall certainly be led unto salvation. But if we do not accept of the love of the truth, if we have the disposition to flatter ourselves, and to follow some ignis fatuus of our own imagination and that is only too natural to us we shall as certainly be led on to destruction.
(2) What they induce. "And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: that they. all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in righteousness." Receiving not the truth, it was not with them as though the oiler had not been made to them. There was induced a state of judicial blindness. As it was induced in connection with the Divine offer which was refused, and in accordance with the Divine laws in their nature, it could be attributed to God. It could be said that God sent them a working of error, that they should believe a lie. Christianity is the most reasonable, most beautiful thing in existence. But when men are in a state of judicial blindness, they do not see its reasonableness and beauty; they believe men who lie about it, and treat it with indifference, or disdain, or hatred. This can only lead on to their being judged and condemned, the ground of their condemnation being their not believing the truth especially about Christ, but taking pleasure in unrighteousness. Let us see, then, that we accept the great offer from God of veracity, of love for the truth. Let us be willing to take a truthful view of things; not taking darkness for light, and evil for good. Let us be willing to follow the Divine leading. Let us especially be open toward Christ toward the efficacy of his blood, toward the convincing power of his teachings, toward the enjoyment of his fellowship. And, if the antichristian manifestation goes forward around us, let us be all the more decided on the side of Christ. R.F.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Vers. 1, 2.
A great delusion.
One object, perhaps the principal object, of this Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, following as it does so closely upon the First Epistle, is to correct a disturbing error that was obtaining some considerable footing among the Macedonian Christians.
I THE GREAT DELUSION. The First Epistle contains repeated references to an expectation of the second advent of Christ which was evidently very strong in the Thessalonian Church. The wish is father to the thought. From expecting "the day of the Lord" to arrive at any moment, some had been led, on most insufficient evidence, to ask whether it had not already come. The great delusion was that "the day of the Lord is now present." It is not likely that any supposed Christ to have come, though in an invisible way, and in a different manner from which it was expected, or that they thought be might have come to another place, unseen and unknown to the Churches of northern Greece. What they were inclined to think seems to have been that the new era in which Christ was to appear had already dawned, though he himself had not yet come. Similar is the delusion of any who suppose that the day of grace is over and the time of judgment come, or that of those who think they have got into a new dispensation beyond the dispensation of the New Testament.
II THE SOURCES OF THE DELUSION.
1. Latter day prophecy. The expression "either by spirit" seems to refer to the supposed inspiration of Christian prophets. St. Paul had previously warned his friends to prove all things, while not quenching the Spirit by despising prophesyings. (1Th_5:19-21) We must beware of self-deluded fanatics as well as of deliberate deceivers.
2. False apostolical tradition. "By word" probably means by reported word of St. Paul, which word, however, never really came from him. Thus early were false traditions afloat. See the mistaken tradition about St. John. (Joh_21:23) If these erroneous traditions were current during the lifetime of the apostles, how can we accept so called "apostolic tradition" as an authority?
3. A forged Epistle. The mistake could scarcely have arisen from our First Epistle to the Thessalonians, since that Epistle referred to the great day as future, while the error made it present. It is important to ascertain the authenticity of the books of Scripture.
III THE DANGER OF THE DELUSION. St. Paul warns against it as something to be carefully avoided. Many evils attached to it.
1. Erroneous views. These are bad in themselves, as true views are desirable on their own account. The soul suffers for want of truth as the body for want of light.
2. Dishonouring conceptions of the seceded advent. If the day were already come, where was the glory, the judgment, the rectification of all things? False doctrines dishonour Christ even when they are meant to glorify him.
3. Confusion of conduct. Such a delusion as that which was creeping into the Thessalonian Church would disarrange all practical life. Delusions about the second advent distract attention from sober Christian work.
IV THE WARNING AGAINST THE DELUSION.
1. Form no hasty opinion. Be not quickly shaken," etc. Specious arguments should be examined at leisure before they are adopted.
2. Do act permit novel teaching to give distress. If the heart is well settled in Christian truth, though the mind should be open to receive new light, no distress or disturbance need be felt.
3. Beware of deception. "Let no man beguile you." Christians should be watchful and "wise as serpents," each having his own independent convictions. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of…
2Th_2:1
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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The coming of Christ
I. The nature of it. Christ came. He comes. He is to come.
1. He came in the flesh. The long line of predictions from Adam to Malachi were accomplished at last, after long delay and anxious expectation.
2. He comes continually.
(1) In the extraordinary manifestation of His presence and power, whether for judgment or mercy.
(2) In the special manifestation of Him self to His people.
3. He is to come.
(1) Personally and visibly.
(2) With power and great glory.
(3) The dead shall rise, the just and the unjust.
(4) The judgment will then be held.
(5) The world destroyed.
(6) The kingdom of God consummated.
The consequences to His people will be--
(a) Their redemption, i.e., their final deliverance from the power of death.
(b) Their complete conformity to the likeness of Christ.
(c) Their perfect enjoyment of that kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.
II. The time.
1. It is unrevealed.
2. It is to be unexpected.
3. It will not be until the conversion of the Jews and the calling in of the Gentries.
Did the apostles expect Christ in their day?
(1) They regarded His coming as they regarded the coming of death.
(2) It was revealed to them that there should be a falling away first.
We must distinguish between their personal expectations and their teaching. The latter alone is infallible.
III. Points of analogy between the first and second comings.
1. Both predicted.
2. Anxiously and long expected.
3. The subjects of much speculation as to time and mode.
4. Disappointing in the one and the other.
IV. The state of mind which the doctrine should induce.
1. A firm belief in the revealed fact that He is to come. This faith should not be shaken by long delay. How long Abraham waited and died without the sight.
2. Earnest desire. The hopes of the ancient people were concentrated on the coming of the Messiah. This led them to bear patiently what they had to suffer. To set their hopes on the future and not on the present. The same effect should be produced on us.
3. Watchfulness and anxiety, lest that day should overtake us as a thief in the night. We should have our lamps trimmed and our lights burning. It would be a dreadful thing for Christ to come and find us immersed in the world.
4. Prayer and waiting.
5. Solicitous efforts to prepare others for His coming, and to prepare the way of the Lord. He will not come to the individual nor to the Church till His way is prepared. This includes--
(1) Taking out of the way obstructions to His coming.
(2) The accomplishment of the ingathering of His people. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
The coming of Christ
I. The coming of Christ to judgment is a truth--
1. Well known by all the saints (Jud_1:14; Psa_96:13; Psa_98:9; Ecc_12:13-14).
2. Firmly believed (2Pe_3:3-5; Tit_2:11-13).
3. Earnestly desired (Son_8:14; Rev_22:20). Why?
(1) In respect of Him who is to come--that we may see Him who is our great Lord and Saviour. All who believed anything of Christ before He came desired to see Him (Joh_8:56). And now Christians (1Pe_1:8; 1Pe_2:3).
(2) In respect of the persons desiring--there is that in them which moves them to it.
(a) The Spirit of Christ (Rev_22:17). The Holy Ghost creates this desire: it is His great work to bring Christ and us together.
(b) The graces planted in us--faith, which takes Christ at His word (Joh_14:2); hope, which is faiths handmaid (1Pe_1:3); love, which is an affection of union (Php_1:23).
(c) Christian privileges; believers then find the fruit of their interest in Christ, and have their reward (Rev_22:12; 2Ti_4:8; 1Pe_5:4).
II. When Christ shall come all the saints shall be gathered with him. There shall be--
1. A congregation (Mat_25:32; 2Co_5:10). Adam will then meet all his posterity at once. All distinctions of age, quality, wealth, nation, etc., will disappear.
2. A segregation (Mat_25:32-33). There may be some confusion now, but there shall be a complete separation then (Mat_13:49).
3. An aggregation: believers are gathered together for several ends.
(1) To make up the number of Christs attendants (Jud_1:14; Zec_14:5; 1Th_4:17).
(2) To be presented to God by head and poll. We were given to Christ to be preserved for glory (Joh_17:6). Christ is to give an account (Joh_6:40). The form of presentation (Heb_2:13).
(3) To be brought in one troop to heaven (Joh_14:3). Conclusion: There is much comfort in this.
1. Real Christians seem few (Luk_12:32): but when there assembled they shall be a multitude that no man can number (Rev_5:9; Rev_7:9).
2. Christian friends are now separated--then they shall meet to part no more (Mat_24:31; 1Th_4:17).
3. The Church seems in a degenerate state--then it shall be without spot. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Reunion
1. The exact word occurs only again in Heb_10:25, and that gathering is typical of this. When we meet in the House of God, for prayer, praise, instruction and communion, we are practising for that other gathering, which shall be perfect. The verb, however, occurs in two other places: one is where our Lord reminds Jerusalem how He would have gathered her children together. That idea of safe keeping, cherishing under the wing of the mother, is involved in the gathering of the Second Advent. The other text is Mar_13:27, the interpretation of the text before us.
2. The text is used not as a terror but as an attraction. We beseech you by it, as those who would not part with it for their life. The Advent, as a regathering, is full of consolation. But it implies--
I. Dispersion. There are senses in which this is tolerable. The severance of nations by dividing seas and deserts, and by the Babel judgment of divided tongues, is no affliction. It is as a type that we must read it to enter into its significance for sorrow.
1. It tells of sons and mothers parted for a lifetime by calls of duty or self-made necessities; of friends closer than brothers bidding each other a long farewell at a noisy station or a sea-washed pier; of vows of lifelong friendship broken in sudden passion; of discords which a breath would have healed; hence severance.
2. There is a dispersion of divided tongues concerning Christ in Gods behalf. Men made offenders for a word; men unable to read in identical phrase some microscopic doctrine; men, kneeling in the name of one Saviour, imputing wilful blindness to one another.
3. Then the uncharitableness of individual men must be made the watchwords and heirlooms of parties and Churches. Creeds and articles must adopt the quarrel, and anathematize the deviation as a crime. So Christs house is divided.
4. Behind and beneath all these dispersions there lurks the giant disperser, Death. Those unaffected by the other dispersions are all doomed to suffer from this.
5. But the greatest is sin. Brothers and friends may part and not part; even in this life they may be divided, and yet know that they have one home and Father. But sin divides even in its joining. Where sin is there is selfishness, and selfishness is severance.
II. The regathering. To Paul, and to all whose hearts are large and deep, there was a peculiar charm in the thought of this. I beseech you, as though no motive could be more persuasive.
1. The scene thus opened is august even to oppressiveness. Expanded from one end of heaven to the other, enhanced by multiplication of generations, till it has embraced all the living and dead who have possessed the one Divine faith which makes the communion of saints, it overwhelms and baffles the souls gaze.
2. But we must seek to refine and decarnalize our conceptions. There is a spiritual body, doubtless like that of the risen Jesus which entered the room whose doors were shut. We must reassure ourselves by thoughts of the possibility of a communion in which mind shall touch mind, and spirit breathe into spirit, and soul kindle soul with no cumbersome machineries or limiting measurements.
3. Even now we feel within ourselves an instinct of the regathering. There are those who profess to have the key of death, and to hold commerce with the departed. We could better believe them if we found in their supposed communications profiting or solemnity. But the instinct of reunion is there; we read it even in its follies.
4. Still more do we long and yearn in ourselves for that kind of union which can come only to the immortal. Here we meet and part with a sense of unrest which leaves us to the end hungry and desolate. To the friend of our souls we cannot say one half of what we meant to say, and that was not fully understood. Our love he read not, and our passing humours he took as a changed affection. But then friend shall meet friend in absolute oneness, knowing as known, because loved as loving.
5. The condition is unto Him. There are many human heavens for one Divine. We picture to ourselves a future bright with earths joys, and cloudless of earths troubles; but have we remembered that the light thereof is the Lamb. The promise of the text is vocal only to the Christian. Conclusion: Make now the great decision. If we will here trifle together, live for the world, neglect Christ, mock at sin, we must look abroad for some other hope: there is none for us in the gospel. The Advent regathering is for those only who in life have loved the appearing. (Dean Vaughan.)
The Advent as a motive
By is not a formula of adjuration. There would be no point in saying, I beseech you by the day of the Lord, not to suppose that the day of the Lord is at hand. It must be taken in the sense of on behalf of, as though he were pleading in honour of that day, that the expectation of it might not be a source of disorder in the Church. (Prof. Jowett.)
Caution against error
I. The error which the apostle disproves--that the day of Christ was then at hand.
II. The effect which this error might produce--trouble and unsettledness of mind. This implies--
1. That errors breed this disquietude.
2. That Christians should be firmly established against them.
III. A removal of the foundation of this error. The brethren were not to be shaken either by spirit, by word, or by letter. (W. Burkitt, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Chapter 19
Chapter 19
THE MAN OF SIN
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2Th_2:1-5 (R.V.)
IN the first chapter of this Epistle Paul depicted the righteous judgment of God which accompanies the advent of Christ. Its terrors and its glories blazed before his eyes as he prayed for those who were to read his letter. "With this in view," he says, "we also pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of the calling." The emphatic word in the sentence is "you." Among all believers in whom Christ was to be glorified, as they in Him, the Thessalonians were at this moment nearest to the Apostles heart. Like others, they had been called to a place in the heavenly kingdom.; and he is eager that they should prove worthy of it. They will be worthy only if God powerfully carries to perfection in them their delight in goodness, and the activities of their faith. That is the substance of his prayer. "The Lord enable you always to have unreserved pleasure in what is good, and to show the proof of faith in all you do. So you shall be worthy of the Christian calling, and the name of the Lord shall be glorified in you, and you in Him, in that day."
The second chapter seems, in our English Bibles, to open with an adjuration: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him." If that were right, we might suppose Pauls meaning to be: As you long for this great day, and anticipate its appearing as your dearest hope, let me conjure you not to entertain mischievous fancies about it; or, as you dread the day, and shrink from the terrible judgment which it brings, let me adjure you to think of it as you ought to think, and not discredit it by unspiritual excitement, bringing reproach on the Church in the eyes of the world. But this interpretation, though apt enough, is hardly justified by the use of the New Testament, and the Revised Version is nearer the truth when it gives the rendering "touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is of it the Apostle wishes to speak; and what he has to say is, that the true doctrine of it contains nothing which ought to produce unsettlement or vague alarms. In the First Epistle, especially in chapter 5, he has enlarged on the moral attitude which is proper to those who cherish the Christian hope: they are to watch and be sober; they are to put off the works of darkness, and put on, as children of the day, the armour of light; they are to be ready and expectant always. Here he adds the negative counsel that they are not to be quickly shaken from their mind, as a ship is driven from her moorings by a storm, nor yet upset or troubled, whether by spirit or by word or letter purporting to be from him. These last expressions need a word of explanation. By "spirit" the Apostle no doubt means a Christian man speaking in the church under a spiritual impulse. Such speakers in Thessalonica would often take the Second Advent as their theme; but their utterances were open to criticism. It was of such utterances that the Apostle had said in his earlier letter, "Despise not prophesyings; but prove all that is said, and hold fast that which is good." The spirit in which a Christian spoke was not necessarily the spirit of God; even if it were, it was not necessarily unmixed with his own ideas, desires, or hopes. Hence discernment of spirits was a valued and needful gift, and it seems to have been wanted at Thessalonica. Besides misleading utterances of this kind in public worship, there were circulated words ascribed to Paul, and if not a forged letter, at all events a letter purporting to contain his opinion, none of which had his authority. These words and this letter had for their substance the idea that the day of the Lord was now present-or, as one might say in Scotch, just here. It was this which produced the unspiritual excitement at Thessalonica, and which the Apostle wished to contradict.
A great mystery has been made out of the paragraph which follows, but without much reason. It certainly stands alone in St. Pauls writings, an Apocalypse on a small scale, reminding us in many respects of the great Apocalypse of John, but not necessarily to be judged by it, or brought into any kind of harmony with it. Its obscurity, so far as it is obscure, is due in part to the previous familiarity of the Thessalonians with the subject, which allowed the Apostle to take much for granted; and in part, no doubt, to the danger of being explicit in a matter which had political significance. But it is not really so obscure as it has been made out to be by some; and the reputation for humility which so many have sought, by adopting St. Augustines confession that he had no idea what the Apostle meant, is too cheap to be coveted. We must suppose that St. Paul wrote to be understood, and was understood by those to whom he wrote; and if we follow him word by word, a sense will appear which is not really questionable except on extraneous grounds. What, then, does he say about the delaying of the Advent?
He says it will not come till the falling away, or apostasy, has come first. The Authorised Version says "a" falling away, but that is wrong. The falling away was something familiar to the Apostle and his readers; he was not introducing them to any new thought. But a falling away of whom? or from what? Some have suggested, of the members of the Christian Church from Christ, but it is quite plain from the whole passage, and especially from 2Th_2:12 f., that the Apostle is contemplating a series of events in which the Church has no part but as a spectator. But the "apostasy" is clearly a religious defection; though the word itself does not necessarily imply as much, the description of the falling away does; and if it be not of Christians, it must be of the Jews; the Apostle could not conceive of the heathen "who know not God" as falling away from Him. This apostasy reaches its height, finds its representative and hero, in the man of sin, or, as some MSS. have it, the man of lawlessness. When the Apostle says the man of sin, he means the man, -not a principle, nor a system, nor a series of persons, but an individual human person who is identified with sin, an incarnation of evil as Christ was of good, an Antichrist. The man of sin is also the son of perdition; this name expressing his fate-he is doomed to perish-as the other his nature. This persons portrait is then drawn by the Apostle. He is the adversary par excellence, he who sets himself in opposition, a human Satan, the enemy of Christ. The other features in the likeness are mainly borrowed from the description of the tyrant king Antiochus Epiphanes in the Book of Daniel: they may have gained fresh meaning to the Apostle from the recent revival of them in the insane Emperor Caligula. The man of sin is filled with demoniac pride; he lifts himself on high against the true God, and all gods, and all that men adore; he seats himself in the temple of God; he would like to be taken by all men for God. There has been much discussion over the temple of God in this passage. It is no doubt true that the Apostle sometimes uses the expression figuratively, of a church and its members-"The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are"-but it is surely inconceivable that a man should take his seat in that temple; when these words were fresh, no one could have put that meaning on them. The temple of God is, therefore, the temple at Jerusalem; it was standing when Paul wrote; and he expected it to stand till all this was fulfilled. When the Jews had crowned their guilt by falling away from God; in other words, when they had finally and as a whole decided against the gospel, and Gods purpose to save them by it; when the falling away had been crowned by the revelation of the man of sin, and the profanation of the temple by his impious pride, then, and not till then, would come the end. "Do you not remember," says the Apostle, "that when I was with you I used to tell you this?"
When Paul wrote this Epistle, the Jews were the great enemies of the gospel; it was they, who persecuted him from city to city, and roused against him everywhere the malice of the heathen; hostility to God was incarnated, if anywhere, in them. They alone, because of their spiritual privileges, were capable of the deepest spiritual sin. Already in the First Epistle he has denounced them as the murderers of the Lord Jesus and of their own prophets, a race that please not God and are contrary to all men, sinners on whom the threatened wrath has come without reserve. In the passage before us the course is outlined of that wickedness against which the wrath was revealed. The people of God, as they called themselves, fall definitely away from God; the monster of lawlessness who rises from among them can only be pictured in the words in which prophets portrayed the impiety and presumption of a heathen king; he thrusts God aside, and claims to be God himself.
There is only one objection to this interpretation of the Apostles words, namely, that they have never been fulfilled. Some will think that objection final; and some will think it futile: I agree with the last. It proves too much; for it lies equally against every other interpretation of the words, however ingenious, as well as against the simple and natural one just given. It lies, in some degree, against almost every prophecy in the Bible. No matter what the apostasy, and the man of sin, are taken to be, nothing has ever appeared in history which answers exactly to Pauls description. The truth is that inspiration did not enable the apostles to write history before it happened; and though this forecast of the Apostles has a spiritual truth in it, resting as it does on a right perception of the law of moral development, the precise anticipation which it embodies was not destined to be realised. Further, it must have changed its place in Pauls own mind within the next ten years; for, as Dr. Farrar has observed, he barely alludes again to the Messianic surroundings (or antecedents) of a second, personal advent. "He dwells more and more on the mystic oneness with Christ, less and less on His personal return. He speaks repeatedly of the indwelling presence of Christ, and the believers incorporation with Him, and hardly at all of that visible meeting in the air which at this epoch was most prominent in his thoughts."
But, it may be said, if this anticipation was not to be fulfilled, is it not altogether deceptive? is it not utterly misleading that a prophecy should stand in Holy Scripture which history was to falsify? I think the right answer to that question is that there is hardly any prophecy in Holy Scripture which has not been in a similar way falsified, while nevertheless in its spiritual import true. The details of this prophecy of St. Paul were not verified as he anticipated, yet the soul of it was. The Advent was not just then; it was delayed till a certain moral process should be accomplished; and this was what the Apostle wished the Thessalonians to understand. He did not know when it would he; but he could see so far into the law of Gods working as to know that it would not come till the fulness of time; and he could understand that, where a final judgment was concerned, the fulness of time would not arrive till evil had had every opportunity, either to turn and repent, or to develop itself in the most utterly evil forms, and lie ripe for vengeance.
This is the ethical law which underlies the Apostles prophecy; it is a law confirmed by the teaching of Jesus Himself, and illustrated by the whole course of history. The question is sometimes discussed whether the world gets better or worse as it grows older, and optimists and pessimists take opposite sides upon it. Both, this law informs us, are wrong. It does not get better only, nor worse only, but both. Its progress is not simply a progress in good, evil being gradually driven from the field; nor is it simply a progress in evil, before which good continually disappears: it is a progress in which good and evil alike come to maturity, bearing their ripest fruit, showing all that they can do, proving their strength to the utmost against each. other; the progress is not in good in itself, nor in evil in itself, but in the antagonism of the one to the other. This is the same truth which we are taught by our Lord in the parable of the wheat and the tares: "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the tares," etc. In the time of harvest: not till all is ripe for judgment, not till the wheat and the tares alike have shown all that is in them, will the judgment come. This is what St. Paul understood, and what the Thessalonians did not understand; and if his ignorance of the scale of the world, and the scale of Gods purposes, made him apply this law to the riddle of history hastily, with a result which the event has not justified, that is nothing to the prejudice of the law itself, which was true when he applied it with his imperfect knowledge, and is true for application still.
One other remark is suggested by the description of the character in which sin culminates, viz., that as evil approaches its height it assumes ever more spiritual forms. There are some sins which betray man on the lower side of his nature, through the perversion of the appetites which he has in common with the brutes: the dominance of these is in some sense natural; they are not radically and essentially evil. The man who is the victim of lust or drunkenness may lose his soul by his sin, but he is its victim; there is not in his guilt that malignant hatred of good which is here ascribed to the man of sin. The crowning wickedness is this demoniac pride: the temper of one who lifts himself on high above God, owning no superior, nay, claiming for himself the highest place of all. This is rather spiritual than sensual: it may be quite free from the gross vices of the flesh, though the connection between pride and sensuality is closer than is sometimes imagined; but it is more conscious, deliberate, malignant, and damnable than any brutality could be. When we look at the world in any given age-our own or another-and make inquiry into its moral condition, this is a consideration which we are apt to lose sight of, but which is entitled to the utmost weight. The collector of moral statistics examines the records of criminal courts; he investigates the standard of honesty in commerce; he balances the evidences of peace, truth, purity, against those of violence, fraud, and immorality, and works out a rough conclusion. But that material morality leaves out of sight what is most significant of all-the spiritual forms of good and of evil in which the opposing forces show their inmost nature, and in which the world ripens for Gods judgment. The man of sin is not described as a sensualist or a murderer; he is an apostate, a rebel against God, a usurper who claims not the palace but the temple for his own. This God-dethroning pride is the utmost length to which sin can go. The judgment will not come till it has fully developed; can any one see tokens of its presence?
In asking such a question we pass from the interpretation of the Apostles words to their application. Much of the difficulty and bewilderment that have gathered about this passage are due to the confusion of these two quite different things. The interpretation gives us the meaning of the very words the Apostle used. We have seen what that is, and that in its precise detail it was not destined to be fulfilled. But when we have passed behind the surface meaning, and laid hold on the law which the Apostle was applying this passage, then we can apply it ourselves. We can use it to read the signs of the times in our own or in any other age. We may see developments of evil, resembling in their main features the man of sin here depicted, in one quarter or another, and in one person or another; and if we do, we are bound to see in them tokens that a judgment of God is at hand; but we must not imagine that in so applying the passage we are finding out what St. Paul meant. That lies far, far behind us; and our application of his words can only claim our own authority, not the authority of Holy Scripture.
Of the multitude of applications which have been made of this passage since the Apostle wrote it, one only has had historical importance enough to be of interest to us-I mean that which is found in several Protestant confessions, including the Westminster Confession of Faith, and which declares the Pope of Rome, in the words of this last, to be "that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God." As an interpretation, of course, that is impossible; the man of sin is one man, and not a series, like the Popes; the temple of God in which a man sits is a temple made with hands, and not the Church; but when we ask whether or not it is a fair application of the Apostles words, the question is altered. Dr. Farrar, whom no one will suspect of sympathy with the Papacy, is indignant that such an uncharitable idea should ever have crossed the mind of man. Many in the churches which hold by the Westminster Confession would agree with him. Of course it is a matter on which everyone is entitled to judge for himself, and, whether right or wrong, ought not to be in a confession; but for my own part I have little scruple in the matter. There have been Popes who could have sat for Pauls picture of the man of sin better than any characters known to history-proud, apostate, atheist priests, sitting in the seat of Christ, blasphemously claiming His authority, and exercising His functions. And individuals apart-for there have been saintly and heroic Popes as well, true servants of the servants of God-the hierarchical system of the Papacy, with the monarchical priest at its head, incarnates and fosters that very spiritual pride of which the man of sin is the final embodiment; it is a seedbed and nursery of precisely such characters as are here described. There is not in the world, nor has ever been, a system in which there is less that recalls Christ, and more that anticipates Antichrist, than the Papal system. And one may say so while acknowledging the debt that all Christians owe to the Romish Church, and while hoping that it may somehow in Gods grace repent and reform.
It would ill become us, however, to close the study of so serious a subject with the censure of others. The mere discovery that we have here to do with a law of moral development, and with a supreme and final type of evil, should put us rather upon self-scrutiny. The character of our Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme and final type of good: it shows us the end to which the Christian life conducts those who follow it. The character of the man of sin shows the end of those who obey not His gospel. They become, in their resistance to Him, more and more identified with sin; their antagonism to God settles into antipathy, presumption, defiance; they become gods to themselves, and their doom is sealed. This picture is set here for our warning. We cannot of ourselves see the end of evil from the beginning; we cannot tell what selfishness and wilfulness come to, when they have had their perfect work; but God sees, and it is written in this place to startle us, and fright us from sin. "Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of. you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God: but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called Today; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1, 2. By the coming. Rather, concerning the coming.…
1, 2. By the coming. Rather, concerning the coming. His importunity is respecting this and “the gathering of the saints.”
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 2Th_2:1. Beseech … by the coming of our Lord.—The…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
2Th_2:1. Beseech … by the coming of our Lord.—The English reader who consults the similar phrase “to beseech by” in Rom_12:1 will be wholly astray. St Paul begs his readers not to be thrown into consternation or kept in a flutter of excitement over that matter of the Parousia, or “coming.”
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2Th_2:2. Not soon shaken.—Like a house built on sand when the storm breaks in fury, or like the mobile vulgus in Thessalonica who were only too willing to follow the lead of Jewish agitators (Act_17:13). In mind.—R.V. “from your mind.” “Out of your wits” expresses the apostle’s meaning exactly. They are to behave like men in whom reason is supreme—not like men in a panic. Or be troubled.—The same word was used in reporting our Lord’s counsels on the same subject. “Be not troubled: … the end is not yet” (Mat_24:6). By epistle as from us.—Either by misinterpretation of something St. Paul had written, or by a forged letter purporting to have come from him.
2Th_2:3. Let no man deceive.—R.V. “beguile or cheat you.” A falling away.—Lit. “the apostasy,” a desertion from the army of God; a recantation of faith in Christ. Our Master foretold that when “iniquity shall abound the love of the many shall be blown cool” (Mat_24:12). That man of sin.—Another reading is “lawlessness.” The man in whom sin gathers itself up into a head—the last product of sin. The son of perdition—par excellence, sharing the title with him whom Christ so named (Joh_17:12). Abaddon (Rev_9:11) may claim him as his own ultimately.
2Th_2:4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself.—The participle rendered “who opposeth” is used twice by St. Luke in the plural as “adversaries.” So in the singular (1Ti_5:14). The compound word for “exalteth himself” occurs (2Co_12:7), and is given as “exalted-above-measure.” Above all that is called God.—The shudder of horror in these words reminds us how a monotheistic Jew must regard the impious act. We can understand that a Roman emperor would regard the God of Jew or Christian as a tutelary deity; but the acme of profanity is reached in this act of Antichrist. Or that is worshipped.—R.V. margin, “Gr. an object of worship.” “The very name Sebastos, the Greek rendering of the imperial title Augustus, to which Divus was added at death (signifying ‘the one to be worshipped’), was an offence to the religious mind.… Later, Cæsar or Christ was the martyr’s alternative” (Findlay). Showing Himself that He is God.—Or, as we should say, “representing Himself to be God.” Compare Herod’s acceptance of the worship (Act_12:22).
2Th_2:6. What withholdeth.—R.V. “that which restraineth.” “A hint was sufficient, verbum sapientibus: more than a hint would have been dangerous” (Ibid.).
2Th_2:7. He who now letteth.—R.V. “there is one that restraineth.” This old word for “obstruct” is found in Isa_43:13 : “I will work, and who shall let (i.e. hinder) it?” “Where then are we to look … for the check and bridle of lawlessness? Where but to law itself? The fabric of civil law and the authority of the magistrate formed a bulwark and breakwater against the excesses both of autocratic tyranny and of popular violence” (Ibid.).
2Th_2:8. And then shall that Wicked be revealed.—R.V. “and then shall be revealed the lawless one.” Outward restraint being withdrawn, there is no inward principle to keep him back: he is “lawless.” And shall destroy.—R.V. “bring to nought.” It is the same word as that which describes the effect of the revelation of the gospel on “death” in 2Ti_1:10—to render absolutely powerless. With the brightness of His coming.—R.V. “by the manifestation of His coming.” Lit. “by the epiphany of His presence.”
2Th_2:9. Even Him, whose coming, etc.—These words look back to the beginning of 2Th_2:8. “The two comings—the parousia of the Lord Jesus and that of the Man of Lawlessness—are set in contrast. The second forms the dark background to the glory of the first” (Ibid.). Power and signs and lying wonders.—Simulating the supernatural evidences of the gospel as the magicians of Egypt those of Moses.
2Th_2:10. Deceivableness of unrighteousness.—R.V. “deceit.” The deceit which is characteristic of unrighteousness, or marks its methods. They received not the love of the truth. The sine qua non for an answer to Pilate’s question is this love of the truth.
2Th_2:11. God shall send them strong delusion.—R.V. “God sendeth them a working of error.” “It is a just, but mournful result, that rejecters of Christ’s miracles become believers in Satan’s, and that atheism should be avenged by superstition. So it has been and will be” (Ibid.). One is reminded of the old saying that “the gods first drive mad those whom they mean to destroy.”
2Th_2:12. Believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.—Here again we have the mental rejection of truth consequent on a liking for that which truth condemns. If “the heart makes the theologian,” the want of it makes the infidel.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—2Th_2:1-12
Antichrist Portrayed.
Various interpretations of this remarkable paragraph have been attempted. Some modern German critics would divest it of any prophetic significance, and treat it as a representation of the writer’s own personal feelings and forebodings. Others would restrict its application to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and to persons, principles, and events that preceded that catastrophe. The commonly received Protestant interpretation is to identify the Man of Sin and his doings with the Papacy; and there are certainly many points of that interpretation that accord very remarkably with the prophecy. But there are serious objections to all these views. We believe the revelation of the Antichrist here depicted is yet future, though the elements of his power are now in preparation. From the whole passage we gather the following suggestions:—
I. That Antichrist will be embodied in some living personality.—He is called “that man of sin, the son of perdition”: “that Wicked”—the lawless one (2Th_2:3-8). The fathers of the early Church, for at least three centuries after the apostolic age, while differing on some minor details, seemed unanimous in understanding by the Man of Sin, not a system of deceit and wickedness, or a succession of individuals at the head of such a system, but some one man, the living personal Antichrist, the incarnation of Satanic craft and energy, who should put forth his power to weaken and destroy the Church.
1. He will arrogantly assume divine prerogatives.—“Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2Th_2:4). In these words we note Antichrist’s intrusion into the special dwelling-place of God, his usurping session there, and his blasphemous and ostentatious assumption of divinity. The wildest excesses of pride and audacity cannot exceed this.
2. His advent will be accompanied with remarkable displays of Satanic power.—“Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders” (2Th_2:9). Antichrist as the masterpiece of Satan will be endowed with extraordinary qualities. The devil will tax his prodigious abilities to the utmost in making this great adversary of the Church as potent for mischief as possible. We know how readily the man of science can impose upon the ignorant with his experiments. And how easy it is for Satan, with his vast knowledge and resources, to delude thousands with his simulations of the miraculous! The advent of Antichrist is to be a fiendish caricature and audacious mockery of the glorious coming of the Son of God!
II. That Antichrist will work deplorable mischief in human souls.—
1. He seeks by secret methods to promote apostasy from the Church of God.” “A falling away first” (2Th_2:3). “The mystery of iniquity doth already work” (2Th_2:7). Here we detect the germs and preparation of the antichristian curse that is to work such havoc. The primitive Church of apostolic times was not such a model of perfection as we sometimes imagine. The leaven of iniquity, of lawlessness, the essence of all sin, was already working. Observe the sorrowing references of the apostle to the many evils of the different Churches. Tit_1:11; 1Ti_6:5; 2Co_11:26; Phm_1:9; 2Ti_1:15; 1Jn_2:18-20; 2Jn_1:7; 3Jn_1:9. Passim. The most disastrous apostasies have been the result of long, secret endeavours.
2. He begets a dislike to saving truth.—“With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved” (2Th_2:10). The truth was revealed, its saving benefits were offered; they had but to accept the truth and they were safe. But they rejected the truth; they loved it not. Their treatment of the gospel rendered them more easy victims to the deceptions of Antichrist; fascinated by his unrighteous glamour, they recede from the truth and cherish a bitter hostility towards it.
3. His victims are abandoned to self-delusion and condemnation.—“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned”—might be judged according to their individual character and works—“who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2Th_2:11-12). See here the fearful consequences of a hatred to and rejection of the truth! The soul takes delight in sinning—has “pleasure in unrighteousness.” It is, then, not only abandoned to its iniquity, but its delusions are intensified so as to embrace the most palpable falsehoods as truth. It shall then be judged on its own merits, so that God shall be justified in His speaking and clear in His judging. Terrible indeed is the fate of the victims who fall under the spell of Antichrist.
III. That the coming of Antichrist is for a time restrained.—“And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.… Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2Th_2:6-7). There is an external power with an individual at its head which holds back the power of Antichrist until the proper season comes. What that power is is not revealed; but God can use any power for this purpose, until the divinely appointed time shall come for the revelation and overthrow of Antichrist.
IV. That Antichrist shall be summarily destroyed.—“Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth”—as insects wither on the mere approach of fire—“and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2Th_2:8)—with the appearing of His coming, as it were the first gleaming dawn of His advent. For a time Antichrist shall reign in pomp and splendour and delude many to their ruin; but at the coming of the true Lord of the Church the great impostor shall be dethroned and utterly abolished. “It is enough,” says Chrysostom, “that He be present, and all these things perish. He will stay the deception simply by appearing.”
V. That the followers of Christ need not be afraid of losing any benefits to be conferred by His second coming.—“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand” (2Th_2:1-2)—on hand, has already come. When Paul wrote the first epistle, the Thessalonians “were sorrowing by the graves of their departed friends, and the grief of nature was enhanced by the apprehension that their beloved ones might suffer loss at the coming of the Lord. But now, should they hear that He had come and had not called for them, a yet deeper, more agitating motion must seize them, lest they themselves had forfeited their share in the glory of the kingdom.” These words would allay their fears. Christ has yet to come, and before that coming Antichrist is to arise and reign. Wait patiently, labour diligently, and be not harassed with too great an eagerness to know future events. All the blessings of Christ’s second coming shall be shared by you and by all who are to be gathered together unto Him.
Lessons.—
1. There are trying times ahead.
2. The only safety for the soul is to hold fast the truth.
3. At the darkest moment of the Church’s trial the glory of God will appear.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Th_2:1-6. A Warning against Imposition.
I. The danger.—
1. Their faith was imperilled.
2. Daily duties were interfered with.
II. Signs of the coming end.—
1. By a great apostasy.
2. The appearance of Antichrist as the man of sin and son of perdition.
3. The proud pretensions of Antichrist.
(1) Opposing Christ.
(2) Substituting error for truth.
(3) Overweening self-exaltation.
III. Hindrances to the spread of truth (2Th_2:6).—
1. The civil powers of that day.
2. The machinations of Satan at all times.
3. The unfaithfulness of God’s people.
2Th_2:1-3. A False Alarm—
I. May arise from a misconception of an important truth.—“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him” (2Th_2:1).
II. Is aggravated by unwarrantable deceptions.—“Let no man deceive you by any means” (2Th_2:3). “Neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is come” (2Th_2:2).
III. Is the cause of much real suffering.—“Shaken in mind—troubled” (2Th_2:2)—like a ship escaped from its moorings, tossed in a rolling sea.
IV. Is allayed by the affectionate entreaty of competent teachers.—“We beseech you, brethren” (2Th_2:1).
2Th_2:5. Memory—
I. Is freighted with treasures of precious truth.—“I told you these things.”
II. Associates the presence and character of the teacher with the truth taught.—“When I was yet with you.”
III. Is often vividly reminded of the value of its possession.—“Remember ye not.”
2Th_2:7-10. The Mystery of Iniquity—
I. Is the deepest and most subtle form of error.
II. Is propagated with great cunning and persistency.
III. Is embodied in a powerful and wicked personality (2Th_2:7-8).
IV. Is Satanic in its origin and manifestation (2Th_2:9-10).
2Th_2:10-12. The Destructive Subtlety of Sin.
I. It has manifold methods of deception.—“With all deceivableness of unrighteousness” (2Th_2:10).
II. It incites the soul to a hatred of saving truth.—“That received not the love of the truth that they might be saved” (2Th_2:10).
III. It abandons its victims to judicial self-deception.—“God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie” (2Th_2:11).
IV. It leads to inevitable condemnation.—“That they all might be damned” (2Th_2:12).
V. It encourages sin for the love of sin.—“Who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2Th_2:12).
2Th_2:11-12. Strong Delusions.
I. Believing a lie as truth.
II. Sent as a judgment for not believing the truth.
III. Are brought on by those who have pleasure in sin.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv2–3 2. “That you be not shaken from your mind,…
ARGUMENT 4
THE FALSE REPORT
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2. “That you be not shaken from your mind, nor jostled, neither by a spirit nor by word nor by letter as by us, as that the day of the Lord has come.” Paul’s first letter had wonderfully stirred on sanctification and the coming of the Lord. Their enemies had availed themselves of the opportunity to circulate the report that the Lord had already come and taken up his Bride, and they, of course, in that case had been left. This report filled them with grief and mortification, as in that case they had been left, thus forfeiting their place in the Bridehood. Their enemies had even confirmed this false report, by circulating a counterfeit letter with Paul’s signature, certifying that “the day of the Lord has come.” E.V. has the present tense here; i.e., “the day of the Lord is at hand.” You know Paul frequently states “the hour is nigh.” The uniform testimony of the inspired writers is that the “day of the Lord is at hand.” But the Greek here is in the past tense. E.V. has it wrong. R.V. corrects it in a measure. Paul assures them of their happy mistake, as the Lord has not yet come, and your chances are all right. Now he proceeds in the light of prophecy to specify certain events, which will precede the advent.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 2Th 2:1
2Th 2:1
The Re-gathering of the Saints.
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We have now before us the time and the season of which St. Paul speaks in the text, and we have to observe that he uses it not as a terror but as an attraction—"we beseech you"—as those that would not part with it for their lives. The advent, a re-gathering, is in St. Paul’s view a prospect full of consolation. What is it that makes the world the wilderness it is? In a large part it is that of which the re-gathering is a direct reversal—dispersion. There are senses, no doubt, in which dispersion is tolerable; the separation and severance of nations, not more by dividing seas and deserts than by dividing tongues. It would be foolish to say that this is to any one man a loss or an affliction. It is as a type that we must read it if we would enter into its significance. Sin is the great dividing force. Sin divides even its joys. Where sin is there is selfishness. Hand may trust hand, lips may speak of love and vow affection, yet in the very sinning there is a breach, and in the recoil and rebound there is severance. Sin is selfishness hidden in the act; selfishness perceived in the consequences. Sin is dispersion alike in its loves and its remorses. Well may it close the dark category in the dark page of sorrow for one of light and gospel consolation.
II. On the loving heart of St. Paul—a heart large without limit, yet stretched almost to bursting by the multitude of its sympathies, there lay the sorrow of the dispersion. He felt it in every sense; felt it in its very distance. Yet more bitterly did Paul feel this dispersion to be an intolerable burden of suspense and anguish, while he knew not for certain how a letter had been taken or an injunction obeyed, or whether a door had been opened for successful ministry. It is the division of bodies or the division of souls which distracts him. Even death—and you might think that St. Paul would have been above it with his strong faith and bright hope—even death troubled him. He felt as a dispersion that death which he dreaded not as a destruction.
III. Therefore, with St. Paul, as to all whose hearts are like his, big and warm in their affections and sympathies, there was a peculiar charm in the thought of the advent as a re-gathering. "I beseech you," he says, as though no other entreaty could equal it in strength, "by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him." Here we meet and part; we commune and separate with a sense of unrest and dissatisfaction which leaves us in the end desolate. To the friend of our soul we say not one half of that which we meant to say; we said not the thing which we meant, or he misheard or misinterpreted the thing spoken. Our love he read not; our passing humour he took as a change of affection; our soul speaking to his soul with the soul’s voice was not recognised as the soul’s, and we almost begin to say, "I will keep my love till it can speak the one tongue of the immortals." When Christ comes friend shall meet friend in absolute oneness—no earthborn, sinborn cloud to come between; knowing at last as known, because loved as loving.
C. J. Vaughan, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 514.
2Th 2:1-4
I. The first part of this second Epistle aims at widening the view of the Thessalonian converts into the future—the future bliss of believers, the future doom of the rebellious. The second part, embraced in this chapter, seeks to guard them beforehand against delusion as to the nearness of that future, and the mischief which the cherishing of such delusion would produce. The Apostle wishes them to be forearmed by being forewarned. His chief design is to impress upon their minds the one truth, that the proper attitude to be assumed towards the day of the Lord is that not of idle curiosity, but of steadfast and untroubled faith. The spirit of restless eschatological excitement meets, sooner or later, only with disappointment. It brings with it no increase of joyful hopefulness; it rather ministers ultimately to the service of the world. Whatever be the value of Apocalyptic study, it must ever, as these Epistles themselves so strikingly illustrate, find its balancing and regulating principle in the study of Christian ethics, and in the homage of Christian work.
II. The day of the Lord will not be "except the falling away come first." Chrysostom curiously says, "He calls Antichrist himself the apostasy, as being about to destroy many, and make them fall away." But obviously this apostasy is rather that which is simply to precede and usher in the revelation of the great Apostate himself, "the man of sin." He is described not as an ideal, but as an historical personage—the man who is regarded as the very embodiment of all evil—the hideous consummation and manifestation of all that sin can make man. Depravity is in him personified. The sanctuary or inmost shrine, in which he is to take his seat, is not to be explained with rigid literalness as referring to the temple of Jerusalem. We must regard it as representing the Church of Christ—not any material structure, such as St. Peter’s at Rome, but the universal company of professed believers. "He sets himself forth as God." It is the act of one who, while he is, as never man was before, the representative of evil, represents himself in his own person and deeds, as the individual manifestation of Divine power and grace.
J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 280.
Reference: 2Th 2:3-10.—Homilist, vol. vi., p. 392.
2Th 2:5-12
Can we fix down the description of the man of sin to any one system or person? or ought we simply to say, with Augustine, that we must remain in total ignorance as to the Apostle’s meaning? Between these two extremes we may occupy a middle position.
I. The theory must be set aside which declares these words have been long ago fulfilled. It would, in no sense, be either easy or useful to trace this view through its many varieties and intricacies. It is enough to say that the passage presents to us no mere allegory, refusing to be minutely scanned. The description is far too minute and specific to be thus explained away.
II. Nor is the question to be solved by supposing the words to be descriptive of a growing tendency, which the Apostle may have noticed in the Church, to fall back into the beggarly elements of Judaism, or to be seduced by any grotesque manifestations of the Judaistic spirit which might take place before the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple.
III. The points in which the identification of this passage with the Church of Rome is held to be complete are well known. They are undeniably striking. The prominent errors of the Church of Rome, the gradual growth of these from principles and practices which can be traced in their germ to the very earliest Christian times—the gathering together of the power and authority of the Church into one head, the despotic pride and pomp which clung to that Church as prominent characteristics, the imposture which in lying wonders, is so conspicuous in that Church, all these have often been marshalled in order, so as to appear a long line of evidence which cannot be broken. None the less it is to be observed, and more candidly acknowledged than it often is, that there are aspects of the case which the explanation by no means fits. It would be the spirit of antichrist itself at work if we were to deny the many elements of true Christianity in the Church of Rome. Besides, even the corrupt elements in Romanism do not in all respects correspond with the clauses of this passage. We seem rather to be directed to look for the coming of one who shall combine in himself—in what way we cannot know—the two elements of unbelief and superstition, and will work towards the overthrow of all that is good and true. Thus drawing men after him to destruction, he is himself to be destroyed.
J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 292.
References: 2Th 2:7.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 236; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 86.
2Th 2:13; 2Th 3:5
I. The salvation to which the Thessalonians are described as chosen of God is regarded chiefly in the aspect of a present possession, and it is "in (not through) sanctification of the Spirit." The words surely mean spiritual sanctification; an inward process, not merely outward change of conduct. The salvation without doubt is that which is possessed in advancing holiness, the sanctification wrought in the spirit of man by the Divine Spirit. A renewal of the spirit of the believer which of necessity manifests itself in the renewal of his life.
II. "Stand fast." The duty of perseverance is enforced upon the Thessalonians, both as a Church and as individuals—steadfast adherence to all truly Christian doctrine and practice—and that is possible only where there is loving loyalty to Jesus Christ Himself.
III. After precept comes prayer, and the prayer is that their hearts may be comforted and stablished in every good word and work. Thus, through meditation and action alike, the one ministering to the other, would they attain to tried Christian character—the crown of Christian life. It is instructive to notice that, as in 1Th 3:11, the Saviour is associated in prayer with God the Father as directing the outward movements, the external details of Paul’s work, so in this passage He is similarly associated with God the Father in ministering to the soul-prosperity of believers. God the Son is thus represented as one with God the Father in being the Source of all guiding and protecting care, and the Source of all spiritual blessing.
IV. While Paul directs his readers’ thoughts to the faithfulness of their Saviour, he will also encourage them by the assurance that he himself has confidence in them—a confidence which he holds fast, because he rests on the faithfulness of their common Lord. He believes that they are even now doing, and that they will continue to do, all that he enjoins, whatever be the tendency to faintness (for Christian work is toil); he is persuaded that the grace of perseverance will be theirs. So long as men have their hearts ever turning to the love of God, they will be "strengthened with all might unto all patience," so that they, doing whatsoever is commanded, may endure unto the end.
J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 308.
References: 2Th 2:13.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 178; Magee, Church of England Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 272. 2Th 2:15.—H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 284; F. Pigou, Ibid., vol. xxvii., p. 289. 2Th 2:16.—J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 387; R. Tuck, Ibid., vol. xix., p. 291.
2Th 2:16-17
Life’s Trouble and its True Remedy.
I. By Divine will there is a trouble common to man—a trouble of life in which all and each may expect some share, and which, at particular times of life, grows very intense. If any one seems to be excepted, such an one might almost fear Divine desertion thereby, or some Divine displeasure resting on him; for how few of God’s own children get through the world and into the heavenly home with little or no trouble by the way. There is a sense in which Christians drink more deeply of trouble than ordinary men, for in proportion as they are really Christian they have more refined and developed sensibilities. They live with Christ; therefore they feel with Christ, and receive life’s trouble full on the Christian moral sense; and if that does not make the trouble more in itself, it makes it more to them.
II. There are many kinds of so-called consolation in which men seek relief from the trouble and sorrow of their life. (1) First, there is what may be called the desperate consolation of the ostrich when it sticks its head into the sand, and does not see the pursuing foe. I mean the way of complete thoughtlessness, of designed, persistent thoughtlessness—indifference to the deepest things of human life and experience. It is a poor policy; it is unworthy of a man, and it does not succeed. (2) Then there is another kind of so-called consolation which is quite insufficient for the strong trouble of life, and which may be called the presumptuous consolation. "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God," and then, indeed, you may expect to be "exalted in due season;" (3) There is the superficial consolation for the trouble and sorrow of life—that, I mean, which soothes the mind, and quiets certain feelings, without going down to the roots and foundations of things. No consolation can be suitable to man, or can be a real strength and confirmation if it does not sink down to the foundation of things. In one word, we want nothing else than "everlasting consolation and good hope through grace." Work your way by any of these lines, or by all of them. See what men can do by their thinking and their endeavours, and you will find, when you come at length to this consolation, that it stands sublimely alone.
III. You cannot think through the problem by the unaided human faculty, and you cannot drive yourself through it by the unaided human faculty, and you cannot forget it. No, there is but one way, and that is to come to God; all consolation is in Him. He is everlasting, and from everlasting He hath loved us. Believe the Gospel; accept its truth; hold its truth; do its duty; breathe its spirit; conform to its ideal—in no transcendental spirit, but humbly and earnestly, in common things and in daily life—and you have the everlasting consolation of God. Our God consoles us not only by surprising us with mercies, and lighting all our great future by hope, but by binding us to daily duty, and helping us day by day, amid trouble and care and toil, from the fountains of His everlasting care and purity, so that we are in some humble measure stablished in every good word and work.
A. Raleigh, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 822.
The Eternal Comforter.
I. Our sorrow is greatly enhanced by the mystery of life. If we could only understand the reason of it, it would be easier to bear. But the tears seem to be so unnecessary, the wounding so needless, the pain and anguish so inexplicable. Life is a tangled skein, and we can get no clue. Now in this mystery and perplexity of life there comes One who says, "Trust Me." He does not, indeed, throw scientific light on the mystery of life. He does not solve its enigma. He does not put the clue into our hands. But He says "Trust Me." It is not a poet who speaks to us, who has gotten a little deeper insight than we have gotten. It is a witness-bearer, who out of the eternal life is come and into the eternal life is going. His is the witness; and in this is the root and ground of all that Christianity has offered us—faith, not in a poet, not in a philosopher, not in a theologian, but faith in a witness-bearer.
II. But this mystery of life does not so greatly enhance the pain of life as the fragmentariness of it. It is not without semblance of reason, at least, that the broken column is put up in our graveyards. Life seems to be such a series of separated fragments; it seems to be so broken, so inharmonious, so discordant. And now Christ brings us this further message. Life is not fragmentary. There is no break. Life is like a song, and the singer goes from us, and the song grows dimmer and more indistinct and fades away; but the singer has not stopped his singing, though our eye cannot follow him into the unknown whither he is gone.
III. The injustice of life is hardest of all to bear. He who has shed on the mystery of life the light of trust, and He who has shed on the fragmentariness of life the light of hope, sheds on our awful unfaith in God, our awful sense of injustice and wrong against which we protest in vain endeavour, the light of love: for this is Christ’s declaration everywhere and always; that the devil is not the god of this world, nor humanity the god of this world, nor furies, nor a god of fury, but infinite and eternal love is working out the web of human destiny.
L. Abbott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxvi., p. 161.
References: 2Th 2:16, 2Th 2:17.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1542; vol. xix., No. 1096. 2Th 3:1.—E. Cooper, Practical Sermons, vol. iii., p. 312.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Division 2. (2Th 2:1-12.)
Division 2. (2Th 2:1-12.)
The wicked one and the deliverance.
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The apostle now proceeds to put before the Thessalonians the character of that "day of the Lord," which it had been sought to persuade them had already come; to show them what would introduce it, and that there was a present hindrance; though the mystery of lawlessness was indeed already working, which would bring in the judgment upon it, in which man’s day would end.
He shows the apostasy which would be from Christianity, and the rise of Antichrist, the great apostate; in whom Satan would work in the display of miraculous power, such as once heralded the truth, but which now as "lying wonders," would be permitted to ensnare those who, having had the truth presented to them, had not the love of it, but rejected that which would have been their salvation. In this last Antichrist the Jewish and Christian forms of unbelief would come together; rising to a height of arrogancy and defiance of the living God, which would bring down the open judgment of God in the destruction of the blasphemer, whom the Lord will destroy with the breath of His mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of His Presence. With him his deluded, followers will receive their judgment, and the earth be liberated from the oppressive power of evil.
1. The apostle beseeches them not to be shaken or troubled by the statement, however it might seem authenticated, and even though it might purport to be from himself, that the day of the Lord had come. Taking their view of the coming of the Lord largely, and of necessity, from the Old Testament, the day of the Lord would seem to precede what they had been taught continually to expect as the coming of the Lord. The New Testament distinguishes between two phases of this, -His coming to receive His people to Himself, as the first epistle pictures it, the dead raised and the living changed, and both caught up together to meet Him in the air. When He appears, (to the world) "then shall we appear with Him in glory" (Col 3:4). Thus His descent into the air and our gathering together unto Him are not the same as, but preparatory to, His appearing and our appearing with Him. This does not indeed imply any appreciable interval between them; but it leaves room for it; and we have seen elsewhere that such an interval there is, comprising, at least, the whole last week of Daniel’s seventy (Dan 9:27) -the "end of the age" of the Lord’s prophecy on the Mount of Olives (Mat 24:1-51); and which has been there shown to be the cut-off end of the Jewish age, and not a Christian one. Christianity is then gone from the earth, with the departure of Christians to be with their Lord, and Israel is now again in the fore-front, the Lord’s thoughts again centering upon her. Thus in this prophecy we find Him once more recognizing as His disciples Jewish saints in connection with the temple as of old, and a revived worship there. This has, as we shall see, an important bearing on the chapter before us. It accounts also for the character, so generally misunderstood, of a large part of the book of Revelation; in which, after the addresses to the seven churches, -a necessarily veiled prophecy of the Church’s history till the coming of the Lord, the apostle is in the Spirit caught up to heaven, as in fact we shall be, and there beholds the redeemed glorified and enthroned around the throne of God. The book of the divine counsels is then put into the hands of One who, though seen as a Lamb slain, is now declared to be the Lion of the tribe of Judah; that is, the King of the Jews. Accordingly, when now the scene returns to earth, we find no more the Church, but Israel and the Gentiles once again distinct (Rev 7:1-17), and in the temple of God the ark of His covenant (Rev 11:19). By and by the Lamb Himself stands upon Mount Zion, and with Him the sealed remnant of the tribes of Israel, seen before (Rev 14:1).
All this has been hidden as to its true meaning from the mass of Christians -through the common confusion between Israel and the Church, and the assumption of the heirship of the latter to all Israel’s promises. It is even counted "judaizing" to take passages like these in their plain sense. Those who do so are accused of robbing the Church of her just due, as well as largely depriving Scripture of its present interest for us. In fact, it is the very opposite; but here is not the place to discuss such matters, which must be fully examined in the book of Revelation itself, -of which we can know little aright if they are unknown.
The interval, moreover, of which we have been speaking, is a period of the greatest importance in the history of the world, as the period of its permitted development apart from the restraint under which it has been from God; and in which, therefore, its character is fully manifested. Until this is done the final judgment cannot take place; and this character of the day of manifestation must needs make it of the deepest interest for every one who desires to be with God in the present time. As presently we shall find Paul saying, "The mystery of iniquity doth already work." All around us, therefore, that is going on which will be fully disclosed to all in the near future, but which God would already reveal to His people, that they may be delivered from any complicity with it, and be kept in communion with Himself. If this was true in the apostles’ days, how much fuller must be its significance for days when the evil has been so long working. We need not forget that there is a present hindrance; which, moreover, we can trace, as it is most instructive to trace it, in the pages of history. What would it be for us, to acquire in this way the true history of the world as the scene of a warfare between good and evil, in the midst of which we still find ourselves; and when now approaching the crisis, as it surely is, -the forces gathering for the last, decisive conflict. What will prophecy become to us when we read it with such an application, as the living word of our glorious Captain of salvation, -the unfailing guidance of Him who seeth the end from the beginning, and whose heart is pledged to us in His cross of shame.
We are prepared now to understand the force of the apostle’s adjuration "by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him," not to be troubled by any assertion, however loudly or confidently made, that the day of the Lord was already come. It would be equally correct, as far as language is concerned, to say "in behalf of," as "by." In either case there is seen the apostle’s earnest solicitude, and to which he hopes and expects response from those he is addressing, that the coming of the Lord should be free from distortions which would hinder its due effect upon the soul. The thought of the day of the Lord as to precede it would in different ways be a real distortion and distraction of heart from the simple expectancy of the Lord from heaven. The day of the Lord belongs to Jewish prophecy and times not Christian. It would set them necessarily, therefore, upon the hunt for dates and calculation of times, which have been so fruitful a cause of disappointment to multitudes at various periods. The Lord had said to His apostles after His resurrection, that it was not for them to know times and seasons, which the Father had placed under His own authority (Act 1:7). That which will be unfolded to the "wise" in Israel in the due time of their need (Dan 12:9-11) was expressly hidden from the leaders in the new dispensation. And so the apostle has already told the Thessalonians that of the times and seasons he had no need to write to them (1Th 5:1).
The gathering of Christians to their Lord is the natural and necessary end of Christianity -of what is called the Christian dispensation. The "end of the age" which follows is, as already said, the end of another age -Jewish, and not Christian. The disciples are again in connection with the Jewish temple and worship, yet owned by the Lord. This means that, according to Micah’s prophecy (Mic 5:3), "the remnant of His brethren" are returned to the children of Israel. There is no fusion, as some would have it, of times so different. It is when darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the peoples, that the Lord arises upon Israel (Isa 60:2); and this can only be when He shall have gathered the saints of the present to Himself. And thus He promises the Philadelphian overcomers that He will keep them out of the hour of trial that shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Immediately He follows this with, "Behold, I come quickly" (Rev 3:10-11); and what else can deliver His own from the very "hour" of a world-wide trouble, but His own coming to gather them to Himself?
Nothing but trouble is connected with this thought of the day of the Lord being come. It is not the excitement of a vain hope that the apostle would repress, but the depression resulting from dread of that from which the Lord pledges His word to the Philadelphian saints, that they shall be delivered. It is not something, as some imagine, to be desired to pass through for the glory of Christ, and in testimony to Him. It is a time of judgment for iniquity, although it is true that the mercy of God makes it also a time of new birth for Israel, and for multitudes among the Gentiles also. But it is "a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time" (Dan 12:1); and which the Lord emphatically reiterates as to be "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world unto this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Mat 24:21). The Thessalonians are in danger of being "shaken in their mind," or, more literally, "from their understanding," at the false announcement; which the apostle beseeches them in behalf of truths so precious as the coming of the Lord and the gathering of His own to Him, not to heed.
Even at so early a day in the Church’s history, we see moreover, that the enemy was at work; and that in places where we should have little expected to find him. Thus the saints are warned that this falsehood may be put forth by persons assuming to speak under the guidance of the Spirit of God, or as a report of some oral statement of the apostle, or even by an epistle forged in his name. The variety of methods warned against show, at least, how far he believed deception might be carried; and probably from knowledge of what had been done elsewhere. At any rate, he knew full well the boldness and the craft of the great adversary of Christ and of His people, and the weakness and folly to be found among Christians, so ready to be caught by a plausibility, or daunted by an assumption of spiritual power. Is it not so still? and can we expect it to be otherwise now, than what we find in the very earliest epistles of Paul, when he, and such as he, were yet living to confront the error?
2. But he goes on now to show them how, in fact, the day of the Lord would be ushered in, and the magnitude of the evil which would necessitate the judgments characterizing it: evil which was indeed already at work, but upon which there was the restraint as yet from God, which hindered its full development. Before the revelation of Christ, there must be the revelation of Antichrist, the "wicked one" who will then be consumed by the breath of His mouth, and brought to nought by the manifestation of His presence.
This man of sin, moreover, would be the issue of an apostasy from the ranks of professing Christians themselves, and unite the treachery of a Judas (the son of perdition, Joh 17:12) with Jewish unbelief; yet still transcending this, in a blasphemous exaltation of himself in the very temple itself, challenging even Israel’s Most High in the place claimed by Him as His earthly throne, and exalting himself as supreme above every god whatever, named among men. It is plainly the most pretentious and insolent defiance of God that can be even imagined; and yet with such imposing display of power that the masses of those once enjoying the light of revelation (Jewish or Christian) will be carried captive by it. For all the power of Satan, freed from restraint on God’s part, will be let loose in it; and God will be giving over to believe a lie those who, having once been solicited by the truth, have made a fearful and deliberate choice of error in its stead.
At the first statement of such an appalling diabolism as this impending, one would say, Here is something that has never been yet; something that would need no argument to convince us of its existence, if it did exist: and this is, surely, what would be the judgment formed upon the most thorough and profound examination of it in connection with all kindred passages. Here, we should say, is certainly the apostle John’s great "Antichrist, who denieth the Father and the Son," -the Christian revelation, on the one side; as on the other, he is "the liar, who denieth that Jesus is the Christ," -the Jewish form of unbelief. It is needless, at present, to go further. In its character, as marked with such absolute distinctness, as well as in the time of the revelation, (just before that appearing of Christ, which brings the wicked one to an end,) and in its result, as carrying away the mass of unbelieving Christendom, as well as in its being given as an unmistakable sign of the day of the Lord, this devil-inspired power is guarded, as it would seem, from all possibility of being misapprehended, and decisively determined to be even yet in the future to us,however near. As we know, it has indeed been taken to be the papacy; and this was perhaps the universal belief of the Reformers; with whom, naturally enough, the evil shadow which brooded ominously over so much of the professing Church, suffered them to look no further for the full development of Antichrist. Nor were they mistaken in seeing features of this kind in one in whom the mystery of lawlessness assuredly has manifested itself in a manner so conspicuous. If, as the fruit of its working, the apostle John could already in his day declare that there were "many antichrists," and saw in this the character of the "last time," (1Jn 2:18,) how clearly might it be expected that here was now the fruit, much more developed, and at least approaching its full ripeness. Did not the pope claim honors really divine? and did he not sit in this godless affectation of supremacy in the Church, the true temple of God? How could one look for plainer evidence?
Yet, however natural the error was in their time, there is one consideration which is by itself amply sufficient to prevent our following them. If Antichrist were already manifested over three centuries ago, the apostle’s statement has for all this time ceased to have the significance he attached to it, as what would be an indication of the nearness of the day of the Lord. Now it is quite true that, for the Thessalonians, if we are only to think of these, it would still be a sufficient guard against any mistake such as he feared they might be making; for them the papal Antichrist would be yet far off. But to accept this as sufficient would be to say that the apostle wrote only for current needs, and did not know enough to give what would provide against such a mistake in the future. We may dismiss it, therefore, from our thoughts.
Moreover, the same consideration tells against the "man of sin" being, as this view would make him, a succession of individuals, instead of the one person, which really the whole prophecy suggests. Otherwise the sign would be insignificant, or, at least, its significance would be very much reduced. Nor can we imagine that this open defiance of God, which in fact brings in the long impending judgment, could be yet allowed to go on for generations more, unsmitten by it. It is the climax of insult and outrage, after all God’s grace has been manifested in vain for salvation, -and, with the exception of a remnant preserved of God for Himself, the world of professed Christianity has gone after the devil’s candidate and king. The final conflict is commenced, and the issue cannot long be in suspense: the battle is that of the great day of God Almighty.
While there may be lesser antichrists many, the definition of the Antichrist marked out by prophecy is, according to the apostle John, such as to describe, not a concealed, but an open enemy. "Who is the liar," he asks, "but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is the Antichrist, who denieth the Father and the Son" (1Jn 2:22). Thus there is no pretence of Christianity whatever, even the least orthodox. The pope does not deny, -he affirms, -that Jesus is the Christ: be never pretended to be the Christ, but only His vicar. Antichrist is, according to the full meaning of the word, "one in the place of Christ," but not His vicar: he is himself the Christ, and denies that Jesus is; and so denieth the Father and the Son, -the Christian revelation in its whole extent. Thus he does not, in the common idea of this, sit in the temple of God at all; for in the Church he is not, even by profession. The papacy, for all these reasons, cannot be the "man of sin;" the pope is only one who exhibits certain similar features, and thus foreshadows the great apostate.
This leads us further to realize what the sitting in the temple of God must mean. If the Church of Christ be necessarily excluded, then there is but one other temple of which we can think; and that is the temple at Jerusalem. For the present it does not exist; and by many it is still believed to have passed away for ever. It is useless to show them the plainest statements of the Old Testament; for these they take as merely Jewish symbolism, to be applied in spirit, not in letter, to the Christian Church. But they cannot doubt that when the Lord, in His prophecy upon the Mount of Olives, speaks of "the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place," He is speaking of that very temple which was then before Him. The temple then existing, of course suffered destruction at the hands of the Romans, and according to the Lord’s own prophecy; but the application of His words as given in Matthew to anything that happened before or at that time -to the standards, for instance, planted on the site of the already desolate sanctuary, is entirely set aside by the connection in which He places it. For the abomination is the sign at which His disciples are to flee, and then follows a tribulation so great that, except the days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; immediately after which the sun and moon are darkened, the stars fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens are shaken; and "then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." The Lord then speaks of angels sent forth to gather His elect from the four winds, of the going forth of the wise virgins (His true saints) to meet Him; of His sitting on the throne, and the nations being gathered before Him for judgment, when He separates between the sheep and the goats, and the latter depart into everlasting fire. It is with a violent wrench, indeed, that these things can be torn apart from one another; while by no possibility can they all be made to have taken place at the destruction of Jerusalem, now more than 1800 years ago. They undoubtedly all concur at the time for which the Thessalonian saints were looking, and for which after this long delay, that the longsuffering of the Lord might be salvation, we are looking still. (See notes to Mat 24:1-51; Mat 25:1-46.)
But thus we see how there can and will be, in the last days, a revival of Jerusalem and Jewish worship there, which now becomes continually easier to anticipate, with the increasing Zionite movement, and the actual increase of the Jews in the land, which Scripture assures us again will be their own. That they are going back still in unbelief makes the temple worship easier to understand. It would be more difficult to see the connection of those disciples with Jewish worship in the days contemplated, (whom yet the Lord evidently owns as His own, and listening to His voice,) if we had not the knowledge of that coming of our Lord into the air, and our gathering to Him there, which precedes His appearing, and which the apostle is in earnest that we should not confound with the day of the Lord. If once we see the interval which elapses between our gathering to Him, (which ends Christianity, in the sense we attach to it ordinarily, upon the earth,) and His appearing with us, which brings in the blessing for Israel and the world at large, things are in the main clear to us. The brethren of the Lord have returned to the children of Israel (Mic 5:3). They are very much in the position of the disciples while the Lord was yet with them, and which continued for some time after the resurrection, while, acknowledging Jesus as their Messiah, they were "daily with one accord in the temple," and were "all zealous of the law" (Act 2:46; Act 21:20). Of such the apostles at the time of the prophecy we have referred to, were fitting representatives.
Among Israel, then, back in their own land, and obeying the voice of the Lord their God as made known to them by Moses’ law (Deu 30:2-3), there will arise the dark and terrible figure of the last antichrist, the outgrowth of Jewish unbelief and consummated apostasy in which Christendom will end. The prophecies of Daniel regarding the abomination of desolation and the wilful king enlarge and confirm our knowledge of what is here; which the book of Revelation completes for us on both sides, the Jewish and the Christian. The figure in Daniel (11: 36, 37) can scarcely be mistaken, of the king who "shall do according to his will, and shall exalt himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished." Here he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth that he is God. The simple placing in juxtaposition of these prophecies delivers us from all uncertainty as to the application here.
3. The apostle had already told them, -not some other things which would enable them to understand these (as many take it,) but these very things. The Thessalonians had forgotten already instruction they had received: a forcible reminder of the need on our part of that written Word which God in anticipation of it has provided for us. How it becomes us, in every detail, to make sure that we have the exact statements of Scripture to build our souls upon. The careless quotation of it from memory, which so often for many does duty for the real, words, is a very positive injury to us, in clothing with the authority of inspiration what are the fallible conceptions of men. While, for exact, trustworthy memories, it is of course a first requisite that we exactly scrutinize the text which we store up in them; that the very perfection of our memories may not make perfect a delusion, which every recurrence of it to our minds shall only the more stamp there.
But now they knew what was keeping back the development of this wickedness so that it should only be revealed at the time ordained for it. For, though the mystery of lawlessness was already at work, there was One who held it back, and would do so, until He should be out from the midst. There is no reason to doubt, although He be unnamed, who this power restraining is. It is evident that the apostle expects the Thessalonians to have this knowledge; and if it were not from other instruction than his epistle furnished, then we too ought to be able to gather from it what they should. And indeed there seems no great difficulty, when once we have recognized the character of the evil, in recognizing the power which holds it back.
The "mystery of lawlessness" is not the mere fact of its existence: it has existed since ever the world was. Man doing his own will is, alas, too common a thing to excite any wonder; the wonder is when the grace of God delivers him from this madness and misery of his fallen nature. The "mystery of lawlessness" ceases, as such, in its manifestation. The special form of the mystery is then revealed in an open opposition to God and His Christ, which is developed out of the bosom of Christendom itself; setting up a false god and a false christ, to give the world its long-sought liberty from, divine restraint, and bring its vaunted progress to perfection, which under Christianity it has found it impossible to attain.
In fact, already the failure of Christianity is proclaimed; and already there are incipient attempts to provide a substitute, not always covered even with a Christian dress. It will be noticed, also, how largely these lay claim to the supernatural, or what has been accounted such, and live in the borderlands of the unseen and "occult." The craving for knowledge, which is to turn to sight a faith too much given to be credulous, finds here broad fields which, being outside of Scripture, cannot invite credulity! The gains of science have been continually at the cost of the miraculous; and its marvels reveal it as the most practical friend of man. What may not the new century add to its conquests? while Scripture is constantly paling before it, or frowning on men with an oft-repeated story of a judgment continually deferred.
What hinders the outbreak of this spirit of lawlessness, which is indeed more and more declaring itself in every sphere today? It is nothing, and can be nothing but the strong hand of God repressing it, whatever may be the means or instruments He uses. But the prophecy before us speaks of One who is in the midst: until He be out from the midst, there will be a restraint upon the evil. Such an One it is not hard to recognize; nay, it would be hard not to recognize Him who is here to maintain the interests of the absent Christ, and here in that Church which is thus the House and Temple of God. When the Church is taken away to be with her Lord, then will He be also out of the midst; the Pentecostal dispensation, which began with His descent from heaven, will be at an end with His return to it. And this unites with what we have had before, to assure us that, Christianity being past, the only temple of God on earth will be, strange as it may seem to many now, the old temple at Jerusalem, so long forsaken, but where He will yet display Himself in more than all His glory of old time. The time of Antichrist will not, of course, be yet the time in which that glory shall return; but return it will; and the same prophet who saw its departure has seen and described its return, to depart no more (Eze 1:1-28; Eze 2:1-10; Eze 3:1-27; Eze 4:1-17; Eze 5:1-17): -a prophecy by the very terms of it never yet accomplished, but which, as God is true, must be therefore in the future, now surely near. So long as we fail to see this, what the apostle speaks of here will surely be misinterpreted by us, as it has been by so many. Once let us see this, and Daniel, Matthew, Revelation unite with Thessalonians in one clear, intelligible announcement which makes how much else clear as to the days at hand.
The Church must depart before the lawless one can be revealed; the light that is yet in the world must depart, and darkness cover the earth, -yea, gross darkness the peoples; and then "the Lord shall arise on" Israel, "and His glory shall be seen upon" her.
When that glory arises, its first act will be the smiting down of the powers of the earth, then combined against Him who made them. Israel is thus freed from the hand of her persecutors, and of the man of sin, with his standard of defiance unfurled in the very place of His throne. The words of the apostle here are but the application of the words of the prophet (Isa 11:1-5): "He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked (one)." In Revelation also (Rev 19:15), "out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with a rod of iron." Certainly it is an extreme of spiritualistic misinterpretation which here can see only the destruction of error by the preached gospel! The time of the manifestation of His presence will be the time of judgment for His gospel rejected; and the man of sin and his followers will not be converted, but slain. The redemption accomplished when He "treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God," will not be a redemption by sacrifice, Himself bearing the wrath, as so many have taken it, but the redemption of His people by power out of the hands of their enemies. The iron rod is still indeed the shepherd’s rod, but it is used in the defence of the flock; and so the Lord says of His saints, as associated with Him at that time: "And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to pieces even as I received of My Father" (Rev 2:26-27; Psa 2:8-9). Thus alone will the world come under the dominion of the saints.
4. The apostle goes on to show what the Lord speaks of as "the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth (Rev 3:10). Scientific infidelity now avouches with a sneer that we never see a miracle, and Hume’s argument against all evidence in favor of such is its contradiction of universal experience. But it is soon to he matter of extensive experience that miracles there are; only in a very opposite interest to that of Christianity. These things are even now showing themselves in a more or less tentative and doubtful way; they are yet to throw off all reserve, and challenge the faith of the world. "Powers and signs and wonders" are the threefold designation of miracles in Scripture: "wonders," which excite attention and admiration; "signs," or timings that have meaning and doctrine; "powers," that are evidently beyond human. These have borne witness in past time to the truth; -never proved it, apart from the truth itself with which they were connected: and this is the mistake of so many at all times, that a real miracle -something that could be rightly spoken of as all these -is an absolute guarantee of the message that it brings. Thus they are ready at any time to follow what is thus supported. Yet, if there are heavenly beings, -"angels that excel in strength," -it is evident that, if permitted, and if evil enough to attempt it, they could at any time lead us thus according to their mind. Now that is the very thing which God has declared He will permit, when the time shall have arrived. When men have shown that they desire the truth no longer, and the patient longsuffering of God has, at last, no justification further, that will have come to pass for the professing Christian world which we recognize as coming to pass in the history of individuals: God will say again, "Ephraim is joined to his idols: let him alone." And then will rise up one "whose coming is according to the energy of Satan, with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood," -no longer in the interests of truth, but of a lie, -"and in all deceit of unrighteousness for those that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved."
Dangerous would it be, as well as foolish, to assert that this is of the past, and not the future; -that it has been fulfilled in Romanism, or in any like way. Has the power of Rome, whatever its pretension to fabulous miracle may be, exhibited itself after this fashion? No doubt, there is a class at all times ready to be duped in this way, as we see in the rapid progress of such transparent absurdities as, for instance, "Christian Science;" but in all this there is only the feeble anticipation of a delusion which will yet carry away the multitudes of unbelieving profession. The arch deceiver is not in the Vatican, nor elsewhere at the present time: he is to be revealed in his time. And yet we may indeed discern the foreshadows of this tremendous iniquity, and realize that his way is being prepared in many events and movements that are taking place under our eyes.
5. The apostle closes here with the assurance of a holy, divine government working in all this; the worst form of evil will become (while remaining evil no less in itself) the meting out of righteous recompense to the rejectors of the truth. Indeed the very motives which lead men to the rejection of Christ lead them of necessity to the reception of Antichrist. "I am come in My Father’s name, and ye receive Me not; if another come in his own name, him ye will receive." That which is according to their own taste they are permitted at last to have; and we need not doubt that it will present itself with abundance of pretentious claims, and decorated with all the taking titles of liberty, equality and fraternity, which have already proved their power to deceive the masses, and in the name of which, about a century ago, the blood of multitudes ran copiously in the streets, to the frantic delight of the onlookers. Still that which hath been is that which shall be -only with increase of malignancy in an incurable evil, for which not even a palliative any longer exists. The light will have departed which can make vice any longer ashamed, and from the restraint of all but the lusts of those as reprobate as themselves, men shall at last be free. The earth owes this spectacle yet to the patient heavens; and it will be given: sin allowed to be its own terrible witness against itself, -a witness at which eternity will shudder.
Let us beware also, Christians as we may be, how we treat the truth which God has entrusted to us. Here also the rule works surely, that every bit of truth rejected delivers us up to error; and on the coin for which we sell the truth there is at all times, faint as it may be, the image of Antichrist. What debtors are we to divine grace! May we be kept in the sense of our need of it, in the salutary humility which will make us ever afraid most of all of our own wills. Alas, "we had turned every one to his own way" but let it suffice us now: "Jehovah hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Great Apostasy
The Great Apostasy
2. Spirit] i.e. a pretended revelation uttered by a false prophet. Letter as from us] perhaps a forged letter (the probable meaning), cp. 2Th_3:17, or a misunderstanding of the First Epistle.
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3-10. It will be convenient to. treat this difficult passage as a whole. Literally translated, it runs thus: 'Let no man deceive you in any wise: for [the Final Presence of our Lord shall not be] except (or till) the falling away come first and the Man of Lawlessness be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalted himself against all that is called God or an object of worship, so that he sitteth in the Sanctuary of God, setting himself forth as God (Do ye not remember that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?) And now ye know about that (power) which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed to his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness is already working, only there is one that restraineth now till he be taken out of the way. And then shall the Lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to naught by the Epiphany of His Presence— even him whose presence is according to the working of Satan, in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in every deceit of unrighteousness for the ruin of those who are perishing because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.' In the first place, we must remember that St. Paul is here speaking of something which is already at work, and the overthrow of which is to precede that Final Presence of the Lord which the Thessalonians thought to be immediately impending. Realising this, we shall at once reject all those interpretations which see in the Man of Sin (Lawlessness) some historical character (e.g. one of the Popes, or of Napoleon I) who lived after St. Paul's time. We must also remember that the Thessalonians had the key to the interpretation of the passage which we do not possess, since they had been orally instructed by St. Paul on the subject. But, though certainty is now impossible, we may be guided to a probable solution by studying the passage in connexion with the Revelation of St. John, and (especially) our Lord's great prophecy recorded in Matthew 24 Mark 13 and Luke 21. When, further, we remember how bitterly St. Paul felt the opposition of his fellow-countrymen to Christ (1Th_2:15-16), and how full the Gospels are of denunciation of Jewish sins, we shall be led to the conclusion that 'the Apostasy' is the Jewish apostasy, and that the 'Man of Sin (Lawlessness)' is either some false Christ (Mat_24:24), many of whom appeared among the Jews about this time, or (more probably) the spirit of Judaism personified. (A somewhat similar personification may be found in Revelation 2, 3, where 'the angel' of each of the seven churches seems to denote, not any official, but the Church itself.) The Jews had been chosen of God to bear witness to Him, and they had betrayed their trust. Their worship was a lie (Mat_23:16-22). They were 'a synagogue of Satan' (Rev_2:9; Rev_3:9). They had made the Temple a den of robbers (Mat_21:13). Some of them could perform lying wonders (Mat_12:27; Mar_13:22; Act_19:13). They were persecuting the Church of Christ and opposing the truth (Act_13:6, Act_13:45; Act_14:19; Act_17:5-13; Act_18:12; Act_22:22; Act_23:12). And so their apostasy was to be revealed and punished by the utter (but not final, Rom_11:25-27) overthrow of Judaism, and the destruction of the Holy City and the Temple in 70 a.d. by the Romans. This great event would come before the final advent, which the Thessalonians were expecting immediately. The further question who, or what, is the Person or Power that restrains the Man of Lawlessness, is one of considerable difficulty. The usual answer is 'the authority of the Roman empire, or perhaps the reigning Roman Emperor Claudius' (41-54 a.d.). Inthe very earliest days of Christianity the Romans did protect the Christians from Jewish violence (Act_18:14-15; Act_23:23-24; Act_25:14-21). But soon, under the Emperor Nero, this attitude was exchanged for one of hostility, after the fire at Rome in 64 a.d. And it is hard to see how the words 'until he be taken out of the way' can apply to a Roman emperor or to the Roman empire in its dealings with Judaism. It is possible that by the Restrainer St. Paul means the Christian Church in Jerusalem—the Mother-Church of which the Thessalonians 'became imitators' (1Th_2:14). We know that St. James, the head of that Church, had great influence over his unbelieving fellow-countrymen, and may well have exercised a restraining power over them. Some Jews even appear to have seen in the siege of Jerusalem the punishment for his murder by the high priest Ananus. It is to be noted that the Jerusalem Church, obeying the Lord's command (Mat_24:15-16), left the doomed city on the approach of the Roman army and fled to Pella. Thus she might be said to be 'taken out of the way' of the evil to come.
3. Falling away] Gk. 'apostasy.'
4. The reference is to the pretensions of a false Messiah.
7. Mystery] This word in NT. always denotes something once hidden, but now revealed, or soon to be revealed (1Co_4:1; Col_2:2; Col_4:3; Eph_6:19).
8. Brightness, etc.] rather, 'manifestation of His presence.'
11. Strong delusion] better, 'inner working of error.' Those who obstinately refuse the truth at last become incapable of receiving it.
12. Damned] RV 'judged.'
13. From the beginning] perhaps (with the oldest MS), 'as firstfruits.'
15. The traditions] i.e. the truths taught, whether orally or by writing.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv1–3 The section before us expresses the principal object of…
The section before us expresses the principal object of this Epistle, which was to correct the misapprehension that the Lord was about to come at once. Without professing to set forth all the events which would intervene between the date of his Epistle and the Lord's coming, the apostle enumerates three: 1. A great apostasy. 2. The removal of that power which hindered the manifestation of the lawless one. 3. The manifestation of the lawless one, and his reign. Since Paul gives us only a bird's-eye view of events, which covers a very extended range of history, it would be injudicious to fill in his outlines with elaborate details. The full outline of prophecy covering the Christian dispensation is given in Revelation, and will be discussed when that book is reached. Now we beseech you, brethren [having just prayed for the Thessalonians, Paul now passes to entreaties to them], touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him [the final gathering ( 1Th_4:17 ). He entreats them to be soberminded both as to the coming and the gathering, for each of these events had been used to generate error and fanaticism-- 1Th_4:13 ; 2Th_3:11 ];
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv2–3 day of
day of
(See Scofield "Isa 2:12").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The gathering of the saints preceding that day…
II. WHAT PRECEDES THE MANIFESTATION OF THE LORD
CHAPTER 2
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1. The gathering of the saints preceding that day (2Th 2:1-2)
2. The apostasy and the man of sin (2Th 2:3-4)
3. The revelation of the man of sin and his fate (2Th 2:5-8)
4. His deceptions and the fate of Christendom (2Th 2:9-12)
As this section of the Epistle is one of the most important of the New Testament, we give it first of all in a corrected translation.
“Now we beg you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor troubled, neither by spirit, not by word, nor by letter, as (if it were) by us, as that the day of the Lord is present. Let not any one deceive you in any manner, because it will not be unless the apostasy have come first and the man of sin have been revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself on high against all called God or object of worship; so that he himself sits down in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do ye not remember that, being yet with you, I said these things to you? And now ye know that which restrains, that he should be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness already works; only there is He who restrains it until He be gone, and then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of His mouth, and shall annul by the brightness of His coming; whose coming is according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in all deceit of unrighteousness to them that perish, because they have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason God sendeth them an energy of error, that they may believe the lie; that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
2Th 2:1-2
He begs them “by the coming of the Lord and our gathering together unto Him” not to be disturbed by the rumours these false teachers were circulating, as if the day of the Lord is present. The Authorized Version has the misleading translation, “the day of Christ.” (Equally incorrect is the translation, “the day of the Lord is at hand.” The meaning is “present,” that it had actually come. The same Greek word is also used in Rom 8:38, “things present.”) There is an important difference between the day of Christ and the day of the Lord. The day of Christ concerns the Church, the saints of God. The day of the Lord concerns the earth-- Israel and the nations. The day of Christ begins when He takes His saints in glory and they are with Him. The day of the Lord will bring, as stated before, the visible manifestation of the Lord from heaven. The day of Christ comes first and the day of the Lord follows at least seven years later. The following passages speak of the day of Christ, and it will be seen that that day is for God’s people only (1Co 1:8; 2Co 1:14; Php 1:6-10; Php 2:16). The day of the Lord does not concern the saints at all; it falls on the world. Before the day of the Lord can come, His saints have to be gathered together unto Him. The promise of 1Th 4:16-18 needs first to be fulfilled. He uses this hope of being gathered to Christ, when He comes for His saints, as a motive why they should not listen to those who said the day of the Lord is present. He reminds them of the fact that their gathering unto Him had not yet taken place. How, then, could the day of the Lord be present? And this opens the way for still more important teaching.
2Th 2:3-4
The false teachers were deceiving them. Before the day of the Lord can come there must be the falling away first and the man of sin, the son of perdition, must be revealed. No such conditions need to be fulfilled before the Lord comes for His saints. But before the age closes with the visible manifestation of the Lord from heaven these two solemn things must be on the earth. A falling away from the God-given faith has been going on throughout this Christian age. But that is not the apostasy of which the apostle speaks. The complete apostasy means that the entire faith will be abandoned by Christendom, even as our Lord indicated when He said, “Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall He find the faith on the earth?” That this present age closes in apostasy is more than once mentioned by the Spirit of God. See 1Ti 4:1-3; 2Ti 3:1-5; 2Pe 2:1-22; Jude. Evidences to that effect are abundant in our own days. The destructive Bible criticism rejecting inspiration and revelation, the denial of the person and work of Christ and of every other article, denials which are rapidly increasing, made the way for this final apostasy. The many cults in which Satanic powers are manifested, under the garb of angels of light, such as Christian Science, Spiritism, Theosophy, etc., are also harbingers of the time of which the apostle writes. Satan is surely actively at work to bring about this apostasy, and his ministers are transformed as the ministers of righteousness (2Co 11:15), advocating reform, better living, but denying and antagonizing the doctrines of Christ. We shall hear later that this final apostasy is held back from its full manifestation by One who restraineth; only when He is taken out of the way can this predicted apostasy and renunciation of Christianity come with its leader, the man of sin.
Who is the person whom Paul mentions as the man of sin? it would take many pages to give the views and opinions of expositors as to who is meant. The Roman Empire, the Roman Emperors, Mohammed, the Pope and the Romish Hierarchy have been given as being the man of sin. During the French revolution many thought it was Napoleon, as some today say the German Emperor is the man of sin. Inasmuch as the great apostasy is not yet here, the person whom Paul describes has also not yet come. First there must be the apostasy before there can be the leader and head of that apostasy. And before the revelation of Christ comes from heaven the world, which rejected Christ, will get its Antichrist. John mentions the man of sin. “Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son” (1Jn 2:22). It may be learned from this description that he will be the leader of Jewish unbelief and the unbelief of Christendom. Denying that Jesus is the Christ--that is Jewish; denying the Father and the Son, that is rejection of the Christian revelation. He will therefore take the leadership of Jewish and Christian apostasy. The most common interpretation that the Pope and the Papal system is this man of sin is incorrect, for the Pope does not deny that Jesus is the Christ, nor does the Pope claim to be the Christ. That the Pope has certain marks of the Antichrist about him no one can deny; but that he is the Antichrist is not true. (Certain Roman Catholic writers have charged Protestantism with being Babylon and anti-Christian. A so-called Protestant who denies the Virgin birth, the deity of Christ, surely is an antichrist.)
The final Antichrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition, is the heading up of the apostasy. He fills up the measure of the apostasy of humanity. He opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or object of worship. He takes the place of God on earth. He will be the superman who is expected by the world to make his appearance in the near future. In the book of Revelation his number is given as 666. “For it is a man’s number; and the number is six hundred and sixty-six” (Rev 13:18). There is no need to speculate on this number. The meaning is very simple. Seven, in Scripture, is the complete number, used in connection with what is divine and perfect. Six is incomplete, and is man’s number. The number 666 signifies man’s day and man’s defiance of God under Satan’s power reaching its climax. This “superman” takes a seat in the temple of God and sets himself forth that he is God. From this we learn that he claims a religious character. He must therefore not be identified with the little horn in Daniel’s prophecy (Dan 7:1-28).
This little horn is another Satan-possessed person who takes the leadership politically of the coming federation of nations, the revived Roman Empire. He is “the prince that shall come” of Dan 9:26. The beast out of the sea in Rev 13:1-10 is the revived Roman Empire ; the ten horns on that beastly empire correspond to the ten horns on Nebuchadnezzar’s prophetic dream image and the ten horns on the fourth beast of Daniel’s vision. The little horn, the domineering head of the revived Roman Empire, comes first into prominence and is soon followed by the second beast out of the earth, having two horns like a lamb, but speaking as a dragon. Rev 13:11-18 describes this second beast and the work he does, in which he is helped by the first beast. This second beast is the man of sin, the son of perdition. Read now Dan 11:36-39, This is another description of the same person. He is called a king because, as the false Christ, he will claim kingship among the Jews. He is also called in Revelation “the false prophet.” He is the one of whom our Lord spoke in Joh 5:43, “I am come in My Father’s name and ye received Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”
But what is the meaning of “he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth that he is God?” The temple of God does not mean the Church. It is a Jewish temple. When the true Church is gone the Jewish people, restored once more to their own land, established there as a nation, though still in unbelief, will erect another temple and institute once more the temple worship. (See Isa 66:1-4). God will despise their worship. The man of sin will sit in that temple, demanding worship for the image he will set up for himself. This will be during the time of Jacob’s trouble, the great tribulation. The man of sin, the Antichrist, will be undoubtedly a Jew. He will be filled with the energy and power of Satan. The nearness of the reestablishment of the Jewish people in Palestine in unbelief is an indication that all these prophecies are about to be fulfilled.
(For a closer study of the interesting details of the tribulation we refer our readers to “Exposition of Matthew,” “Daniel,” and “Exposition of Revelation,” all by the author of The Annotated Bible.)
2Th 2:5-8
When the apostle was with them he had spoken to them about those things. “The mystery of lawlessness (not iniquity) already worketh,” he informed the Thessalonians. Sin is lawlessness, and that has been at work from the beginning, man having forsaken God and exalted himself in self will. This works on till it works out into open lawlessness in an out-and-out opposition to God and His Son, culminating in the man of sin, the false Christ, “to give the world its long-sought liberty from divine restraint and bring its vaunted progress to perfection, which under Christianity it has found impossible to attain.” The mystery of lawlessness will cease to be a mystery when the lawless one, the man of sin, is manifested. But what keeps back the manifestation of this lawless one? Who or what is it that restrains it? Who is to be taken out of the way before the lawless one can be revealed? Many answers have been given to this question which we do not need to investigate. It is self evident that that which restraineth must be a power superior to man and Satan and of a nature totally different to the man of sin. The restraining one is a power and a person. It is the Holy Spirit of God.
“The Holy Ghost was here below; the Church, be its condition what it might, was still on earth, and God maintained the barrier. And as the porter had opened the door to Jesus in spite of all obstacles, so He sustains everything, however great the energy and progress of evil. The evil is bridled: God is the source of authority on earth. There is one who hinders until he be taken out of the way. Now, when the Church (the Church, that is, as composed of the true members of Christ) is gone, and consequently the Holy Ghost as the Comforter is no longer dwelling here below, then the apostasy takes place, the time to remove the hindrance is come, the evil is unbridled, and at length (without saying how much time it will take) the evil assumes a definite shape in him who is its head. The beast comes up from the abyss. Satan-not God-gives him his authority; and in the second beast all the energy of Satan is present. The man of sin is there” (Synopsis of the Bible).
When the Church leaves the earth then this restraining power and person, who dwells in the Church and therefore is here on earth, will be taken out of the way. As the result, in due time, the lawless one will be revealed. The Holy Spirit, who came down from heaven on the day of Pentecost to form the Church, the body of Christ, will be withdrawn when that body is complete and taken to glory to be joined to the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. The light being gone, gross darkness will settle upon the nations, the apostasy will be here, the enemy comes in like a flood and the lawless one appears. Here we have the best evidence that the true Church cannot be on the earth during the final years with which this age closes. No true believer will be in the final apostasy under the lawless one, nor will the Church pass through the great tribulation. How this should fill our hearts with holy joy and our lips with praises!
Before he speaks of the lawless one with his lying wonders, he tells us at once of his fate. The Lord Jesus, in His visible manifestation, will consume him with the breath of his mouth and annul him with the brightness of His coming (Isa 11:1-5 and Rev 19:11-21).
2Th 2:9-12
This lawless one, the Antichrist, will come in the energy of Satan with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood and in all deceit of unrighteousness to them that perish, because they have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason God sendeth them an energy of error, that they may believe the lie, that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had Pleasure in unrighteousness. This shows us what is coming upon the so-called “Christian nations,” with their boast of progress and civilization. This is the future of the destructive critics, the Bible-rejecting, gospel-neglecting masses of Christendom, as well as of apostate Judaism.
“Scientific infidelity now avouches with a sneer that we never see a miracle, and Hume’s argument against all evidence in favor of such is its contradiction of universal experience. But it is soon to be matter of extensive experience that miracles there are; only in a very opposite interest to that of Christianity. These things are even now showing themselves in a more or less tentative and doubtful way; they are yet to throw off all reserve and challenge the faith of the world. ‘Powers and signs and wonders’ are the threefold designation of miracles in Scripture: ‘wonders,’ which excite attention and admiration; ‘signs,’ or things that have meaning and doctrine; ‘powers,’ that are evidently beyond human. These have borne witness in past time to the truth--never proved it, apart from the truth itself with which they were connected; and this is the mistake of so many at all times that a real miracle--something that could be rightly spoken of as all these--is an absolute guarantee of the message that it brings. Thus they are ready at any time to follow what is thus supported. Yet, if there are heavenly beings--’angels that excel in strength’--it is evident that, if permitted, and if evil enough to attempt it, they could at any time lead us thus according to their mind. Now that is the very thing which God has declared He will permit, when the time shall have arrived. When men have shown that they desire the truth no longer and the patient, long-suffering God has at last no justification further, that will have come to pass for the professing Christian world which we recognize as coming to pass in the history of individuals: God will say again, ‘Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone.’ And then will rise up one ‘whose coming is according to the energy of Satan, with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood’--no longer in the interest of truth, but of a lie--and in all deceit of unrighteousness for those that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
“Dangerous would it be, as well as foolish, to assert that this is of the past, and not the future; that it has been fulfilled in Romanism, or in any like way. Has the power of Rome, whatever its pretension to fabulous miracle may be, exhibited itself after this fashion? No doubt, there is a class at all times ready to be duped in this way, as we see in the rapid progress of such transparent absurdities, as, for instance, ‘Christian Science’; but in all this there is only the feeble anticipation of a delusion which will yet carry away the multitudes of unbelieving profession. The arch deceiver is not in the Vatican, nor elsewhere at the present time; he is to be revealed in his time. And yet we may indeed discern the foreshadows of this tremendous iniquity and realize that his way is being prepared in many events and movements that are taking place under our eyes” (Numerical Bible).
Then the rejectors of the truth will receive their judgment. No one can even imagine what will be the fate of the millions who received not the love of the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Horrible as the events are today, that coming time of Antichrist, the time when the lawless one reigns, energized by Satan, will be far worse. As it has been said, “Sin will be allowed to be its own terrible witness against itself, a witness at which eternity will shudder.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Man of Sin and the Mystery of Iniquity.
The Man of Sin and the Mystery of Iniquity.
The coming of Anti-Christ before the end:
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v. 1. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto Him
v. 2. that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
v. 3. Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
v. 4. who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Paul had naturally included an instruction on the second coming of Christ in the doctrine which he taught at Thessalonica. But it seems that in the short interval since his departure from the city false opinions had gained a foothold in the Thessalonian congregation, particularly that of the immediate coming of the Lord’s second advent. The apostle therefore warns his readers not to lend their ears too readily to such ideas: We beg you, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being mustered together before Him, that you do not get unsettled quickly from your mind nor terrified, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of the Lord is at hand. The apostle realizes fully the danger of the position; he is anxious about the faith of his Christians and the life of sanctification they should lead. His exhortation, for that reason, almost assumes the form of an adjuration. On account of the honor of that day and the events which would transpire in it; on account of the fact that the day of the Lord will surely come, and that the right preparation for this event is expected from all Christians; on account of the fact that we must all be mustered before Him on that day and that judgment will be held: for these reasons it was essential that the conduct of the believers at all times should express their appreciation of the situation. They should beware, then, of a rapid unsettling of the mind; they should not permit their minds to be taken from their conviction of the truths which they had been taught; they should hold fast the doctrines which the apostle had proclaimed in their midst. Nor should they permit themselves to become excited or terrified with nervous fear; they should not give way to panic. Whether this disturbing agency happened to be some spirit of prophecy which some unscrupulous person was using to strike terror to their hearts, or some preaching which errorists were introducing, or some letter which had been forged and was now being ascribed to Paul: they should pay absolutely no attention to it. For all such attempts, all such assertions as though the day of the Lord, the Day of Judgment, was at hand, that its coming was imminent, were false and spurious; they had no foundation in the Word of Truth, in the teaching of the apostle. Were they to listen to such deceivers, they would merely become subject to needless terror, which would result in disorganizing their entire work.
The apostle substantiates his warning: Let no man deceive you in any manner; for unless the apostasy first come and the man of lawlessness be revealed, the son of perdition. Neither spiritual drowsiness nor unwholesome excitement is the proper state for Christians to exhibit; for in either case they are subject to delusions, in either case they can readily be led astray. The thought of the coming of the last day must be supplied from the previous verse. The apostle assures his readers that the Day of Judgment would not come unless the apostasy had first come, the great rebellion against Christ and against the sum of the doctrines taught by Him. He is speaking of a specific event in the future history of the world, of which he had spoken to the Thessalonians, of which he knew by prophetic insight and on the basis of the prophets, Dan 8:23; Dan 9:27. A feature of this apostasy from the purity of Christian faith would be the revelation of the man of lawlessness, of some man of unusual ability and power, whose entire life and being would be characterized by opposition to God’s will and Law. According to his final destiny, the apostle designates this historical personage as the son of perdition. Because he is wholly devoted to sin, to lawlessness, therefore his end will be destruction. The thought seems also to be included that, as he goes down into condemnation under the judgment of God, he drags others with him into everlasting perdition.
The apostle continues his description of this human Anti-Christ: Who sets himself against, and vaunts himself above, all that is called God or an object of worship, so that he sets himself into the temple of God, showing himself forth that he is God. The man of lawlessness sets himself in opposition to God, to Christ, thereby revealing his nature as Anti-Christ. He wants his own doctrines and laws regarded just like those of Christ; in fact, he insists upon replacing Christ’s precepts with his own. At the same time he vaunts himself, exalts himself against all that is called God or an object of true worship. He acts as though he were not under, but over God’s will and Law; he treads all true religion under his feet, making the service of God a play and a farce. But the climax is reached by his final arrogance, by which he sets himself in the temple of God, showing himself forth that he is God. In the Church, in the midst of Christendom, in the midst of the baptized Christians, Anti-Christ had the audacity to place his throne. For he presumes to be the representative of God on earth and to be endued with divine power and authority. There can be no doubt that this prophecy finds its fulfillment in the Roman papacy, as a special article below will show. The insistence of the Roman See upon the tradition of the Church, its prohibition of Bible reading, its doctrines of the immaculate conception of Mary, of transubstantiation, of the sacrifice of the mass, of indulgences, of the veneration of saints, of purgatory, of the infallibility of the Pope, etc. , the entire system of doctrine, in fact, with all its ramifications, mark the Pope of Rome as the Anti-Christ in the narrow or specific sense of the word.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3 General Information:
General Information:
Paul exhorts believers not to be deceived about the day Jesus will come back.
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Now
The word "Now" marks a change of topic in Paul's instructions.
brothers
Here "brothers" means fellow Christians, including both men and women. AT: "brothers and sisters" (See: When Masculine Words Include Women)
that you not be easily disturbed or troubled
"that you do not easily let yourselves be disturbed"
by a message, or by a letter that seems to be coming from us
"by spoken word or by written letter that pretends to be coming from us"
to the effect that
"saying that"
the day of the Lord
This refers to the time when Jesus will come back to the earth for all believers.
translationWords
lord
Jesus
brother
trouble
spirit
day of the Lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–3 2:1-12 False teaching about the day of the Lord…
2:1-12 False teaching about the day of the Lord had disturbed the Thessalonian church (2:1-2). Paul reminds them (2:5) that two events will precede that day: a great apostasy and the unveiling of the man of lawlessness (2:3-12). Christ will destroy this man when he returns (2:3, 8), and those who have been deceived will also be judged (2:9-12).
2:1 At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1:7-10; 1 Thes 2:19; 3:13; 4:15–5:2; 5:23), all of his people will be gathered to meet him. This will occur at the resurrection and rapture of the church (1 Thes 4:13-18).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.