2 Thessalonians 2

    2:1-2.  We are to watch and be ready (cf. 1 Thess.4:13-5:11, notes).   But a watchman can make two mistakes.  He can either be complacent and go to sleep, or he can be overly jumpy, repeatedly sounding false alarms at every shadow or wisp of dust in the distance (2).  Had Christ already come?  Were the rumors right?  (Cf. Luke 17:23-24; 2 Tim.2:18.)

      2:3.  Paul reminds them that the apostasy and the appearing of the man of lawlessness (Antichrist) must precede the coming of Christ.  That hadn’t happened yet.  This may have restored the composure of the Thessalonians, but it doesn’t stop those today who love to hyperventilate on the topic.   Soon after Paul wrote, many antichrists began to make their appearances (cf. Mt.24:5, 24; 1 John 2:18; 4:3; 2 John 7).  Since there are many antichrists, how do we recognize the Antichrist, the one who precedes the Lord’s return?  We don’t.  We resist him now in our day, however he manifests himself, for he is the same apostatizing deceiver in any appearance.  When the Lord (who is right at the door) comes, we will know it, and the son of destruction (or perdition) will know it too.  The Lord may tarry (2 Peter 3:3 ff.).  His coming is like lightning.  It comes suddenly, but not necessarily immediately.  The Lord is ready.  He shall return at the time set by the Father’s own authority, and it is not for us to know (Acts 1:7).

     2:4-5.  Yes, we know the man of sin already.  We know him from church history, and from our own time and experience.  He exalts himself above all gods, and even seats himself in the temple of God, displaying himself as God.  The pre-Christian Greek-Syrian leader, Antiochus Epiphanes, had done this, just as Daniel had predicted such a one would do.  The Roman Emperor Gaius attempted to have his own statue placed in the Temple of Jerusalem in AD 40, some ten years before Paul wrote this.  After Constantine, the Roman bishops exalted themselves in the church, which is Christ’s mystical body and thus God’s true temple (4; cf. 1 Cor.3:16; 1 Tim.3:15), giving themselves such titles as Holy Father, and the King and Head of the Church, and claiming the authority to give or withhold grace, all the while practicing every form of worldliness and immorality.  Rightly did the reformers call this office of blaspheme, corruption, and vice, “antichrist”.

     In my lifetime I have seen many so-called antichrists come and go, the harbingers of someone’s rapturous theory.  Everyone from Mussolini to Henry Kissinger and beyond has been called the Antichrist. But there have been other less comical and more likely candidates.  The real antichrists of our day are man exalting philosophies and ideologies; materialism and its spawn of economic, social, and pseudoscience theories that capture men’s minds.  These are set up in opposition to God, even in the apostate church.  God and the truth are forced out, and Antichrist reigns.  God does not allow this to go on forever.  Babylon’s tower always falls.

     2:6-7.  But compose yourselves, says Paul (2).  Even though the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, it is being restrained, and the man of lawlessness is held in check, so that many are still receiving the truth.  Satan is bound (cf. Mt.12:29; Luke 10:18; Heb.2:14; Rev.20;1-3).

     Exactly what restrains the full power of the man of sin is a difficult question.  It is called what restrains in v.6, but this impersonal force becomes a personal he in v.7.  Some would say He is the Holy Spirit, and would render the last phrase of v.7, “…until He come out of the way,” but most authorities dismiss this.  Or perhaps he could be the guardian archangel Michael, who stands with the Lord against the enemies of God’s people (cf. Dan.10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9; Rev.12:7), or maybe the angel having the key of the abyss (Rev.20:1).   And we must remember that in Scripture, the principalities and powers have both heavenly and earthly components, both good and evil (cf. Dan.10:13, 21; Col.1:16).  Many good authorities are convinced that Rome is the restraining power.  The emperor would be the personal embodiment of that power, the he of v.7, though no one emperor is probably intended.  Paul is said to be intentionally vague here, because the letter could fall into the wrong hands, and speaking of the emperor being taken out of the way would be considered seditious.  The policies of the empire could be the restrainer of the antichrist forces at one time, and at a later time becoming the lawless leader of those forces.  Roman law often protected Paul.  Later, it probably put him to death.  

     It must be remembered that, like most prophecy, 2 Thess.2:1-12 had an application for that generation, and also an application for the future.  Compare Mt.24 (see notes), where Jesus prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.  (That terrible event took place in AD 70).  Apparently those events were meant as a type of Christ’s coming at the end of the world.  As Jesus talks about that event, which was to happen before that generation passed away (Mt.24:34), he also was speaking of his return in final judgment, and also something of the nature of every intervening judgment.  These are like tremors at the fault line of history, reminding us that the Lord has drawn near.  The terminal shaking could come at any time.  Thus Paul can talk about these same events, the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish temple at the hands of Rome, and yet be conflating those events together with what they typify, which is the coming of the Lord in judgment at the end of history.  For him, the distinction wasn’t even important, just as the distinction between those who are dead and those who are alive when he comes won’t matter (1 Thess.4:14-18).

      2:8-12.  The brief season of unrestrained power exercised by Satan’s counterfeit Christ will be ended by the word of Christ (the breath of his mouth) at the very appearance of the Lord’s coming (8; cf. 1 Thess.4:16).  All the wonders of the man of sin are a lie of Satan, a deception of wickedness that deceives all those who do not love the truth so as to be saved (9-10).  The love of the truth is a gracious gift which the perishing have not received.  Because they took pleasure in wickedness, God sends a deluding influence upon them, so that they believe the lie (margin).  This is the great lie of the father of lies, that the creature can be equal to the Creator (Gen.3:5; John 8:44).

       2:13-17.  But God has chosen his people from the beginning, sanctifying them by the Spirit and by faith in the truth.  They have believed the gospel, and shall gain the glory of Christ.  Stand firm.  Hold to the traditions taught by the apostles (15; cf. 3:6).  The grace and love of Christ and the Father are our hope and eternal comfort (16-17).  

     2:15.  The traditions (cf.3:6) are the testimony of the apostles as taught to them by Jesus himself.  It is the body of doctrine and the way of life received from Christ and taught by word and example (3:7, 9) through his witnesses, the apostles (cf. 1 Cor.11:1-2; 15:3-8, 11).