Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
“Alarmist” is a word sometimes used in our day to describe a person who causes alarm by their predictions of approaching disaster. ‘Terrorist’ is perhaps the next level of intensity and extreme. Can you remember the last time your life was touched either by an alarmist’ or a ‘terrorist’? We’re with the apostle Paul as he’s writing his second letter to the Christians in Thessalonica and with chapter 2 Paul is addressing an ‘alarmist’ issue.
“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us – whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter – asserting that the Day of the LORD has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.“ (2 Thess. 2:1-4)
Then, as now, there were a wide assortment of teachers offering a wide array of opinions, philosophy, theory, teachings regarding the future. Then, as now, many people were very hungry to pursue learning all they could about future events so they would not be unprepared. Then, as now, some people took to the extreme, while others simply disregarded the futuristic conversation.
Paul was most concerned about the report he had heard that some people were so convinced the return of Jesus was imminent, it could happen any day, that some people had quit their employment and were simply sitting on their front porch waiting for the appearing of Jesus!
So, let me ask you my friends, what can be done about radical, false teachers spreading ‘alarmist’ news that causes some people to panic? The answer, of course, is TRUTH! Call for their truthful clarification and explanation of their radical claims. And always cross check any teachings with the clear TRUTH of God’s Word!
What can be done about impressionable people who over-react and go crazy in response to wrong, radical teachings? Call them to look at God’s truth and NOT deviate from it! Invite them back to reality reminding them that a world who does NOT know Jesus is
watching those who claim to know Jesus, to see how we handle ‘alarmist’ news. Remember Jesus promised His Holy Spirit will always lead God’s people into God’s TRUTH. (John 16:13)
So that’s what Paul was doing with chapter 2 of his second letter. Let’s look carefully at what Paul wrote about “the Day of the LORD” and the return of the Lord Jesus. As you recall, in the past few days we’ve looked at TWO different returns of Jesus to earth. The first, described in 1 Thess. 4:13-18 is for the ‘rapture’, the ‘gathering up’ of all Christians from all time. Perhaps you could say this is when “Shepherd” Jesus comes to gather up all His sheep. Remember the powerful teachings of Jesus in John 10 about the Good Shepherd and His sheep who know His voice?
The second return of Jesus is described in 2 Thess. 1:7-10. This is the return of Jesus as the great, victorious Warrior King, engaging 10 evil kings and their armies in battle. Jesus and his army of heavenly angels will defeat these 10 kings and then Jesus will set up His millennial earthly kingdom. (Revelation 19,20)
While Paul uses the phrase “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him“ that would seem to point to the FIRST return of Jesus as “Shepherd” for gathering up His people. Clearly that has not yet happened and depending on your interpretation of prophetic Scripture will occur either ‘pre-Tribulation’; or ‘mid-Tribulation, Pre-Wrath’; or ‘post-Tribulation’. The “post-Tribulation” perspective would put the two returns of Jesus in almost a simultaneous act as Jesus the ‘Shepherd’ comes to gather up His people but then almost immediately, Jesus becomes the ‘Warrior King’ mobilizing His armies to do battle with the kings of evil.
The remainder of Paul’s paragraph, however, seems to clearly point to the second of the future returns of Jesus as Paul writes: “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”(2 Thess. 2:3,4) Who is this “man of lawlessness”, also referred to as the ‘man doomed to destruction’?
You may recall the apostle John refers to an “Anti-Christ”. John wrote: “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come…Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist – denying the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:18,22,23) Here John makes it clear there will be ‘antichrist’s’, persons fully opposed to God and Jesus Christ, in every generation, and we’ve seen that to be true.
In his vision of the Revelation, John gives us further insight into the one man Paul was likely referring to when Paul wrote: “ for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thess. 2:3,4) In Revelation 13 John describes a great and powerful evil dragon, and that’s Satan. That dragon empowers something John describes as a ‘beast’ and this beast/person, most Bible scholars believe to be the ultimate Antichrist, which Paul called the ‘man of lawlessness’ in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
John writes in Rev. 13:5-8 “The beast [AntiChrist] was given a mouth to utter proud words of blasphemies and to exercise its authority for 42 months. It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander His name and His dwelling place and those who live in heaven. It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast – all whose names have NOT been written in the Lambs’ book of life, the Lamb who was slain from creation of the world.”
We understand the reference to the Lamb’s book of life is that book found in Revelation 20:12-15. The Lamb is Jesus. The Lamb’s book is the record of the names of all and every person who has ever fully trusted Jesus to be their Savior, have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and their name PERMANENTLY written by God into this book, the record of all the Redeemed! 42 months, of course, is equivalent to 3.5 years and most Bible scholars view that as 1/2 of the 7 years of the great Tribulation. You’ll notice this antichrist has been empowered by Satan, is fully opposed to God, God’s truth and God’s people, and leads a global opposition to God, which will culminate in those 10 kings gathered to battle against the King of kings, the Warrior King Jesus!
Now, that’s a lot isn’t it, so we’ll pause here, catch our breath, reflect on these powerful writings about future events, and I’ll see you right back here tomorrow as we continue our study with Paul. In the meantime, aren’t you glad that even though these writings sound “alarmist” we need not be concerned, for IF you’ve trusted Jesus to be your Savior, your life and mine are in the hands of God, our heavenly Father, our Almighty King! And so, I think we need a great song of assurance about that…
Today’s Scripture is 2 Thess. 2:1-4.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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