2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 - Homilies By T. Croskery

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.

2 . 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.

3 . The panic was due to one or other of three sources. "Neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us."

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 day was at hand, for this had always been the apostle's teaching, as well as that of all Scripture ( Matthew 24:1-51 .; Romans 13:12 ; Philippians 4:5 ; Hebrews 10:25 , Hebrews 10:37 ; James 5:8 ; 1 Peter 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 had already 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.

2 Thessalonians 2:3-8 . — The rise of the apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin must precede the second advent.

This fact would assure them that a period of time of at least indefinite extent would intervene before the day of the Lord. "Let no man deceive you by any means."

I. THE COMING OF THE APOSTASY . "Because the day will not set in unless there come the apostasy first."

1 . The apostasy is so described because it was already familiar to their minds through his oral teaching . "Remember ye not, that, when I was with you, I was telling you of these things?"

2 . It points to a signal defection from the Christian faith. We imagine that the primitive Churches were signally free from error or fault of any sort. The apostle himself notes the signs of beginning apostasy even in his own day.

II. THE REVELATION OF THE MAN OF SIN . "And that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above every one called God, or an object of worship." His characteristics are here distinctly described.

1 . He does not represent a system of error, like Romanism, or the papal hierarchy, or a succession of Popes, but a single person. The man of sin has not yet appeared. Yet Romanism, or the papacy, comprehends much that is involved in the idea of this terrible person, who, however, goes beyond it in the appalling extent of his wickedness. The passage is not symbolic, but literal. It is a literal person who is described.

2 . He is "the son of perdition."

3 . His boundless and blasphemous assumptions.

(a) The description does not apply to the pope or the papacy:

( α ) Because the pope, though the head of a system of idolatry, does not oppose God or exalt himself above him, but rather owns himself "a servant of servants of the most high God," and blesses the people, not in his own name, but in the Name of the Triune God.

( β ) Because, instead of exalting himself above God or objects of worship, he multiplies the objects of worship by the canonization of new saints, and submits, like the humblest of his followers, to the worship of the very saints he has made.

( γ ) Because the pope, though guilty of arrogating almost Divine powers to himself, does not supersede God so as to make himself God. The man of sin "sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." Though votaries of the papacy have often given Divine titles to the popes, the Popes have never assumed to be God, but only vicars of Jesus Christ on earth. They have claimed to be viceroys of God. The temple of God cannot be the Vatican; nor the Christian Church, which is an ideal building; nor can Rome be regarded as the centre of the Christian Church.

( δ ) Because this prophetic sketch contains no allusion to strictly papal peculiarities, such as idolatry, either as to the Virgin Mary, saints, angels, or relics, the invention of purgatory, priestly absolution, bloody fanaticism, debased casuistry, lordship over the world of spirits.

(b) The description applies to the man of sin—the lawless one—for whom the Papacy prepares the way by a long course of apostasy from the truth.

( α ) This terrible person is to oppose God and all worship of every sort, and may therefore be regarded as an impersonation of infidel wickedness.

( β ) He is to sit down in the vacated "temple of God" and claim all the attributes of divinity. He sits down in God's place—for the temple is God's dwelling—in some actual temple, and appropriates it to his own use. Wherever the scene of this marvellous usurpation may be, it signifies the obliteration of all Christian interests and the triumph of atheistic malignity. When the Lord comes, "shall he find faith in the earth?" We see how Positivism in our own day has forsaken the worship of a personal God and betaken itself to the worship of concrete humanity. The man of sin will use the papacy as Anguste Comte travestied it in constructing forms of Positivist devotion, by turning it into some darker shape and. making it the tremendous instrument of the world's final ruin.

III. THE CHECK TO THE FULL DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAN OF SIN . "And now what restraineth ye know, in order that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of iniquity is already working only till he who now restraineth be taken out of the way." These words imply:

1 . That the apostasy was already in being; for "the mystery of lawlessness is already working." The two, if not identical, are closely connected together.

2 . The words imply that the working of the apostasy was still undefined and as yet unguessed at. It was still "a mystery," to be revealed in due time. Nothing is more remarkable than the gradual growth of error in the patristic age. False opinions held by pious Fathers in one age were held by errorists in the next age to the exclusion o! the truth.

3 . The words imply that, as the apostasy would last through ages, the check would likewise exercise a continuous effect. The common opinion is that the Roman empire was the restraining power upon the development of the man of sin. It was certainly such upon the course of the apostasy, which was to prepare the way for the man of sin. It held the Papacy in check till it was itself swept away by barbarian violence. Because it has passed away, it does not follow that the man of sin must have been revealed at once; for other checks have been supplied, and are being still continuously supplied, in the polity of nations and in the face of Divine truth, to restrain the last terrible manifestation of his power.

IV. THE DOOM OF THE MAN OF SIN . "Whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall destroy with the appearance of his coming."

1 . This does not refer to the Word and Spirit of Christ working in the minds of men for the destruction of antichristian error and antitheistic wickedness, but to the actual personal advent of Jesus Christ.

2 . The language implies the suddenness and the completeness of the overthrow of the man of sin, who thereby becomes "the son of perdition."

3 . The picture presented may be identical with the Got and Magog conspiracy which is to follow the millennium. ( Revelation 20:7 , Revelation 20:8 .) The Lord puts the question, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth?" ( Luke 18:8 ). Thus the apostle assures the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord cannot have come, because all the events here pictured must happen before that great and terrible day.—T.C.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 . — The methods of the man of sin and the retribution that overtakes his victims.

The apostle, after telling the doom of the man of sin by anticipation, goes back upon his description so as to bring out the contrast between the coming of Christ and the coming of his arch-enemy.

I. THE METHODS OF THE MAN OF SIN . "Whose coming is after the working of Satan in all powers and signs and prodigies of lying."

1 . The source of all this wonder working activity—Satan. There is more than human depravity at work in this tremendous revelation of evil power. As Satan is a liar and the father of lies, he will stamp falsehood upon the whole system, which he will elaborate with superhuman craft for the misguidance of men.

2 . The character of this activity. It is external and internal.

(a) These are to be a mimicry of Christ's miracles, for the three words here used are twice applied to our Lord's miracles ( Hebrews 2:4 ; Acts 2:22 ).

(b) They were not real miracles, as if they had been done by Divine power, but jugglers' tricks or such like startling wonders as might delude "the perishing" into the belief that they were done by Divine power. The signs were to be as false as their author.

(c) Their design was to attest the truth of the doctrine of the man of sin.

3 . The effects of this wonder working activity. They are confined "to those that are perishing." It is not possible "to deceive the elect" ( Mark 13:22 ). Those who are blinded to the glory of the gospel are in the way of easy deception ( 2 Corinthians 4:3 ). It is those on the way to perdition who are so easily deceived.

II. THE RETRIBUTION THAT OVERTAKES THE VICTIMS OF THE MAN OF SIX . "Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." The causes of the success of the man of sin are first described on the side of man and then on the side of God. The whole case is one of just retribution.

1 . The sin of the perishing.

2 . The Divine retribution for the sin of the perishing. "And for this cause God is sending them an inworking error, that they should believe the lie" of the man of sin. They rejected the truth of God; God will, as a judicial, punitive infliction, send them blindness so that the error of the man of sin will be received as truth. "A terrible combination when both God and Satan are agreed to deceive a man!" There is a double punishment here.

(a) That error is not an innocent thing. It has practical issues of the most momentous character.

(b) That it is a fearful perversion of the human soul to take pleasure in what God hates.

(c) That God allows the sin and madness of men to develop themselves to their fullest extent.

(d) That God in this way will be finally justified in their judgment; he "will be justified in his speaking, and shall be clear in his judging" ( Psalms 51:4 ).—T.C.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 , 2 Thessalonians 2:14 . — Apostolic thanksgiving for the election and the calling of the Thessalonians.

I. THE DIVINE ELECTION . "God hath from the beginning chosen you."

1 . There is an "election according to grace" ( Romans 11:5 ). It is not to be confounded with the calling, which is an effect of it. "Whom he predestinated, them he also called" ( Romans 8:30 ). Our salvation is always traced to "his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."

2 . The date of the election. "From the beginning." It is "from the foundation of the world" ( Ephesians 1:4 ), and therefore does not rest upon the personal claims of individuals.

3 . The means of the election. "In sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." The election is to the means as well as the end; it cannot take effect without the means. There is an objective as well as a subjective side in the sphere of the election.

(a) It implies a spiritual change of nature. The Spirit applies the salvation, and regeneration is his first work.

(b) Sanctification is the evidence as well as the fruit of election.

(a) As the Spirit is the agent, the truth is the instrument of salvation.

(b) The truth must be believed in order to salvation. As men are chosen to be saints, they are chosen also to be believers.

4 . The end of the election. "God hath chosen you to salvation."

(a) This is salvation from sin and sorrow, death and hell.

(b) It is "the end of our faith" ( 1 Peter 1:9 ).

II. THE DIVINE CALLING . "Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." The election issues in the call.

1 . The Author of the call. God. "There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy." He has the right to call and the power to call. Nothing but Divine power can save the soul.

2 . The means of the call. "Our gospel." The ministry of the Word was the great instrument in the Spirit's hand of their conversion.

3 . The end of the call.

2 Thessalonians 2:15 . — Exhortation to a steadfast maintenance of apostolic traditions.

"Therefore stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our Epistle."

I. THE GROUND OF THIS EXHORTATION . It was their election and calling. There is a perfect consistency between the Divine election and the obligations of Christian duty.

II. THE NECESSITY OF CHRISTIAN STABILITY . It was specially needful at Thessalonica, in the midst of the agitations and shakings and restlessness that prevailed on the subject of the second advent. Believers were not "to be carried about by every wind of doctrine," lest "being led away with the error of the wicked, they should fall from their own steadfastness." They were to "hold fast the beginning of their confidence," and not "be moved away from the hope of the gospel."

1 . There is safety in stability .

2 . There is comfort in it.

3 . It gives glory to God .

4 . It gives strength and encouragement to the weak and vacillating .

III. THE MANIFESTATION OF THIS STABILITY . "Hold fast the traditions."

1 . They were of two kinds, oral and written. "Whether by word, or our Epistle."

2 . The traditions in question afford no warrant for the Roman, Catholic doctrine of traditions handed down through ages. Because:

2 Thessalonians 2:16 , 2 Thessalonians 2:17 .—Prayer after exhortation.

The comprehensive prayer for blessing with which he concludes is strictly after the apostle's manner.

I. THE AUTHORS OF THE BLESSINGS PRAYED FOR . "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father." The order of mention is unusual, though the name of Jesus occurs first in the apostolic benediction ( 2 Corinthians 13:14 ).

1 . God the Father is the ultimate Source of blessing, as it is through Jesus Christ the blessing comes to us.

2 . There is an entire equality between them, seeing the blessing is attributed to both.

3 . There is oneness of essence, as is indicated by the singular verb used in the passage.

II. THE GROUND OF EXPECTATION THAT THE BLESSINGS ASKED WILL BE GIVEN . "Who loved us, and gave us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace."

1 . The Divine love is the true ground of all our hopes of blessing, for it is everlasting, unchangeable, practical in its ends.

2 . The two elements in the Divine gift.

(a) A source of unfailing comfort in the midst of the trials of life, springing out of everlasting sources and sufficing to all eternity; for God is a "God of all comfort," and "if there be any consolation," it is in Christ.

(b) This comfort is a gift—a mark of Divine favour, not of human merit.

(a) This is "the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began" ( Titus 1:2 ).

(b) It is a good hope

( α ) because of its Author;

( β ) because of its foundation, "through grace;"

( γ ) because of its purifying effects (lJn 2 Thessalonians 3:4 ).

III. THE BLESSINGS PRAYED FOR .

1 . Heart-comfort. "Comfort your hearts." They needed to be comforted on account of their troubles respecting the second advent. None but God can give true and lasting comfort. "Thou hast put gladness into my heart."

2 . Establishment and perseverance. "And stablish you in every good word and work."