The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians was written to deliver them from this mistake and sorrow. Instead of the coming of the Lord being a day of trouble to them, the apostle says, “And to you who are troubled, rest with us; when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels” (2 Thess. 1:7). So far from the world persecuting you in the day of vengeance, you shall rest with us, caught up; as he had taught them. Flaming “vengeance shall be taken on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Punished with everlasting destruction from His presence, “When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony was believed), in that day” (Ver. 10). Still further to assure them, he says, “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 troubled, neither by spirit, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of the Lord is at hand” (2 Thess. 2:1-2).
Two things were certain before the great and terrible day of the Lord – His coming for them, and their gathering to Him, as taught them in the first epistle.
O! could one think it possible, as we walk the streets, and watch the busy crowd, that destinies so vastly opposite await that crowd – the believer to be caught up to meet the Lord (perhaps this very day), the unbeliever to be left to the fierceness of that day of vengeance.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 we have some of the terrible features of the end of this age. “The falling away first.” However sadly the professing church has departed, yet what will it be when the real church of God is taken up! The full character of this falling away is described in Revelation 17. One terrible feature is the revelation of the wicked one, “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” (2 Thess. 2:4).
Some, not observing that this fearful character appears on the closing scene of human wickedness, after the true church is taken up to be with the Lord, have thought this man of sin is Popery, or the Pope. But do not you see this passage says, the man of sin shall sit in the temple of God. Now God never has, and never will have, a temple built on earth in any place except Mount Zion, or Mount Moriah – the place in which he appeared to Abraham. But that temple is now destroyed. It must, then, be rebuilt, as many scriptures show it will. And the terrible man of sin is evidently one of Daniel’s people, that is, a Jew – who shall come in his own name – whom the Jews shall receive (John 5:43).
As Satan entered into Judas, so will he enter into this son of perdition. St. Peter’s at Rome cannot be the temple of God; neither can the Pope be this man of sin. Daniel plainly describes him as the wicked Jewish king at the time of the end: “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.” We all know the Pope is not the King of the Jews. It is quite clear that all this is Jewish, and cannot take place while the Spirit and the church are here. As Paul had well taught these converts, he reminds them how he had told them, “And now ye know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time.”
“The mystery of iniquity doth already work” – the leaven foretold in Matthew 13. “Only He who now letteth (or hindereth) will let until He is taken away.” But O! what will it be when the Spirit of God is taken, and the church caught up to meet the Lord? “And then shall that wicked one be revealed.” And, now, how clearly this proves this wicked one is not Popery, for it is he “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” Popery, and the whole of the ecclesiastical apostacy, will be destroyed by the ten kings (Rev. 17:16). But this wicked one “is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying wonders.” The present work of Satan, in leading men to have to do with devils, and familiar spirits, by table-turning and the like, may be preparing the way. But these terrible events cannot possibly take place during this day of gospel grace. For in those days of darkness, God will send them strong delusion, that they may believe a lie, that they may all be damned. This will be assuredly the case when this day of mercy closes. God will arise and shake terribly the earth. “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion;” that is, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Man is damned because he receives not the truth. These are God’s words as to the end of the present age. Fellow-believers, we are saved “because God hath from the beginning chosen us to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (vs. 13). O! it is this that makes the coming of the Lord so precious – God’s eternal love. The apostle closes the subject in this epistle with these words, “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ” (2 Thess. 3:5).
(Continued from page 196).
(To be continued).