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OPEN BOOK: II THESSALONIANS – HOLD FAST!

Caution

BRUCE C WEARNE, in his series on II Thessalonians, looks at a passage at the start of chapter II about keeping our eyes on the truth… 

Now brothers [and sisters], to advise you about the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ and of our being gathered together to be with Him: [we advise you] do not be quickly shaken in your understanding or be disturbed whether by a spiritual [impulse] or by word [of mouth] or through a letter purporting to come from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has [now] arrived.
     Do not let anyone deceive you about this in any way, since a falling away [is set down and] comes first and then the man of lawlessness, the son of utter ruin, the one setting himself apart and exalting himself over all that is said of God or worshipped, [will come] and presume to take his place in the temple of God with the proclamation that he is god.
     Do you not recall that I tried to tell you these things and you now know full well what restrains him from being revealed in his time. – II Thessalonians 2:1-6/transliteration by Bruce C Wearne

Caution

WARNING SIGN: Paul tells the church in Thessalonica to beware of deception. PICTURE: Goh Rhy Yan/Unsplash

 

“A falling away will come, says Paul, implying that to be destabilised is to risk being caught upon in the net of lawlessness and the rule of the one orchestrating disorder, mayhem and apostasy.”

Paul has been discussing the need for living with a patient expectation of the coming of the Lord. This is what the people of the Lord do. It involves mentioning the coming judgement although he will never presume to set a date. It is enough to say, “Be prepared! Judgement dayis near!” The culmination of all creation involves the generation-to-generation unfolding of creation’s inherent potentials and possibilities.

But somewhere, somehow, in this glorious unfolding is a presumptuous rejection, a conscious and determined turning away from obedience to God’s stated will. And so a counter-movement has been unleashed. There are those who do not respect their Creator and Redeemer. There are those who treat the Good News with disdain.

This rebellious lawlessness may be, at base, a mystery, and so to expect God’s judgement is to live with fraught tension, even if that is no reason for getting distracted by speculations about “the end of the world”.

A falling away will come, says Paul, implying that to be destabilised is to risk being caught upon in the net of lawlessness and the rule of the one orchestrating disorder, mayhem and apostasy. To be disturbed by such apostate propaganda is to become open to idolatry, on the side of those waging all out war against the Lord of heaven and earth.

God’s warning: “In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die” tells us the prevailing characteristic of a way of life bent on inheriting, and passing on, utter ruin. Paul reminds the Thessalonian Christians that this is no new teaching; it is implicit in what he taught and in his previous letter. It has been part of the story of God’s judgement since creation, since before the intimations of the certainty of His abiding mercy, His redemptive love.  

 

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