2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-17

INTRODUCTION

A. The second letter to the Thessalonians has the same purpose as the first.

B. It was written to set the record straight about the return of Christ, and to spur Christians on to continual service in the Lord’s work.

C. This theme is developed most clearly in this chapter, as McGarvey and Pendleton point out in their commentary on this letter:
“The section before us expresses the principal object of this Epistle, which was to correct the misapprehension that the Lord was about to come at once.  Without professing to set forth all the events which would intervene between the date of his epistle and the Lord’s coming, the apostle enumerates three:  1. A great apostasy.  2. The removal of that power which hindered the manifestation of the lawless one.  3. The manifestation of the lawless one, and his reign.  Since Paul gives us only a bird’s-eye view of events, which covers a very extended range of history, it would be injudicious to fill in his outlines with elaborate details.”1

D. It may be that the Thessalonians more fully understood Paul’s meanings on some of these things than we do.

E. Our task is to try and learn the overall principles set forth in this great chapter without interjecting into the text fanciful interpretations that are not warranted from what Paul delivered by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

DISCUSSION

I. REASON FOR WRITING SET FORTH (2:1-3a).

A. False teachers were attempting to deceive.

1. This was happening less then twenty years after the church was established.

2. Christians must remind ourselves and other Christians to “try the spirits,” and to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 John 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:21).

B. Deceived concerning the return of our Lord.

1. Possible misapplication of what the Lord had said concerning the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 16:28; 24:34).

2. Some may have been misrepresenting what Paul had written in the first letter to the Thessalonians.

C. Results of the deception.

1. Some had quit their jobs and were becoming a burden to other Christians (2 Thessalonians 3:7-12).

2. Paul corrected this misconception by pointing out that several things must first occur before Jesus would return. 

II. THE FALLING AWAY, THE MAN OF SIN AND THE RESTRAINING POWER (2:3-9).

A. Apostasy must come first. 

1. Exact time of the falling away is not given.

2. However, it would be when the man of sin would be revealed.

3. Paul also predicts this falling away in his first letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:1).

B. A closer look at the man of sin.

1. Who is he?

a. He has been said to be Judas based on his being called “the son of perdition.”  Jesus described Judas in this way (John 17:12), but the passage clearly indicates that the “man of sin” is yet to come.

b. Some have said he is Satan, but we are told that he comes “according to the working of Satan” (2:9).

c. He has been identified as Nero or one of the other Roman emperors.  While perhaps causing some to deny Christ, these men are not closely associated with a vast apostasy of the church.

d. The most widely held view, and the one that is most reasonable, is that he is the pope of Rome.

2. Evidence that the pope is the man of sin.

a. While never calling “the man of sin” “the Antichrist,” there are many similarities in the descriptions of the two.

b. Similarities become clear by a close examination of them (cf. Matthew 24:5,24; I John 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7).

            “MAN OF SIN”       “ANTICHRIST”
 1.  His will opposes the will of God. 1.  Denies Jesus is the Christ.
2.  He exalts himself above God.      2.  Will not acknowledge that 
 3.  He sits in the temple of God.      Jesus has come in the flesh.
     4.  He sets himself up as God.  3.  Is a liar.
5.  He participates in lying wonders 4.  Is a deciever.
             to deceive. 

 Brother Guy Woods sums up these similarities:

“Like the antichrist described by John, and the false Christs predicted by the Lord, he seeks to identify himself with deity; he, like them, seeks to deceive, and has arrayed himself against the Lord and his Christ, and opposes them.  To the candid mind the conclusion is irresistible that the “man of sin,” whom Paul described, is identical with the “anti-christ,” to which John refers.  And, in the centuries which have passed since these words were penned, no character in history so nearly conforms in minute detail to the representation here given as the pope of Rome!”2

4.  It can be added that the pope came out of an apostasy that is minutely detailed in scripture (1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-9).

5. Ironically some Catholics view the rise of Protestantism as the apostasy, and Martin Luther as “the man of sin.”

C. The restraining power.

1. Apparently Paul had revealed exactly what was restraining “the man of sin” to these people, but we are not told what exactly it was.

2. However, in his own time “the man of sin” will be revealed.

3. It has long been believed that the restraining power was the Roman Empire.

4. It is worth noting that shortly after its demise, the Roman Catholic church with its pope developed and continues with us to this day as an overshadowing influence for spiritual apostasy.

5.  McGarvey and Pendleton point out the probable reason for Paul’s not revealing the restraining power: “Paul could not openly write that emperor and empire were to fall, for, had he done so, the Romans would have appealed to his words as affording a just cause for persecuting the church.”3 

6.  Following the rise of “the man of sin” people would be deceived and deluded.

III. THE DELUSION OF UNBELIEF (2:10-12).

A. Unrighteous easily impressed by lying wonders.

1. Will not receive the truth because they have no love for the truth.

2. To love God is to keep His commandments (1 John 5:3).

3. The unrighteousness of some hinders the truth from penetrating their hearts (Romans 1:18).

B. God sends a strong delusion to the unbelievers.

1. Does this after they have had the opportunity to obey (Isaiah 66:3,4).

2. God can use the messengers of Sata--who easily delude the unrighteous--to prove His own (Deuteronomy 13:1-5).

3. There is no more dangerous sin than that of learning the truth and then failing to act upon what one has learned.

IV. A FINAL PRAYER AND ADMONITION (2:13-17).

A. Thanksgiving for the saved.

1. Not chosen from the beginning of time, but from the moment of their belief of and obedience to the truth.

2. They had been called by the gospel, just as all men are called by the gospel.

3. The love of the truth by the saved stands in contrast to the disdain for it of the unrighteous.

B. Admonition to stand fast.

1. Stand fast in the traditions you have learned.

2. “Traditions” used in a good way here. 

a. Not the traditions of men (Mark 7:8,13; Colossians 2:8).

b. It is the traditions of God’s will which are to be walked in (2 Thessalonians 3:6).

3. Stand fast in the truth concerning the Lord’s return and the resurrection of the dead.

C. Prayer for the comfort of the Lord.

CONCLUSION

A. Paul’s writing here does not mean that he did not longingly anticipate the return of Christ in his lifetime.

1. While not expected until after the apostasy, Paul did not know when that would be; and it could have been in his lifetime.

2. He even includes this possibility in his earlier epistle (1 Thessalonians 4:15).

3. If the Lord did not come, Paul was equally ready to depart this life and still enjoy the benefit of being with the Savior (Philippians 1:23).

B. Paul’s main point in this section is not to set forth precise data that will allow us to pinpoint the exact date of our Lord’s return. 

C. Brother Dub McClish concluded in the 1972 Lubbock Christian College Lectureship:
“Whatever we conclude about it, Paul’s main point is to correct the Thessalonians’ misapprehension that the Lord’s coming was immediate.  Paul introduces the predecessor events to teach them otherwise.  The words about ‘the man of sin’ are somewhat incidental to his main point.  Therefore, our understanding of who or what he is should not be made a matter of faith as long as we do not adopt some view that perverts plain scripture teaching.”4

ENDNOTES

1 McGarvey, J. W., and Philip Y. Pendleton, Thessalonians, Corinthians, Galatians and  Romans (Gospel Light Publishing Company, Delight, Arkansas), p. 33.

2 Woods, Guy N., A Commentary on the New Testament Epistles of Peter, John and      Jude, (Gospel Advocate Company, Nashville, Tennessee, 1979), p. 243.

3 McGarvey and Pendleton, p. 42.

4 McClish, H. W. Jr., II Thessalonians 2:3-4, Lubbock Christian College Lectures 1972, Great Verses of the Bible, (Lubbock Christian College, Lubbock, Texas, 1972), p. 148.

         Scott Richards