nears its end, as dispensations run out and cease, as all the threads gather

to the crisis of the age, so the darkness foretold descends.  The end of the

Gospel age is evidently one of unbelief, for the Saviour said, 'When the Son

of Man cometh, shall He find faith in the earth?' and the implied answer is

'No'.  Paul's last epistle, the one that completes his testimony as the

Prisoner of Christ Jesus for us Gentiles, speaks of 'perilous times', when

men will not endure sound doctrine.  Peter also speaks of scoffers who shall

figure in the last days, in conformity with these utterances.  Paul tells the

Thessalonians of the coming day of the Lord and the apostasy that precedes it

(2 Thess. 2:3), the rise of the Man of Sin, the son of perdition and the

Satanic delusion that descends upon those who have rejected the truth.

'A falling away' supposes at least a previous profession.  The darkness

of the last days is not so much pagan ignorance, but wilful blindness.

Apostasia, the word translated 'a falling away' in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, is

rendered 'to forsake' in Acts 21:21, while the word apostasion is translated

in its three occurrences 'divorcement' (Matt. 5:31; 19:7; Mark 10:4).  Three

times in this prophetic chapter does Paul use the word energeia or energeo,

the culminating point being the words of 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 'strong

delusion' (Authorized Version); 'a working of error' (Revised Version); 'a

misleading influence' (Weymouth 3rd. ed. 1909).  Satan's 'working' had been

supported with 'all power and signs and lying wonders' (2 Thess. 2:9), and

from the verse that follows, it appears that no one will be deceived by this

Satanic attempt who is not already disposed to deception by personal and

responsible turning from the truth:

'With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;

because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be

Such we learn are 'damned' for they believe not the truth, and their

unbelief is not because of honest doubt, nor of intellectual difficulties but

from moral reasons, they 'had pleasure in unrighteousness'.  As it was in the

beginning, so will it be at the end,

'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness

and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness ...

who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are

worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that

do them' (Rom. 1:18,32).

In both Romans 1, and 2 Thessalonians 2, the Greek word pseudos 'the lie' is

found (Rom. 1:25; 2 Thess. 2:9,11).

'The wrath of God' is a term that needs to be handled with great care.

An examination of its usage in the New Testament will show that in most

cases, culpable and inexcusable unbelief is in view (Matt. 3:7; John 3:36;

Rom. 1:18; 2:5,8; Eph. 5:6; Col. 3:6; 1 Thess. 2:16; Heb. 3.11; 4:3).  The

references to wrath in Hebrews 3 and 4 speak of the apostasy of the people of

Israel, and in Romans 1 of the culpable sinfulness of paganism.  It is

therefore in blessed contrast to 2 Thessalonians 2:11, that we read in 1

Thessalonians 2:13, of the effectual working of the Word of truth in them

that believe.  One essential feature of the faith of these believers is that

they discriminated between that which was 'the word of men' and that which

was 'the Word of God'.  Those who make their boast of 'independence' and

'free -thought', are nevertheless in terrible bondage.  See how they

swallowed the forged letter referred to in 2 Thessalonians 2:1,2, if men will

not receive the truth, they will receive the lie.  An 'effectual working'