 |  |
The Apostle confirms this with the words:
"And with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are perishing; because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God
sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie (Greek, the lie); that
they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness"
(II Thess. 2: 10-12 R.V.).
Having been deceived by Satan's miracles, these dupes willingly accept the lie, which
is his system of evil directed against Christ, and they reject the truth and so bring
themselves under God's judgment. They act like the early nations `who exchanged the
truth of God for the lie' (Rom. 1: 25). At last, Satan gets what he has been scheming for
since his fall, the worship of the world, aspiring to the position of God, Who alone has
the right to receive this.
But for what a short period he triumphs! At the most it can be 3½ years, the last half
of Daniel's 70th week of years, and then the return of the Lord Jesus Christ as King of
kings and Lord of lords shatters this ghastly nightmare, destroys the man of sin and the
Deceiver is taken and shut up for a 1,000 years (Rev. 20: 3) in the abyss. Such are the
momentous events which must have been explained by the Apostle Paul in his spoken
ministry to the Thessalonian believers. Today we can only piece it together by
comparing Scripture with Scripture and seeking the Spirit's guidance.
No.4.
2: 13 - 3: 6.
pp. 215 - 219
We now commence another section of the epistle which balances 1: 3-10 in the
structure thus:
B | a | 1: 3-10. Bound to thank. Counted Worthy.
B | a | 2: 13-15. Bound to thank. Obtaining the glory.
The Apostle, as he thinks of the Thessalonian believers with their loyalty and zeal in
making known the truth, says:
"But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto He called you by our
gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (II Thess. 2: 13, 14).
Paul evidently felt a debt to the Lord of thanksgiving for this church's wholehearted
response to the truth. Then, as He thinks of God's purpose, he goes back to the
`beginning' and forward to the end when their hope would be realized, `the obtaining of
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ', at His Second Advent to the earth. J. Denney writes:
"The thirteenth and fourteenth verses of this chapter are a system of theology in