1 Now we beg you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, 2 that ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as if it were by us, as that the day of the Lord is present. vv.1-2 Paul now comes to the issue that troubled the saints; they were “shaken in mind”, “troubled”, by the thought that “that the day of the Lord is present”. Note: not “at hand” as if future, but “present” as in already here.² This was a serious error, not only because of its effects on the hearts and minds of believers, but also because it ran directly contrary to what Paul had taught in the previous epistle. Some have questioned, “why doesn’t Paul come right out and state the truth of the pretribulation rapture?” It is because he already had in the first epistle, and now he references that again. In the first epistle Paul assured the saints that the Lord would descend from heaven, the dead would be raised, and all the saints would be caught up to be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:15-17). On account of this, the saints would not experience the coming of the Lord in judgment (i.e. “as a thief in the night”) because the saints are “not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation” through Christ (1 Thess. 5:10). You couldn’t have a clearer outline of the pre-tribulation rapture. The saints had been convinced by false teaching to doubt this hope. This is why Paul says they were “soon shaken in mind”. It is obvious that they had fallen into error over something he had just taught them. Then, he references the rapture; “we beg you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him”. Whenever we have the coming of the Lord for His saints, it refers to the rapture. When it is the coming of the Lord with His saints, it is the appearing. The two aspects of the second coming are distinguished. Here it is clearly the rapture. In other words, the maintaining of the truth of the Lord’s coming for His saints, and their being gathered to Him, would have a preserving effect on the saints, in view of the false teaching that the day of the Lord had come. The fact that the saints were still on the earth was proof that the day of the Lord had not come! Having the bright and imminent hope of the Lord’s coming before us will guard our thoughts, even in times of great persecution, from being convinced of false teaching that troubles the mind. Notice the emphasis on gathering; the greatest display of Lord’s power of unity will be in a fraction of a second when Christ returns! Paul mentions three ways the false doctrine had come in to shake the minds and trouble the hearts of the saints; (1) “by spirit” or a general attitude or movement among professing Christians, (2) “by word” or false teaching, or (3) “by letter, as if it were by us”; i.e. a forged epistle containing misinformation. It would seem that the Thessalonians were under attack from all three of these avenues. Note that the Spirit of God was at this time greatly using those with a prophetic gift to speak and write the truth of God for the saints who did not have the complete canon of scripture. It would be a suitable means for the enemy to disseminate error. 

3a Let not any one deceive you in any manner, because it will not be unless the apostasy have first come, v.3a The Apostasy. As bad as the persecution was, it was not an indication that the day of the Lord had come. In spite of this, the false teachers were using the circumstances to deceive the saints into a false sense of fear. Before the day of the Lord comes, there will first be a complete apostasy of all that professes association with God. The prophets of the Old Testament, the Lord’s prophecies, and the prophecies of Revelation, all speak of a coming time of total rebellion, which will involve the governments of the world, the nation of Israel, and the Christian profession. This general time of moral darkness is called “the apostasy”, and it will precede the day of the Lord. Contrary to the notion of unlimited human progress, the Bible predicts a coming day of unparalleled doom. The Christian profession is already rife with the spirit of apostasy (1 Tim. 4:1-3; 1 John 2:18-19), but the time spoken of here is when there the true believers have been caught up, when the wheat has been gathered in and only tares remain, and the profession is given over to falsehood. It is at then that the false church is prepared to embrace the worship of the beast and antichrist. Certainly, we see the profession of Christianity on a downhill slide today, and we should be appalled by it. But we should not let the condition of things around us shake our confidence in Christ who promised to come again and receive us unto Himself.

 

3b and the man of sin have been revealed, the son of perdition; 4 who opposes and exalts himself on high against all called God, or object of veneration; so that he himself sits down in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. vv.3b-4 The Man of Sin. The great apostasy, having swallowed up the Christian profession, will culminate in the revelation of “the man of sin”. He is called “the man of sin”, “the son of perdition”, and “the lawless one” here, the “false prophet” in Revelation, the “king” who “shall do according to his own will” in Daniel. In 1 John 2 he is called “antichrist”. What unites all of these names together is a common theme: a prophetic person that is marked by extreme self-will in the things of God. He embodies the principle of sin; “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). He sets himself up as God. It is the final outcome of Satan’s original plan, when he told the woman, “ye will be as God” (Gen. 3:5). Read more… Antichrist is the only person, besides Judas Iscariot, who is referred to as “the son of perdition”. Antichrist will be the religious leader of the revived Roman empire, and also a political leader of the apostate nation of Israel. He will have civil authority, as Daniel 11 describes, but this will be largely restricted to Palestine, where he sits in the temple as God. In the larger sphere, he is a lieutenant of the true leader of the empire; the little horn of Daniel 7, who is simply “the beast”. The power of the beast is delegated to antichrist (Rev. 13:12) who uses the power to establish a new religion; the forced worship of the beast. The office of antichrist is largely religious, as he leads the world in the idolatrous worship of the beast.

 

He is the head of two apostasies: a Jewish apostasy, and a Christian apostasy. When the false church is destroyed by the ten horns of the revived Roman empire about the middle of the prophetic week (Rev. 17-18), a new religion will arise which will suck in the masses in the Christianized world. In regards to Christian truth, antichrist is he that “denies the Father and the Son”. He attacks the very center of Christianity, and sets up himself as God. Antichrist is the total antithesis of the true Christ. We find that Christ, though He was in the form of God, did not cling tenaciously to His rights as Divine, but instead humbled Himself, became a man – a servant even – and submitted to the death of the cross (Phil. 2:5-11). Antichrist is only a man, but he sets himself up as God; grasping at something he doesn’t have. This “man of sin” is the full blown results of the self-exaltation of the first man. But antichrist is also he head of a Jewish apostasy in that he “denies that Jesus is the Christ”. In other words, he denies that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. He is the “false prophet” in that he speaks lies. He is the “false priest” in that he sits in the temple of God and directs the worship of men. And he is also the “false king” of the Jews. Jesus warned the Jews in John 5:43; “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” Antichrist will lead the apostate nation of Israel into their lowest low; a new form of their old idolatry… the worship of a diabolical man called “the beast”. Here it is the lawless one, the one who acts complete according to his will.

 

We read of him in Daniel 11:36-39 that he acts “according to his own will”, and that “he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and speak monstrous things against the God of gods”. He is marked by spiritual wickedness of the worst kind. He exalts himself above every god, whether false or true. But though he exalts himself, antichrist is still a man, and we find that in secret he also worships a strange god; “And in his place will he honour the god of fortresses; and a god whom his fathers knew not, etc.” The human heart must have some kind of religion, some object to worship – even the heart of Antichrist himself, so he will introduce to them a god outside himself. We cannot help but see how this aligns with Rev. 13:11-17 where the second Beast (Antichrist) causes the earth-dwellers to worship the first Beast. This time when Antichrist sits in the temple correlates with the Abomination of Desolation, spoken of in Daniel 11, which will “stand in the holy place” (Matt. 24:15).

 
5 Do ye not remember that, being yet with you, I said these things to you? v.5 Prior knowledge. Evidently Paul had spoken of the outline of prophetic events when he was in Thessalonica a short while before. They knew about the man of sin, and about the apostasy. The saints should have known that the day of the Lord was not present.

 

6 And now ye know that which restrains, that he should be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness already works; only there is he who restrains now until he be gone, vv.6-7 The Restraint and the Restrainer Removed. Even at the time Paul wrote, everything was in place for the man of sin to be revealed, except it was not yet God’s time. God has put something in this world that is restraining the course of evil, such that the man of sin would not be revealed before “his own time”. It isn’t that the restraining provisions are given to prevent the man of sin from being revealed at all, but from being revealed before the time is right. Paul explains this, that the principle that will eventually lead to the man of sin being revealed is already working; “the mystery of lawlessness already works”. It is a “mystery” because it is hidden. The mystery of lawlessness is Satan’s effort to corrupt the things of God, especially the doctrine of Christ, through man’s self will.³ It came in very early after the day of Pentecost (Acts 20:29-30), arising from Satan’s opposition to the mystery of Christ. Man refuses anything that would restrain his will. In the secular realm, we see this in the rebellion against civil authorities. In the ecclesiastical realm, we find corrupt men in the Christian profession who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, using God’s grace as a license to sin. The Thessalonians should have known what it was that restrained the course of evil. 

 

The wording as to the restraint is somewhat abstract, and this may be because the means of restraint could be different in one time or place from another. Nevertheless, there is much we can learn from what is said. In order to identify what Paul is referring to, we must note several things. First, the restraining influence is both a power (“that which restrains”) and a person (“he who restrains”). Second, the restraining influence was something familiar to the newly converted Thessalonians. Third, the restraining person would be removed from the earth in some way before the man of sin could be revealed. Let us deal with the person first (v.7), “he who restrains”. What person would the saints have known about, that was also a power capable of restraining the energy of Satan; the very powers of darkness? There is only one Person it could be: the Person of the Holy Spirit.⁴ When the church is taken to heaven, the Spirit and the bride are removed together (Rev. 22:17). This aligns perfectly with the statement here that the restraining Person will be “taken out of the way”. Let us deal secondly with the power (v.6); “that which restrains”. There is something else that God has given to restrain evil in the earth. It was a thing which the Thessalonians knew, but could take a different form today. The principle of government, ordained by God, but committed to the hand of man, restrains evil. God instituted government when Noah came off the ark (Gen. 9), when, for the first time, the responsibility to execute judgment was committed to man, and it has never since been taken away; “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Gen. 9:6). That authority has been abused often, especially by the Gentile governments, but the power is ultimately from God (see John 19:11), and He is using it to restrain the progress of evil (see Rom. 13:1-3). In the first century it was the Roman government that the Spirit of God was using, but today it is other governments.⁵⁶⁷ In what way is the Spirit of God connected with human governments? The Holy Spirit is often connected with the power of God, and it truly is God’s power at work through the instrument of human government that restrains evil.

 

In addition to this, God has a special object here in this world, that has His special protection. The progress of evil culminated once in casting out the Son of God. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit was sent to form and inhabit the Church. The Spirit acts as the Comforter or Paraclete, working to attend the needs of the saints on earth during the time of Jesus’ absence. No doubt the Spirit is personally involved with restraining the mystery of iniquity, although accomplished providentially through human government, not through Christian activism.⁸ In Revelation 4 and 5, the Holy Spirit is viewed as “the seven spirits of God”, pictured by “seven lamps of fire” (Rev. 4:5) and as “seven eyes” (Rev. 5:6), and which are “sent forth into all the earth”. This pictures the Spirit of God with perfect discernment, searching out evil in the earth. It indicates that the Spirit of God will still have an influence here on the earth after the rapture, just as the Spirit did before Pentecost. By comparing other scriptures, we know that the man of sin will not be revealed until the middle of Daniel’s seventieth week, which means that after “he who restrains” is gone (the rapture), “that which restrains” will continue a short time, until Satan is cast down to the earth, the man of sin steps forward, and the government of the beast comes up “out of the abyss” (Rev. 17:8).⁹¹⁰

Although the restraining power has not been removed, we see events ripening around us. Even today, government has grown corrupt, and in many cases now operates on cronyism, warmongering, bribery, and propaganda. The Spirit too (indwelling the church) is certainly grieved by the church’s failure. When the rapture occurs, the special object of the Father’s love, and of the Comforter’s care, will be gone. When the restraint of God-ordained government is removed, the course of evil will progress at a rate not seen since before the flood, when there was no government. Governments will spiral into ruin, and this will make way for the government of the beast. The power behind that kingdom is Satanic; “and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority” (Rev. 13:2). But this knowledge is not merely for our intellect. It should have an effect on our conscience. The mystery of iniquity is already working, but it will be complete in that day. How careful we need to be that our wills are not at work in the things of God!

 

8 and then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall annul by the appearing of his coming; v.8 Judgment of Antichrist. Paul jumps straight from the appearing of Antichrist to the appearing of Christ. The “Lord Jesus” will suddenly judge “the lawless one” when He appears. The Lord is referred to in a tender way, as “the Lord Jesus”, which combines His Lordship and Manhood name, and is often used to convey great tenderness of affection (Luke 24:3; Acts 7:59; 20:24,35; 1 Cor. 12:3; 16:22; Gal. 6:17; Heb. 13:20; Rev. 22:20). Two aspects of this judgment are given. First, the Lord Jesus will “consume” him “with the breath of his mouth”. This agrees with what Isaiah says in Isa. 11:4 about the character of the Lord’s judgment when He appears; “he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” This imagery speaks of the relative ease with which the Lord will defeat antichrist; His breath being expressive of His power (Job 4:9). The Lord spoke to create in Genesis 1, and He will speak in judgment. The Lord is pictured in Rev. 19:15 as a victorious conqueror, “And out of his mouth goes a sharp two-edged sword, that with it he might smite the nations”. Second, the Lord Jesus will “annul” him “by the brightness [or, appearing] of his coming”. Antichrist will be annulled, or instantly rendered powerless when the Lord appears. The word translated “brightness” is really ‘epiphaneia’ in Greek, which is “advent” or “appearing”. It refers to the Lord’s visible manifestation. The following noun is ‘parousias’, which means “coming” or “presence”. When the Lord – who is “holy and true” (Rev. 6:10) – appears, His very presence will fully expose the false pretension of the man of sin. Opposites cannot co-occupy, similar to how Eliakim replaced Shebna in Isa. 22:15-25. The book of Revelation provides additional details about the destruction of antichrist, or the false prophet. He will meet his end along with the Beast and his armies. The Lord will come upon them suddenly, and the armies will be slain, but the Beast and the False Prophet, will be “cast alive into the Lake of Fire” (Rev. 19:20). In Isa. 30:33 we find that “Topheth” or the Lake of Fire, was “prepared of old; for the king also [i.e. the Antichrist, as well as the Assyrian] it is prepared: he hath made it deep and large; its pile is fire and much wood; the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.” So ends the Antichrist.

 

9 whose coming is according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, 10 and in all deceit of unrighteousness to them that perish, because they have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God sends to them a working of error, that they should believe what is false, 12 that all might be judged who have not believed the truth, but have found pleasure in unrighteousness. vv.9-12 The anti-Christian deception. Paul now expands on the power behind the man of sin. Antichrist comes “according to the working of Satan”. There is no doubt that Satanic power will energize the man of sin. But he will bring a great deception, through Satanic energy, “in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood”. When we first have antichrist in Revelation, we see him as “a fallen star” in Rev.9, with a key to unlock the abyss, and release a cloud of smoke to darken the sun. This cloud represents the deception that antichrist will bring, when he appears at the middle of the prophetic week. We have explicit details of this in Rev. 13, that the second beast (the false prophet), “works great signs, that it should cause even fire to come down from heaven to the earth before men. And it deceives those that dwell upon the earth by reason of the signs which it was given to it to work before the beast, saying to those that dwell upon the earth to make an image to the beast” (Rev. 13:13-14). This powerful deception will convince even the greatest skeptics of the earth. Those who demand evidence – “unless I see it, I will not believe” – will be given something for their eyes to see, but it will be a deception. 2 Thessalonians reveals that this deception is the government of God on “them that perish, because they have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved”. It is no mere coincidence that the truth-rejectors are deceived, but “for this cause, God shall send…”. It isn’t that they are merely neutral when it comes to the truth, because they also “have found pleasure In unrighteousness”.  The lie of Antichrist no doubt has to do with what came earlier in the chapter; claiming to be God, denying the true Christ, claiming to be the Lamb, etc. In Rev. 13:11 we have the second beast (antichrist) having two horns like a lamb. But when he opens his mouth, it reveals who he is; “he spake as a dragon”.