2 Thessalonians 2
The Man of Lawlessness
1Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. 3Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for (that day will not come) until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness[a] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
5Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Stand Firm
13But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you[b] to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings[c] we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
16May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
Footnotes:
[a] 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Some manuscripts sin
[b] 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Some manuscripts because God chose you as his firstfruits
[c] 2 Thessalonians 2:15 Or traditions
4 comments:
2 Thes 2
7For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
There are certain days and weeks where it IS so clear that the power of the man of lawlessness is constantly at work. And unfortunately, he's also "at work", where pride, gossip, competition, negativity reign. It has become obvious to me over the last few weeks that the Enemy really does work in strange but powerful ways among us, stirring up havoc and generally creating sin-loving environments. How truly blessed we are to have such a powerful weapon as the Son of man on our side. For we can do anything through Him, and therefore we are able to rise above the hub-bub and negativity in our daily lives.
Father, grant us peace in our hearts and peace-loving natures and mouths that we may contribute to spreading Your will and Your good name to those who don't know You. And deliver us from the Enemy and those situtations which compromise the gifts You have given us. Please continue to watch over Stacie and Eric, jrs, Allyson, Tim and Sheree, and the rest of us. Give us the strength we need to accomplish those tasks that you have given us today, some monumental, and some seemingly trivial, but regardless, they all are a part of Your divine will. We ask these things in the name of Your Son, Jesus, who died, that we all may live.
Amen,
crb
I agree crb. It is hard to even explain how many different ways that satan can derail me. I know that the Lord has a plan for me and that I simply need to trust, but as you and I have discussed so many times before, human nature is a tough thing to overcome and satan knows that for sure. It is almost like that Christmas song “Santa Claus is coming to town” satan knows when we are sleeping, awake, when to temp us, etc.
One thing I wanted to throw out there and see how you guys feel. A lot of the time when I read scripture regarding the second coming, I truly get the feeling that it was supposed to happen in a much shorter time period and that some times leads me to doubts. Anyone else feel similarly? Certainly I recognize that time on the Alpha - Omega scale is a hard thing to even begin to conceive, but I just sometimes get the sense that Paul made it sound like it was around the corner. Ideas??
Father, Speak to us through your words. Help is to learn new things daily that we can apply to our lives and to better represent Your kingdom. Make our devotion strong and unshakable. Help us to encourage one another to stay committed and consistent in our studying your scripture. Watch over ER and his wife as they are expecting. Timmcd6 and his fiancée, and crb and his family. Father us me in any way you can to reach jrs and continue to draw his father closer to you. We are nothing with out you.
In Christ,
cas
cas- curious why the doubts? do you mean doubts because it hasnt happened yet? or just the mere fact that it is going to happen starts to make you doubt certain things about your faith? I assume you mean the first one. i dont know if this is scripturally correct, but i have been told before that God wont return until His word has been spread to ALL areas of the world. I dont think that means people in all parts of the wordl accept His message, but that they have been made aware of it. IF that is true, i can see why HE hasnt returned for we havent yet made everyone in the world aware of His message. Again, this is what i have heard and i guess it ties into the "great commission" but i honestly am not sure that this is truly scriptural.
cas-
I agree mainly with what timmcd6 said. I think that there still is work to do here on Earth by man, and I think that things have slowed because we really haven't been doing the job we are supposed to be doing as evangelists and brethren....However, I can certainly empathize with your occasional doubts. This is one of the things I'm better about trusting God at. I just kind of "think the other way" when I read it, cause I don't really know our understand. It is a little scary and can cause tremors at my foundation, cause I feel like it should have happened. But like I said this is something I've learned to just trust about.
crb
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