A Week in 2 Thessalonians: Day Three – Confusion

The Introduction

It’s taken me until this small, relatively unknown corner of the Bible to admit that I need help. We’ve been on quite a journey to this point, haven’t we, but here I am admitting that I am out of my depth. So I’ve turned to Tom Wright for help and I will be sharing my thoughts on his thoughts on 2 Thessalonians in his ‘Paul for Everyone’ series. Because yes, even the most obscure bits of the Bible and the hardest to understand hold something for everyone.

Tom Wright reminds us that these letters to the Thessalonians are some of the ‘earliest documents we possess from the beginning of the church’s existence’ – how exciting is that? These letters are bursting with enthusiasm and excitement for this new thing that is happening among them, but also with questions and confusion and disagreement. This is a completely new way of life, challenging everything these people have ever believed before.

So let’s get stuck in!

The Passage: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to be with him: I beg you, my friends, not to be so easily confused in your thinking or upset by the claim that the Day of the Lord has come. Perhaps it is thought that we said this while prophesying or preaching, or that we wrote it in a letter. Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For the Day will not come until the final Rebellion takes place and the Wicked One appears, who is destined to hell. He will oppose every so-called god or object of worship and will put himself above them all. He will even go in and sit down in God’s Temple and claim to be God.

Don’t you remember? I told you all this while I was with you. Yet there is something that keeps this from happening now, and you know what it is. At the proper time, then, the Wicked One will appear. The Mysterious Wickedness is already at work, but what is going to happen will not happen until the one who holds it back is taken out of the way. Then the Wicked One will be revealed, but when the Lord Jesus comes, he will kill him with the breath from his mouth and destroy him with his dazzling presence. The Wicked One will come with the power of Satan and perform all kinds of false miracles and wonders, and use every kind of wicked deceit on those who will perish. They will perish because they did not welcome and love the truth so as to be saved. And so God sends the power of error to work in them so that they believe what is false. The result is that all who have not believed the truth, but have taken pleasure in sin, will be condemned.

Reflections:

Confusion – There is a huge amount of confusion amongst Christians about the end times and the second coming of Jesus and what judgement and heaven and eternity will be like. These things are all way beyond our understanding, but that doesn’t stop us trying.

Right at the beginning of the Christian faith, there was already confusion about these things. People had misunderstood what they were heard. They were trying to make sense of the inexplicable and coming up with all sorts of explanations. And there were those among them who were deliberately trying to confuse the issue, to deceive these new believers. Looking back on this letter, the confusion around the Day of the Lord has not been cleared up – is Paul referring to the imminent destruction of Jerusalem or the final judgement…or both?

Pretenders – There were those in Thessalonica who were deliberately spreading lies and those who had taken on board these lies, believing them to be the truth. They had their fair share of megalomaniacs too. The Roman Emperors believed themselves to be gods. Caligua ordered a huge statue of himself to be placed in the temple in Jerusalem. These emperors demanded to be worshipped.

It’s the same for us today. It’s so easy to be taken in by charismatic speakers telling us what we want to hear – leaders inside the church and in the world. People who believe that they are above the law. There have been plenty of people throughout history claiming to be speaking on behalf of God, speaking God’s truth, called by God to atrocities that God would never condone. ‘Gott Mit Uns’, meaning ‘God With Us’, appeared on Nazi soldiers’ belts in World War II. And there appears to be a line that is crossed, a point of no return – which only God can know, not us. Take Pharoah for example, written about in Exodus: he had every opportunity to turn away from the exploitation of the Hebrew people, until he sank so deeply into his lies and wickedness that there was no way back and God had to deliver His people in the most dramatic way.

It is not an easy path that we walk, with so many skilled leaders out there wanting us to follow their way and support their work. And yet some are misguided, some are deliberately deceitful. And then there’s social media, where anyone can post anything and make it appear like truth. Tom Wright encourages us as Christians to ‘search our consciences daily for the lies which we, too, can easily create and come to believe.’ And I would encourage us daily to be wise about what we read and believe on social media. Don’t share anything unless you have verified the source and are sure that the message reflects God’s truth in some way.

The Universal Truth – Good triumphs over evil. That’s it. The stuff of Marvel comics. Good will always triumph over evil.

Then the Wicked One will be revealed, but when the Lord Jesus comes, he will kill him with the breath from his mouth and destroy him with his dazzling presence.

Nothing and no one can separate us from the love of God. This is the truth for us to cling to, when the world around us is announcing a different message. This is our hope.

Paul doesn’t talk about the wickedness to come to scare us but to prepare us.

Welcome and love the truth.

Good triumphs over evil.

Believe the truth.

Good triumphs over evil.