{"id":6168,"date":"2022-02-23T14:58:59","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T20:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=6168"},"modified":"2023-03-18T06:03:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-18T12:03:37","slug":"2-thessalonians-29-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=6168","title":{"rendered":"2 Thessalonians 2:9-12"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span> 9\u00a0<\/sup>The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

10\u00a0<\/sup>and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

11\u00a0<\/sup>And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

12\u00a0<\/sup>that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

The apostle, having carried his readers directly to the climax toward which the forces of evil and of good are even now working, returns to indicate the hidden source of the Antichrist’s power, and to describe the way in which he will manifest it, and the effect upon men generally. Antichrist’s “parousia,” in strict accord with the meaning of the word, is the period of his supremacy, beginning with his revelation to the world. \u2014 Vine, page 123<\/span><\/h3>\n

working (v.9) = energy<\/h3>\n

of Satan (v.9) \u2014 The Antichrist won’t be working in his own power, but in that of Satan.<\/h3>\n

signs (v.9) = token, or indication<\/h3>\n

wonders (v.9) = something strange, exceptional, causing the beholder to marvel.<\/h3>\n

The same words (power, signs, and wonders) occur together concerning the works of the Lord Jesus (Acts 2:22<\/span><\/a>), and the apostles (Romans 15:19<\/span><\/a>; 2 Corinthians 12:12<\/span><\/a>). “Power” declares its source to be supernatural; “sign” expresses its purpose and appeals to the understanding, “wonder” describes its effect upon the observer and appeals to the imagination. \u2014 Vine, page 123.<\/span><\/h3>\n

lying (v.9) \u2014 the miracles will be real miracles, but their purpose will be to deceive men into believing Antichrist is deity.<\/h3>\n

those how perish (v.10) = lit. “the perishing” in the present, continuous tense<\/h3>\n

the love of the truth (v.10) \u2014 “the word of the truth of the gospel” (Colossians 1:5<\/span><\/a>). The perishing don’t simply fail to receive or understand the truth\u2014they don’t desire to know it.<\/h3>\n

When Antichrist comes he will come with \u201call\u00a0<\/i>deceivableness of unrighteousness.\u201d So when he claims to be Israel\u2019s Christ, the unsaved will be deceived by him. After all, if even the elect can barely escape his deceit (Matthew 24:24<\/span><\/a>), the unsaved don\u2019t stand a chance.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Specially since Paul says this deceivableness is \u201cin\u201d the unsaved who perish. That means Satan will have an inside man in that day. He\u2019ll have Antichrist working from without \u201cwith all power, and signs,\u201d and from within the unsaved in their natural inclination to be deceived by him. \u2014 Kurth<\/span><\/h3>\n

for this reason (v.11) \u2014 because the aren’t interested in the truth\u2014they love darkness rather than light (John 3:19)<\/h3>\n

When men persistently refuse to obey the truth they soon become incapable of perceiving it. It was because men refused to have God in their knowledge that He gave them up to a reprobate mind, i.e., a mind bound to lead them astray, inasmuch as it was no longer controlled by Him (Romans 1:28<\/span><\/a>). But plainly more is intended than merely to say that God permits men to be deceived. The retributive justice of God is not arbitrary; sin and its punishments are related as cause and effect. … Inasmuch as God is the source of the laws under which men live, He is also the source of all the consequences to men of their violation of those laws. \u2014 Vine, page 124.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It won\u2019t be God\u2019s fault [that the perishing] didn\u2019t receive the love of the truth, for if they didn\u2019t receive<\/i>\u00a0it, that means it was\u00a0offered<\/i> to them. The \u201ctruth\u201d is Christ (John 14:6<\/span><\/a>), and they won\u2019t receive Him for the same reason they didn\u2019t receive Him when He was here, they love sin and know He\u2019s against it (John 3:19-20<\/span><\/a>). If they don\u2019t receive the love of the Lord they will be \u201canathema,\u201d or cursed (cf. 1 Corinthians 16:22<\/span><\/a>). \u2014 Kurth<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

that they should believe (v.11) = lit. “unto the believing, i.e., with the foreseen and intended result that they should believe [the lie]. \u2014 Vine, page 124.<\/span><\/h3>\n

who did not believe the truth (v.12) \u2014 Because they refused to believe it; the negative used here expresses more than the fact that they did not believe the truth, what exposed them to this judgment was their refusal to believe it.<\/h3>\n

pleasure (v.11) = free and deliberate choice<\/h3>\n

The sin that involves men in this catastrophe is not intellectual, unwillingness to exercise the reasoning powers; it is moral, the love of evil. Distaste for the truth leads to its rejection; God in retributive justice sends a working of error to those who love error, this they gladly accept, yielding themselves to it and cooperating with it until they are overtaken by the climax in which the righteous judgment of God is expressed. \u2014 Vine, page 125.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

[Keep in mind] our Lord’s words in John 5:43<\/span><\/a>: “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.” This prediction will be tragically fulfilled at the rise of Antichrist.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Antichrist will not be immediately “consumed” and “destroyed.” For some years he will be permitted to deceive the world “with power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish.” <\/span><\/h3>\n

Then, it should\u2014but will not\u2014dawn on the masses that the working of miraculous signs does not necessarily prove divine authorization! But this will not dawn on the masses because it was not their desire to know the truth, but to go on in their own willful way. This is why God will finally give them over the “the big lie.”<\/span><\/h3>\n

Note: the Apostle refers to “them that perish because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” Consider thoughtfully those words. He puts the blame squarely on them<\/em>. They were not deprived of faith so that they could not be saved. They rejected “the love of the truth that they might be saved.”<\/span><\/h3>\n

And it is “for this cause”\u2014because of their rejection<\/em> of the truth and the love behind it, and their desire for a lie<\/em>, that “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”<\/span><\/h3>\n

Will God tell a lie? Certainly not, but He will give rebellious men up to a lie. Just as he gave the Gentile world up to the sin and darkness and superstition of idolatry millenniums ago (Romans 1:24, 26<\/span><\/a>, 28<\/span><\/a>) so, at the close of the dispensation of grace He will give the world up again by allowing Antichrist to appear with his “big lie.” \u2014 Stam, pages 132-133.<\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9\u00a0The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10\u00a0and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2-thessalonians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6168"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7573,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168\/revisions\/7573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}