2 THESSALONIANS 2 (FIRST READING)
2 THESSALONIANS 2 (FIRST READING)
CAC There is a difference between the coming of the Lord Jesus and our gathering together to Him.
Ques Does it take up the thought of our being caught up to meet Him? They were passing through a terrible time and thought the day of the Lord was present. In each chapter of both epistles the coming of the Lord is brought out in a different way. Would it not have a great moral effect if we were in the good of it?
CAC If we were waiting for Him, that would take the place of looking for events. These Thessalonians thought they were suffering the terrors of the great tribulation. Characteristics of the apostasy have appeared in measure, but the apostasy has never taken place.
Rem The apostasy must refer to those who have known the truth. The word was first used for a deserter; you cannot desert what you have never been.
Ques In Daniel there are frequent references to the man of sin; would you say the apostle had what we read here by revelation?
CAC Certainly; in Daniel it is more in relation to the Jews. The apostasy would leave room for the man of sin. If [p. 293] the Father and the Son are denied, who can be put in Their place? Man becomes the candidate for the position.
Rem The man of sin exalts himself on high, “sits down in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God”. The world is asking for a strong man, and it will have one. The spirit of antichrist had begun to work in John’s day; people denied the Father and the Son.
CAC It is an essential feature of antichrist that the Father and the Son must be denied; we are surrounded by tremendous forces that are working to deny the Father and the Son; there is a great talk about God, but you cannot know God without the Father and the Son.
One can hardly conceive of the man of sin being revealed while the Holy Spirit is here in the church, but things are developing in that direction. It is wonderful to consider that there is a divine Person down here, and that He is witnessing to what is in heaven; as long as that witness is maintained we cannot have the man of sin. The revelation of the man of sin means that he is put forward in a place of prominence; he is set up on high. What marks the present time is that God is glorifying Christ by the Spirit in a company of saints, and as long as that goes on the man of sin cannot possibly be brought forward.
Ques Does the “gainsaying of Core” correspond with the apostasy; would it be the open apostasy denying God?
CAC Yes, I should think so. There are steps leading to it; the way of Cain, and the error of Balaam.
Rem Cain approached without blood.
CAC He came in a natural way without Christ. People talk of the natural religion of the human heart; we see it there in its fundamental quality in Cain. The error of Balaam is worse; it is a man having the knowledge of God and using it for his own benefit. Judas had a wonderful knowledge of the Lord; he knew where to find Him in the [p. 294] dark, but he used the knowledge for his own advantage. Korah is a kind of open defiance. That brought the judgment at once, and that is what things will come to; man will say, ‘I am God’. Man will have reached the goal proposed for his attainment at the beginning, “Ye will be as God”. These three forms of evil are so beautifully answered in the Son: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”, John 14: 6. Instead of the way of Cain, He is the way to the Father. Instead of the error of Balaam He is the truth about the Father. Instead of perishing “in the gainsaying of Core”, He is the life. If we continue in the truth we shall be preserved from the apostasy by the knowledge of the Father and the Son.
There was no revelation of God until one of the Persons of the Godhead became a Man; He was here in manhood and then we get the revelation. In the beginning of the gospel you first get the thought of the Father and the Son. It is the Father known in relation to a blessed Man on earth, the beloved Son, and we see Him answering to every thought of the Father’s heart. We can only say, ‘What a Father! What a Son!’ That is the kernel of christianity; we need to be nourished in these great positive realities so as to be preserved from the tendency to apostatise. I thought as we read the chapter — What a thrill of horror must have gone through these believers at Thessalonica, when they heard this letter read, to know that people would fall away from all the blessed things that had filled their hearts with joy, and caused them to “serve a living and true God, and to await his Son from the heavens”! These words of the Lord ought to make us tremble. You remember how the Lord told the disciples about Judas, and they all said- “Is it I?” They never said anything more to the point; none of them had any self-confidence then. There ought to be a great fear in our hearts, not a fear that takes away spiritual joy, but a fear [p. 295] that preserves us from self-confidence, for only the Lord can help us.
These things have an effect on us spiritually, if we do not look at them simply as interesting facts. How could one read such a chapter without being deeply exercised lest one should be involved in the apostasy? It ought to make us tremble.
Rem The falling away comes first.
CAC Yes, the man of sin could not be revealed otherwise.
Rem The presence of the Holy Spirit hinders what would otherwise come.
CAC It is a great thing to remember that God is here. There is a great tract of divine territory on earth now; there is a vast company, millions of people constituted by divine grace the dwelling-place of God, and as long as God holds this vast territory for Himself there is no room for the man of sin. If we hold fast to the knowledge of the Father and the Son nothing can shake us.
People are interested in the return of the Jews, and in the possibility of their building a temple, but it occasions great sorrow to a saint to think the Jews are going back obstinately opposing Christ, going back to build a temple for antichrist; it sends a feeling of horror through the christian’s heart. We can take account of it as an intensely solemn thing, for it shews that we are getting into the rapids, and that the whole stream of human history is about to dash over the precipice of destruction. One cannot understand christians taking a pleasurable interest in it; it is appalling to contemplate, for it shews we are getting near the throes, the unspeakable agony of the last days. People seem to overlook all that it involves. They think of the Jew going back to be reigned over by Christ, but that is not connected with his going back in the present day; he will go back as an apostate and will perish as an apostate;
[p. 296] he will build his city and temple for the glory of the devil. It will be far worse than the mosque of Omar. I have read accounts of pillars and gates for the temple all made and ready to be set up, as if it were for the worship of the true God, but it says — “the man of sin... who opposes and exalts himself on high against all called God... he himself sits down in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God”. That is what the temple will be built for. We need to be detached from occupation with all these passing events. Some one once sent me some beautiful photographs of Jerusalem, thinking I would like them. I said, ‘It is painful to me to look on the city where the Lord was crucified’. Christians fall into the snare of being occupied with events, and do not look at things morally, at their true character. It is astonishing how ready christians are to be occupied with a scene that has rejected Christ. Our future is filled up with Christ, and we are going to be gathered to Him, so we refuse to be diverted to anything else. Our interest is to pray earnestly that God will send out His grace and work to secure a remnant. We do not pray that He will bring back His people to Palestine, but that He will bring them to Christ.
Ques “Lift up your heads, because your redemption draws nigh” — does that apply to us?
CAC No, it applies to the remnant. We ought to encourage our hearts to cherish the Lord’s work, and to let His word be enough.
‘No sign to be looked for; the Star’s in the sky’.
I am afraid the star is often in the sky! Scripture speaks of it in the heart. If the Day-star has arisen in my heart, I do not need to see the Jews going back to their land; I know the One who loves me is coming for me because He loves me, and I want Him because I love Him. In principle it is wrong to get occupied with events; it will be right for the remnant, for all the things they will see will make them lift [p. 297] up their heads. We do not see anything; we are linked up with a glorified Man by the Spirit, and He has told us He will come quickly; His own word is more precious, powerful and weighty than any event we can think of. He says, “I come quickly”, and the bride says, “Amen; come, Lord Jesus”; ‘Thy word is enough’. The heart is filled with hope because a Person is before us; it is by “our gathering together to him”, not the events. If the hope is really in our hearts, we are just expecting that Person because He said He is coming.
Ques Are we to have the prophetic word until the day dawn?
CAC The prophetic word is a candle in a dark place; that is outside you. Which is better, to have that or to have your heart lighted up by the Morning Star within? I remember speaking to an old man breaking stones by the roadside, and asking him if he knew the Lord; his whole face shone as he answered, ‘I can say He is my soul’s bright morning Star’.
Rem “Every one that has this hope in him purifies himself”, 1 John 3: 3.
CAC Yes, there is nothing so sanctifying as having Christ before one as the Object and Hope. People have meetings to deepen spiritual life — the only thing that will deepen the spiritual life is a ministry of Christ, and holiness is promoted by a ministry of Christ. It is the setting aside of the Father and the Son that makes room for antichrist.
Then how blessed it is that the moment the Lord Jesus appears, antichrist is annulled, he cannot exist a moment (verse 8). “Whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall annul by the appearing of his coming”. The moment the light of His appearing shines out, it withers up the man of sin — this great man,
[p. 298] who said he was God, withers up like a moth in the flame of a candle.
Rem We get the trinity of evil.
CAC There are the dragon, the first beast, which is the political head of the Roman empire, and the second beast, which is the religious head, antichrist. The two last are actual men, possibly they are alive on earth now. The man of sin is characteristically “the lawless one”. This is a solemn warning. We are only preserved from lawlessness by walking in obedience. We were all lawless to begin with, and the character of the natural man is headed up in the superman; the spirit and the power of lawlessness all head up in him. We ought to shrink from the smallest tendency in that direction. It is encouraging to see that the Spirit can restrain the working of lawlessness in saints now, just as He is restraining the public manifestation of the lawless one. If we all give the Spirit His place He will restrain us from lawlessness.