SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
10/11/2014 1:01 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to 2 Thess. Chapter 2 PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Thess.
2:1-5
Message of the
verses: “1 Now we request you,
brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering
together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be
disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the
effect that the day of the Lord has come.
3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the
apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of
destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or
object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying
himself as being God. 5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I
was telling you these things?”
We have been talking about the Antichrist, for that is
what Paul writes about in this chapter, but there is a reason that he is
writing about the Antichrist and that is what I want to write about in this SD.
We know from our study in the Thessalonian letters that
this was a very young church, very young in the Lord, but they were growing
nicely in their walk with the Lord. Paul
taught them many things while he was with them even though he was only with
them for a short while, and one of the things that he taught them was about the
endtimes. We have seen from 1
Thessalonians chapter four that he had taught them about the rapture, and then
in the next chapter he talks to them about the day of the Lord. Notice that he kept these in order as the
rapture comes first and then shortly after that comes the tribulation period of
seven years, and then comes the Day of the Lord at the end of the tribulation
period when Jesus returns to earth to judge Satan, the Antichrist, the false
prophet and all who had the mark of the beast given to them by the Antichrist
during the tribulation period.
With all of this said what was the reason that Paul
writes to them about the Antichrist in this chapter? Now we need to realize that Paul was being
very tender as he wrote this letter to them, and this was because they were
young in the Lord, but they did forget what he had taught them about the Day of
the Lord. I guess what they were was
mislead by some false prophets as they were actually given a letter that was
supposed to be from Paul that told them that they were in the Day of the Lord. Now when you read Paul’s letters we find that
he usually wrote the last part of the letter with his distinguishing writing so
that the people knew it was from him, and so it is obvious that this fake
letter from him did not have his writing at the end.
Why would these people be upset if they thought that they
were in the Day of the Lord? Well that
is the problem, or at least one of them.
Paul had taught them that they would not be there when the Day of the
Lord came, for they would be raptured into heaven before that event took
place. They were under great persecution
and so some false prophet took advantage of this telling them they were in the
Day of the Lord. Now Paul takes this
opportunity in this letter to prove to them that they were not in the Day of
the Lord by writing to them that they have not seen the man of sin, the
Antichrist. He has to come and be in
power in order for the Day of the Lord to happen, and he was not there so Paul
uses that to show them that they are not in the Day of the Lord.
I for one am glad that they were misunderstood about this
for if they had not been then Paul would have no need in writing this letter to
them and then we would not have this further teaching about the
Antichrist. This letter also gives great
evidence that the rapture of the church comes before the Day of the Lord. Some teach that the rapture comes in the
middle of the tribulation period and some at the end, but neither of them holds
water when one looks at all of the Scripture about the rapture.
We will begin looking at chapter two in more detail in
our next SD, but I want to preview the subjects that we will be looking at from
verses 1-5 of 2 Thess. 2. John
MacArthur writes at the end of his introductory comments on this section of 2
Thessalonians 2:1-5 the following: “To
end the Thessalonians’ confusion, Paul needed to refute the lies of the false
teachers. And to allay the
Thessalonians’ fears, he needed to correct their misunderstandings about the
Day of the Lord. The apostle
accomplished both objectives simply by proving that the Day of the Lord could
not have arrived. He unarguable point
was that God has fixed in the future an unmistakable event that must take place
before the Day of the Lord arrives. That
even still has not happened. Paul wove
that truth into an exhortation to the Thessalonians to be ready for the end
times by not being deceived, forgetful, ignorant, unbelieving, insecure, or
weak.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I trust the Lord
to give me the things that I need to know on a timely manner as He is doing in
my study of the Thessalonian letters.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Proverbs 3:5-6.
Memory verses for the week: Colossians 3:5-10.
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as
dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to
idolatry. 6 For it is because of these
things that the wrath of God has come upon the sons of disobedience; 7 and in
them you once walked, when you were living in them.
8. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive
speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to
one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and
have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to
the image of the One who created him-
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Daniel” (Daniel 2:28).
Today’s Bible
question: “From what country did a queen
come to talk with Solomon?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/11/2014 1:56 PM
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