The Biblical Examiner An Examination of Biblical Precepts Involved in Issues at Hand
(Originally Published in 1993)
Curiosity killed the Cat (Church):
When the Scriptures are searched and studied as
a curiosity with the purpose of understanding or
knowing the future, is it God's Spirit directing the
mind? Is there any indication by God that He will lead
and direct His people in the proper understanding of
Scripture if the motive is not according to 2 Timothy
3:16? If the Spirit of God is not the one guiding the
mind of the searcher, what spirit is? Some might ask,
"What about 2 Thessalonians 2?", to which we would
answer, "Check the context of 1 Thessalonians and 2
Thessalonians 1."
A passage which some might use to justify
searching the Scripture for future knowledge could be 2
Thes 2. But there are at least three problems with
using this passage to attempt to know the future: 1),
what about the many prophecies which have gone before,
Daniel and the Lord's words? 2), what about 2 Tim 3:16,
which clearly lists the purpose of the supernatural
revelation of God's word, ie. doctrine, reproof,
correction and instruction in righteousness (right
living). Note that knowledge of the future is not even
hinted. 3), what will we do with the context leading to
2 Thes 2, ie. chapter one where Paul is talking to the
people at Thessalonica who are suffering terrible
persecution at the hands of their enemies? 1 Thes 2:14-
16, identifies the Thessalonican Christians' enemies as
the Judaizers who were trying to place them back under
Jewish Religious rituals.
Some things which will help us understand 2 Thes 2 is:
1), the first century church was almost exclusively
Jewish; 2), the primary threat to the new church was
from the Judaizers who, following the first evangelists
of Christ everywhere, tried to place the new converts
to Christ from Judaism back under the rites, rituals
and traditions of Judaism from which Christ delivered
them, Acts 15:10 (in fact, every NT epistle addresses
the heresies of the Judaizers); 3), Rome had not
started persecuting the new church yet, but it was soon
to come; 4), when we compare Paul's statement in 1 Thes
2:14-16 with the Lord's statements in Mat 21:35-46;
22:7; 23:30-39, we see that Christ identified the
wickedness of these Jewish leaders as ignoring the
warnings of God, and as killing the messengers of God
which brought the warnings. Christ told the Jewish
leaders that they were going to be held accountable for
the murders of all God's prophets from Able to
Zacharias.
In Mat 23:32, Christ told the Jews that their
wickedness would fill up the measure started by their
fathers. Paul tells the Thessalonica Christians that
the same Jews who challenged Christ in Mat 21-23, would
finally fill up the measure of wickedness by
persecuting them [the new Church] and by forbidding the
gospel of Christ to the Gentiles (1 Thes 2:15, 16).
As we follow the thought through to 2 Thes 1, we see
Paul continuing to encourage them in their persecution
by the Jews. He assures them that in the righteousness
and justice of God, He will soon visit their tormenters
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know
not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. [See Jn chs. 7 & 8, esp 7:28 & 8:24.]
The
context must be kept in mind as Paul continues in 2
Thes 2. He promised these Christians being persecuted
to the death by the Jews, of which Paul was one before
his conversion, that the day of the Lord's promised
vengeance of Mat 21-24 is close at hand, and,
therefore, they are not to be soon shaken in mind,
or be troubled. In other words, "Hang on," says
Paul, "the vengeance of God which will destroy your
persecutors is close at hand."
Then
Paul gives some things for these Christians at
Thessalonica to look for, 2 Thes 2:2. That the
day... What day? The day of Christ's vengeance
against the Jews who were persecuting the first century
body of Christ, Acts 9:4. Then Paul introduces a new
person into the picture: The man of sin, the
son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped...,
v. 4. B.B. Warfield identifies the man of
sin as the line of Roman Emperors who demanded
that they be worshiped as God, even in the Holy of
Hollies. (Cf. Mt. 24:15; Dan. 11:36; Lk.
21:20.)[Biblical and Theological Studies, The
Prophecies of St. Paul, pp. 463-502.]
When
Paul was writing, the evil design of the Roman Emperors
to be worshiped as God was already at work. It
started with the Roman Emperor, Augustus (31 BC-14 AD)
when the Roman Senate voted him Augusta, lit.
'reverend,' in 27 BC. The Jewish state, even under the
Roman Caesars' demand to be worshiped as God, enjoyed
an amazing amount of freedom, 2 Thes 2:6, 7. Their
freedom to worship the Lord God, won under the
leadership of the Maccabeen family (the Maccabeen War)
while they were under the rule of Greece, was retained
under Rome. In other words, because of the rebellion
caused by the required Emperor Worship in the Jewish
state, Rome did not enforce it upon the Jews. But the
evil of Emperor Worship (as god) was already at work.
Furthermore, because of a misconception on Rome's part,
the Jewish state unintentionally withheld the wrath of
Rome from the new church when the new church refused to
worship the Emperor; they worshiped King Jesus.
Initially, Rome saw the Jewish worship of "God" and the
Christian worship of the Lord Jesus Christ as one and
the same, but the Jews knew better; therefore, they
persecuted the worshipers of Christ.
In 2
Thes chapter 2, Paul warns the Christians that the ones
under whom they were enjoying freedom to worship Jesus,
the Jewish state, were about to be destroyed because
their persecution of the body of Christ had filled up
their evil. The Jewish state which had held back the
persecution of Rome for refusing to worship the
Emperor, was going to be removed, v. 7. This was to,
and did, happen within the then living generation, 70
AD (Mat 23:26, &c). The result would be that the
confusion which identified the Jewish religion with the
new Christian religion would be removed. Then, as the
demand for Emperor Worship was made on the new
Christian Church and as they refused to worship him as
god, the spirit's (Emperor's) total wickedness would be
revealed. The spirit of Emperor Worship (known today as
State Worship or Statism), which was after the
working of Satan with all power signs and lying
wonders, would remain active until the Lord's final
return. At His return, that Wicked spirit would
be consumed with the spirit of the Lord's mouth.
"If the masculine form of 'the restrainer' in
verse 7 demands interpretation as a person - which we
more than doubt - it might possible be referred without
too great pressure to James of Jerusalem, God's chosen
instrument in keeping the door of Christianity open for
the Jews, and by so doing continuing and completing
their probation.." [Ibid]
The sum of the
matter.
The
most important thing to remember in reading 2 Thes 2,
is its context: Paul is addressing the Christians at
Thessalonica over a specific situation in which they
found themselves. They were being persecuted and put to
death by the very Jews which had put Christ to death.
Paul had been part of the persecuting crowd because he
had letters from these murdering Jews at Jerusalem
before his conversion, Acts 9:1, 2. We can not bring
their situation into our present day, although, most
certainly, the precepts which Paul presents will stand
forever. Until the Lord returns in total triumph, the
spirit of the Wicked one will remain active. His
primary area of activity is in Statism which we see so
prevalent today: "The New World Order." Obviously, as
long as sin is in the world, sinners will attempt to
have themselves worshiped as god. Scriptures identifies
this desire and traces its development from the garden,
through the flood and to its final conclusion in
history under the feet of King Jesus, 1 Cor 15:24-28.
When
Rome demanded that all its subjects worship the Emperor
as God, the Jewish state refused. Rather than fight a
war over this, Rome permitted them to continue in their
corrupt worship of the God of their fathers.
Christianity, because it was founded by a Jew (Christ)
and was initially spread by Jews (the Apostles), was
mistaken by Rome as just another Jewish sect.
Therefore, as the Christians also refused to worship
the Emperor, they were protected from the wrath of Rome
as long as the Jewish nation existed.
On
the other hand, the Jews knew the difference, so they
persecuted the Christians to death. Rome permitted this
because they did not want a war with the Jews. Paul,
writing to the Christians who were suffering terribly
at the hands of the Jews, encouraged them that the Lord
had not forgotten them. He reminded them that when the
time was right, the Lord Himself would take terrible
vengeance upon their persecutors, which He did when
Rome destroyed Jerusalem. Their persecution of the body
of Christ was the final 'straw' for God, and He would
soon judge them in flaming fire.
But
the Jewish State's destruction would not stop the
persecution of the Body of Christ, the Church.
Ironically, the nation which was about to be destroyed
was protecting the newly born Church from the man of
sin who demanded worship as god (following the pattern
established by Satan). Paul assures them also that this
demand (Statism) will continue in the world until the
end of time, when the Lord will complete the
destruction of that Wicked... with the brightness of
his coming. At that time all who love not the truth
will be judged with everlasting punishment. In the
meantime, the Lord will send a strong delusion so that
many will believe a lie and follow this spirit of Satan
into Statism (the worship of the state as god).
In a word, the prophecy of 2 Thes 2, has been
fulfilled to a very large extent. If Scripture is read
as a curiosity to know or understand the future, the
spirit guiding the understanding could well be the
wrong spirit. It certainly will not be the spirit of
God Who must act according to the Word of God, 2 Tim
3:16.