The Revealing

 

DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

THE REVEALING

2 Thess 2:5-12

5 Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

NIV

Another power-packed portion of this letter that we may need to unpack in bits and pieces to get a handle on all of what is said here. Paul is speaking about the anti-Christ, although he has called him the one of lawlessness. Paul also has not named the Holy Spirit either, but he does say we know who is holding back the man of lawlessness, the anti-Christ until God decides when the anti-Christ will be revealed. It will be the Father who will decide and He will have the Spirit taken out of the way, so this anti-Christ can be revealed. There have been so many who have tried to discover who this anti-Christ is by using numerology on the three sixes that are associated with him. This all makes sense in that when the anti-Christ is revealed, the Spirit leaves as Jesus returns to overthrow Satan with the breath of his mouth. Of course, we could spend a whole book on bringing all the reference scriptures from Daniel and the Revelation given to John in order to put all this together in a logical time frame or sequence of events. However, what we glean from what Paul is revealing to us is that we have nothing to worry about because all that will happen is under the control of God and we have been given the right to be called the children of God. So then we can be certain as His children that he will take good care of us and we will not be harmed by this man of lawlessness, nor will we be deceived by him, no matter how many fake miracles, signs, and wonders he might give the illusion of having the power to do. There will be people who will be deceived by him. We can see it now. People are looking for the supernatural, but not looking for God. Again, we have nothing to fear for we are In Christ, and whenever the event happens that this man of lawlessness is revealed, it is associated with the coming of Jesus, and our being caught up to meet him in the air is at that same time. So what that means to us is that we will not be here on this earth when the man of lawlessness is revealed, but all those who have been left behind are going to have to make a choice to accept this lawlessness one as he sits in the temple and declaring himself to be God, or reject him. We do not have to be concerned with him, as we are safe and secure from all alarm, as are in the everlasting arms of Jesus. Through Jesus, God has made peace with us and we are not subject to His wrath as those who take hold of this man of lawlessness are. We are at peace with God and thus have nothing to fear from Him or from anything else, for we know where we will be for all eternity. We are confident of this, for the Spirit within us has given us that assurance as He is our guarantee, as we have been sealed with Him for the Day of Redemption. As interesting as all this is, and it may even be fascinating to study how all this plays out, our life is focused on Christ and how we may live in Him and He is us. We are being told all this so that we will know Christ and that we might help others to know Him and escape the miserable end of perishing. The one who we know, because He has already revealed himself to us, is Jesus. Thank you Father for revealing your Son and the Spirit to us.