2 thessalonians 2 commentary

2 THESSALONIANS 2 COMMENTARY

EDITED BY GLENN PEASE

The Man of Lawlessness

2 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and

our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and

sisters,

1,BARNES, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ - The phrase by the coming, is not here, as our translators seem to have supposed, a form of solemn adjuration. It is not common, if it ever occurs, in the Scriptures, to make a solemn adjuration in view of an event, and the connection here demands that we give to the phrase a different sense. It means, respecting his coming; and the idea of Paul is: In regard to that great event of which I spoke to you in my former epistle - the coming of the Saviour - I beseech you not to be troubled, as if it were soon to happen. As his views had been misunderstood or misrepresented, he now proposes to show them that there was nothing in the true doctrine which should create alarm, as if he were about to appear.

And by our gathering together unto him - There is manifest allusion here to what is said in the First Epistle 1Th_4:17, then we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds; and the meaning is: in reference to our being gathered unto him, I beseech you not to be shaken in mind, as if that event were near.

2. CLARKE, We beseech you - by the coming of our Lord - It is evident that the Thessalonians, incited by deceived or false teachers, had taken a wrong meaning out of the words of the first epistle, 1Th_4:15, etc., concerning the day of judgment; and were led then to conclude that that day was at hand; and this had produced great confusion in the Church: to correct this mistake, the apostle sent them this second letter, in which he shows that this day must be necessarily distant, because a great work is to be done previously to its appearing.

Of the day of general judgment he had spoken before, and said that it should come as a thief in the night, i.e. when not expected; but he did not attempt to fix the time, nor did he insinuate that it was either near at hand, or far off. Now, however, he shows that it must necessarily be far off, because of the great transactions which must take place before it can come.

3. GILL, Now we beseech you, brethren,.... The apostle having finished his first design in this epistle, which was to encourage the saints to patience under sufferings, proceeds to another view he had in writing it, and that is, to set the doctrine of Christ's coming, as to the time of it, in its proper light; and this is occasioned by what he had said concerning it in the former epistle, which was either misunderstood or misrepresented; and as he addresses the saints with a very affectionate appellation as his "brethren", so by way of entreaty "beseeching", and yet in a very solemn manner: by the coming of our Lord Jesus: which is to be understood not of the coming of Christ in the flesh, to procure the salvation of his people; nor of his coming in his kingdom and power to take vengeance on the Jewish nation, for their rejection of him as the Messiah; but of his coming to judge the quick and dead, than which nothing is more sure and certain, being affirmed by angels and men, by prophets and apostles, and by Christ himself, or more desirable by the saints; wherefore the apostle entreats them by it, that whereas they believed it, expected it, and wished for it, they would regard what he was about to say: so that the words, though an entreaty, are in the form of an adjuration; unless they should be rendered as in the Ethiopic version, as they may, "concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ"; and so express subject matter of the discourse now entering upon, with what follows: and by our gathering together unto him; which regards not the great gatherings of the people to Christ the true Shiloh upon his first coming, and the preaching of the Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles, when there were not only great flockings to hear it, but multitudes were converted by it; nor the greater gatherings there will be in the latter day, at the time of the conversion of the Jews, and when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in; nor the conversion of particular persons, who are gathered in to Christ, and received by him one by one; nor the assembling of the saints together for public worship, in which sense the word is used in Heb_10:25 but the gathering together of all the saints at the last day, at the second coming of Christ; for he will come with ten thousand of his saints, yea, with all his saints, when their dead bodies shall be raised and reunited to their souls, and they with the living saints will be caught up into the air, to meet the Lord there and be ever with him; when they will make up, complete and perfect, the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven: this will be the gathering together of all the elect of God; and so the Arabic version reads, "the gathering of us all"; and which, as it is certain, is greatly to be desired; it will be a happy meeting and a glorious sight; by this the apostle entreats and adjures them to regard what follows.

4. HENRY, From these words it appears that some among the Thessalonians had mistaken the apostle's meaning, in what he had written in his former epistle about the coming of Christ, by thinking that it was near at hand, - that Christ was just ready to appear and come to judgment. Or, it may be, some among them pretended that they had the knowledge of this by particular revelation from the Spirit, or from some words they had heard from the apostle, when he was with them, or some letter he had written or they pretended he had written to them or some other person: and hereupon the apostle is careful to rectify this mistake, and to prevent the spreading of this error. Observe, If errors and mistakes arise among Christians, we should take the first opportunity to rectify them, and hinder the spreading thereof; and good men will be especially careful to suppress errors that may arise from a mistake of their words and actions, though that which was spoken or done was ever so innocent or well. We have a subtle adversary, who watches all opportunities to do mischief, and will sometimes promote errors even by means of the words of scripture. Observe,

I. How very earnest and solicitous this apostle was to prevent mistakes: We beseech you, brethren, etc., 2Th_2:1. He entreats them as brethren who might have charged them as a father charges his children: he shows great kindness and condescension, and insinuates himself into their affections. And this is the best way to deal with men when we would preserve or recover them from errors, to deal gently and affectionately with them: rough and rigorous treatment will but exasperate their spirits, and prejudice them against the reasons we may offer. He obtests and even conjures them in the most solemn manner: By the coming of Christ, etc. The words are in the form of an oath; and his meaning is that if they believed Christ would come, and if they desired he would come, and rejoiced in the hope of his coming, they should be careful to avoid the error, and the evil consequences of it, against which he was now cautioning them. From this form of obtestation used by the apostle, we may observe,

1. It is most certain that the Lord Jesus Christ will come to judge the world, that he will come in all the pomp and power of the upper world in the last day, to execute judgment upon all. Whatever uncertainty we are at, or whatever mistakes may arise about the time of his coming, his coming itself is certain. This has been the faith and hope of all Christians in all ages of the church; nay, it was the faith and hope of the Old Testament saints, ever since Enoch the seventh from Adam, who said, Behold, the Lord cometh, etc., Jud_1:14.

2. At the second coming of Christ all the saints will be gathered together to him; and this

mention of the gathering of the saints together unto Christ at his coming shows that the apostle

speaks of Christ's coming to judgment day, and not of his coming to destroy Jerusalem. He

speaks of a proper, and not a metaphorical advent: and, as it will be part of Christ's honour in

that day, so it will be the completing of the happiness of his saints. (1.) That they all shall be

gathered together. There will then be a general meeting of all the saints, and none but saints; all

the Old Testament saints, who got acquaintance with Christ by the dark shadows of the law, and

saw this day at a distance; and all the New Testament saints, to whom life and immortality were

brought to light by the gospel; they will all be gathered together. There will then come from the

four winds of heaven all that are, or ever were, or ever shall be, from the beginning to the end of

time. All shall be gathered together. (2.) That they shall be gathered together to Christ. He will

be the great centre of their unity. They shall be gathered together to him, to be attendants on

him, to be assessors with him, to be presented by him to the Father, to be with him for ever, and

altogether happy in his presence to all eternity. (3.) The doctrine of Christ's coming and our

gathering together to him is of a great moment and importance to Christians; otherwise it would

not be the proper matter of the apostle's obtestation. We ought therefore not only to believe

these things, but highly to account of them also, and look upon them as things we are greatly

concerned in and should be much affected with.

5.JAMISON, 2Th_2:1-17. Correction of their error as to Christs immediate coming. The apostasy that must precede it. Exhortation to steadfastness, introduced with thanksgiving for their election by God.

Now rather, But; marking the transition from his prayers for them to entreaties to them.

we beseech you or entreat you. He uses affectionate entreaty, rather than stern reproof, to win them over to the right view.

by rather, with respect to; as the Greek for of (2Co_1:8).

our gathering together unto him the consummating or final gathering together of the saints to Him at His coming, as announced, Mat_24:31; 1Th_4:17. The Greek noun is nowhere else found except in Heb_10:25, said of the assembling together of believers for congregational worship. Our instinctive fears of the judgment are dispelled by the thought of being gathered

together UNTO HIM (even as the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings), which ensures our safety.

6. CALVIN, 1Now I beseech you, by the coming. It may indeed be read, as I have noted on the

margin, concerning the coming, but it suits better to view it as an earnest entreaty, taken from the subject

in hand, just as in 1Co_15:31, when discoursing as to the hope of a resurrection, he makes use of an

oath by that glory which is to be hoped for by believers. And this has much more efficacy when he adjures

believers by the coming of Christ, not to imagine rashly that his day is at hand, for he at the same time

admonishes us not to think of it but with reverence and sobriety. For it is customary to adjure by those

things which are regarded by us with reverence. The meaning therefore is, you set a high value on the

coming of Christ, when he will gather us to himself, and will truly perfect that unity of the body which we

cherish as yet only in part through means of faith, so I earnestly beseech you by his coming not to be too

credulous, should any one affirm, on whatever pretext, that his day is at hand.

As he had in his former Epistle adverted to some extent to the resurrection, it is possible that some fickle

and fanatical persons took occasion from this to mark out a near and fixed day. For it is not likely that this

error had taken its rise earlier among the Thessalonians. For Timothy, on returning thence, had informed

Paul as to their entire condition, and as a prudent and experienced man had omitted nothing that was of

importance. Now if Paul had received notice of it, he could not have been silent as to a matter of so great

consequence. Thus I am of opinion, that when Paul Epistle had been read, which contained a lively view

of the resurrection, some that were disposed to indulge curiosity philosophized unseasonably as to the

time of it. This, however, was an utterly ruinous fancy, (636) as were also other things of the same nature,

which were afterwards disseminated, not without artifice on the part of Satan. For when any day is said to

be near, if it does not quickly arrive, mankind being naturally impatient of longer delay, their spirits begin

to languish, and that languishing is followed up shortly afterwards by despair.

This, therefore, was Satan subtlety: as he could not openly overturn the hope of a resurrection with the

view of secretly undermining it, as if by pits underground, (637) he promised that the day of it would be

near, and would soon arrive. Afterwards, too, he did not cease to contrive various things, with the view of

effacing, by little and little, the belief of a resurrection from the minds of men, as he could not openly

eradicate it. It is, indeed, a plausible thing to say that the day of our redemption is definitely fixed, and on

this account it meets with applause on the part of the multitude, as we see that the dreams of Lactantius

and the Chiliasts of old gave much delight, and yet they had no other tendency than that of overthrowing

the hope of a resurrection. This was not the design of Lactantius, but Satan, in accordance with his

subtlety, perverted his curiosity, and that of those like him, so as to leave nothing in religion definite or

fixed, and even at the present day he does not cease to employ the same means. We now see how

necessary Paul admonition was, as but for this all religion would have been overturned among the

Thessalonians under a specious pretext.

(636) Vne fantasie merueilleusement pernicieuse, et pour ruiner tout; fancy that was singularly

destructive, and utterly ruinous.

7. Charles SIMEON, THE STATE OF THE THESSALONIAN CHURCH

2Th_1:3-7. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith

groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; so that we

ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and

tribulations that ye endure: which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be

counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: seeing it is a righteous thing with God to

recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled, rest.

ONE advantage which we derive from the epistles of St. Paul is, that we are enabled to see in them an

endless diversity both of characters and attainments. Every occurrence in the different cities where the

apostolic churches were planted, has given occasion for suitable remarks, which, though adapted in the

first instance to a particular place or circumstance, are applicable in some considerable degree to the

Church of God in all ages. In some of the epistles we have the Church presented to us in a declining

state; and suitable admonitions are given to her: in others we see her prospering, and hear the counsels

of infinite wisdom proclaimed unto her. The Thessalonian Church was of the latter character, and seems

to have been eminently favoured of her God. She was high in the esteem also of the Apostle Paul; and

deservedly so, because she was conspicuous amongst all the Churches of that age for her high

attainments. The words I have just read will lead me to consider,

I. The happy state of the Thessalonian Church

In her infant state she was highly commended for her works of faith, and labours of love, and patience of

hope in our Lord Jesus Christ [Note: 1Th_1:3.]. But here we view her in her more adult state: we behold,

1. Her increasing faith

[The Apostle testifies respecting the believers there, that their faith had grown exceedingly, being daily

more vivid in its apprehensions, more vigorous in its actings, more uniform in its effects. It is of the very

nature of faith to fix on things that are invisible, and to make them, as it were, present to the soul. And in

this their faith had evinced its growth, in that it had enabled them to see, almost as with their bodily eyes,

the Saviour whom they loved, enthroned above all powers and principalities, invested with a fulness of all

spiritual gifts, ordering all things both in heaven and earth, and, by his prevailing intercession at the right

hand of God, securing to his believing people all the blessings of grace and glory. They further saw, as

from Mount Pisgah, the land of which they were ere long to take possession: the thrones, the crowns, the

harps of gold, all prepared and made ready for them, against the time appointed for their complete

possession of their inheritance. Of these things they had some view at first, just as a man has of the

firmament on a cloudy night: but now, as when through a pure unclouded atmosphere, a man beholds the

vast canopy of heaven studded in every part with stars more brilliant than the brightest gem; so now their

view of Christ, and of all the inconceivable glories of redeeming love, was clear and full. A corresponding

energy too was felt through all the powers of their souls, accompanied with a fixed determination of heart

to live for Him who lived and died for them.

2. Her abounding love

[This was no loss remarkable. In almost every Church, partly from a diversity of views and interests, and

partly from the infirmity of our common nature, there are some comparative alienations of heart, if not

some actual disagreements. But here the charity of every one of them all towards each other abounded.

One spirit pervaded the whole body: and time, instead of giving occasion to the enemy to foment

differences, had only cemented and confirmed their mutual affection. In this they shewed how much they

were grown in grace, seeing that they were so greatly assimilated to the image of their God, whose name

and nature is love. Happy, happy people, where the unity of the Spirit was so perseveringly kept in the

bond of peace!]

3. The invincible firmness of her patience

[Great had been their trials from the very beginning [Note: 1Th_1:6.]: and though we know but little of

particulars, we are assured in general, that the persecutions which they experienced from their own

countrymen were of the most cruel and bitter kind [Note: 1Th_2:14-15.]. But were they intimidated? No;

they held fast the profession of their faith without wavering: they were in nothing terrified by their

adversaries: they had respect unto the recompence of the reward; and took joyfully the afflictions with

which they were visited, knowing that they had in heaven enough to compensate for all. They even

gloried in the cross of Christ, and rejoiced that they were counted worthy to bear it for his sake. In the

midst of all, they possessed their souls in patience, and suffered patience to have its perfect work.

What an enviable state was this! But,]

That we may form a right estimate of this state, let us consider,

II. In what light the Apostle viewed it

He knew not to give flattering words to any man: yet he could not but declare that he regarded their state

as a fit subject,

1. Of thanksgiving to God

[God was the author of the grace they first received: and he was the giver also of all the improvement

they had made of it. Of him, and him alone, was all their fruit found. To him therefore the Apostle gave

the glory, as it was fit he should, and as he found himself bound to do. The creation of the material

world was his: nor was the new creation of their souls at all less the work of his hands. True, he made use

of the will of men: but he first of all implanted that will in them, and then made use of it for the

accomplishment of his own most gracious purposes. From first to last he gave them both to will and to do

of his good pleasure, being alike the author and the finisher of all.

Thus then should we also do for all that is good, whether in ourselves, or others. We should acknowledge

him in it, and glorify him for it, and confess, in relation to it all, that by the grace of God we are what we

are.]

2. Of commendation in the Church

[He gloried of them in the different Churches where he ministered: for he not only found pleasure in

speaking well of them, but he thought it of great utility to the Church of God to hear of the proficiency

which others had made; inasmuch as it would stimulate them also to greater exertions, and encourage

them to expect greater measures of divine grace, in order to their own more exalted proficiency. This was

the case with respect to the Corinthian Church. St. Paul boasted of them to the Churches in Macedonia,

that Achaia had shewn extraordinary readiness in providing for the poor saints in Judea; and, in speaking

of this to the Corinthians, he says, Your zeal hath provoked very many [Note: 2Co_9:2.]. And so should

it be with us. When we look at Prophets and Apostles, we are apt to think that it would be presumptuous

to hope for such grace as they possessed: but when we see common individuals, or whole churches, far

exalted above us in every thing that is good, we should be ashamed, and never cease to emulate and

rival their attainments.]

3. Of congratulation to themselves

[These graces, exercised under such peculiar circumstances, were sufficient to demonstrate, that there

must be a future state of retribution, where the present inequalities of the Divine procedure should be

rectified: they were an evidence too that in that day they should be counted worthy of that kingdom for

which they suffered such things. It could not fail, but that in that day a suitable recompence should be

given both to themselves and their oppressors: to those who caused their tribulation, trouble,

proportioned to the trouble they had occasioned: but to those who had endured the trouble, rest, even

everlasting rest in the bosom of their God, with all the Prophets and Apostles who had endured the

same things before them.

Now to know this, must be an exceeding great consolation to them under their multiplied afflictions: and

therefore he could not but declare to them, that, if they had, on the one hand, so much reason to

complain, they had, on the other hand, abundantly more reason to rejoice; since they had, even in these

very afflictions, an evidence of their meetness for glory, and a pledge that in due season it should be

conferred upon them.]

To us also will this account of them be profitable, if we duly consider,

III. What lessons we should learn from it

Two things it may well teach us:

1. That opposition, how formidable soever it may be, is no excuse for our turning back from God

[What are our persecutions, in comparison of those which they endured? Yet they were steadfast,

immoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord. Should we then be intimidated? Should we

hesitate whom to obey, or what course to follow? No; we should take up our cross cheerfully; and having

counted the cost, should be content to pay it. The stony-ground hearer, when tribulation or persecution

ariseth because of the word, may well draw back, because he has no root in him: but the true disciple will

go with his life in his hand, and be willing not only to make minor sacrifices, but even to lay down his life

for Christs sake. We must not imagine that such a line of conduct was necessary for the primitive

Christians only: it is equally necessary for Christians in every age: and he who loves his life shall lose it;

and he only who is willing to lose his life for Christs sake, shall find it unto life eternal.]

2. That whatever proficiency we have made in the Divine life, we should still press forward for higher

attainments

Certainly the proficiency of the Thessalonians was very eminent, even in the earlier state of their

progress; for even then they were ensamples to all believers, both in Macedonia and Achaia. But they

had not rested in their attainments: they had pressed forward for the highest possible degrees of grace:

and through mercy they had attained a most uncommon eminence in the divine life. So we, if we had

advanced as far as St. Paul himself, should, like him, forget all that was behind, and reach forward to

that which was before, and press forward to the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ

Jesus. We should aspire after a perfect resemblance to our Saviours image; and seek, if possible, so to

be poured into the mould of the Gospel, as to have every lineament of our character conformed to it. We

should think nothing attained, as long as any thing remained to be attained. We should seek to grow up

into Christ in all things, as our Head, and to be changed into his image from glory to glory, by the Spirit

of the Lord.]

Application:But,

1. How different from the Thessalonian Church are the generality of those who call themselves

Christians!

[Many have heard the Gospel to little purpose; or rather, our entering in unto them has been altogether in

vain [Note: 1Th_2:1.]. If we look for their works of faith, and labours of love, and patience of hope, as

evidences that the word has come to them with power, we find no more than others have who never

heard the Gospel at all. As to a visible growth in these things, there is no symptom of it: they have

continued from the beginning even to the present hour nearly the same persons, perfectly satisfied with

themselves, and not less unconscious of the need of any change, than unconcerned about it. But let not

such persons account themselves Christians indeed; or imagine that they can be thought worthy of that

kingdom for which they have never suffered, never laboured, never cared. To such persons the conduct

of the Thessalonians, if exhibited before their eyes, would be rather an object of derision than of

admiration and love: and consequently they have in themselves a manifest token, that they have

nothing to expect at Gods hands, but the measure which they have dealt out to his obedient people. I

entreat you, brethren, consider that in the day of judgment the righteousness of God will be so visibly

displayed, as to constrain the whole assembled universe to acknowledge it, as well in those that are

saved, as in them that perish. How it can be displayed in the salvation of such as you, judge ye. Mercy, I

grant, might be exhibited; but righteousness would find no plea for rewarding you, no justification in your

acquittal: for if God be just, there must be a difference put between those who have served him, and

those who have served him nota difference, which may well make every one of you to tremble.]

2. How diligently should the most exalted amongst you press forward in your heavenly course!

[There is room enough for improvement in every child of man. think, beloved, how much more strong and

operative your faith might be; how much more ardent and influential your love; how much more firm and

patient your hope. You know but little of yourselves, if you are not daily mourning over your short-comings

and defects. Let all of you then, without exception, seek to grow in grace: if you are children, seek to

become young men; if you are young men, seek to become fathers in Christ: and if you are fathers,

still seek to become more and more like to Christ, till you stand perfect and complete in all the will of

God. If, as is probable, your zeal will provoke the greater opposition against you, welcome it, as turning

to you for a testimony. and as rendering you more like to Him who endured the contradiction of sinners

against himself, and suffered even unto death. So will your meetness for heaven daily increase, and be

more fully recognised by your God and Saviour in the last day: and you need never tear but that the

recompence which he will bestow, will amply compensate for all that you can do or suffer in this vale of

tears.]

8. SBC, The Re-gathering of the Saints.

We have now before us the time and the season of which St. Paul speaks in the text, and we have to observe that he uses it not as a terror but as an attraction"we beseech you"as those that

would not part with it for their lives. The advent, a re-gathering, is in St. Pauls view a prospect full of consolation. What is it that makes the world the wilderness it is? In a large part it is that of which the re-gathering is a direct reversaldispersion. There are senses, no doubt, in which dispersion is tolerable; the separation and severance of nations, not more by dividing seas and deserts than by dividing tongues. It would be foolish to say that this is to any one man a loss or an affliction. It is as a type that we must read it if we would enter into its significance. Sin is the great dividing force. Sin divides even its joys. Where sin is there is selfishness. Hand may trust hand, lips may speak of love and vow affection, yet in the very sinning there is a breach, and in the recoil and rebound there is severance. Sin is selfishness hidden in the act; selfishness perceived in the consequences. Sin is dispersion alike in its loves and its remorses. Well may it close the dark category in the dark page of sorrow for one of light and gospel consolation.

II. On the loving heart of St. Paula heart large without limit, yet stretched almost to bursting by the multitude of its sympathies, there lay the sorrow of the dispersion. He felt it in every sense; felt it in its very distance. Yet more bitterly did Paul feel this dispersion to be an intolerable burden of suspense and anguish, while he knew not for certain how a letter had been taken or an injunction obeyed, or whether a door had been opened for successful ministry. It is the division of bodies or the division of souls which distracts him. Even deathand you might think that St. Paul would have been above it with his strong faith and bright hopeeven death troubled him. He felt as a dispersion that death which he dreaded not as a destruction.

III. Therefore, with St. Paul, as to all whose hearts are like his, big and warm in their affections and sympathies, there was a peculiar charm in the thought of the advent as a re-gathering. "I beseech you," he says, as though no other entreaty could equal it in strength, "by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him." Here we meet and part; we commune and separate with a sense of unrest and dissatisfaction which leaves us in the end desolate. To the friend of our soul we say not one half of that which we meant to say; we said not the thing which we meant, or he misheard or misinterpreted the thing spoken. Our love he read not; our passing humour he took as a change of affection; our soul speaking to his soul with the souls voice was not recognised as the souls, and we almost begin to say, "I will keep my love till it can speak the one tongue of the immortals." When Christ comes friend shall meet friend in absolute onenessno earthborn, sinborn cloud to come between; knowing at last as known, because loved as loving.

C. J. Vaughan, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 514.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 I. The first part of this second Epistle aims at widening the view of the Thessalonian converts into the futurethe future bliss of believers, the future doom of the rebellious. The second part, embraced in this chapter, seeks to guard them beforehand against delusion as to the nearness of that future, and the mischief which the cherishing of such delusion would produce. The Apostle wishes them to be forearmed by being forewarned. His chief design is to impress upon their minds the one truth, that the proper attitude to be assumed towards the day of the Lord is that not of idle curiosity, but of steadfast and untroubled faith. The spirit of restless eschatological excitement meets, sooner or later, only with disappointment. It brings with it no increase of joyful hopefulness; it rather ministers ultimately to the service of the world. Whatever be the value of Apocalyptic study, it must ever, as these Epistles themselves so strikingly illustrate, find its balancing and regulating principle in the study of Christian ethics, and in the homage of Christian work.

II. The day of the Lord will not be "except the falling away come first." Chrysostom curiously says, "He calls Antichrist himself the apostasy, as being about to destroy many, and make them fall away." But obviously this apostasy is rather that which is simply to precede and usher in the revelation of the great Apostate himself, "the man of sin." He is described not as an ideal, but as an historical personagethe man who is regarded as the very embodiment of all evilthe hideous consummation and manifestation of all that sin can make man. Depravity is in him personified. The sanctuary or inmost shrine, in which he is to take his seat, is not to be explained with rigid literalness as referring to the temple of Jerusalem. We must regard it as representing the Church of Christnot any material structure, such as St. Peters at Rome, but the universal company of professed believers. "He sets himself forth as God." It is the act of one who, while he is, as never man was before, the representative of evil, represents himself in his own person and deeds, as the individual manifestation of Divine power and grace.

J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 280.

9.EBC, THE MAN OF SIN

IN the first chapter of this Epistle Paul depicted the righteous judgment of God which accompanies the advent of Christ. Its terrors and its glories blazed before his eyes as he prayed for those who were to read his letter. "With this in view," he says, "we also pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of the calling." The emphatic word in the sentence is "you." Among all believers in whom Christ was to be glorified, as they in Him, the Thessalonians were at this moment nearest to the Apostles heart. Like others, they had been called to a place in the heavenly kingdom.; and he is eager that they should prove worthy of it. They will be worthy only if God powerfully carries to perfection in them their delight in goodness, and the activities of their faith. That is the substance of his prayer. "The Lord enable you always to have unreserved pleasure in what is good, and to show the proof of faith in all you do. So you shall be worthy of the Christian calling, and the name of the Lord shall be glorified in you, and you in Him, in that day."

The second chapter seems, in our English Bibles, to open with an adjuration: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him." If that were right, we might suppose Pauls meaning to be: As you long for this great day, and anticipate its appearing as your dearest hope, let me conjure you not to entertain mischievous fancies about it; or, as you dread the day, and shrink from the terrible judgment which it brings, let me adjure you to think of it as you ought to think, and not discredit it by unspiritual excitement, bringing reproach on the Church in the eyes of the world. But this interpretation, though apt enough, is hardly justified by the use of the New Testament, and the Revised Version is nearer the truth when it gives the rendering "touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is of it the Apostle wishes to speak; and what he has to say is, that the true doctrine of it contains nothing which ought to produce unsettlement or vague alarms. In the First Epistle, especially in chapter 5, he has enlarged on the moral attitude which is proper to those who cherish the Christian hope: they are to watch and be sober; they are to put off the works of darkness, and put on, as children of the day, the armour of light; they are to be ready and expectant always. Here he adds the negative counsel that they are not to be quickly shaken from their mind, as a ship is driven from her moorings by a storm, nor yet upset or troubled, whether by spirit or by word or letter purporting to be from him. These last expressions need a word of explanation. By "spirit" the Apostle no doubt means a Christian man speaking in the church under a spiritual impulse. Such speakers in Thessalonica would often take the Second Advent as their theme; but their utterances were open to criticism. It was of such utterances that the Apostle had said in his earlier letter, "Despise not prophesyings; but prove all that is said, and hold fast that which is

good." The spirit in which a Christian spoke was not necessarily the spirit of God; even if it were, it was not necessarily unmixed with his own ideas, desires, or hopes. Hence discernment of spirits was a valued and needful gift, and it seems to have been wanted at Thessalonica. Besides misleading utterances of this kind in public worship, there were circulated words ascribed to Paul, and if not a forged letter, at all events a letter purporting to contain his opinion, none of which had his authority. These words and this letter had for their substance the idea that the day of the Lord was now present-or, as one might say in Scotch, just here. It was this which produced the unspiritual excitement at Thessalonica, and which the Apostle wished to contradict.

A great mystery has been made out of the paragraph which follows, but without much reason. It certainly stands alone in St. Pauls writings, an Apocalypse on a small scale, reminding us in many respects of the great Apocalypse of John, but not necessarily to be judged by it, or brought into any kind of harmony with it. Its obscurity, so far as it is obscure, is due in part to the previous familiarity of the Thessalonians with the subject, which allowed the Apostle to take much for granted; and in part, no doubt, to the danger of being explicit in a matter which had political significance. But it is not really so obscure as it has been made out to be by some; and the reputation for humility which so many have sought, by adopting St. Augustines confession that he had no idea what the Apostle meant, is too cheap to be coveted. We must suppose that St. Paul wrote to be understood, and was understood by those to whom he wrote; and if we follow him word by word, a sense will appear which is not really questionable except on extraneous grounds. What, then, does he say about the delaying of the Advent?

He says it will not come till the falling away, or apostasy, has come first. The Authorised Version says "a" falling away, but that is wrong. The falling away was something familiar to the Apostle and his readers; he was not introducing them to any new thought. But a falling away of whom? or from what? Some have suggested, of the members of the Christian Church from Christ, but it is quite plain from the whole passage, and especially from 2Th_2:12 f., that the Apostle is contemplating a series of events in which the Church has no part but as a spectator. But the "apostasy" is clearly a religious defection; though the word itself does not necessarily imply as much, the description of the falling away does; and if it be not of Christians, it must be of the Jews; the Apostle could not conceive of the heathen "who know not God" as falling away from Him. This apostasy reaches its height, finds its representative and hero, in the man of sin, or, as some MSS. have it, the man of lawlessness. When the Apostle says the man of sin, he means the man, -not a principle, nor a system, nor a series of persons, but an individual human person who is identified with sin, an incarnation of evil as Christ was of good, an Antichrist. The man of sin is also the son of perdition; this name expressing his fate-he is doomed to perish-as the other his nature. This persons portrait is then drawn by the Apostle. He is the adversary par excellence, he who sets himself in opposition, a human Satan, the enemy of Christ. The other features in the likeness are mainly borrowed from the description of the tyrant king Antiochus Epiphanes in the Book of Daniel: they may have gained fresh meaning to the Apostle from the recent revival of them in the insane Emperor Caligula. The man of sin is filled with demoniac pride; he lifts himself on high against the true God, and all gods, and all that men adore; he seats himself in the temple of God; he would like to be taken by all men for God. There has been much discussion over the temple of God in this passage. It is no doubt true that the Apostle sometimes uses the expression figuratively, of a church and its members-"The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are"-but it is surely inconceivable that a man should take his seat in that temple; when these words were fresh, no one could have put that meaning on them. The temple of God is, therefore, the temple at Jerusalem; it was standing when Paul wrote; and he expected it to stand till all this was fulfilled. When the Jews had crowned their guilt by falling away from God; in other words, when they had finally and as a whole decided against the gospel, and Gods purpose to save them by it; when the falling away had been crowned by the revelation of the man of sin,

and the profanation of the temple by his impious pride, then, and not till then, would come the end. "Do you not remember," says the Apostle, "that when I was with you I used to tell you this?"

When Paul wrote this Epistle, the Jews were the great enemies of the gospel; it was they, who persecuted him from city to city, and roused against him everywhere the malice of the heathen; hostility to God was incarnated, if anywhere, in them. They alone, because of their spiritual privileges, were capable of the deepest spiritual sin. Already in the First Epistle he has denounced them as the murderers of the Lord Jesus and of their own prophets, a race that please not God and are contrary to all men, sinners on whom the threatened wrath has come without reserve. In the passage before us the course is outlined of that wickedness against which the wrath was revealed. The people of God, as they called themselves, fall definitely away from God; the monster of lawlessness who rises from among them can only be pictured in the words in which prophets portrayed the impiety and presumption of a heathen king; he thrusts God aside, and claims to be God himself.

There is only one objection to this interpretation of the Apostles words, namely, that they have never been fulfilled. Some will think that objection final; and some will think it futile: I agree with the last. It proves too much; for it lies equally against every other interpretation of the words, however ingenious, as well as against the simple and natural one just given. It lies, in some degree, against almost every prophecy in the Bible. No matter what the apostasy, and the man of sin, are taken to be, nothing has ever appeared in history which answers exactly to Pauls description. The truth is that inspiration did not enable the apostles to write history before it happened; and though this forecast of the Apostles has a spiritual truth in it, resting as it does on a right perception of the law of moral development, the precise anticipation which it embodies was not destined to be realised. Further, it must have changed its place in Pauls own mind within the next ten years; for, as Dr. Farrar has observed, he barely alludes again to the Messianic surroundings (or antecedents) of a second, personal advent. "He dwells more and more on the mystic oneness with Christ, less and less on His personal return. He speaks repeatedly of the indwelling presence of Christ, and the believers incorporation with Him, and hardly at all of that visible meeting in the air which at this epoch was most prominent in his thoughts."

But, it may be said, if this anticipation was not to be fulfilled, is it not altogether deceptive? is it not utterly misleading that a prophecy should stand in Holy Scripture which history was to falsify? I think the right answer to that question is that there is hardly any prophecy in Holy Scripture which has not been in a similar way falsified, while nevertheless in its spiritual import true. The details of this prophecy of St. Paul were not verified as he anticipated, yet the soul of it was. The Advent was not just then; it was delayed till a certain moral process should be accomplished; and this was what the Apostle wished the Thessalonians to understand. He did not know when it would he; but he could see so far into the law of Gods working as to know that it would not come till the fulness of time; and he could understand that, where a final judgment was concerned, the fulness of time would not arrive till evil had had every opportunity, either to turn and repent, or to develop itself in the most utterly evil forms, and lie ripe for vengeance.

This is the ethical law which underlies the Apostles prophecy; it is a law confirmed by the teaching of Jesus Himself, and illustrated by the whole course of history. The question is sometimes discussed whether the world gets better or worse as it grows older, and optimists and pessimists take opposite sides upon it. Both, this law informs us, are wrong. It does not get better only, nor worse only, but both. Its progress is not simply a progress in good, evil being gradually driven from the field; nor is it simply a progress in evil, before which good continually disappears: it is a progress in which good and evil alike come to maturity, bearing their ripest fruit, showing all that they can do, proving their strength to the utmost against each. other; the progress is not in good in itself, nor in evil in itself, but in the antagonism of the one to the other.

This is the same truth which we are taught by our Lord in the parable of the wheat and the tares: "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the tares," etc. In the time of harvest: not till all is ripe for judgment, not till the wheat and the tares alike have shown all that is in them, will the judgment come. This is what St. Paul understood, and what the Thessalonians did not understand; and if his ignorance of the scale of the world, and the scale of Gods purposes, made him apply this law to the riddle of history hastily, with a result which the event has not justified, that is nothing to the prejudice of the law itself, which was true when he applied it with his imperfect knowledge, and is true for application still.

One other remark is suggested by the description of the character in which sin culminates, viz., that as evil approaches its height it assumes ever more spiritual forms. There are some sins which betray man on the lower side of his nature, through the perversion of the appetites which he has in common with the brutes: the dominance of these is in some sense natural; they are not radically and essentially evil. The man who is the victim of lust or drunkenness may lose his soul by his sin, but he is its victim; there is not in his guilt that malignant hatred of good which is here ascribed to the man of sin. The crowning wickedness is this demoniac pride: the temper of one who lifts himself on high above God, owning no superior, nay, claiming for himself the highest place of all. This is rather spiritual than sensual: it may be quite free from the gross vices of the flesh, though the connection between pride and sensuality is closer than is sometimes imagined; but it is more conscious, deliberate, malignant, and damnable than any brutality could be. When we look at the world in any given age-our own or another-and make inquiry into its moral condition, this is a consideration which we are apt to lose sight of, but which is entitled to the utmost weight. The collector of moral statistics examines the records of criminal courts; he investigates the standard of honesty in commerce; he balances the evidences of peace, truth, purity, against those of violence, fraud, and immorality, and works out a rough conclusion. But that material morality leaves out of sight what is most significant of all-the spiritual forms of good and of evil in which the opposing forces show their inmost nature, and in which the world ripens for Gods judgment. The man of sin is not described as a sensualist or a murderer; he is an apostate, a rebel against God, a usurper who claims not the palace but the temple for his own. This God-dethroning pride is the utmost length to which sin can go. The judgment will not come till it has fully developed; can any one see tokens of its presence?

In asking such a question we pass from the interpretation of the Apostles words to their application. Much of the difficulty and bewilderment that have gathered about this passage are due to the confusion of these two quite different things. The interpretation gives us the meaning of the very words the Apostle used. We have seen what that is, and that in its precise detail it was not destined to be fulfilled. But when we have passed behind the surface meaning, and laid hold on the law which the Apostle was applying this passage, then we can apply it ourselves. We can use it to read the signs of the times in our own or in any other age. We may see developments of evil, resembling in their main features the man of sin here depicted, in one quarter or another, and in one person or another; and if we do, we are bound to see in them tokens that a judgment of God is at hand; but we must not imagine that in so applying the passage we are finding out what St. Paul meant. That lies far, far behind us; and our application of his words can only claim our own authority, not the authority of Holy Scripture.

Of the multitude of applications which have been made of this passage since the Apostle wrote it, one only has had historical importance enough to be of interest to us-I mean that which is found in several Protestant confessions, including the Westminster Confession of Faith, and which declares the Pope of Rome, in the words of this last, to be "that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God." As an interpretation, of course, that is impossible; the man of sin is one man, and not a series, like the Popes; the temple of God in which a man sits is a temple made with hands, and

not the Church; but when we ask whether or not it is a fair application of the Apostles words, the question is altered. Dr. Farrar, whom no one will suspect of sympathy with the Papacy, is indignant that such an uncharitable idea should ever have crossed the mind of man. Many in the churches which hold by the Westminster Confession would agree with him. Of course it is a matter on which everyone is entitled to judge for himself, and, whether right or wrong, ought not to be in a confession; but for my own part I have little scruple in the matter. There have been Popes who could have sat for Pauls picture of the man of sin better than any characters known to history-proud, apostate, atheist priests, sitting in the seat of Christ, blasphemously claiming His authority, and exercising His functions. And individuals apart-for there have been saintly and heroic Popes as well, true servants of the servants of God-the hierarchical system of the Papacy, with the monarchical priest at its head, incarnates and fosters that very spiritual pride of which the man of sin is the final embodiment; it is a seedbed and nursery of precisely such characters as are here described. There is not in the world, nor has ever been, a system in which there is less that recalls Christ, and more that anticipates Antichrist, than the Papal system. And one may say so while acknowledging the debt that all Christians owe to the Romish Church, and while hoping that it may somehow in Gods grace repent and reform.

It would ill become us, however, to close the study of so serious a subject with the censure of others. The mere discovery that we have here to do with a law of moral development, and with a supreme and final type of evil, should put us rather upon self-scrutiny. The character of our Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme and final type of good: it shows us the end to which the Christian life conducts those who follow it. The character of the man of sin shows the end of those who obey not His gospel. They become, in their resistance to Him, more and more identified with sin; their antagonism to God settles into antipathy, presumption, defiance; they become gods to themselves, and their doom is sealed. This picture is set here for our warning. We cannot of ourselves see the end of evil from the beginning; we cannot tell what selfishness and wilfulness come to, when they have had their perfect work; but God sees, and it is written in this place to startle us, and fright us from sin. "Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of. you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God: but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called Today; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

10. BI. The coming of Christ

I. The nature of it. Christ came. He comes. He is to come.

1. He came in the flesh. The long line of predictions from Adam to Malachi were accomplished at last, after long delay and anxious expectation.

2. He comes continually.

(1) In the extraordinary manifestation of His presence and power, whether for judgment or mercy.

(2) In the special manifestation of Him self to His people.

3. He is to come.

(1) Personally and visibly.

(2) With power and great glory.

(3) The dead shall rise, the just and the unjust.

(4) The judgment will then be held.

(5) The world destroyed.

(6) The kingdom of God consummated.

The consequences to His people will be

(a) Their redemption, i.e., their final deliverance from the power of death.

(b) Their complete conformity to the likeness of Christ.

(c) Their perfect enjoyment of that kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.

II. The time.

1. It is unrevealed.

2. It is to be unexpected.

3. It will not be until the conversion of the Jews and the calling in of the Gentries.

Did the apostles expect Christ in their day?

(1) They regarded His coming as they regarded the coming of death.

(2) It was revealed to them that there should be a falling away first.

We must distinguish between their personal expectations and their teaching. The latter alone is infallible.

III. Points of analogy between the first and second comings.

1. Both predicted.

2. Anxiously and long expected.

3. The subjects of much speculation as to time and mode.

4. Disappointing in the one and the other.

IV. The state of mind which the doctrine should induce.

1. A firm belief in the revealed fact that He is to come. This faith should not be shaken by long delay. How long Abraham waited and died without the sight.

2. Earnest desire. The hopes of the ancient people were concentrated on the coming of the Messiah. This led them to bear patiently what they had to suffer. To set their hopes on the future and not on the present. The same effect should be produced on us.

3. Watchfulness and anxiety, lest that day should overtake us as a thief in the night. We should have our lamps trimmed and our lights burning. It would be a dreadful thing for Christ to come and find us immersed in the world.

4. Prayer and waiting.

5. Solicitous efforts to prepare others for His coming, and to prepare the way of the Lord. He will not come to the individual nor to the Church till His way is prepared. This includes

(1) Taking out of the way obstructions to His coming.

(2) The accomplishment of the ingathering of His people. (C. Hodge, D. D.)

The coming of Christ

I. The coming of Christ to judgment is a truth

1. Well known by all the saints (Jud_1:14; Psa_96:13; Psa_98:9; Ecc_12:13-14).

2. Firmly believed (2Pe_3:3-5; Tit_2:11-13).

3. Earnestly desired (Son_8:14; Rev_22:20). Why?

(1) In respect of Him who is to comethat we may see Him who is our great Lord and Saviour. All who believed anything of Christ before He came desired to see Him (Joh_8:56). And now Christians (1Pe_1:8; 1Pe_2:3).

(2) In respect of the persons desiringthere is that in them which moves them to it.

(a) The Spirit of Christ (Rev_22:17). The Holy Ghost creates this desire: it is His great work to bring Christ and us together.

(b) The graces planted in usfaith, which takes Christ at His word (Joh_14:2); hope, which is faiths handmaid (1Pe_1:3); love, which is an affection of union (Php_1:23).

(c) Christian privileges; believers then find the fruit of their interest in Christ, and have their reward (Rev_22:12; 2Ti_4:8; 1Pe_5:4).

II. When Christ shall come all the saints shall be gathered with him. There shall be

1. A congregation (Mat_25:32; 2Co_5:10). Adam will then meet all his posterity at once. All distinctions of age, quality, wealth, nation, etc., will disappear.

2. A segregation (Mat_25:32-33). There may be some confusion now, but there shall be a complete separation then (Mat_13:49).

3. An aggregation: believers are gathered together for several ends.

(1) To make up the number of Christs attendants (Jud_1:14; Zec_14:5; 1Th_4:17).

(2) To be presented to God by head and poll. We were given to Christ to be preserved for glory (Joh_17:6). Christ is to give an account (Joh_6:40). The form of presentation (Heb_2:13).

(3) To be brought in one troop to heaven (Joh_14:3). Conclusion: There is much comfort in this.

1. Real Christians seem few (Luk_12:32): but when there assembled they shall be a multitude that no man can number (Rev_5:9; Rev_7:9).

2. Christian friends are now separatedthen they shall meet to part no more (Mat_24:31; 1Th_4:17).

3. The Church seems in a degenerate statethen it shall be without spot. (T. Manton, D. D.)

Reunion

1. The exact word occurs only again in Heb_10:25, and that gathering is typical of this. When we meet in the House of God, for prayer, praise, instruction and communion, we are practising for that other gathering, which shall be perfect. The verb, however, occurs in two other places: one is where our Lord reminds Jerusalem how He would have gathered her children together. That idea of safe keeping, cherishing under the wing of the mother, is

involved in the gathering of the Second Advent. The other text is Mar_13:27, the interpretation of the text before us.

2. The text is used not as a terror but as an attraction. We beseech you by it, as those who would not part with it for their life. The Advent, as a regathering, is full of consolation. But it implies

I. Dispersion. There are senses in which this is tolerable. The severance of nations by dividing seas and deserts, and by the Babel judgment of divided tongues, is no affliction. It is as a type that we must read it to enter into its significance for sorrow.

1. It tells of sons and mothers parted for a lifetime by calls of duty or self-made necessities; of friends closer than brothers bidding each other a long farewell at a noisy station or a sea-washed pier; of vows of lifelong friendship broken in sudden passion; of discords which a breath would have healed; hence severance.

2. There is a dispersion of divided tongues concerning Christ in Gods behalf. Men made offenders for a word; men unable to read in identical phrase some microscopic doctrine; men, kneeling in the name of one Saviour, imputing wilful blindness to one another.

3. Then the uncharitableness of individual men must be made the watchwords and heirlooms of parties and Churches. Creeds and articles must adopt the quarrel, and anathematize the deviation as a crime. So Christs house is divided.

4. Behind and beneath all these dispersions there lurks the giant disperser, Death. Those unaffected by the other dispersions are all doomed to suffer from this.

5. But the greatest is sin. Brothers and friends may part and not part; even in this life they may be divided, and yet know that they have one home and Father. But sin divides even in its joining. Where sin is there is selfishness, and selfishness is severance.

II. The regathering. To Paul, and to all whose hearts are large and deep, there was a peculiar charm in the thought of this. I beseech you, as though no motive could be more persuasive.

1. The scene thus opened is august even to oppressiveness. Expanded from one end of heaven to the other, enhanced by multiplication of generations, till it has embraced all the living and dead who have possessed the one Divine faith which makes the communion of saints, it overwhelms and baffles the souls gaze.

2. But we must seek to refine and decarnalize our conceptions. There is a spiritual body, doubtless like that of the risen Jesus which entered the room whose doors were shut. We must reassure ourselves by thoughts of the possibility of a communion in which mind shall touch mind, and spirit breathe into spirit, and soul kindle soul with no cumbersome machineries or limiting measurements.

3. Even now we feel within ourselves an instinct of the regathering. There are those who profess to have the key of death, and to hold commerce with the departed. We could better believe them if we found in their supposed communications profiting or solemnity. But the instinct of reunion is there; we read it even in its follies.

4. Still more do we long and yearn in ourselves for that kind of union which can come only to the immortal. Here we meet and part with a sense of unrest which leaves us to the end hungry and desolate. To the friend of our souls we cannot say one half of what we meant to say, and that was not fully understood. Our love he read not, and our passing humours he took as a changed affection. But then friend shall meet friend in absolute oneness, knowing as known, because loved as loving.

5. The condition is unto Him. There are many human heavens for one Divine. We picture to ourselves a future bright with earths joys, and cloudless of earths troubles; but have we remembered that the light thereof is the Lamb. The promise of the text is vocal only to the Christian. Conclusion: Make now the great decision. If we will here trifle together, live for the world, neglect Christ, mock at sin, we must look abroad for some other hope: there is none for us in the gospel. The Advent regathering is for those only who in life have loved the appearing. (Dean Vaughan.)

The Advent as a motive

By is not a formula of adjuration. There would be no point in saying, I beseech you by the day of the Lord, not to suppose that the day of the Lord is at hand. It must be taken in the sense of on behalf of, as though he were pleading in honour of that day, that the expectation of it might not be a source of disorder in the Church. (Prof. Jowett.)

Caution against error

I. The error which the apostle disprovesthat the day of Christ was then at hand.

II. The effect which this error might producetrouble and unsettledness of mind. This implies

1. That errors breed this disquietude.

2. That Christians should be firmly established against them.

III. A removal of the foundation of this error. The brethren were not to be shaken either by spirit, by word, or by letter. (W. Burkitt, M. A.)

2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the

teaching allegedly from uswhether by a prophecy or

by word of mouth or by letterasserting that the day

of the Lord has already come.

1,BARNES, That ye be not soon shaken in mind - The word here used signifies, properly, to be moved as a wave of the sea, or to be tossed upon the waves, as a vessel is. Then it means to be shaken in any way; see Mat_11:7; Mat_24:29; Luk_6:38; Act_4:31; Heb_12:26. The reference here is to the agitation or alarm felt from the belief that the day of judgment would soon occur. It is uniformly said in the Scriptures, that the approach of the Lord Jesus to

judge the world, will produce a great consternation and alarm. Mat_24:30, then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. Rev_1:7, behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Luk_23:30, then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills Cover us; compare Isa_2:21-22.

Of the truth of this, there can be no doubt. We may imagine something of the effects which will be produced by the alarm caused in a community when a belief prevails that the day of judgment is near. In a single year (1843) 17 persons were admitted to the Lunatic Asylum in Worcester, Mass., who had become deranged in consequence of the expectation that the Lord Jesus was about to appear. It is easy to account for such facts, and no doubt, when the Lord Jesus shall actually come, the effect on the guilty world will be overwhelming. The apostle here says, also, that those who were Christians were shaken in mind and troubled by this anticipation. There are, doubtless, many true Christians who would be alarmed at such an event, as there are many who, like Hezekiah Isa_38:1-2, are alarmed at the prospect of death. Many real Christians might, on the sudden occurrence of such an event, feel that they were not prepared, and be alarmed at the prospect of passing through the great trial which is to determine their everlasting destiny. It is no certain evidence of a want of piety to be alarmed at the approach of death. Our nature dreads death, and though there may be a well-founded hope of heaven, it will not always preserve a delicate physical frame from trembling when it comes.

Or be troubled - That is, disturbed, or terrified. It would seem that this belief had produced much consternation among them.

Neither by spirit - By any pretended spirit of prophecy. But whether this refers to the predictions of those who were false prophets in Thessalonica, or to something which it was alleged the apostle Paul had himself said there, and which was construed as meaning that the time was near, is not certain. This depends much on the question whether the phrase as from us, refers only to the letters which had been sent to them, or also to the word and to the spirit, here spoken of; see Oldshausen on the place. It would seem, from the connection, that all their consternation had been caused by some misconstruction which had been put on the sentiments of Paul himself, for if there had been any other source of alarm, he would naturally have referred to it. It is probable, therefore, that allusion is made to some representation which had been given of what he had said under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and that the expectation that the end of the world was near, was supposed to be a doctrine of inspiration. Whether, however, the Thessalonians themselves put this construction on what he said, or whether those who had caused the alarm represented him as teaching this, cannot be determined.

Nor by word - That is, by public instruction, or in preaching. It is evident that when the apostle was among them, this subject, from such causes, was prominent in his discourses; see 2Th_2:5. It had been inferred, it seems, from what he said, that he meant to teach that the end of the world was near.

Nor by letter - Either the one which he had before written to them - the First Epistle to the Thessalonians - or one which had been forged in his name. As from us. That is, Paul, Silas, and Timothy, who are united in writing the two epistles 1Th_1:1; 2Th_1:1, and in whose names a letter would be forged, if one of this description were sent to them. It has been made a question, whether the apostle refers here to the former epistle which he had sent to them, or to a forged letter; and on this question critics have been about equally divided. The reasons for the former opinion may be seen in Paleys Herin Paulinae, in loc. The question is not very important, and perhaps cannot be easily settled. There are two or three circumstances, however, which seem to make it probable that he refers to an epistle which had been forged, and which had been pretended to be received from him. (1.) one is found in the expression as from us. If he had referred to his own former letter, it seems to me that the allusion would have been more distinct,

and that the particle as ( hos) would not have been used. This is such an expression as would have been employed if the reference were to such a forged letter.

(2) A second circumstance is found in the expression in the next verse, Let no man deceive you by any means, which looks as if they were not led into this belief by their own interpretation of his former epistle, but by a deliberate attempt of some one to delude them on the subject.

(3) Perhaps a third circumstance would be found in the fact that it was not uncommon in early times of Christianity to attempt to impose forged writings on the churches. Nothing would be more natural for an impostor who wished to acquire influence, than to do this; and that it was often done is well known. That epistles were forged under the names of the apostles, appears very probable, as Benson has remarked, from chap. 2Th_3:17; Gal_6:11; and Phm_1:19. There are, indeed, none of those forged epistles extant which were composed in the time of the apostles, but there is extant an epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, besides the two which we have; another to the Laodiceans, and six of Pauls epistles to Seneca - all of which are undoubted forgeries; see Benson in loc. If Paul, however, here refers to his former epistle, the reference is doubtless to 1Th_4:15, and 1Th_5:2-4, which might easily be understood as teaching that the end of the world was near, and to which those who maintained that opinion might appeal with great plausibility. We have, however, the authority of the apostle himself that he meant to teach no such thing. As that the day of Christ is at hand. The time when he would appear - called the day of Christ, because it would be appointed especially for the manifestation of his glory. The phrase at hand, means near. Grotius supposes that it denotes that same year, and refers for proof to Rom_8:38; 1Co_3:22; Gal_1:4. Heb_9:9. If so, the attempt to fix the day was an early indication of the desire to determine the very time of his appearing - a disposition which has been so common since, and which has led into so many sad mistakes.

2. CLARKE, Be not soon shaken in mind - From the mind; i.e. that they should retain the persuasion they had of the truths which he had before delivered to them; that they should still hold the same opinions, and hold fast the doctrines which they had been taught.

Neither by spirit - Any pretended revelation.

Nor by word - Any thing which any person may profess to have heard the apostle speak.

Nor by letter - Either the former one which he had sent, some passages of which have been misconceived and misconstrued; or by any other letter, as from us - pretending to have been written by us, the apostles, containing predictions of this kind. There is a diversity of opinion among critics concerning this last clause, some supposing that it refers simply to the first epistle;

others supposing that a forged epistle is intended. I have joined the two senses. The word

, to be shaken, signifies to be agitated as a ship at sea in a storm, and strongly marks the confusion and distress which the Thessalonians had felt in their false apprehension of this coming of Christ.

As that the day of Christ is at hand - In the preface to this epistle I have given a general view of the meaning of the phrase the coming of Christ. Now the question is: Whether does the apostle mean, the coming of Christ to execute judgment upon the Jews, and destroy their polity, or his coming at the end of time, to judge the world? There are certainly many expressions in the following verses that may be applied indifferently to either, and some seem to apply to the one, and not to the other; and yet the whole can scarcely be so interpreted as to suit any one of these comings exclusively. This is precisely the case with the predictions of our Lord relative to these

great events; one is used to point out and illustrate the other. On this ground I am led to think that the apostle, in the following confessedly obscure words, has both these in view, speaking of none of them exclusively; for it is the custom of the inspired penmen, or rather of that Spirit by which they spoke, to point out as many certain events by one prediction as it was possible to do, and to choose the figures, metaphors, and similes accordingly; and thus, from the beginning, God has pointed out the things that were not by the things that then existed, making the one the types or significations of the other. As the apostle spoke by the same Spirit, he most probably followed the same plan; and thus the following prophecy is to be interpreted and understood.

3. GILL, That ye be not soon shaken in mind,.... Or "from your mind or sense", as the Vulgate Latin version; or "from the solidity of sense", as the Arabic version; that is, from what they had received in their minds, and was their sense and judgment, and which they had embraced as articles of faith; that they would not be like a wave of the sea, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine; or be moved from the hope of the Gospel, from any fundamental article of it, and from that which respects the second coming of Christ particularly; and especially, that they would not be quickly and easily moved from it; see Gal_1:6 or be troubled; thrown into consternation and surprise, for though the coming of Christ will not be terrible to saints, as it will be to sinners; yet there is something in it that is awful and solemn, and fills with concern; and to be told of it as at that instant might be surprising and shocking: the several ways in which their minds might be troubled and distressed with such an account are enumerated by the apostle, that they might guard against them, and not be imposed upon by them: neither by spirit; by a prophetic spirit, by pretensions to a revelation from the Spirit, fixing the precise time of Christ's coming, which should not be heeded or attended to; since his coming will be as a thief in the night: nor by word: by reason and a show of it, by arguments drawn from it, which may carry in them a show of probability; by enticing words of man's wisdom; by arithmetical or astronomical calculations; or by pretensions to a word, a tradition of Christ or his apostles, as if they had received it "viva voce", by word of mouth from any of them: nor by letter, as from us; by forging a letter and counterfeiting their hands, for such practices began to be used very early; spurious epistles of the Apostle Paul were carried about, which obliged him to take a method whereby his genuine letters might be known; see 2Th_3:17 or he may have respect in this clause to his former epistle, wherein he had said some things concerning the Coming of Christ, which had been either wrongly represented, or not understood; and as if his sense was, that it would be while he and others then living were alive and on the spot: wherefore he would not have them neither give heed to any enthusiastic spirits, nor to any plausible reasonings of men, or unwritten traditions; nor to any letters in his name, or in the name of any of the apostles; nor even to his former letter to them, as though it contained any such thing in it, as that the day of Christ is at hand; or is at this instant just now coming on; as if it would be within that year, in some certain month, and on some certain day in it; which notion the apostle would have them by no means give into, for these reasons, because should Christ not come, as there was no reason to believe he would in so short a time, they would be tempted to disbelieve his coming at all, at least be very indifferent about it; and since if it did not prove true, they

might be led to conclude there was nothing true in the Christian doctrine and religion; and besides, such a notion of the speedy coming of Christ would tend to indulge the idle and disorderly persons among them in their sloth and negligence: and now for these, and for the weighty reasons he gives in the next verse, he dissuades them from imbibing such a tenet; for though the coming of Christ is sometimes said to be drawing nigh, and to be quickly, yet so it might be, and not at that instant; besides, such expressions are used with respect to God, with whom a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years; and because the Gospel times, or times of the Messiah, are the last days, there will be no other dispensation of things until the second coming of Christ; and chiefly they are used to keep up the faith, and awaken the hope and expectation of the saints with respect to it. The Alexandrian copy, and some others, read, "the day of the Lord"; and so the Vulgate Latin version; and accordingly the Syriac and Ethiopic versions, "the day of our Lord".

4. SPURGEON, Paul believed in the Second Coming of Christ, for he beseeches the

brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He felt the power of

this great truth. He often exhorts us to be watchful, because of the

uncertainty of the time of that coming as far as we are concerned. But

there were some who sprang up in his day, as in ours, who professed that

they knew a great deal about the Second Advent, when it was to happen,

and so on, and they began to foretell and to prophesy beyond what was

really revealed of God. By this means, some persons were terrified, and

others driven to a very foolish course of action. It would seem, from

this Epistle, that some people forsook their daily calling, and on

presence of the near return of Christ, endeavored to live upon the alms

of Christian people, instead of themselves working. Many, however, were

shaken in mind; so Paul wrote to reassure and strengthen them: That ye

be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by

word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

In the Church of Christ, the teaching has always been that Christ is

coming quickly, and that teaching must never be withdrawn, for he is

coming quickly, as he said to John in the Revelation. At the same time,

this teaching has given an opportunity to certain presumptuous people to

prophesy that at such and such a time Christ will come. They know

nothing about it, and their prophecies are not worth the breath they

spend in uttering them, and we have to-day what the apostle wrote to the

Thessalonians:

In his former Epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul had written as if he

expected Christ to come immediately, and the people seem to have taken

his words so literally as to have lived in expectation of Christs

advent, and perhaps to have exhibited some degree of fear concerning it.

He now calms their minds by telling them that Christ would not come

until certain events had happened. The history of the world was not

complete, the harvest of the Church was not ripe; neither had the sin of

man and especially the man of sin become fully developed.

5.JAMISON, soon on trifling grounds, without due consideration.

shaken literally, tossed as ships tossed by an agitated sea. Compare for the same image, Eph_4:14.

in mind rather as the Greek, from your mind, that is, from your mental steadfastness on the subject.

troubled This verb applies to emotional agitation; as shaken to intellectual.

by spirit by a person professing to have the spirit of prophecy (1Co_12:8-10; 1Jo_4:1-3). The Thessalonians had been warned (1Th_5:20, 1Th_5:21) to prove such professed prophesyings, and to hold fast (only) that which is good.

by word of mouth (compare 2Th_2:5, 2Th_2:15); some word or saying alleged to be that of Paul, orally communicated. If oral tradition was liable to such perversion in the apostolic age (compare a similar instance, Joh_21:23), how much more in our age!

by letter as from us purporting to be from us, whereas it is a forgery. Hence he gives a test by which to know his genuine letters (2Th_3:17).

day of Christ The oldest manuscripts read, day of the Lord.

is at hand rather, is immediately imminent, literally, is present; is instantly coming. Christ and His apostles always taught that the day of the Lords coming is at hand; and it is not likely that Paul would imply anything contrary here; what he denies is, that it is so immediately imminent, instant, or present, as to justify the neglect of everyday worldly duties. Chrysostom, and after him Alford, translates, is (already) present (compare 2Ti_2:18), a kindred error. But in 2Ti_3:1, the same Greek verb is translated come. Wahl supports this view. The Greek is usually used of actual presence; but is quite susceptible of the translation, is all but present.

6. CALVIN, 2That ye be not soon shaken in judgment. He employs the term judgment to denote that

settled faith which rests on sound doctrine. Now, by means of that fancy which he rejects, they would

have been carried away as it were into ecstasy. He notices, also, three kinds of imposture, as to which

they must be on their guard spirit, word, and spurious epistle. By the term spirit he means pretended

prophecies, and it appears that this mode of speaking was common among the pious, so that they

applied the term spirit to prophesyings, with the view of putting honor upon them. For, in order that

prophecies may have due authority, we must look to the Spirit of God rather than to men. But as the devil

is wont to transform himself into an angel of light, (2Co_11:14,) impostors stole this title, in order that they

might impose upon the simple. But although Paul could have stripped them of this mask, he,

nevertheless, preferred to speak in this manner, by way of concession, as though he had said, they may

pretend to have the spirit of revelation, believe them not. John, in like manner, says:

the spirits, whether they are of God. (1Jo_4:1.)

Speech, in my opinion, includes every kind of doctrine, while false teachers insist in the way of reasons or

conjectures, or other pretexts. What he adds as to epistle, is an evidence that this impudence is ancient

that of feigning the names of others. (638) So much the more wonderful is the mercy of God towards

us, in that while Paul name was on false grounds made use of in spurious writings, his writings have,

nevertheless, been preserved entire even to our times. This, unquestionably, could not have taken place

accidentally, or as the effect of mere human industry, if God himself had not by his power restrained

Satan and all his ministers.

As if the day of Christ were at hand. This may seem to be at variance with many passages of Scripture, in

which the Spirit declares that that day is at hand. But the solution is easy, for it is at hand with regard to

God, with whom one day is as a thousand years. (2Pe_3:8.) In the mean time, the Lord would have us be

constantly waiting for him in such a way as not to limit him to a certain time.

Watch, says he, for ye know neither the day nor the hour.

(Mat_24:36.)

On the other hand, those false prophets whom Paul exposes, while they ought to have kept men minds

in suspense, bid them feel assured of his speedy advent, that they might not be wearied out with the

irksomeness of delay.

(638) Des grands personnages; great personages.

7. BI, A firm anchorage

There lies a maritime figure in the word shaken. Wordsworth well paraphrases it. In order that you may not soon be shaken off from the anchorage of your firmly settled mind, and be drifted about by winds of false doctrine, as a ship in your harbor is shaken off from its moorings by the surge of the sea. They are warned against being driven out of their ordinary state of mental composureshaken out of their sanctified common sense. Thrown off their balance, is what we might say; or be troubled: the clause has a slightly climactic forcethrown into a state of unreasoning, and frenzied confusion (Mat_24:6). (J. Hutchison, D. D.)

Errors concerning the Second Advent

I. From the error disproved, observe that the time of Christs coming must be patiently expected. Not rashly defined or determined. But is this such an error (Jas_5:8; 1Pe_4:7; 1Co_10:11; Rom_13:12)? Why then should the apostle speak so vehemently against the nearness of Christ? I shall show

1. That the apostle had reason to say that the day of the Lord was at hand.

(1) With respect to faith: for faith gives a kind of presence to things which are afar off (Heb_11:1). Therein it agrees with the light of prophecy (Rev_20:12). The Second Coming is as certain to faith as if He were already come (Php_4:5).

(2) With respect to love. Love will not account it long to endure the hardships of this present world until Christ comes to set all things to rights (Gen_29:20). Faith sees the certainty of it, and love makes us hold out till the time come about.

(3) As comparing time with eternity (Psa_90:4; 2Pe_3:8). The longest time to eternity is but as a drop in the ocean. All the tediousness of the present life is but like one rainy day to an everlasting sunshine (2Co_4:17).

(4) Paul speaks to particular men, whose abode in the world is not very long. Eternity and judgment are at hand, though Christ tarry long till the Church be completed (2Pe_3:9). Now what is long, and afar off to the whole Church, considered in several successions of ages is short to particular persons. Christ is ready to judge at all times, though the world is not ready to be judged. The Coming of Christ is uncertain, that men in all ages might be quickened to watchfulness, and make preparation (Luk_12:40; Mat_24:42).

2. The seducers had little reason to pervert the apostles speech, and the apostle had good reason to confute their supposition that Christ would come in that age.

(1) To inquire after the time is curiosity (Act_1:7). It is a great evil to pry into our Masters secrets, when we have so many revealed truths to busy our minds about. It is ill manners to open a secret letter. The practice of known duties would prevent this curiosity which tends not to edification.

(2) Much more was it a sin to fix the time (Mat_24:36).

(3) The fixing of the time did harm

(a) It drew away their minds from necessary duties.

(b) It pleased Satan who is the author of error.

(c) It had a tendency to shake faith in other things when their credulity was disproved by the event.

(d) It showed a diseased mind, that they were sick of questions when they had so much wholesome food to feed upon