nikolai_42
Well-known member
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2 Thess 2:3-4
We all have different identities (each one of us does). We have the identities of Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Son, Grandparent etc.... - and we wear more than one of those by necessity. But we also have the identities of our work : Doctor, Lawyer, Plumber, Teacher, Janitor, Homemaker etc...Then there's the identity of our citizenship. We live in different cities - which are in different counties, boroughs or municipalities - which are in different states or provintes - which are in different countries. There's three more identities we carry around. We also have religious affiliations - and as Christians, we have denominational identities - even if that identity is "Non-Denominational". Within the church, God has set people in different roles again - these are roles that don't necessarily line up with the work identities listed above. Preachers, teachers, evangelists etc.... and then there are gifts of various stripes that don't necessarily translate to a single occupation (gifts of charity, faith and helps - for example). These are all identities which we have. Above all these, however, is the primary identity we have as being "in Christ".
Many of those identities, however, are superficial. They only describe activity or position relative to another. And even within the rather superficial designations, there are degrees of conformity. Everyone who has given birth to - or fathered - a child is by definition a parent. But how much of a father is the biological father? How close to that role does he hold? Is he really walking that out or is he more like an actor playing a role? Even the designation of nationality can be variously superficial or a very deep identification. There are many who are American whose patriotism runs to the core of their being - just as there are others who use it as a status simply to get themselves benefits. Even jobs have that spectrum of identification. We've all known that teacher whose entire life seems to be wrapped up in teaching and will go beyond the basic requirements of the job to bring the material home to his or her students. Likewise, the teacher that just "phones it in" is also a reality. Both of those teachers have identities as teachers - but only one of them really bears that identity in the full sense of the word.
I don't imagine I need to go into great detail about the spectrum of identities that exist in the church. One may be a nominal (fill in the denomination here) or one may imbibe deeply the tenets of his or her denomination (or non-denomination) such that they are a vivid representation of what it looks like to be a true member of that church. And the only real difference with non-denominational members is that they don't have to adhere to a clear set of dogma (most of the time) beyond very basic confessions of faith in Christ and the bible as inspired. For the purposes of this post, they are no different than the Presbyterian who has the Westminster Confession committed to memory and walks it out faithfully. Both of them can - at least theoretically - claim to be in Christ. Of course, creeds are a double-edged sword. They can make clear and ready the distinctives of the faith - but being set up by man, they can also (unintentionally) serve to obscure the simplicity of the gospel in certain situations. The Jerusalem council in Acts distilled the Law down to a few simple directives for the Gentiles to follow without getting caught up in tangential or peripheral declarations. But there again, the non-denom doesn't get away without potentially being theologically arrogant in dismissing those who have gone before as being helpful at times - but doing so strictly at their own judgment. Neither way is immune from pitfalls. So we are left with the realization that the most faithful Presbyterian and the most devoted non-denomination bible reader both require the most fundamental identity - that of being in Christ. Without it, the creeds and confessions are a second Mosaic-like Law that one follows diligently in an effort to win one's salvation. Or the non-denom's smugness in rejecting creeds and confessions because he has the bible only - that is merely pride to hide the fact that the only real identity that matters is not even in one's commitment to being "simply biblical". In fact, one may be nearer the truth in scripture and inured from conviction by their proximity to it. But the reality remains that creeds and "non-creeds" can alike blind to the truth about one's fundamental identity. One may be an earnest churchgoer in any bible-believing church and just as lost because that foundational identity is not a reality.
From that identity (i.e. whether being in Christ or not) flows the reality of one's foundation. All the rest - while certainly good and helpful - can be used to obscure the truth. And a people that are caught up more in other identities - and we have established that there are a large number of them that everyone has just by being alive - than being in Christ, are easily deceived.
To avoid going on for too long, I will go to the passage already quoted. Very simply, look at the order of the clauses in verse 4. Look at how they are joined. The first clause is what effects the second clause. It is the exaltation and worship of this Man of Sin that puts him in the temple of God. And it is his being in that temple that puts him on display as God. The first point is that this order makes it next to impossible to have fulfillment in a man physically occupying a physical temple in Jerusalem. It is the worship and exaltation itself that puts him in the temple as God. And the fact that Paul uses this word for temple (naos) only in a spiritual sense (I Cor 3:16-17, I Cor 6:19, 2 Cor 6:16, Eph 2:21) is strong indication that this time should be no different. Further, he is writing to Gentiles at Thessalonica - another impulse to read Paul's use of the word in a spiritual sense. And even if we were to try to read this in a literal sense, a man standing in a temple claiming to be God does not either make it so or convince the masses that it is so. I again point out that the thing that is in view is the worship of this Man of Sin putting him in the "temple" AND associated with the great apostasy. That apostasy is none other than those in the church being duped into worshiping a false God - because they didn't receive a love of the truth but had pleasure, rather, in unrighteousness (2 Thess 2:10-12). They are easily led away by false signs and wonders (Matt 24:23-24) because of their rejection of the truth. And note that people fall away - not because of their own fallible faculties (we all have that), but because God allowed them to be given over :
Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Matthew 24:23-24
Which is what is going on in 2 Thess 2:11
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2 Thess 2:11
This deception is so great - such a strong delusion - that even the elect would fall for it if it weren't for the fact that God has not allowed them to be given over to it.
Those who are content with an identification that is (non-)denominational or one that focuses on their gifts and abilities or their relationship to others (or even one evidenced by how a service makes them feel or meets their felt needs) is missing the fact that these identities are not entirely other. The only true Christian identity is "in Christ".
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
Colossians 3:1-7
The Man of Sin need not be some individual who arises bodily to take God's very glory to himself (though it might - and the Papacy evidences this fact), but in an age where self-denial is a dirty word and "my rights" are always to be in view, it is little wonder that the church has - by enlarge - become a place where we can go and get our needs and wants met. Where we can have "sanctified therapy" and get what we think we need. Christ said that anyone who does not hate father, mother, brother and sister is not worthy of Him. Then He follows it up with the point that anyone who does not take up his cross daily CANNOT be His disciple. This is antithetical to the broad message in the churches in the West today. The gospel offends the proud and gives grace to the humble. What we want to hold on to is the very thing that Christ wants rid of. Not because it is necessarily inherently vile - but because it replaces that which Christ would do in us.
The church in the West is facing a grim time - physically speaking. Culturally, there is an increase in hatred and animosity towards anything that would tread underfoot the "freedom" that is now just a license to do what "I" want. And unless the church resists this with all its might and resists the temptation to play to the desires of its congregation, it will go under along with the broader culture that is now running headlong into utter ruin. As the restraints are increasingly removed (and there are few left) in society to the point where those who really want to follow Christ are literally risking their very lives to do so, many will get swept up - are now getting swept up - in the deception of feel-good, self-serving christianity. And they do so at the peril of their souls. Things that they might once have rejected as not to be compared with the riches in Christ might now have more allure for them and their gaze is being drawn from the only One who can truly satisfy. Identities in relationships have become such a large focus that the identity in Christ is (subtly, at first) overcome by a seemingly good identity that is focused on other people. It is subtle because we are called to love others - but that love is only valid if of Christ (we love Him because He first loved us AND we love the brethren only because of His love for us). How easy, then, to glorify human relationships in the church at the potential expense of knowing Christ. The rates of divorce and infidelity sweeping the evangelical church are indication enough that this has happened. Christ suffered loneliness we can't even fathom. And if He calls us to suffer alone - and many will - we need to be equipped with His Word and the knowledge of our identity in Him and in Him alone. All other identities are only valid if subservient to that one identity.
But if we identify in any way with the popular God that exalts man, we are at grave risk of being deceived. The one who is looking for an entertaining worship service, many signs and wonders, self-affirming teaching or unoffensive preaching is going to be caught off guard when the Lord returns to judge His church. They will not be ready for the intense persecution that is coming to cleanse the church. He will thoroughly purge His floor. Only those who consider their lives as nothing - things only to be spent in the service of Christ - will be able to stand in the day of testing that is coming upon the whole earth. No matter how much bible we know, how well we know a faithful creed, how much we know of a good teaching - the only identity that will keep us in the day of testing is that one : "in Christ". The rest of what calls itself the church will believe and follow a lie. We may know the bible better than anyone else - but unless we know Him AND are known OF Him, it will profit us nothing. Is our real identity in Christ or is it in something (or someone) else?
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2 Thess 2:3-4
We all have different identities (each one of us does). We have the identities of Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Son, Grandparent etc.... - and we wear more than one of those by necessity. But we also have the identities of our work : Doctor, Lawyer, Plumber, Teacher, Janitor, Homemaker etc...Then there's the identity of our citizenship. We live in different cities - which are in different counties, boroughs or municipalities - which are in different states or provintes - which are in different countries. There's three more identities we carry around. We also have religious affiliations - and as Christians, we have denominational identities - even if that identity is "Non-Denominational". Within the church, God has set people in different roles again - these are roles that don't necessarily line up with the work identities listed above. Preachers, teachers, evangelists etc.... and then there are gifts of various stripes that don't necessarily translate to a single occupation (gifts of charity, faith and helps - for example). These are all identities which we have. Above all these, however, is the primary identity we have as being "in Christ".
Many of those identities, however, are superficial. They only describe activity or position relative to another. And even within the rather superficial designations, there are degrees of conformity. Everyone who has given birth to - or fathered - a child is by definition a parent. But how much of a father is the biological father? How close to that role does he hold? Is he really walking that out or is he more like an actor playing a role? Even the designation of nationality can be variously superficial or a very deep identification. There are many who are American whose patriotism runs to the core of their being - just as there are others who use it as a status simply to get themselves benefits. Even jobs have that spectrum of identification. We've all known that teacher whose entire life seems to be wrapped up in teaching and will go beyond the basic requirements of the job to bring the material home to his or her students. Likewise, the teacher that just "phones it in" is also a reality. Both of those teachers have identities as teachers - but only one of them really bears that identity in the full sense of the word.
I don't imagine I need to go into great detail about the spectrum of identities that exist in the church. One may be a nominal (fill in the denomination here) or one may imbibe deeply the tenets of his or her denomination (or non-denomination) such that they are a vivid representation of what it looks like to be a true member of that church. And the only real difference with non-denominational members is that they don't have to adhere to a clear set of dogma (most of the time) beyond very basic confessions of faith in Christ and the bible as inspired. For the purposes of this post, they are no different than the Presbyterian who has the Westminster Confession committed to memory and walks it out faithfully. Both of them can - at least theoretically - claim to be in Christ. Of course, creeds are a double-edged sword. They can make clear and ready the distinctives of the faith - but being set up by man, they can also (unintentionally) serve to obscure the simplicity of the gospel in certain situations. The Jerusalem council in Acts distilled the Law down to a few simple directives for the Gentiles to follow without getting caught up in tangential or peripheral declarations. But there again, the non-denom doesn't get away without potentially being theologically arrogant in dismissing those who have gone before as being helpful at times - but doing so strictly at their own judgment. Neither way is immune from pitfalls. So we are left with the realization that the most faithful Presbyterian and the most devoted non-denomination bible reader both require the most fundamental identity - that of being in Christ. Without it, the creeds and confessions are a second Mosaic-like Law that one follows diligently in an effort to win one's salvation. Or the non-denom's smugness in rejecting creeds and confessions because he has the bible only - that is merely pride to hide the fact that the only real identity that matters is not even in one's commitment to being "simply biblical". In fact, one may be nearer the truth in scripture and inured from conviction by their proximity to it. But the reality remains that creeds and "non-creeds" can alike blind to the truth about one's fundamental identity. One may be an earnest churchgoer in any bible-believing church and just as lost because that foundational identity is not a reality.
From that identity (i.e. whether being in Christ or not) flows the reality of one's foundation. All the rest - while certainly good and helpful - can be used to obscure the truth. And a people that are caught up more in other identities - and we have established that there are a large number of them that everyone has just by being alive - than being in Christ, are easily deceived.
To avoid going on for too long, I will go to the passage already quoted. Very simply, look at the order of the clauses in verse 4. Look at how they are joined. The first clause is what effects the second clause. It is the exaltation and worship of this Man of Sin that puts him in the temple of God. And it is his being in that temple that puts him on display as God. The first point is that this order makes it next to impossible to have fulfillment in a man physically occupying a physical temple in Jerusalem. It is the worship and exaltation itself that puts him in the temple as God. And the fact that Paul uses this word for temple (naos) only in a spiritual sense (I Cor 3:16-17, I Cor 6:19, 2 Cor 6:16, Eph 2:21) is strong indication that this time should be no different. Further, he is writing to Gentiles at Thessalonica - another impulse to read Paul's use of the word in a spiritual sense. And even if we were to try to read this in a literal sense, a man standing in a temple claiming to be God does not either make it so or convince the masses that it is so. I again point out that the thing that is in view is the worship of this Man of Sin putting him in the "temple" AND associated with the great apostasy. That apostasy is none other than those in the church being duped into worshiping a false God - because they didn't receive a love of the truth but had pleasure, rather, in unrighteousness (2 Thess 2:10-12). They are easily led away by false signs and wonders (Matt 24:23-24) because of their rejection of the truth. And note that people fall away - not because of their own fallible faculties (we all have that), but because God allowed them to be given over :
Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Matthew 24:23-24
Which is what is going on in 2 Thess 2:11
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2 Thess 2:11
This deception is so great - such a strong delusion - that even the elect would fall for it if it weren't for the fact that God has not allowed them to be given over to it.
Those who are content with an identification that is (non-)denominational or one that focuses on their gifts and abilities or their relationship to others (or even one evidenced by how a service makes them feel or meets their felt needs) is missing the fact that these identities are not entirely other. The only true Christian identity is "in Christ".
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
Colossians 3:1-7
The Man of Sin need not be some individual who arises bodily to take God's very glory to himself (though it might - and the Papacy evidences this fact), but in an age where self-denial is a dirty word and "my rights" are always to be in view, it is little wonder that the church has - by enlarge - become a place where we can go and get our needs and wants met. Where we can have "sanctified therapy" and get what we think we need. Christ said that anyone who does not hate father, mother, brother and sister is not worthy of Him. Then He follows it up with the point that anyone who does not take up his cross daily CANNOT be His disciple. This is antithetical to the broad message in the churches in the West today. The gospel offends the proud and gives grace to the humble. What we want to hold on to is the very thing that Christ wants rid of. Not because it is necessarily inherently vile - but because it replaces that which Christ would do in us.
The church in the West is facing a grim time - physically speaking. Culturally, there is an increase in hatred and animosity towards anything that would tread underfoot the "freedom" that is now just a license to do what "I" want. And unless the church resists this with all its might and resists the temptation to play to the desires of its congregation, it will go under along with the broader culture that is now running headlong into utter ruin. As the restraints are increasingly removed (and there are few left) in society to the point where those who really want to follow Christ are literally risking their very lives to do so, many will get swept up - are now getting swept up - in the deception of feel-good, self-serving christianity. And they do so at the peril of their souls. Things that they might once have rejected as not to be compared with the riches in Christ might now have more allure for them and their gaze is being drawn from the only One who can truly satisfy. Identities in relationships have become such a large focus that the identity in Christ is (subtly, at first) overcome by a seemingly good identity that is focused on other people. It is subtle because we are called to love others - but that love is only valid if of Christ (we love Him because He first loved us AND we love the brethren only because of His love for us). How easy, then, to glorify human relationships in the church at the potential expense of knowing Christ. The rates of divorce and infidelity sweeping the evangelical church are indication enough that this has happened. Christ suffered loneliness we can't even fathom. And if He calls us to suffer alone - and many will - we need to be equipped with His Word and the knowledge of our identity in Him and in Him alone. All other identities are only valid if subservient to that one identity.
But if we identify in any way with the popular God that exalts man, we are at grave risk of being deceived. The one who is looking for an entertaining worship service, many signs and wonders, self-affirming teaching or unoffensive preaching is going to be caught off guard when the Lord returns to judge His church. They will not be ready for the intense persecution that is coming to cleanse the church. He will thoroughly purge His floor. Only those who consider their lives as nothing - things only to be spent in the service of Christ - will be able to stand in the day of testing that is coming upon the whole earth. No matter how much bible we know, how well we know a faithful creed, how much we know of a good teaching - the only identity that will keep us in the day of testing is that one : "in Christ". The rest of what calls itself the church will believe and follow a lie. We may know the bible better than anyone else - but unless we know Him AND are known OF Him, it will profit us nothing. Is our real identity in Christ or is it in something (or someone) else?