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The Acts of the Apostles
so clearly described by the prophet Daniel, was yet to rise and wage
war against God’s people. Until this power should have performed its
deadly and blasphemous work, it would be in vain for the church to
look for the coming of their Lord. “Remember ye not,” Paul inquired,
“that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?”
Terrible were the trials that were to beset the true church. Even at
the time when the apostle was writing, the “mystery of iniquity” had
already begun to work. The developments that were to take place in the
future were to be “after the working of Satan with all power and signs
and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in
them that perish.”
Especially solemn is the apostle’s statement regarding those who
should refuse to receive “the love of the truth.” “For this cause,” he
declared of all who should deliberately reject the messages of truth,
“God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness.” Men cannot with impunity reject the
warnings that God in mercy sends them. From those who persist in
turning from these warnings, God withdraws His Spirit, leaving them
to the deceptions that they love.
Thus Paul outlined the baleful work of that power of evil which
was to continue through long centuries of darkness and persecution
before the second coming of Christ. The Thessalonian believers had
hoped for immediate deliverance; now they were admonished to take
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up bravely and in the fear of God the work before them. The apostle
charged them not to neglect their duties or resign themselves to idle
waiting. After their glowing anticipations of immediate deliverance
the round of daily life and the opposition that they must meet would
appear doubly forbidding. He therefore exhorted them to steadfastness
in the faith:
“Stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught,
whether by word, or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us
everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your
hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.” “The Lord is
faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil. And we have
confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the