Believers live in light of God’s promises. A Bible study lesson for “Observing” on 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 from the Lifeway “Explore the Bible” series.

Paul teaching at the church at Thessolonica

We are continuing our lesson in 2 Thessalonians in chapter 2, verses 1-12. This letter to the Thessalonians was written not too long after Paul’s first letter.

I think what we see very clearly in both letters that the expectation of those in the church, and Paul himself, was that the Second Coming would be soon. They were waiting in almost daily expectation of it. We have a number of other letters and writings by people who were contemporaneous to the apostles, they are known as the Apostolic Fathers. You see the same thing in those writings. They thought the second coming would be soon, and in addition to that, they believed that Christians had to be faithful to escape the “wrath.”

The message was to watch and be ready.

the Second Coming of Jesus

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.

Just like today, there were people who had visited the church at Thessalonica and told them that “the day of the Lord” or Christ’s return had already come. From this passage, it makes me think that the church in Thessalonica wasn’t the only place where this was happening because Paul talks about teaching “allegedly from us,” meaning the apostles, and describes a variety of ways that the false teaching might have come: by prophecy (which in this case would have been a false one), by word of mouth “someone said or someone heard” or by letter.

While we’re going through these verses, I’m going to be providing a lot of information about how we “know what we know.” Why? Because if we are to be aware and observe, we have to know what we’re looking at and have an argument based on facts to refute false information.

Because wrong beliefs have consequences.

Documentary on the Heaven's Gate Cult

The Dangers of False Beliefs

I recently watched a documentary on the Heavens Gate cult. This is the group that committed mass suicide in 1997 and 39 people were found dead. They were basically an End Times cult.[1] They used a perversion of Scripture to deceive people and in the end the leaders were deceived themselves.

If they knew what to look for, they wouldn’t have been deceived.

But that isn’t an isolated incident. Over the past two thousand years, there has been one group after another that has claimed to have some sort of “secret knowledge” and telling people that if they don’t follow them they are going to miss out.

And today is no exception. Right now we have a group of people following a guy spouting Gematria[2] around the country[3] who is telling them that JFK and JFK Jr[4] are going to return[5] (or have returned) and that Trump is literally the second coming of Christ.[6] Even in the less “crazy” version of Qanon, many of them believe that the Bible that we have is not the actual Bible and that there are actually 617 books in the “real” Bible (or 777, the number changes). Qanon basis its claims off of Christian beliefs, but just as with the Heaven’s Gate cult, they promote a false Christ and a false plan of salvation.

Michael Proztman, known as "negative 48" at a Qanon rally in Dallas waiting for the return of JFK, Jr.

Michael Proztman, known as “negative 48” at a Qanon rally in Dallas waiting for the return of JFK, Jr.

It is a cult. And based on the Facebook posts I’ve seen and the turnout for the rallies locally, I can guarantee you that there are people in this church that are following it. This is information mat you need to know.

What is the New Testament?

What are the Letters?

One of the very common tactics of cults, and skeptics as well, is that they undermine the authority of the Bible that we have. So, I want to stop hear and talk about what the New Testament and the works that are in it actually are. As we see in this chapter, there were other letters floating around claiming to have apostolic authority. So why are the letters in our New Testament there are others not? Sometimes you will hear people say that there were all these others letters that should be part of the Bible or that there was some conspiracy with Constantine about the compilation of the Bible.

Yes, there have always been a lot of writings by Christians and nonChristians. Christians, and Jews before them, have always been known as “people of the Book.” Not just the Bible, but because of our high regard for the written word in general and its preservation.

Yes, there were other writings during the first couple of centuries … they weren’t all considered Scripture. We have the writings from early Christians that were not considered Scripture, those are known as the Apostolic Fathers and one of the very cool things about the time that we live in is that anyone can read what those early Christians wrote because it is all available online.

If you’re interested, there is a site called the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at www.ccel.org. I used this all the time when I was in graduate school. The very cool thing about this is that when we read these writings, we don’t have to speculate about how the early church thought about things, we can hear in their own words what they thought. If nothing else, I would read the letters of Clement of Rome, who learned under Peter and Paul and stepped into leadership after they were martyred, and the Didache, which I mentioned the last time I taught, which was basically a general instruction manual to the church on how to operate.

We are reading these New Testament epistles, and these are people who were hearing them read for the first time in person.

church library

So there were a bunch of writings at the time: writings from the apostles, writings from other Christians, and writings from heretics and enemies of the Christians. We know this because, as I said, the church has always been “people of the book” and they kept copies and shared them. In the past couple hundred of years, a number of these heretical writings have been found … but they didn’t come as a surprise. We knew about them because they had been mentioned by the Christian writers arguing against them.

Today, Putin is putting journalists[7] in jail[8] that even say[9] that there is a war going on. The church doesn’t operate that way. Our drama and debate has always been out in the open and on display. And not only out in the open, but recorded and preserved so others could read an learn from it.

Conditions required for a book of the New Testament to be considered canon

But in terms of the writings in the New Testament. There were two conditions for it to be included.

  1. that it was written by an apostle, someone who had been taught by Jesus himself.
  2. that it had relevance for the church at large.

Paul writes some personal details in his letters, for example he asks Timothy to bring him his cloak the next time he comes in 2 Timothy 4:13 and sends personal greetings to people occasionally, but the letters that are included have instructions to the church at large.

One thing you might hear people say about the epistles, especially Paul’s, is that the letters weren’t actually written by the people they are claimed to be written by. Again, I want to remind you what a valuable resource we have in all the early writings, writings where we have multiple copies and sometimes in multiple languages.

We’re going to stop for a minute and I want you to remember what the church actually is.

  • What we know as the church today started 2,000 years ago by one man and 12 of his students.
  • This letter that we’re reading today was written within about 20 years of the beginning of the church.
  • These are actual people who knew each other.
  • The apostles were recognized as the authority of transmitting the teachings of Jesus.

Validation of this is another area where those other early writings come in handy, because those other writers in the first century quote from those letters in the New Testament.

For example, Ignatius of Antioch quotes from:

  • the Gospel of Matthew
  • the Gospel of  Luke
  • 1 Thessalonians
  • Colossians
  • 1 Corinthians
  • Romans
  • Acts
  • Ephesians

books of the New Testament quoted by Clement of Rome

We don’t know when Ignatius was born, but he was martyred around 108 AD. Clement of Rome, who is said to have been appointed to the leadership of the church in Rome by Peter himself, quoted from

  • Hebrews
  • 1 Corinthians
  • the Gospel of Matthew
  • the Gospel of  Luke
  • Romans
  • Titus
  • Acts
  • Ephesians
  • 1 Timothy
  • James
  • 1 Peter
  • 2 Peter
  • Revelation

There is no “gap” in transmission. We have writings, like the Didache, that were written during the same time that the New Testament letters were written and writings by others in the church that quote from the letters of Scripture. And again, these were written by people in churches who had received direct teachings from the apostles. They knew who they were.

If someone says that we don’t know who the authors were is either ignorant about what they are talking about, being dishonest, or has been taught by someone who is ignorant about what they are talking about or dishonest.

There is no reason at all for confusion about this.

the church at Thessalonica

First Century Church Drama

Going back to the passage, what does that intro tell us about the church. This was a church that knew and experienced the spiritual gifts in operation, that had prophecies on a regular bases and saw the power of God. But even then, there were false prophecies. This was a church that had direct apostolic teaching from those who had been taught by Jesus himself and those apostles still walked among them, but there were those in the church that basically, just made stuff up. And the fact that he mentions letters, even though they are obviously reading a letter with this teaching, makes me think that there were false letters floating around.

In otherwords, just like today, there was a lot of drama about the Second Coming, there was drama around the spiritual gifts and people misusing them, and there were people spreading false doctrine for either clout or to make themselves something other than what they were.

Basically, nothing as changed.

And I just mention this because today there’s a lot of drama in Christian media like it’s the end of the world because there are false prophets or apostates, or heretics. Newsflash. It has always been like this. Jesus said in Matthew 11:12,

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of the heavens suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force.

What did Jesus mean by that? The “kingdom of the heavens” is the spiritual world, and John the Baptist led the advance attack in taking back the kingdom from the powers of the enemy. And we, are the violent. We have to be informed, aware, and observe.

There will be false teachings, there will be falling away, but we also know that God is over all, and it is our part to engage in that spiritual battle through the power of the Holy Spirit by fighting the error with truth. Jesus is Truth in Person.

Favorite Front of the Enemy

So if we think about this in terms of a spiritual war, and knowing that the Second Coming is just as assured as a physical event as his first was. It makes sense that the Second Coming is a favorite of the enemy to lead people astray.

watching for the return of Jesus.

What is the Day of the Lord?

This passage is talking about the Day of the Lord. Often when people think about End Times, they think about the Book of Revelation and that it’s a New Testament concept. That’s not the case. Revelation itself is really just fleshing out Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Lord. Everything has to be interpreted in light of those earlier prophecies.

When I was preparing for this lesson, I found a podcast by Michael Heiser on the Day of the Lord. I’ll send it to Erroll and you can listen to it if you like. Michael Heiser is a Biblical and Ancient Near East scholar. He used to be the scholar in residence for Logos Bible Software and now teaches at a college in Florida.

3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

Evidence of the End Times

Let’s look at the elements here that Paul gives us to identify the actual end time. There will be

  1. a rebellion
  2. a man of lawlessness
  3. He will declare himself God
  4. in God’s temple.

“God’s temple” is the temple in Jerusalem. When this letter was written, around 51-52 AD, the temple was still standing. It was destroyed in 70 AD. There are some people who try to dismiss this and say that it is allegorical, or since we Christians are now considered God’s temple, that Paul wasn’t referring to the physical temple.

I don’t think so.

Antiochius Ephiphanes descreating the Temple in Jerusalem

First of all, what Paul is telling them will happen is a repeat of what Antiochius Ephiphanes did in 167 BC when he desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem by sacrificing a pig on the altar to Zeus (this is what instigated the Maccabbean revolt). In Daniel 9:24-27, Daniel writes about the “abomination that causes desolation.”

This is part of the 70 weeks passage, where there are 69 weeks, which was the countdown to the First Coming, but then there is a pause before that last week, or 7 years, continues. I think George went over this in a lesson on this. There are different opinions about whether Daniel’s prophecy was fulfilled with Antioches (although it doesn’t fit the timeline) or a future event like it, because Paul is writing in the first century AD and he is referring to a future time.

Jesus was also referring to a future event when he says in Mark 13:14,

“When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

He was referring to a future and physical event. Back to Paul’s letter.

5 Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

Paul is talking about a spirit of lawlessness that already was working against the move of God. This work will culminate in the person who is given over to this spirit of lawlessness at some point. The interesting thing to me about this verse is Paul’s reference to the thing that is holding him back. Personally, I think this is the presence of the Holy Spirit in believers and that the Holy Spirit is “taken out of the way” with the Rapture.

8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.
Just as there were false prophecies in the early church, there will be false signs during this time. The man of lawlessness, or the Antichrist, will deceive people through signs and wonders. They will worship him as God.
They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

This, to me, is the most powerful verse in the whole passage. They refused to love truth. Because of this, they are given over to delusion. Paul is talking about the End Time deception, but this is always true. We have to love true. We have to love it more than our position, than being comfortable in our ingroups, or being right.

The Holy Spirit convicts us, but when we refuse to acknowledge the truth … We are quenching Him, rejecting that conviction, our hearts become callous and we run the risk of being turned over to a powerful delusion.

At the beginning of the lesson, I mentioned the Heaven’s Gate and Qanon cults. In the Heaven’s Gate documentary I mentioned, they interviewed a man who had left the cult, but he still believed what they taught … even today. He is still under a delusion.

I’ve read posts by people who believe the Qanon conspiracies. There have been a lot of things the cult has believed that have been proven wrong over and over again. But they still hold on, and what they say over and over again, is that they just want to be right. They want to be able to say to their friends and families that think they’re crazy. “I told you so.”

They are an extreme, but if we are wrong, stubbornness and time won’t make us right. What the time will do is take us further and further away from God.

This is what repentance is. It is saying to God, “I am wrong, you are right” and being willing to let go of the lies, no matter how important those lies and the associations founded in those lies are.

 


This Bible lesson was originally taught by Carla Alvarez on May 15, 2022 in the Kingdom Citizen Bible study Class at the Second Baptist North campus in Kingwood, Texas. The recorded video for this lesson on my Bright Sheep Ministries YouTube channel is one that has had the date manipulated.


Endnotes

** Note: As this lesson was originally written to give in person in a Bible study class, I’ve included the original sources mentioned in the class as well as added addition information about the Qanon cult and the aftermath of Michael Protzman’s deception.

 

[1] J. Tweel, Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults. Documentary. HBO Max, 2020. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11210146/.

[2] Donie O’Sullivan, “Her Son Was an Accused Cult Leader. She Says He Was a Victim, Too..” KION News 46, September 23, 2023. accessed January 22, 2025. https://kion546.com/news/2023/09/23/her-son-was-an-accused-cult-leader-she-says-he-was-a-victim-too-3/.

[3] David Gilbert, “Meet the Antisemitic QAnon Leader Who Led Followers to Dallas to Meet JFK.” Vice, November 5, 2021. accessed January 22, 2025. https://www.vice.com/en/article/qanon-dallas-jfk-michael-brian-protzman-negative48/.

[4] Andrew Paul, “Telegram’s Latest Influencer Is Too out There Even for QAnon.” Inverse, December 3, 2021, accessed January 22, 2025.

https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/telegram-qanon-jfk-dallas-michael-brian-protzman-negative48.

[5] David Gilbert, “The JFK QAnon Cult Is Heading Back to Dallas for Another ‘Second Coming.’” Vice, June 10, 2022. accessed January 22, 2025. https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-jfk-qanon-cult-is-heading-back-to-dallas-for-another-second-coming/.

[6] CNN Worldwide. “The Whole Story Investigates ‘Waiting for JFK: Report from the Fringe,’” September 18, 2023. accessed January 22, 2025. https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2023/09/18/the-whole-story-with-anderson-cooper-investigates-waiting-for-jfk-report-from-the-fringe-featuring-reporting-from-cnns-donie-osullivan/.

[7] Amnesty International. “Russian Journalists Are Being Silenced to Stifle Reporting of Protests,” November 24, 2022, accessed January 22, 2025. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/11/russia-journalists-and-independent-monitors-being-silenced-to-stifle-reporting-of-protests-new-report/.

[8] CBS News. “New Russian Law on Ukraine War Reporting Threatens Journalists with Lengthy Prison Sentences – CBS News,” March 4, 2022, accessed January 23, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-ukraine-news-war-journalists-prison-sentences/.

[9] BBC. “The Exiled Russian Journalists Challenging Kremlin Censorship,” October 6, 2022, accessed January 23, 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62896828.