“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.”
– 2 Thessolians 2:3
IN THIS PASSAGE, Apostle Paul recognizes that for true believers and indeed all mankind, the danger of deception is real and grave (cf Matt. 24:4) The anticipated methods of this deceit are many and limitless. The enemy of Christ, and, the same is the enemy of the church will use signs, apparent miracles, deliberate, erroneous interpretations of the Word of God in the Bible, to lead the unwary into accepting the great delusion, and through conducts and speech to give offence to devout believers so that such might “fall away”.
This “falling away” Greek “apostasia” or the apostasy in this passage is preceded by the Greek definite article “he”, ‘the’ to indicate a definite apostasy which implies that a definite apostasy is referred to, and implies that this falling away is well known and expected. Paul in his address to the Ephesian church predicted that the apostasy would be due to leaders (pastors, teachers, prophets etc) in the church arising to draw away disciples after them (ACTS 20:30). He warned Timothy of similar dangers, emphasing that, a time was coming when men would turn to fables, closing their ears to the truth (1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Tim.4:3,4) Apostle Peter and Jude speak with searing words about those who have forsaken the right way (2 Peter 2:1, 12 – 22; Jude 4, 10 – 13) And John the beloved testifies that at the time of his writing (About AD C90) many antichrist have come (I John 2 : 18) our Lord Jesus Christ Himself urged His followers to beware of false prophets (Matt. 7 : 15; 24 : 24) and predicted that many would be offended (Matt. 24:10) or caused to stumble (Matt 5 : 29).
This apostasy or falling away will be spearheaded, directed, organized and put-up by the “man of sin:, the “lawless one who oppreseth and exalted himself above all that is called God”. This wicked one “sitteth in the church of God, showing himself as God” (see 2 Thess. 2 : 4). The common name of this wicked one, the man of sin, the son of perdition is Satan – the enemy and falsifier of God’s Word (see Matt. 13:19, 39). According to the N.T. writers, he leads and heads a plurality of evil spirits (Matt. 8: 28; 9: 34; 12: 26; Luke 11:8, 19), endowed with high talents, powers and knowledge (Matt. 8: 29; Mark 1: 24). Thus the whole history of the world subsequent to Christ is replete with the struggles against Satan’s army pitched against the church. Thus Satan and his destructive army have entered the church of Christ and now seek to establish in these days, a strong foot-hold by using reprobate pastors, evangelists and teachers etc among the brethren to falsify God’s Words, presenting the acclamation and application of false powers, especially in the preachers of “Faith and Prosperity” Satan has enlisted many of such pastors, preachers, evangelists and prophets into his service, without their knowing it.
Thus the enemy of Christ is now very much shed abroad and infiltrated the church so much that some pastors and preachers etc have cast to the wind, the care and caution they ought to exercise in the struggle against Satan, to sustain and edify the spirits of their congregations of believers. Most of the pulpits today are of the Satan – preaching the doctrines of Satan inherent in Faith, Prosperity and Power. Believers are nolonger fed with the Word of God to humbly “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33; Luke 12:31), but are driven by a false and wrong interpretation and application of 2 Tim. 3:5 to extol the power of God as Satan puts into their hearts.
Most of these agents of Satan teach a funny application of Prov. 18:21 (“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof”). A passage which teaches controlled use of the tongue which naturally defys taming (see James 3:8) Essentially this passage teaches the great need to control the tongue, for the man who successfully controls his tongue is the perfect man, because having tamed the most difficult member, he is able also to bridle the whole body. It also teaches that the tongue can also be used to bless and praise God – its highest purpose.
The foregoing, the agents of perdition now apply to deny God His glory and teach that with the tongue man can decree anything into existence, instead of praying to God, and interceding for the assistance of our merciful God who is ever willing to supply our needs, if we ask, and seek and knock.(see Matt 6:33; Luke 12:31)
And Job 22:28 “Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee and the light shall shine upon thy ways” This they take out of context of the preceding arguments between Job and his friends. The ‘also’ in the passage is a reference to an established condition of supplication in faith. To teach that the believer could look into a mirror in his front and “speak or call out the Christ in him and decree his needs and gets what he so decrees for” is not far from the false principle of “pelmanism in occultism” such is not only denying God his established supreme deityship and the attendant glory but also tends to advocate that Christians should begin to play god in the manner of the son of perdition (2 Thess. 2:4) And this is leading believers away from God (see Acts 20:30). In other cases ‘believers’ are instructed to get sand from their homes to church for deliverance. The greedy among the so-called pastors demand thousands of Naira for “deliverance”, others require their victims to bring a certain amount of cash as “contact point” to church, lay the sum at the feet of the pastor who places some drops of Olive (anointing) oil into the member’s palm and mutters some words, and the member is told “to go in faith unto securing his needs”.
In this admixture of the principles of occultism, pelmanism, necromancy, soccery, enchantment with Christianity, God is robbed of His glory, which He declared He will not share with anybody. (see Isa.42:8) Thus Christians are led away from total reliance upon the power, love and grace of God. This conforms with Apostle Paul’s predictive warning in 2 Tim. 4:3, 4 saying “For time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables”. This warning is very apt for today’s church. It emphasizes the importance of sound teaching of the Scriptures because of the dangers of falling away or apostasy which is fast gaining ground in the church.
The itching ears in the passage is a reference to those who clap hands in approbation of the satisfaction of their sinful desire which are being extolled from the pulpit, an attitude that was powerfully and clearly characterized in Isaiah 30:9-11
“That this rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord.
“Which say to the seers, see not; and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
“Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us”.
The foregoing passage depicts the situation in most of today’s churches, but hidden under the false and deceitful acclamation of Christ – an outward exhibition of belivership that is in constant conflict with the inner man- the Spirit of God. in such pastors, teachers, preachers and their members, who have strayed from truth and are completely satisfied with error which is what they are always delighted to hear – “you will get exceeding rich before the end of the month, year or whatever. God will release the abundance of heavely treasure to you, your past notwithstanding” – thus they demand messages they know to be in error. The very thought of holiness stires within them, feelings of resentment and hatred. They rejoice in perverseness, in their arrogant refusal to heed the truth. To these rebrobate preachers and their hearers, Apostle Paul says in 2 Thess. 2:10-12 “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And, for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness”.
Some now argue that this passage is a reference to the unregenerated on the authority of Matt. 24:24, but among these are reprobate pastors and preachers etc. with seared conscience who have mortgaged their faith to worldliness – wealth and earthly desires — hence the falling away (2 Thess. 2:3) This category of pastors, preachers and their congregation referred to by Apostle Paul in 2 Tim. 4:3 bear resemblance with the character of priests and people in Hosea 4:9 – “And there shall be like people, like priests: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings” indicating that the people and their priests are bound together in this sin. The apostate pastors engaged in leading the people into the very iniquities to dishonor God, which they should be reproving. In turn the people take note of the worldliness and self-indulgence of the of the pastors, hide behind the utterances and directives of the pastors – consciously or unconsciously. As a number of ‘Divines’ say “Neither secular greatness shall exempt the laity, nor the dignity of the order, the priest (pastor)” Both alike will be held responsible before the judgment of God.
To be continued next week
