2 Thessalonians 2:1
BY THE COMING OF OUR LORD; rather, in respect to the coming of our Lord, of which he had just spoken.... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THE COMING OF OUR LORD; rather, in respect to the coming of our Lord, of which he had just spoken.... [ Continue Reading ]
BY SPIRIT; by any pretended revelation from the Spirit of God. AS FROM US; professing to come from us. The apostles did not teach that the day of judgment or the end of the world was near; but that the day of death, when their hearers would be called into eternity, was near, and that they should be... [ Continue Reading ]
A FALLING AWAY; a great apostasy from the faith and practice of the gospel. THAT MAN OF SIN; the words "man of sin" are to be understood not of any single person, but of a wicked system presided over and directed by a succession of wicked men. The words of the apostle clearly describe that great sy... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO OPPOSETH AND EXALTETH HIMSELF ABOVE ALL THAT IS CALLED GOD; opposeth the gospel of Christ as revealed in the Bible, and persecutes those who embrace it. See the history of Wickliffe, Huss, and Jerome of Prague, of the Waldenses, of the Inquisition, of Mary queen of England, and of St. Bartholome... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE THINGS; that there would be a great apostasy before the coming of Christ to judgment. Of course that event was not near. Verse 2 Thessalonians 2:2. The rise and progress of the papacy and all its abominations, in exact fulfilment of the declarations of Paul, uttered and recorded hundreds of ye... [ Continue Reading ]
WITHHOLDETH; holdeth back or hindereth the development of the man of sin, and his claiming the high powers and prerogatives which he afterwards assumed.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY; that ambitious, proud, covetous, and domineering spirit, which the popes afterwards exhibited in assuming to be lords temporal and spiritual. HE WHO NOW LETTETH; the Roman government, which, while it lasted, prevented the rise of the papal civil government. UNTIL HE BE TAK... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN; after the downfall of the Roman empire. THAT WICKED; the wicked one, the man of sin and son of perdition spoken of in verse 2 Thessalonians 2:3. BE REVEALED; manifest himself; claim to be universal bishop and lord of the kings of the earth. SHALL CONSUME WITH THE SPIRIT OF HIS MOUTH; compare... [ Continue Reading ]
AFTER THE WORKING OF SATAN; by his aid, and like him deceitful, crafty, and wicked. LYING WONDERS; pretending to work miracles when they do not, and the pretence is a lie designed to delude the ignorant.... [ Continue Reading ]
Satan has had much to do in the rise and progress of popery, and now has much to do in sustaining it, by wars and bloodshed, persecution and cruelty, deceit and falsehood, and by those pretended miracles and lying wonders, by which multitudes, who receive not the truth in the love of it, are deceive... [ Continue Reading ]
DECEIVABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS; all deceitful arts and practices to promote their selfish and unrighteous schemes. IN THEM THAT PERISH; added to show over whom the wicked and lying arts of the man of sin have power. BECAUSE THEY RECEIVED NOT; still further added to show why the men just spoken... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THIS CAUSE; because they hate and reject the truth. SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION; permit it in his providence to come upon them as a righteous judgment for their hatred and rejection of the truth. BELIEVE A LIE; those lying wonders and false immoral doctrines propagated by the man of sin, t... [ Continue Reading ]
CHOSEN YOU TO SALVATION THROUGH SANCTIFICATION-AND BELIEF OF THE TRUTH; God not only chooses his people to salvation, but he chooses the way also-"sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth"-a way in which they "work out" their "own salvation with fear and trembling," while God "worketh in... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREUNTO; to salvation in the way just mentioned.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TRADITIONS; instructions which the apostle had given them in preaching and by writing. Traditions, in the sense in which the word is used by the apostles, are the doctrines and duties which they preached, and which are recorded in the Bible. These are the traditions and the only traditions which... [ Continue Reading ]