Back in 2014, a popular film called Heaven Is For Real told the story of a 3-year-old boy who had a near-death experience. Afterwards he told his parents stories about his trip to Heaven. This story is often touted as “proof” that Heaven is real.
But as the Lord said, “no man hath ascended up to heaven” (John 3:13). We know that later, when Paul was stoned to death (Acts 14:19), he was “caught up to the third heaven” (II Cor. 12:2), but this was so he could continue to “come to visions and revelations of the Lord” (v. 1). Now that the Bible is complete, there is no need of any further revelations from God, and so there is no need for anyone to be caught up to heaven and return.
The only reliable information about heaven is found in God’s Word. After describing the vision of the kingdom of heaven that the Lord gave him, Peter added that the Word of God was “more sure” than what he had seen with his own eyes (II Pet. 1:16-19).
It’s tempting to think that this boy’s experience will persuade people to believe, but Abraham was right: “if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31).
To put “confidence” in someone (3:4) means to put your trust in them (Psalm 118:8). Since the Lord was trustworthy, Paul had “confidence in the Lord” (3:4) concerning many things. He was “confident” he was saved (II Corinthians 5:6-8), because he was “confident” that the Lord would keep him saved (Phil.1:6).
But how could Paul tell the Thessalonians that he had “confidence in the Lord touching you” (3:4). Well, the Thessalonians were an exemplary church (ITh.1:7), they had done what he’d commanded in the past, so he was confident they’d continue to do what he commanded. But how could he “have confidence” in the Corinthians “in all things” (IICor.7:16) even “great confidence” (8:22). Well, you’ll notice these references were from Paul’s second letter to them. Evidently they’d done some of the things he commanded in his first letter to them
But the past good performance of the Thessalonians was no guarantee they would continue to do what he commanded, so how could Paul say he had confidence in them—and the Galatians (Gal. 5:10)? Their past performance had left him “in doubt” of them (Gal.4:20), not with confidence in them.
True, Paul had “confidence in the Lord” in them, but the Lord wouldn’t make them obey the apostle’s commands.
Well, when the Lord first told Paul He was going to save people by grace and just expect they’d do what He commanded because they were grateful to be saved, I think Paul had his doubts because he had no confidence in men. But he had confidence in the Lord concerning them, and this confidence reflected God’s own confidence in us.
We see this confidence illustrated when Paul reminded Philemon he should do what he asked him to do since he had led him to the Lord (Phile.1:19), a picture of how we should do what God asks just because we are grateful He saved us. When Paul went on to express confidence that Philemon would obey him (v.21), it expresses God’s confidence we’ll do what He says. Religion says that you can’t tell someone they can’t be lost or they’ll refuse to obey God, but God says He is confident we’ll do “more” than He says under law (Phile.1:21b). Religion says you can’t tell believers they don’t have to tithe or they won’t give at all, but God is confident that those who can afford to will give more than ten percent.
Paul was confident they were already doing what he commanded even though he was gone (3:4). Compare this to how Moses predicted after he left they’d cease to obey (Deut.31:217-29), and that was the pattern under the Law (Judges 2:18,19). Under grace, God’s people do “much more” in the absence of a spiritual authority (Phil.2:12).
There are commands under grace, Pauline commands (ICor.14:37). Paul makes over 600 imperative command statements, some of which sound like the ten commandments (ITh.4:2,3), of which he repeats 9 of the 10
In Paul’s benediction he expresses a desire that the Lord would “direct” the Thessalonians. Proverbs 16:9 makes it sound like men devise a way and God overpowers their will to direct them in another way. Verses like that make Calvinists believe God causes our every move, but that would make Him responsible for our sin. God directs men with His Word (Isa.40:13). There is no evidence He directed Cyrus (Isa.45:13) audibly. Rather, when he learned that God had surnamed him centuries before his birth (Isa.45:1-4), he figured he’d better do what His Word said to do! Of course, you have to be willing to let God’s Word direct you, as Cyrus was. That’s the meaning of Proverbs 3:5,6. If you’ll let the Word direct you, you’ll find life as easy as cutting wood with a sharp tool (Eccl.10:10). There’s a reason God says the way of the sinner is hard (Pr.13:15)
God’s love for us (3:5) isn’t something their hearts needed to be directed into, for His love was shed abroad in their hearts (Rom.5:5,6). Paul was hoping their hearts would be directed into loving God, which always means keeping His commandments (Ex.20:6; Deut. 10:12; John 14:21; IJohn 5:3). In context, of course, he meant Pauline commandments, including “the patient waiting for Christ” (3:5).
This morning as I was frying my breakfast bacon, I was thinking about all the Christians who pass on this tasty treat due to the Law’s prohibition. Despite Paul’s declaration that we are not under the Law (Rom. 6:15), and his assurance that “every creature of God is good” (I Tim. 4:4), these dear brethren remain convinced that “the swine…is unclean” (Lev. 11:7).
If this is your religious conviction, we would invite you to consider the reason God determined that pork was unclean. After God instructed Peter to eat some unclean animals (Acts 10:9-16), you would think that he would say: “God showed me that I should not call any animal unclean.” Instead, he testified that God had showed him “that I should not call any man common or unclean” (Acts 10:28). You see, Peter understood that the only reason God made certain meats unclean was to teach Israel that certain people were unclean: the Gentiles.
“…I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean…” (Lev. 20:24,25).
We know that those who hold that pork is still unclean would never say that any people are still unclean, and so we invite all who hold this view to recognize the symbolism that Peter understood and acknowledged, and rejoice with us that in the dispensation of God’s grace there are no foods—or people—that are unclean in God’s sight.
We know that people in heaven remember their past lives from Revelation 6:10. Here John sees a vision of heaven wherein martyred saints cry for vengeance on those who caused them to be “slain” (v. 9). It would be hard to believe that God would allow people in heaven to have memories of people like this (cf. Rev. 18:20) and not memories of loved ones.
In addition, Abraham called upon the rich man in hell to “remember” Lazarus (Luke 16:25). If God allows people in hell to be tormented by memories of the people they knew during life, it would be difficult to believe He would not allow people in heaven to be comforted by the memories of their loved ones.
Finally, we know there is recognition in heaven since our bodies will be fashioned like unto the Lord’s resurrection body (Phil. 3:21), and He was only not recognizable to His loved ones when “their eyes were holden” (Luke 24:16). Additionally, Paul knew he’d be comforted by seeing the Thessalonians in heaven (I Thes. 2:19). Well, if our loved ones in heaven don’t remember us now, will they suddenly recognize and remember us when we ourselves arrive in heaven? It seems more natural to believe that our deceased friends, family, and spouses remember us now and already love us with the perfect love that we will have for one another throughout eternity
Paul asked every church he wrote to pray for him, except the Galatians, and it is easy to understand why. When you put others under the law, you bite and devour them (Gal.5:15), you don’t pray for them. But Paul knew the Thessalonians were a loving church (ITh.4:9), and so asked them to pray for “us” (IITh.3:1) himself and Silvanus and Timothy (1:1).
This shows it is okay to ask for prayer for yourself, especially since Paul says that you should pray for “all saints,” and you are one of the saints (Eph.6:18)! It is also okay to pray “in every thing” (Phil.4:6). But here’s the thing: Paul didn’t ask the saints to pray for him so he could have an easier life, he asked for their prayers so he could serve the Lord (Eph.6:18-20; Col.4:3). Even when he prayed for his thorn to be removed it was because he thought he could be stronger for the Lord, so the Lord had to explain otherwise (IICor.12:9). So while it is okay to pray for yourself and everything that concerns you, the more you mature in the Lord, the more you will be mostly concerned with serving the Lord and pray like Paul.
“The word of the Lord” (3:1) to Israel was a threat of judgment (Ezek.6:3), but today the word of the Lord is found in Acts 13:38,39 (cf.v.49). The Greek word for “free course” is always translated “run” elsewhere. Paul was asking them to pray the word would be able to run “free” of the hurdles he’d seen runners have to jump at the Isthmian games in Corinth, from whence he wrote this epistle. We should pray this too, and then make sure we are not one of the hurdles by hurting God’s testimony, refusing to help the work or help finance it, or criticizing it.
The word is “glorified” (3:1) when it is believed (Acts 13:48). The word didn’t have free course “with” the Thessalonians 3:1) when Paul established the church (Acts 17:1-9), but it did now that he was gone, and he was asking them to pray that it would now have free course with him as it was with them. Of course, Paul knew he’d be delivered “from unreasonable and wicked men,” knowing he couldn’t die till he’d finished his course, like John (Acts 13:24,25) and the two witnesses (Rev.11:7). You see, Paul also had a course and a testimony (Acts 20:24) and he knew he couldn’t die until he’d finished testifying by writing his epistles (IITim.4:6,7).
But if he knew he couldn’t die till then, why did he ask them to pray for his deliverance? He was asking them to pray according to God’s will. We see the same thing in his letter to the Corinthians, where he knew he’d be delivered, but asked the Corinthians to pray for it also (IICor.1:8-11).
These “unreasonable” (3:2) are unsaved Jews who don’t respond to God’s offer to “reason” with them (Isa.1:18). Paul also reasoned with Jews who didn’t believe (Acts 17:1-4l 18:1-6), but unsaved religious Gentiles were also a problem for him (Acts 19:29-34).
But we know Paul was also asking to be delivered from saved religious men when he adds, “for all men have not faith, but the Lord is faithful” (3:2,3).Since the word “faith” can mean faithful (Rom.3:1-3), Paul was comparing the Lord’s faithfulness to the faithlessness of believers, who can be just as “unreasonable and wicked” as unsaved men.
In declaring that God will be “faithful” to do what He says He will do, the thing that Paul said He would faithfully do was to “stablish” them (3:3). That word, like all words, has different meanings depending on the context. In 2:16,17 the hope of the pre-trib Rapture could “stablish” them, but we know that depended on their faithfulness or they wouldn’t have been “shaken” and “troubled” (2:2). The stablishing here is speaking about the stablishing where the Lord will stablish us “unblameble in holiness before God” (IThes.3:12,13) when He returns to heaven with us.
That return will be before the Tribulation, and that is how the Lord plans to “keep you from evil” (3:3), i.e., the evil of the Tribulation. We have no guarantee that we will be saved from any other evil. If you don’t understand this, you will charge God with unfaithfulness when wicked men harm you.
The word “fast” (v.15) can mean firm or secure, as in how God set the mountains securely in place (Ps.65:5,6). So when Paul tells us to “stand fast” in the knowledge that God has chosen us to salvation from the Tribulation (v.13,14), we should stand in that truth as firmly as a mountain. Did you know Paul always told people to stand fast in things in which they weren’t standing fast.
He told the Corinthians to “stand fast in the faith” because they had departed from the faith when they ceased believing in the resurrection (ICor.15:32). He told the Galatians to “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal.5:1), the yoke of bondage being the Law of Moses. They had forgotten that “we are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom.6:15). The apostle told the Philippians to “stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil.1:27), because two ladies were feuding (4:2) and the church was taking sides. But Paul told the Thessalonians to stand fast in the knowledge of the pre-tribulation rapture because they weren’t standing fast in it, due to a letter that someone wrote them and signed Paul’s name to (2:1,2).
When Paul told them to “hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle” (v.15), Rome uses this verse to enforce their position that the oral traditions of the church are equal in authority with Scripture. They also point to II Timothy 3:14, where Paul tells Timothy to continue in things he had “learned” apart from “the holy Scriptures (v.15).
But the danger of following oral traditions can be seen in one that got started in the Lord’s time (John 21:21-23). Rome claims her traditions should be obeyed because they go back to the early church, but this one goes back earlier than that, and is still wrong!
The Pharisees accused the Lord’s disciples of breaking their tradition (Mt.15:1-3), but He pointed out that their tradition transgressed God’s Word. Traditions that contradict the Word are transgressions.
The only reason Paul told Timothy to continue in the things he learned apart from Scripture was because Timothy knew he learned them from Paul (IIITim.3:14,15). Before the Bible was complete, oral traditions of the apostles were equal with Scripture, but when the Bible was complete they were incorporated into the Word. No tradition today outside the Word can be trusted. So the “word” of II Thessalonians 2:15 that they were to hold was the word of Paul.
The word “tradition” just means things delivered (Rom. 6:17). Paul expected the Thessalonians to keep the doctrinal traditions delivered to the Romans, and to all seven churches he wrote to, just as the Lord told each of the seven churches in Revelation 2,3 to obey the information in all seven letters (Rev.2:l7,11,17,23,29; 3:6, 13,22). Paul actually uses the word “delivered” for the doctrines of salvation (ICor.15:3,4) and the Lord’s Supper (11:23).
A “consolation prize” is what you get when you don’t receive the main prize, but “everlasting consolation” (IIThes.2:16) refers to the main prize of the comfort of the pre-trib rapture. Paul uses the word “comfort” for this doctrine over and over (IThes.3:1-3; 4:17-5:11).
That’s why he goes on to talk about “good hope through grace” (IIThes.2:16). Israel’s hope under the Law was to go through the Tribulation to enter the kingdom, but our good hope under grace is to be raptured before it.
There are other differences in our hope. Israel will be “comforted in Jerusalem” (Isa.66:13). “He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden” (Isa.51:3). God won’t comfort saved Jews by taking them to heaven, He’ll bring heaven to Jerusalem for them.
Paul says the knowledge of the pre-trib rapture will “stablish” us (IIThes.2:17). Of course! It’s part of Paul’s gospel (Rom.16:25). This is different than how Israel was established, only after suffering the Tribulation (IPe.5:10).
Paul is not thanking God that He saved them from Hell. The word “salvation” has different meanings. Israel was saved from the Egyptians (Ex.14:13; Jude 1:5). Paul talked about being saved from a storm (Acts 27:31). And in the Thessalonian epistles, “salvation” can refer to salvation from the Tribulation. “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord” (ITh.5:9). You don’t have an appointment to obtain salvation from Hell, you obtained it when you believed. But you have an appointment to obtain salvation from the Tribulation by the “salvation” of the Rapture (Romans 13:11).
And it is this salvation to which we were chosen, not salvation from Hell. True, the Bible says “He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph.1:4), but it doesn’t say we were chosen to be in Christ, it says we were chosen—in Christ. Christ is God’s elect:
“Behold…Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth…He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles” (Isa. 42:1).
Christ is the only man God could delight in. When we go to the polls, we have to hold our nose and vote for the lesser of two evils. Not God! He delighted to elect Christ to rule the Gentiles in the kingdom. And the way that Jews became part of His elect was by faith in Him. But God also chose Christ to rule the angels in heaven, and when we believe in Him, we become part of that elect (ICor.6:3).
We are also “predestinated” (Eph.1:5), but that doesn’t mean God predetermined our destination to heaven as op-posed to hell, it means to heaven as opposed to the earth where Israel will rule the Gentiles. Remember, “we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated” (Eph.1:11). Our inheritance is to judge angels, but was told, “thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles” (Isa.54:3). But you’re predestination to go to heaven in the pre-tribulation rapture, is thesalvation Paul felt “bound” to thank God for.
“Bound” means under legal or moral obligation. Even
under the Law, thank offerings were voluntary, and Paul wasn’t under the Law (Rom.6:14). But he felt a moral obligation to thank God they were saved from the Tribulation for them, since they were no longer thanking God for it now that they lost the hope of the pre-trib rapture.
Anytime God does anything, someone should thank Him. The unsaved don’t thank Him for the sun and rain He gives them (Mt.5:45), or for “life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25), so we should thank God for them.
We were chosen to this salvation “through sanctification of the Spirit” (IITh.2:13). Sanctification means to be set apart to God (Ex.13:2,12), and we’ve been set apart to be saved by the pre-trib rapture.
Normally sanctification is from the unsaved (ICor.6:9-11), but here it is from the Jewish kingdom saints who will have to go through the Tribulation. That exact phrase “sanctification of the Spirit” is only elsewhere used by Peter to write to “the…elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit” (I Peter 1:1,2). God foreknew the Jews would go through the Tribulation, so the Spirit sanctified them from us, the people He foreknew would be raptured before it. Peter went on, “that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold…though it be tried with fire” (1:6,7) and that’s Tribulation talk (Zech.13:9;14:1)
This is why Paul went on to say that they’d been chosen to be saved from the Tribulation “through belief of the truth,” Paul’s truth, and why they were called by Paul’s gospel (IIThes.2:14). If they were called by Peter’s gospel, the Spirit would have separated them to go through the Tribulation. This explains why Paul called us “them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate” (Rom.8:28). God predetermined that our destination would be in heaven rather than the earth, so He called us by Paul’s gospel to obtain the glory of the pre-trib rapture. Saved Jews under the kingdom program were also called to obtain glory but only after they have “suffered” the Tribulation (I Pet.5:10).
No, Paul was “a blasphemer” (I Tim. 1:13) who, as a strict, Law-abiding Pharisee (Acts 26:5), would never blaspheme the Father, but was among those who blasphemed the Spirit when they stoned Stephen (Acts 7:51-8:1). This rendered him ineligible for salvation under the kingdom program, for the Lord had warned, “him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven” (Luke 12:10).
How then could God save Saul? Well, remember that the Lord had warned, “whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matt. 12:32). The nation of Israel blasphemed the Spirit in the world that the Lord spoke of as “this world” when they rejected Stephen, a man filled with the Spirit (Acts 7:55). “The world to come” is defined in Hebrews 2:5 as the kingdom, the “world” which God will “put in subjection” under Christ, where people will fully know “the powers of the world to come” (Heb. 6:5) that they only tasted at Pentecost.
Since blasphemy against the Spirit was unforgivable in both those worlds, we know Saul was saved under the program of a whole new world, the dispensation of grace, “this world” in which we live (Eph. 1:21), “this present world” in which we are to walk and please God (Titus 2:12).
Paul says that Antichrist will come with “all deceivableness of unrighteousness.” The word “deceive” means to trick someone, but people are tricked by different things. The deceivableness of youth can make you fall for things you wouldn’t fall for if you were older and wiser. The deceivableness of heartbreak will make you fall for any-thing that anyone suggests to get your boyfriend or girlfriend back. But the deceivableness of unrighteousness comes from being unrighteous, unsaved. It makes men fall for things they wouldn’t fall for if they were saved, even things as silly as the Big Bang Theory, or evolution.
Of course, some unsaved people are deceived by some things and others are deceived by other things, but when Antichrist comes he will come with “all deceivableness of unrighteousness.” So when he claims to be Israel’s Christ, the unsaved will be deceived by him. After all, if even the elect can barely escape his deceit (Mt.24:24), the unsaved don’t stand a chance.
Specially since Paul says this deceivableness is “in” the unsaved who perish. That means Satan will have an inside man in that day. He’ll have Antichrist working from without “with all power, and signs,” and from within the unsaved in their natural inclination to be deceived by him.
If you think God is unfair to let Satan work from within and without in the unsaved, notice he will only be allowed to do this “because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (IIThes.2:10). And it won’t be God’s fault they didn’t receive the love of the truth, for if they didn’t receive it, that means it was offered to them.
The “truth” is Christ (John 14:6), and they won’t receive Him for the same reason they didn’t receive Him when He was here, they love sin and know He’s against it (John 3:19,20). If they don’t receive the love of the Lord they will be “anathema,” or cursed (cf.ICor.16:22).
When men do receive the love of the truth it keeps and preserves them (Pr.4:5,6). Remember, “wisdom” in that passage is a name for Christ (ICor.1:24). If they learn to love the Lord in the Tribulation, He will keep and preserve them by saving them and making them part of the elect who will be impossible to deceive. But those who don’t receive the love of the Truth will receive the love of the Antichrist, “and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion” (IIThes.2:11).
This is something God has always done. It was “because that” the Gentiles didn’t glorify God that He gave them up at the tower of Babel (Rom.1:21-24). After God raised up Abraham and taught him and his seed more about Himself, most of them didn’t want Him either, so God gave them up too (Ps.81:11,12; 109:17). If you don’t want God’s counsel, He will let you walk in your own. That’s how God judges men. Is there anything unfair about that?
Paul was probably thinking of Isaiah 66:3b,4 here. Speaking of the same Tribulation Jews that Paul is speaking of, Isaiah predicts they’ll choose something God doesn’t like, so He’ll choose a strong delusion they won’t like. The delusion they’ll choose is to offer animals in Antichrist’s idolatrous temple, which to God will be like offering something unclean (Isa.66:3a). Remember, Antichrist is called “the idol shepherd” (Zech.11:17). It is because they want idols that God will give them strong delusion to believe the lie, the ultimate idol, the beast, “that they all might be damned who believed not the truth” (IIThes.2:12).
Don’t feel sorry for these folks, they will have rejected the witness of Creation (Ps.19:1-3) and so are “without excuse (Rom.1:19,20). They won’t believe for the same reason men always don’t believe, they will have “pleasure in unrighteousness” (v.12). But Antichrist’s idolatrous religion will be for sin, making men think they could offer a sacrifice and be delivered to go out and sin more (Jer.7:9, 10). Idolatrous Christianity does the same thing, making men think they can go to the sacrifice of the mass and continue to sin. They don’t say that, but the Mafia reads them loud and clear. In the movies they kill and get absolution and do it again.
The Persians kept the records of the executive orders issued by their kings “in the king’s treasure house” (Ezra 5:17), right alongside their riches of silver and gold (Ezra 7:20). Obviously, they considered the commandments of their king to be of equal value as their jewels and other treasures.
At the risk of sounding like a Capital One commercial, what’s in the treasure house of your heart? Can you say with the psalmist, “I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies, as much as in all riches?” (Psa. 119:14)? Or have you matured in the faith to where you can honestly stand before God and say to Him, “I love Thy commandments above fine gold” (Psa. 119:127), “more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold” (Psa. 19:10). If not, it might be time for a prayerful reevaluation of the spiritual portfolio of your soul.
In Hezekiah’s day, “the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently” (II Chron. 30:3), and “the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests” (II Chron. 29:34). Imagine that—men who wanted to serve the Lord, but who didn’t want to sanctify themselves; that is, they didn’t want to set themselves apart unto God (Ex. 13:2 cf. v. 12).
How about you? Are you long on wanting to serve the Lord but short on wanting to set yourself apart as holy unto Him? If so, you should know that “this is the will of God, even your sanctification” (I Thes. 4:3). The Lord gave Himself for the Church “that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. 5:25,26). Why not determine to bury yourself in God’s Word, with the goal of learning how to be as pure as He died to make you now, in this life (Titus 2:14), and become “a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use” (II Tim. 2:21).
Paul sums up the seven-year career of the Antichrist in just two very short prophetic verses (v.8,9). This is the way God likes to reveal the future. Whenever He reveals something frightening, such as the Antichrist here, He jumps ahead to tell you that it will all end well. You or I would reveal the future step by step, “this will happen, then that,” but God never wants us to be apprehensive about the future, so chooses this method. Of course, if you are trying to figure out a timeline of prophetic events this can be confusing, but this is why we compare Scripture with Scripture!
In making this really short prophecy, Paul may have been thinking of Isaiah 11:4, where the prophet predicted that all “the wicked” would be slain. Paul, of course, is singling out the Wicked One, the Antichrist. This is a form of the doctrine of identification, Antichrist identifying with wicked people.Kind of like how Israel was the “vine” (Ps. 80:8), but Christ was “the true vine” (John 15:1), and Isaiah 49:1-5 speaks of an “Israel” that sounds like Christ. Similarly, wicked people identify themselves with Anticrist, and both will die at Armageddon (Rev.19:19-21).
Some hate God so much they will want to identify themselves with him and so will gather themselves to Armageddon (Joel 3:9-16). Others will have to be tricked into identifying with him by his miracles (Rev.16:13-16). Others won’t be fooled by his miracles, but because they are not saved they’ll be forced to identify with him in a reverse rapture (Lu.17:36,37), plucked up and taken to Armageddon.
There are lots of ways to “consume” things in the Bible (Deut.5:25; 28:42; Job 24:19), but one of these ways involves Antichrist (Dan. 7:10-26). The word “consumed” there refers to his defeat at Armageddon, but the word “destroyed” there speaks of his “everlasting destruction” in the lake of fire (IIThes.1:9). The fire of the Second Coming will expose Hell and ignite the lake of fire (Deut.32:22) where Antichrist is consumed (Rev.19:20). If you are not saved by that time, you’ll be consumed as well (Job 4:9).
Antichrist’s destruction is accomplished by “the brightness of His coming” (IIThes.2:8). The Lord’s brightness is His glory (Isa.60:19; Ezek.10:4; Rev.21:23). His glory is brighter than the noon day sun (Acts 22:6), and like a laser, it will ignite the lake of fire (IISam.22:9-13). By the way, you should know that when you sin, you identify with Antichrist, for Paul called a fornicated “that wicked” (ICor.5:13).
When Paul says that Antichrist’s coming will be “after” the working of Satan, he means according to, The parallelism in Psalm 28:4 will show the meaning of “after” in this way. His coming will be “after the working of Satan” in that he’ll do “power, and signs, and lying wonders.”
“Signs” are meant to signify something, and Antichrist’s signs are meant to signify that he’s Israel’s Christ. So he will no doubt do miracles that he knows people will look for in their Messiah, like being born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14). He can’t pull that off, but he may be born of a fallen angel (Dan.2:43) or Satan, and so a “giant” (Gen.6:1-4) of sorts. Remember, Saul was a giant (ISam.9:2) and was a type of Antichrist, who may use his height to claim to be virgin born. That might explain why he’s called “the beast.” If only two fallen angels father children in that day, and the other fathers the other beast, the false prophet (Rev.13:11), both would stand out among men, but False Prophet would identify the Beast as “Christ.” People also know Messiah will heal (Isa.35:4,5) and be associated with “peace” (Isa.55:12,13), as will Antichrist (Dan.11:21,24). Antichrist will also know that people expect their Christ to rise from the dead (Mt.12:39), so he will too (Rev.13:1-3).
When Paul says Antichrist will do “lying wonders,” that doesn’t mean the miracles he’ll work will be like the fake miracles like modern preachers perform, they will be legitimate miracles designed to get men to believe the lie that he is the Christ, and that Jesus Christ was a phony.
