The Great Falling Away: A Meditation on 2nd Thessalonians 2

To the Church in Thessalonica, St. Paul writes two epistles, both with much the same content.  He praises God for their faithfulness and love, and their witness which has emanated out into the country all around them.  While Paul and his colleagues suffer great persecution in their missionary journeys, they take joy in the faithfulness of the church planted in the city of Thessalonica.  He also calls them to ever greater faith and love, working out their salvation in Jesus Christ through good works, empowered by the Holy Spirit given to them by faith.  Doing well, St. Paul encourages them to ever greater holiness, and ever greater conformance to the image of their Savior, Jesus Christ.

But something has troubled the minds of the Christians at Thessalonica, addressed by St. Paul lightly in his first epistle to them, and more strongly in his second.  It would appear that someone has unsettled the believers in Thessalonica regarding the resurrection of the dead, and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that doubt has crept into the Church.  There seems to be worry about those who have fallen asleep in the Lord, and also for the saints gathered, regarding whether or not Jesus had already come, or if they might somehow miss it.

In Chapter 2 of his second epistle, St. Paul makes several things clear:  the saints had not missed Jesus’ Second Coming; those who have died in Christ, shall be raised with Christ; and that a mystery of iniquity already at work in the world will be fulfilled before that Great Day arrives, which includes a great falling away from the faith and a Man of Sin whom Jesus will destroy upon His Return.

What is this great “falling away,” and who is this “Man of Sin”?  While many have struggled to answer these questions over the centuries, Scripture seems to point to the great falling away as a general and broad apostasy of the Church of Christ, and that the Man of Sin is the Antichrist working under the power and authority of the Devil (cf. St. John’s Apocalypse).  While St. Paul and St. John make it clear that the forces of evil are already at work in the world, producing apostasy and antichrists all over the world (and in many local congregations of believers,) something great and terrible will be the ultimate fulfilling of these forces.  While there will always be apostates, heretics, and false prophets, some even working wicked wonders under the power of the evil one who gives them of his infernal power, near the end of time and before the Lord’s Return, these will reach epic and cataclysmic proportions.

And what should the Church do, who hears the Word of the Lord through St. Paul in this epistle?  If we know that an evil spirit of apostasy and lawlessness is at work in the world (and has been since the first Fall of mankind, until this very day,) and we know that eventually it will rise up in a horrible fulfillment of its wicked desires, so that this great Man of Sin shall present himself as God even in the very temple of God, when the One True God finally removes the restraint He has had against Him all these millennia, what are we to do?  St. Paul answers this very question, in 2:15-17:

Therefore, brethren, 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.

What do we do, when we see the churches of the world prostituting themselves with other gods, in violation of the First Commandment?  What do we do, when we see ostensibly Christian theologians teaching against the Virgin Birth and deity of Christ, against Justification by Grace through Faith in Christ alone?  What do we do, when whole church bodies call evil good, and good evil?  What do we do, when we see an antichrist, elevating their own human word over the very Word of God, sitting down as if they were gods themselves in the very Church of Christ?  We do what St. Paul tells us to—we stand firm in the Word of Christ.

It is Christ’s Word that brought the world into being, and still sustains it to its very last day.  It is Christ’s Word that breathed life into us, and every person on the face of the earth.  It is Christ’s Word that spoke Law on Mt. Sinai, and Gospel on Mt. Calvary.  It is Christ’s Word that forgives our sins, grants us His life and His salvation, and calls us to live in Him through faith and repentance.  It is Christ’s Word that brings the world to its end, gathering the saints unto Himself and casting the wicked into hell forever.  It is Christ’s Word that shall consume all apostasy and antichrists, even the great apostasy and Antichrist of the final conflict.  It is Christ’s Word that shall keep His people, so that all who believe in Him, even though they die, they shall live forever in Him.

In the face of the apostasy and antichrists of our time, be they greater or lesser, we respond with the Apostles saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the Word of Eternal Life.”  Here we stand fast, upon all that has been handed down to us by Christ’s Holy Prophets and Apostles.  Here we stand firm, though the whole world give way.  Here we stand, though the heathen rage, the Devil ravage, and the wicked seat themselves in chairs of authority in the Church of Christ.  Here we stand—we can do no other.  And God shall help us, and be our salvation.  His Word is our life—stand fast.  Amen.