Embark on a profound journey through Second Thessalonians, Chapter 2, as Aaron and I grapple with the eschatological enigma of the end times and the Antichrist. The early Thessalonians wrestled with a significant misunderstanding - the belief that the Day of the Lord had already come. As we dissect this scripture, our humble pursuit of clarity takes us into the heart of Paul's teachings. We're not scholars, just earnest believers, and we invite you to reflect on the signposts of our current era that may signal the unfolding of these ancient prophecies. Within this episode, we also unveil our website's latest interactive enhancements, designed to foster a deeper sense of community and spiritual growth among our listeners. Dwayne Yoder's impactful daily devotionals are spotlighted, offering a resource for those seeking daily inspiration.
The dialogue continues, dissecting the perplexing notion of a preordained deception and the promise of Christ's ultimate victory over the forces of darkness. Together, Aaron and I confront the unsettling scripture that speaks of God sending a strong delusion, unpacking its theological implications with the utmost care. We emphasize the importance of immediate action in faith, as we contemplate the urgency of embracing salvation and grace in these complex times. Whether it's getting baptized, joining a church, or simply reaching out with your questions, this episode is a clarion call to engage with your beliefs actively. So, let's huddle around this metaphorical campfire, share in prayer, and uplift each other in fellowship, fortified by the hopeful messages amidst the trials foretold.
Embark on a profound journey through Second Thessalonians, Chapter 2, as Aaron and I grapple with the eschatological enigma of the end times and the Antichrist. The early Thessalonians wrestled with a significant misunderstanding - the belief that the Day of the Lord had already come. As we dissect this scripture, our humble pursuit of clarity takes us into the heart of Paul's teachings. We're not scholars, just earnest believers, and we invite you to reflect on the signposts of our current era that may signal the unfolding of these ancient prophecies. Within this episode, we also unveil our website's latest interactive enhancements, designed to foster a deeper sense of community and spiritual growth among our listeners. Dwayne Yoder's impactful daily devotionals are spotlighted, offering a resource for those seeking daily inspiration.
The dialogue continues, dissecting the perplexing notion of a preordained deception and the promise of Christ's ultimate victory over the forces of darkness. Together, Aaron and I confront the unsettling scripture that speaks of God sending a strong delusion, unpacking its theological implications with the utmost care. We emphasize the importance of immediate action in faith, as we contemplate the urgency of embracing salvation and grace in these complex times. Whether it's getting baptized, joining a church, or simply reaching out with your questions, this episode is a clarion call to engage with your beliefs actively. So, let's huddle around this metaphorical campfire, share in prayer, and uplift each other in fellowship, fortified by the hopeful messages amidst the trials foretold.
Welcome back to the two fish podcast. My name is Nick, I'm Aaron and this week we're going back to second Thessalonians, chapter two, and another chapter about the end times in Antichrist.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to fish community, man. We are excited to be here for another week, another episode this week. We want to start out by asking you guys go out to our website, two fish podcast com. A couple cool things on the website. One you can leave us a review. We would love to get your review.
Speaker 2:Second thing is you can sign up for our email chain. You just hit the follow button on the website. It'll ask you for your first name, your email, and we are going to start trying to get out an email a couple times a month. And then don't forget about Dwayne Yoder's daily Devo. You can go and get signed up for that and get a daily Devo. Dwayne is a fan of the show and a listener and a good friend of ours through a church ministry and I've been watching, reading his daily Devo's and reached out to him to see if we can share that with the two fish community, because it's another way for us to grow together and stay connected. So we need you guys to dive in and join us in those areas as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and again, that's all at two fish podcastcom Also head over to Facebook. We do a live, we're doing a live show again. So the recording of this episode is going to be on Facebook and then we're also going to take it and upload it to YouTube along with some shorts. And I want to just go back to what you said about reviews. We haven't had some reviews in a while. Leave five star reviews, not bad reviews. If you're going to leave a bad review, don't leave one Just because we also don't need Viagra reviews.
Speaker 2:I just deleted one today.
Speaker 1:I put a short on YouTube and I commented on it just to say, hey, check out the full show. Here's the link. And then someone else comments just some brood thing. That was unnecessary, irrelevant and just dumb, so we don't need that. I don't know why people do that. It's kind of weird to me.
Speaker 1:But called a sheep, sheep or sheep, I guess. I mean, I guess, yeah, jesus is the shepherd, I guess I'm the sheep, so I'll take it. I'll take it, we'll turn it into something good, all right, so again this week we're going into second Thessalonians, chapter two. We're just going to read if you're new to the show, we just read it together, we talk about it, but kind of like that campfire setting style Bible study together. We are not theologians, we do not have all the answers, and if we don't we'll admit that we don't and we just kind of walking through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we just believe the answers are found in the Bible. There is some always background things that are good to know about the Bible that theologians may know better than Well. I'm going to guess they know better than we do.
Speaker 1:But anyways, let's dive in All right Verse one now, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being and our being gathered together to him. We ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by spirit or by spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so called God and object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Oh, that was a lot there.
Speaker 2:Well, that is and I think we mentioned this last week and the one thing to remember here, paul, this is Paul's second letter to Thessalonians, right, and he had gone there and he had spent like a month or maybe two months with them and he would went back and then the Thessalonians somehow, as this is describing grabbed onto the fact that they thought the second coming of Jesus had already happened. So the purpose of this, of second Thessalonians, is basically to tell the Thessalonians that, hey, this hasn't happened and in this chapter, paul's kind of diving into what we're going to see when the day does come.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he had only been there the first trip, that we had read him first before Therese Thessalonians. He'd only been there for a short time and then he's sending this letter hey, just confirming that you understood everything that I said and clearly they hadn't, because soon after he's writing the second one. I think there's people in the church and we're going to get into it a little bit more here as we go along in this chapter but there's people in the church that are going to read things and they're just going to assume something about it and it's going to be wrong. And that happens. We've done that, we've read stuff, and then later we're like oh, you know what?
Speaker 1:I think we read that wrong and we've tried to correct it. There's been a couple of times where we tried to correct it, but these people are saying, hey, it's already come, now we gotta do something different. And Paul's saying, no, no, it's okay, we're gonna correct this. Just make sure you understand. And I think that points to when we've talked about this a bunch always going back to scripture and making sure everything lines up with the word of God.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we're blessed to have that. They didn't.
Speaker 2:Correct. They didn't have it. They would have had the original the Old Testament. They would have those manuscripts and Paul's letters as he wrote them and maybe churches shared a copy. But I even doubt that happened right. So, like he wrote the Thessalonians, he wrote the Colossians. The was another one.
Speaker 2:He wrote most of the New Testament by himself, so not necessarily with the churches have shared those At some point. They all got obviously got compiled for us and that's what we currently read out of. So verse two, I think, very plainly describes what Paul's telling them not to do, and it's please do not be easily shaken and troubled by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he's saying you gotta check yourself. Like, calm down, it's not here, hasn't happened. And he's gonna dive into what's gotta happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause I think this church was concerned. Oh, they're being told we missed it. Have you ever had one of those moments? I've had this happen. My wife and I have talked about this before. It's like you have this moment where maybe you go into a room and someone's supposed to be there, you know, and all of a sudden no one's there. And then you go to the other room and you're like, hey, babe, are you there? And all of a sudden you have this just split second, freak out. We're like, oh my gosh, did Jesus come?
Speaker 2:when I missed it. You know what I mean, oh oh, oh.
Speaker 1:But then you have that second thought and you're like, well, no way, no way, she made it.
Speaker 2:and I didn't Come on now. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2:But I have not had that happen. Was that that honestly freaks me out?
Speaker 1:Oh, that's funny. I'm not gonna walk in and everybody else would go on. Yes, and I'm left behind. So I think that was the thing that this church was like oh my gosh, have we missed it? And he's saying, hey, you haven't, don't worry, but there's gonna be a time that you're gonna have to work. Well, you're not.
Speaker 1:Let me back that up. Future, nick, sorry, hold on. There's gonna be a time, though, where you're gonna see some things happen, and that's when you know, hey, it could happen now. And one of the things he says is in verse, in the verse three, for there will be a day when a rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. I did a little research and I can't point to exactly what website it was, but maybe I should do a better job of that, but the way it was described is unless the rebellion comes first.
Speaker 1:This guy pretty respected pastor, but he said that's gonna be a time where even the church is gonna turn away, like there's gonna be a rebellion away from Christ. A lot of times I hear oh right, before the second coming, there's gonna be more Christians than ever. And this guy was saying actually, if you dive in the scripture multiple times, it says no, there's gonna be a turning away. Like it's almost like that. You always say when times get tough, that's when you're gonna find out who is real and who's not, because if it's too tough, I'm out. You know what I mean. That's the attitude of a lot of people, and so he was pointing to.
Speaker 1:This rebellion that Paul's writing about is going to be a time where Christians are gonna say no, and I think we get that scripture when it says there's gonna be a future time. I can't remember what chapter it is We've done or what book it is we've done a study on it but all the Christians are gonna want just something that tickles their ear, something that, oh, it's not hard, it's fluffy, it doesn't make them stretch themselves or dig in and be better. It allows their flesh to that grace that Daniel had said. That cheap grace allows them to to not have to worry about their flesh and they can just accept it for who they are like. The church is gonna turn away.
Speaker 2:It also reminds me of the concept of the narrow path on the wide path. This is not being a Christ follower is a narrow path, is a narrow path to heaven and Oftentimes our flesh desires that wide path, and I think what you're describing is describing that is end times come and it gets more difficult. Are you gonna dig your heels in? Yeah, you're gonna say you know what. It's getting a little bit too difficult to be a Christian and you're gonna fall away. Yeah, and I.
Speaker 1:I Really hear all the time of Christians deconstructing their faith or or how, whatever word you want to use, but there are a lot of people that are turning away from the faith now, and I think social media Tick-tock and all the social media avenues you get stuck in some algorithm and all of a sudden, all you hear is Something refuting something else, and then by the time, you're questioning everything, which is not a bad thing to question in the hopes of understanding better. Yeah, but there are people turning away left and right. And then the second part of that is the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. There. He's talking about the antichrist Now.
Speaker 1:Whether I have no idea, I'm not gonna point to that. Whether the antichrist is around now or not, I have no idea, but he's gonna come and he's gonna take over and he's gonna proclaim himself as God. The end of verse four says there so that I know of there's no one out there that's taking control of the world and said I am God. There's a lot of dumb people online that say that, but that I know of there's no one in particular that is taken Taking that stance.
Speaker 2:No, I would agree. I don't. I don't know of that happening. I think there's a lot of other little things happening that may or may not line up with End times and revelations, but once again, I don't understand. Yeah, all of that, but there's definite signs and there's definite things that are going on that point to Point to the fact that it's happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, first number five. Do you not remember when I was still with you and I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time, for the mystery of the lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. There he's in. I told you these things but, like we said at the beginning, he wasn't there for very long. So I think that's where and I think that also points to you need to make sure you're continually studying this stuff, so that you don't just hear it once and then later you hear something else. Me like oh yeah, that must been what it said, but he's haven't. Don't remember? I told you these things and Then he said it's already happening. The spirit of the antichrist is here. One of the other, the last books we did talked about Little a anacrites, that there are anacrists now just stirring things up, preparing the way, and and Paul saying that stuff's already happening, that stuff's already at work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you bring up like continually studying and Paul pointed to that actually up in up in verse 2 Even if they claim, even if they claim to have had a vision or a revelation or a letter supposedly from us, don't believe them. And I am thinking of that studying. If you study Paul's letters we often talk about it he starts them and ends them a pretty particular way. Yeah, and his writings are. They're very similar. Might be to a different church, but it's formatted, very similar. So, in that regards to studying, like he's even telling them, like you should be able to tell if this is a letter from me and we should be able to tell is, is these times approach? If, if it is true to the Bible.
Speaker 2:Yeah like we have better access than anybody else in any Previous history. Now we also have access to a lot of false Information out there, so you really got to watch what you read and and how Things can get twisted now and it can just be a few words that throw it off. And Nick even pointed to it earlier like sometimes people just get it get it wrong. Yeah, but if there is no correction to that when they discover they get it wrong, that's where you got a problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean we could have a whole podcast on pride there. Well, I don't want to admit a mistake, we'll just move on. How many people you see do that all the time? Well, I'm, that's just over and moving on. That's too proud to admit. Hey, you know what I screwed up here. Let's correct it.
Speaker 1:The the verse seven is saying you, only he who now restrains it will Will do so until he's out of the way. The Antichrist being restrained, satan's being restrained right now, but there's gonna be a time where he's not gonna be, which is gonna, which is gonna kick off in times. Verse number eight and Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to To nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lost one is by the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked Deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. That's good stuff. That's like that's the hope there. There's always hope Anytime. Paul's writing, peters writing. They're like all this bad stuff could happen. It's gonna happen. Do this, do that. Here's what's coming, and then here's the hope, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really like how my I'm gonna read the same verses here, verse nine through through ten, but I kind of like how mine read a little better and once again I'm in the Every every man's Bible.
Speaker 1:Oh, we got a back nice the NLT version.
Speaker 2:So the evil man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. He will use every kind of wicked deception to fool those who are on their way to destruction because they Refuse to believe the truth that would save them. It's gonna go ahead and read verse 11. We can talk about all this, but so. God will send great deception upon them and they will Believe all these lies. Then they will be condemned for not believing the truth, you and for enjoying the evil they do.
Speaker 1:That's a tough one there for me when I think about that verse 11. Therefore, god sends them Mine, says, a strong delusion so they may not believe, or they may believe false. Yeah, man, that verse 11. That's, that's hard for me. That's one of those verses that I struggle to understand. Therefore, god sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false.
Speaker 2:Makes it sound like God is bad. First 10 here he will use. He will use. So this evil man right will use every kind of wicked deception to fool those who are on their way to destruction because they refuse to believe the truth that would save them. Reminds me of 2 Peter, chapter 2.
Speaker 2:They're talking about false teachers here, verse 12, and I think this is kind of a description of the type of people we're talking about. But this is particular 2 Peter talking about false teachers. These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct who are born to be caught and killed. They laugh at the terrifying powers they know so little about and they will be destroyed along with them. Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures and broad day. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They revel in deceitfulness while they feast with you. They commit adultery with their eyes and their lust is never satisfied. They make a game of luring unstable people into sin. They train themselves to be greedy. They are doomed and cursed. So I think those are the type of people we're talking about here.
Speaker 2:The. This evil man is going to be able to easily get ahold of them, fool and drag them down this road, and then here in verse 11, it's so. God will send great deception upon them and they will believe all of these lies. God's just going to let them go, because they're so far gone already, for whatever reason, fallen to this deceitful man that is trying to lead us, as believers, astray. But these people have already rejected God, rejected Jesus, and God's going to come in and he's just going to say okay, you're done, you're too far gone.
Speaker 1:I hate to say that, but you're too far gone. I don't want anyone to think that someone you love or know or they've just done something that's too far, that God's grace is real. We need to receive, believe and then receive his grace and his salvation. But I think we're talking about a point in time where that's it. I'm getting ready to end it.
Speaker 2:There's going to be a point where there's a line in the sand and and it's too late, it's too late, not, and we're talking second coming.
Speaker 1:We're talking the very, very end at judgment. We're talking about then, not now. So don't misunderstand that there is still time. If you're praying for someone in your family or or a relative, or whatever it is, there's still time and we're never too far gone. But there is going to be a day when it ends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean and you can think of the thief on the cross again with that right, like there were two and one accepted at the very last moment of his life, and I up to the point that, like it's done, it's not too late. Um, so if you do, if you do have people that you're praying for and all that, keep doing it. Like, by no means are we the two fish podcast, saying tomorrow's, the tomorrow's, the day, tomorrow is also the day to reach out to that person that you've been thinking about. It's not too late, it's time to reach out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's not time to give up.
Speaker 1:Yep, I love it, verse 13 but we are always to give thanks to God for you, brothers Beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord, jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now, okay, let's stop there for a second. That section, this section in my verse is called stand firm, and mine says it several. He says it several times there, I think he's saying blessed are you because you're one of the first. You didn't. You maybe you didn't necessarily see Jesus, but you're understanding it. The Holy Spirit is revealing it to you. You're the first. Now, here we are, two thousand years later. We're still blessed because we know these people didn't have scripture like we've talked about they. They had to. They had faith. Yeah, they had to believe.
Speaker 2:No, they did. They had to believe. One like this is a letter from Paul, and I think verse 13 is a great Example of how this is a letter from Paul, because he wrapped up a lot of his letters that way. As for us, we always thank God for you, yeah, like so often, as how he ended his letter. And ultimately, they had to believe what Paul was writing them, and the, the Paul and these other disciples Walked with Jesus, and this is what, this is what they saw and this is what they're teaching, and this is what Thessalonians believed in. They believed in the fact that Jesus came and he walked with these men, that Jesus came and he died on the cross and he was buried in a tomb and the stone rolled away three days later and he came back.
Speaker 2:Yeah right like. That is what our faith is built upon and we have to stay in firm in that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the end of verse 13, though To be saved through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth. It's a continual thing. Sanctification is a continual thing here. At the beginning of this book he's saying what the heck are you guys doing? You're believing something that's not true. But then again he's saying we can still grow, we can still be better. It's a sanctification by the spirit. It's it's growth. Wrapping it up here, verse 16. Now may our Lord, jesus Christ himself, and God, our father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. There he goes, he's comfort, comfort your hearts. He's in in this chapter the same way he ends and we have a whole another book. Next week We'll go through chapter or a whole another, and we got a whole another chapter. We'll go through chapter three next week. But comfort your hearts, and it's good hope through grace. He always ends this like just this constant grace.
Speaker 2:Be with you and Next week my heading is Paul requests for prayer. So like he's kind of ended what he is instructing the church to do, I think here in verse 2, and he's gonna go into a little bit of like Pray for me. This is kind of what I need, is what I gather from what I've read. But we'll dive into that next week, but this week just remember Like the time is coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah we don't know when it is, but it's not here right now. So it's not too late for you. It's not too late for you to reach out to somebody. It's not too late for you to ask questions. It's not too late for you to show up to church. It's not too late for you to get baptized and go public like none of that. It's not too late, yeah, but don't wait. Yeah, do not wait. The gift of grace and salvation are there for you. That is our encouragement to the two fish community fear in one of those boats man, don't wait, jump. The life fest is Jesus, just jump.