A break in our regularly scheduled programming...

Wanted to leave a quick note to all those who follow my blog and let you know that I am leaving the country to lead a study tour for the next few weeks. We will pick up where we left off upon my return!

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2 THESSALONIANS: Man of Lawlessness

The letter of 2 Thessalonians may be even more of a stretch for me to write about. These two letters are simply not my strong suit of study (yet!). I can say that the little work I’ve done has brought to my attention that I’m not a fan of 2 Thessalonians, and I find myself wondering about authorship.

I’m not one to question the canon (which I accept wholeheartedly) or the stance of the early orthodox community, but many biblical teachers and early Reformers had their questions about different books, and mine revolve around 2 Thessalonians. I say this because the Greek seems to be distinctly un-Pauline. I’m no Greek scholar (it ruined my GPA in college!), but what I have looked at seems to be some of the messiest Greek I’ve seen in the New Testament, and very uncharacteristic of Paul. It also seems to spend an unusual amount of time trying to convince the reader of its Pauline authorship and rejection of any “other letters” they might have received.

But alas, these are topics far, FAR above my pay grade, so I’ll continue as I always have, and foresee myself doing in the future, accepting the second letter to the church in Thessalonica as a part of authoritative, God-breathed scripture.

This short entry will revolve around what I see as one of the dominant pictures in the book: the man of lawlessness.

For many, this passage has been a picture of what is often called “the Antichrist” — which is usually depicted as an individual who arises at the “End Times” to lead all kinds of folks astray. Yet this isn’t at all how it would have read to its original audience.

The description here in the Greek talks not about a particular individual, but the terms used are descriptive terms about the “kind of man” who will be at work in these last days — what the Jews would have called acharit hayamim. This term referred to an era of time in which they were currently living, not a future dispensation of tribulation. The acharit hayamim was the era that preceded the restoration of all things — or what they called “the age to come.” Other descriptions of this would be olam haba, or “eternal life.” You may even remember us looking into this idea when we spoke about John the Baptist.

The author of 2 Thessalonians is warning them about the kind of individual they will run into in these “last days.” You might recognize his description as familiar to the opening chapter of Romans and our description of Hellenistic culture.

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

Now again, even though this Greek is quite messy, I don’t believe it reads to be speaking about any particular individual, although even if we did want to read it that way, there is no way a contextual reading of this description doesn’t immediately associate this description with Caesar himself. There would be no reason to assume the Text is speaking of a day many centuries in the future.

I feel like the conversation here is very similar to everything else we’ve read (and will read) throughout the New Testament: an early church staring into the face of the Roman empire and wondering who is going to win this epic struggle. Some of them have even feared that everything they have been waiting for has come and gone and now a whole new age is on the rise. But Paul reassures them this is not the case. They know how the story ends. They know how to feel about the kind of humanity that would oppose the work of God and claim to be gods themselves.

So Paul encourages them to continue in the work they must do. He tells them to continue to stand firm and resist the temptation to fall into idleness. He calls them to pray and be spiritually awake.

As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

Amen.

1 THESSALONIANS: Parousia

Paul also pens two letters to the church in Thessalonica. There are plenty of commentaries that deal with the context of Thessalonica and, to be honest, I haven’t had the opportunity to study the context of Thessalonica as much as I would like. While I have heard different explanations for it, it would seem that the people of Thessalonica had a clear misunderstanding of the proper response to the “return” of Christ.

One thing that becomes abundantly clear (again, addressed in NT Wright’s work Surprised by Hope) is that the early believers had a definite understanding of Christ’s very close return. This may not be as far-fetched as it sounds to us from where we sit, but I’ll deal with that theology at some other point. At any rate, it is safe to say that early Christians in the Roman Empire believed they might see Christ’s return in their lifetime, or the lifetime of their children.

Apparently this had impacted the Thessalonian community in such a way that it led to their disengagement. If Christ was about to return and make the whole world right, why should we spend all of our time working? Paul addresses some of these misunderstandings by talking about the need for the believers in Thessalonica to work, for “the man who does not work, does not eat.” It is also to this world that Paul speaks of parousia.

Parousia is the Greek word we often translate as “second coming.” While this is actually a very accurate translation, the term is loaded with historical context we usually miss. These details can be found by studying NT Wright, Ethelbert Stauffer, the early church commentaries by Roland Worth, and others.

Parousia referred to the second coming of an emperor. In a Roman world that had experienced the havoc of multiple earthquakes (as we mentioned before), the emperor would make a visit to the city (you could think of how a modern-day leader might visit a disaster zone). After surveying the extent of the damage, the emperor would leave behind a large sum of money that the people of the city were to use to rebuild. Everyone knew the emperor would return one day and you would have to give an account for what you did with his deposit.

This return was called a parousia, and we know Thessalonica experienced at least two of them in the first century. According to historical record, there appear to be common themes experienced in any given Roman parousia.

The emperor would arrive to the sound of a loud trumpet. As soon as the lookout saw the emperor’s entourage (more like a small army) arriving in the distance, the call would go out. The city would not want to be caught with Caesar banging on their front door.

When the emperor arrived at the city, he would pay the obligatory respects to the dead. In the ruins of ancient Greco-Roman cities, I have always seen the graveyard just outside the main entrance to the city. It was their way of honoring the dead and those who had gone before them.

After the emperor had paid his respects, the people of the city would go out to meet him. This meeting was referred to in the Greek as eis apantesien. The goal is to go out from the city, meet the emperor with joy, and take him by the hand to show him the city and the great work that had been done — in his honor, of course.

Consider the context of the church in Thessalonica and the following words from 1 Thessalonians 4:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Paul describes the second coming of Jesus like the parousia of the emperor. To a church that is having a hard time understanding the need to engage in the work of the Kingdom (or physical labor, for that matter), Paul describes the second coming as aparousia, communicating to the people of Thessalonica that they have work to do, because God left them with a deposit and expected them to use it to restore and reconcile, heal and rebuild. In Paul’s picture, there is a trumpet sound, the dead in Christ rise first, and we are caught up to “eis apantesis” Jesus in the air.

The irony runs thick here, for the theology that loves to quote this verse as backing for the idea of the “rapture” is the same theology that commits the sin of the Thessalonians. Far too much Christian theology espouses an idea that we are all going to leave this place someday. If this is true, then our goal is to have as many people “on our team” as possible before “some glad morning, when this life is over…”

But this is the exact idea Paul is teaching against. Paul is not arguing for a disengaged theology; he is arguing for a theology of complete and urgent engagement. Jesus is going to come back. He left us with the deposit of the Holy Spirit, and we’re going to have to show him what we did with the place.

You see, we are caught up to meet Jesus in the air as he is “coming down from heaven” for his parousia.

To quote one of my favorite teachers, “I get worried that too many Christians are going to be on their way up and out of here as Jesus is coming down, and they’re going to pass in the air!”

This is not a theology of disembodied evacuation; it’s a theology of physical participation. 

May God remind us that we have work to do here — today. May He remind us that Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” May we look forward to the day when the trumpet might sound and we might go out (or up) to meet Jesus on his way down, in order to joyfully take him by the hand and show him around at the things we were able to accomplish with His help.

And when He shows up, I pray we might have something to show Him.