{"id":256,"date":"2013-09-22T20:16:21","date_gmt":"2013-09-22T19:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=256"},"modified":"2013-09-22T20:16:21","modified_gmt":"2013-09-22T19:16:21","slug":"do-not-let-anyone-deceive-you-in-any-way-2-thessalonians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=256","title":{"rendered":"Do not let anyone deceive you in any way – 2 Thessalonians"},"content":{"rendered":"

G.K.Chesterton once said, \u201cWhen people stop believing in God the problem is not that they believe nothing. The problem is that they will believe anything\u201d
\nThat is the world we live in today. Most people have stopped believing in God. But only a few would call themselves atheists and say they believe nothing. The danger is that people will believe all kinds of weird and wacky things! And so the words of Paul in 2 Thessalonians are particularly relevant to us today.
\n2 Thess 2:3 Don\u2019t let anyone deceive you in any way!
\nAs we will see as we read the New Testament week by week over the course of The Whole Story, most of letters in NT were written to correct wrong teachings. If we want to understand the letters we start by trying to identify the false teaching which is being challenged. This week we are going to start by looking at what was either the first or the second letter in the New Testament ever to be written. Around 50 AD some members of the church at Thessalonica had got hold of the wrong idea that the Jesus had already returned, that the Second Coming had already happened. So the apostle Paul wrote the letter we know as 2 Thessalonians to put them right.
\n2 Thess 2:3 Don\u2019t 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. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God\u2019s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
\nDon\u2019t let anyone deceive you in any way. Don\u2019t be fooled! Here is an important up-to-date warning for Christians today!
\nThe Jews in Jesus\u2019s time were expecting God to send the Messiah, the Christ, to save his people. But at the same time they were expecting opposites to Christ, human rulers who would be opposed to God\u2019s people. So the first Christians shared that expectation \u2013 that many would come pretending to be Christ in order to deceive God\u2019s chosen people. And Jesus himself gave that warning.
\nMatthew 24:4 Jesus answered: \u201cWatch out that no-one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, \u2018I am the Christ,\u2019 and will deceive many. \u2026.8 All these are the beginning of birth-pains.
\n9 \u201cThen you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. \u2026. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, \u2018Look, here is the Christ!\u2019 or, \u2018There he is!\u2019 do not believe it. 24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect\u2014if that were possible. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.
\nSo from the very beginning Jesus warned his disciples against those who would deceive them \u2013 false prophets \u2013 anti-Christs. And we find similar warnings elsewhere in the New Testament.
\n2 John7 Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
\n1 John 2:22 Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist\u2014he denies the Father and the Son.
\nHere in 2 Thessalonians Paul uses a different title to warn young Christians not to be deceived by \u201cthe man of lawlessness.
\n2 Thess 2 3 Don\u2019t 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. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God\u2019s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
\nThis \u201cman of lawlessness\u201d or \u201cman of sin\u201d will be a human being. He will not be the devil but the devil\u2019s human representative. He will oppose God and God\u2019s people. And he will be a religious figure, claiming to be God.
\nSome people think Paul and Jesus were referring to the Emperor Caligula. Like many Roman Emperors, Caligula claimed to be a god, and demanded that his subjects worship him as a god. In AD 40 Caligula had a statue of himself placed in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. But Paul was almost certainly writing to the Thessalonians around AD50, after Caligula. So it is better to understand that there will be a number of fulfilments of this warning, a number of antichrists through the centuries. Some would say the Roman Emperor Nero, who lit his gardens with the bodies of burning Christians. Hitler? Stalin? A succession of evil men who set themselves up against God.
\nListen carefully to how Paul goes on to describe this \u201cman of lawlessness\u201d.
\n9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
\n\u201cAll kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders and every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.\u201d
\nWe must be on our guard because not everything which is supernatural comes from God \u2013 quite the reverse.
\nThere is an explosion of interest in the supernatural in these days. But people aren\u2019t looking for answers in the church, but instead to the New Age and to the Occult.
\nAll kinds of occult practices are now spreading like wildfire. It is curious really, since the word \u201coccult\u201d means \u201chidden\u201d and for centuries these things were kept hidden for the inner circle of practitioners. But nowadays the occult is getting more much more free publicity than ever before. Films like the Exorcist, TV programmes like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the X-files and Charmed, books like Harry Potter, all making evil seem \u201ccool\u201d. Ordinary people and especially children are being introduced to all kinds of occult practices. Psychic fayres and New Age shops will sell you anything you need to do all kinds of things from casting spells to contacting the dead. And the world wide web is luring curious people deeper and deeper into evil.
\nIn Britain today only a quarter of people now believe in a personal God. Less than a quarter believe that the Bible is the unique Word of God. Almost half believe instead in some kind of spirit or life force, like the idea of The Force described in \u2018Star Wars\u2019, an impersonal \u201cForce\u201d controlling destiny and events. In the 2001 census the fourth most popular named religion was \u201cJedi Knight.\u201d
\nAround seven out of ten people think we have a soul and a quarter of the population believe in reincarnation. The proportion of people who call themselves atheists has remained constant at around 8%. But in 1990, more than half the population considered themselves \u201creligious\u2019. Over the last 20 years that figure has halved to LESS than a quarter! A third of people now prefer to call themselves \u2018spiritual\u2019 but NOT religious and just as many believe they can find their way to God outside of organised religion. One in six have tried astrology and just as many have tried fortune telling or Tarot cards. For many people the most important religious festival of the year is Halloween!
\nBe warned! Don\u2019t let anyone deceive you in any way!
\n9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.
\nSo many fantasy stories are based around magic. Whether it is Harry Potter or Merlin, or Charmed, books and television and films present magic and witchcraft as harmless and even exciting. But the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy warns of the dangers of supernatural knowledge and different forms of The Occult.
\nDeuteronomy 18 9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no-one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practises divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
\nWe should be on our guard against dabbling in the Occult. Witchcraft, magic, spells, voodoo are ALL evil!
\nSo also are all forms of fortune-telling or divination. Crystal balls, tarot cards, runes, crystal gazing and palm reading, reading tea leaves (etc), Astrology and horoscopes, dowsing, psychometry. These are all dangerous deceptions, doorways into danger. CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO with any form of fortune telling
\nThe same is true of SPIRITISM or SPIRITUALISM
\nAttempting to communicate with the dead: we find that in films like Ghost, What lies beneath, and TV programmes like \u201cMedium\u201d.
\nS\u00e9ances, Mediums, Ouija boards, table tipping, automatic writing, trances, spiritualist so-called \u201cchurches\u201dor spiritual healers. These also are all dangerous deceptions, doorways into danger! CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO with any form of spiritualism.
\nRemember that the Old Testament commanded the death penalty for mediums and any form of spiritualism. ALL dangerous because they bring people into contact with the demonic
\nOf course there are the fakes, the frauds, or the illusionists like Derren Brown who use very clever trick to entertain people. But what about the paranormal? What is the truth about psychics and mediums, extrasensory perception (ESP) telepathy, clairvoyants, second sight or d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, or \u201cunexplained\u201d phenomena like ghosts and poltergeists.
\nThese things might appear real when you watch series like Twilight Zone, Sanctuary, Warehouse 13, or films like Indiana Jones or The Librarian or X-men. X files says \u201cthe truth is out there.\u201d But what is the truth?
\nThe Bible teaches us very clearly that ALL supernatural knowledge is either good or evil \u2013 from God or from the devil and the demonic! There is NO neutral ground, no \u201cspecial powers\u201d which some human beings have and others don\u2019t. No \u201cparanormal phenomena\u201d which are morally neutral and therefore safe to dabble in. There is only good and evil. Either it\u2019s from God or it\u2019s from the devil \u2013 make your mind up!
\nWe mustn\u2019t rule out messages from God. God still speaks in his church through ordinary people and the spiritual gifts of prophecy and words of knowledge and words of wisdom. But the Bible gives us criteria for testing prophecy to see if it comes from God.
\nDeuteronomy 18 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.\u201d
\n21 You may say to yourselves, \u201cHow can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?\u201d 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
\nIf predictive prophecy does not come true, then it was not from God. But the corollary of that statement is NOT that if it does come true it must have come from God. There are dangers from magic and the occult in the world around. But there are dangers of being deceived even in parts of the church too. We must be on our guard for false teaching.
\n2 Tim 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
\nWe must continually check out what we are taught by comparing it with the timeless truth of God\u2019s Word the Bible. As we read last week.
\n2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
\nThe devil can know the future. And demons CAN produce miracles! Healings through witchcraft or voodoo or spiritualism. If we see what appears to be a miracle, that is not necessarily proof that it is God at work!
\nSo we must not be distracted by the miracles reported even in churches. I passionately believe that God still works miracles of healing and deliverance in the church today. I have seen God work such miracles and I have experienced miracles of healing in my own body! But we must also be on our guard against being deceived.
\n2 Thess 2:9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.
\nAgain \u2013 when we see miracles even in churches, we must be on our guard. A genuine miracle of healing or deliverance is God\u2019s gift to the person who is healed \u2013 it is NOT proof of that every word the preacher says is true. Genuine miracles can happen in a church where those who God heals and others around are believing Christians \u2013 even if the evangelist or preacher is far, far away from God, and some American so-called evangelists and preachers spring to mind. God still works despite the sins of men.
\nWe need to be on our guard so that nobody deceives us in any way! We need the spiritual gift of discernment, because the devil is out to lead Christians astray even more than ever.
\nThere have been so many false teachings though the ages leading the church astray: Christ wasn\u2019t truly God, Christ wasn’t truly human, God is too loving ever to punish sinners, we can be saved by good works, we can be saved by generous giving,
\nAnd there are so many wrong ideas in the church today \u2013 health wealth and prosperity teaching. All religions lead to God. Success is proof of truth. These are wrong ideas \u2013 don\u2019t be fooled!
\nBut also, finally, don\u2019t be worried! God will be victorious!
\n2 Thess 2:8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendour of his coming.
\nChrist will have the final victory! But until He returns, be warned \u2013 be on your guard. Don\u2019t be fooled! Don\u2019t let anyone deceive you in any way!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

G.K.Chesterton once said, \u201cWhen people stop believing in God the problem is not that they believe nothing. The problem is that they will believe…<\/span><\/p>\n

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