The Gospel According to Paul # 26

In His Letters to the Thessalonians

The Test at the End

But there is one other thing with these Thessalonians. Things in the world were becoming increasingly difficult; they were going from bad to worse. These dear people saw things happening, they saw forces at work, and they thought: "This does not look as though the Lord is coming. It looks as though satan is having it all his own way. Things are going from bad to worse; and as to thing being changed, as to there being "a new heaven and a new earth" and a new world state, all this that we have thought would come with the coming of Christ and His Kingdom, we do not see any sign of it at all. Rather is it going the other way: the world is getting worse, evil men are waxing worse and worse. There seems to be more and more of the devil than ever there was."

Now, the Apostle wrote his letters on that, and he said: "Look here, that does not mean things are going wrong; that does not mean disappointment for your expectations. The Lord will not come until those things have happened and come to fullness." "The mystery of lawlessness does already work." Before He comes, two things must happen.

First of all, there must take place a great falling away." A great falling away? Christians falling away? Professing Christians falling away, going away from the Lord, turning back? That is not very practical for these people! Yes, that is exactly what will happen toward the end. The nearer the coming of the Lord is, the more the test will be finding people out. The sieve will be at work. There will be a falling away; there will be many people - professors - who say, "We are not going with this, we cannot go on with this any longer." They will go back from following the Lord. It always was so. It was so in the days of our Lord's flesh. At the end it will be like that. "Oh, how disappointing!" Ah, yes, but understand that that is how it will be, and that it does not mean that everything has gone wrong. it is just going to be like that. When the Lord does take away a people, it will be a people who have gone on with Him to the end; and He is testing, testing. "Now, you Thessalonians, understand that what He is doing is testing you as to whether you will go right on to the end. It has to be made manifest whether the root of the matter is in believers, or if it is only profession. So do not misunderstand the signs of the times.

And then the second thing. antichrist, that man of sin, the devil, seems to be getting more and more of his own way, they thought. And it was so. "But", said the Apostle, "the Lord's day will not come until that man of sin, the antichrist, has been revealed. "oh, we thought Christ was coming, not antichrist!" Ah, but Christ will not come until antichrist has come. Do not misunderstand things. If there is a mighty movement in this world by satan, the devil seemingly incarnate, a great incarnation of him - it may be in man form or system form, whatever it is - that is dead set upon obliterating everything that belongs to Christ, that is not a bad sign. That is a good sign - the Lord is about to come! That is the good news in the day when the devil seems to be carrying everything away. That is portentous. The Lord is at hand.

"But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh", and Jess (Luke 21:28). So if suffering increases, if patience is tested; if satan seems to be having it his way, and getting the power into his hands, do not be deceived - do not allow that to say to you, "Well, our hope is not being realized." Turn it around the other way, and say, "These are the very things that say that our hope is about to be realized." This is good news for the day of adversity, good news for Christians in suffering, good news when satan is doing his worst. The Lord is at hand!

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 27 - "The Summing Up of the Whole Matter")