The Mystery of Lawlessness

Its all over and you missed it! That's what some of the Jews were saying to the new congregation in Thessalonica when the Apostle Paul heard from them. And they were nearly in despair. Is it really so? Did Jesus already come to take His chosen ones with Him to heaven—and we weren't in that crowd? Have we nothing but death and darkness before us now? Please, Paul, please tell us it isn't so.

So the Apostle responds:

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. - 2Th 2:1-2 ESV

Somebody was really being deceptive. They had written a letter as if it were from the great Apostle himself. And in that letter was a statement about the day of the Lord. It came. You weren't chosen. So Paul continues,

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 or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. - 2Th 2:3-6 ESV 

OK. Thank you Paul, but that still leaves a bunch of questions. Who is this man of lawlessness, this son of destruction? And what temple of God are you talking about? Yes, now that you mention it, we do indeed remember you telling us about these things when you were with us, but we'd like some further clarification.

We read on,

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless 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 refused to love the truth and so be saved. - 2Th 2:7-10 ESV

Whenever you read the word mystery in Paul's writings you realize that this is something unknown to the unbelieving world. Believers know about it only because God's Spirit reveals it to them. So Jesus says to His disciples who wondered why he spoke to them in parables,

"To you it has been given to know the secrets (mysteries) of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. - Mat 13:11-13 ESV

Again Paul writes of himself and the other Apostles,

This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. - 1Cr 4:1-2 ESV

So when we read about the mystery of lawlessness we must understand that this is insider information, known only to those in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells and to whom the Spirit speaks.

OK, so what is lawlessness? Basically it is what has been going on all through the years since the coming of Christ. Men everywhere ignore and mock God's laws, God's ethics and morals, God's way of life. We see it going on today, for instance, in the way that marriage is being completely redefined, especially here in the United States. We see it in the way that human life is being mocked and murder is made legitimate, a right guaranteed by the American constitution and Supreme Court. I speak, of course, about the millions of infants murdered every year through abortion. The Lord Jesus spoke about this when he taught us what to expect from the mouths of false prophets in the last days.

And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. - Mat 24:11-13 ESV

It can get worse, warns the Apostle, but the Lord restrains it. Behind it all is the lawless one who has yet to be revealed. And who is that? More about that one in my next post. 

Who Ever Is Jesus Christ?

"My church is a lot more open-minded than yours!
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we teach that Christians, Jewish people, and Muslims all pray to the same God. You talk as if Jesus were the Savior, the only path to God."  

"Muslims believe that Jesus was a great prophet. Jewish people believe that Jesus was a gifted yet unorthodox rabbi. Buddhists regard Jesus as an enlightened person. Scholars acclaim Jesus for his remarkable ethics. Jehovah's Witnesses describe Jesus as an exalted, divine being. Mormons teach that Jesus Christ became a god."

So begins the section about Jesus Christ in the 2010 book I downloaded from Amazon last week. The book is called The Lutheran Difference. You might want to check it out. It discusses in detail in what ways Lutherans differ from other Christian and non-Christian groups. The book is organized around the Nicene Creed. As the introduction says, the name Lutheran is shorthand for saying, I agree with Martin Luther whose teaching has been well-known for over 500 years. The book goes on to show from the Bible how Lutherans differ and why. Since I've been writing about Jesus in particular during the past several weeks, I thought it well to continue by using this book as my reference.

One word in that Nicene Creed has caused much controversy. It is the Greek word ousios. We translate the word into English with our word substance or being. The Nicene Creed describes Jesus as being homo-ousios, that is of the same substance or one in Being with the Father. So one English translation of the creed describes Jesus in this way:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.

I mention this to point out that there was much controversy over the years about the person of Jesus. Just who is he? Is he truly God? How can there be three persons and yet but one God? So the teachers argued back and forth for many, many years. The details of that controversy are spelled out in the link above to the Wikipedia article. Ultimately the teachers of the church developed the Nicene Creed in order to declare what they understood to be the teaching of God's Word. Millions of us since then have embraced that Creed as our own confession of faith.

Now mind you, not everybody likes the term homo-ousios. It certainly is not a Bible word. It is a Greek word cooked up by some and tossed back and forth with many nuances. There are times when many of us wonder whether the term detracts from the awesome mystery. Maybe we're trying too hard to explain something beyond human words, a mystery foretold by the prophet Daniel, among other O.T. prophets. He wrote like this in an inspired attempt to describe what he saw and experienced.

"I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. - Dan 7:13-14 ESV

This mysterious son of man in Daniel's vision is given authority and dominion that rightly only belongs to God. All peoples, nations and languages serve him. This appears to be why Jesus favored the title Son of Man. He used it again and again to describe himself. Examples:

• the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. -  Matt. 8:20 
• the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. - Matt. 9:6
• the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath - Matt. 12:8
• the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather of of his kingdom all causes of sin - Matt. 13:41
• they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom - Matt. 16:28
• Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead - Matt. 17:9
• The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men - Matt. 17:22
• Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man - Matt. 24:30

As you can see, again and again and again Jesus took to himself what Daniel described: dominion, authority, glory, and equality with God the Father. His is an everlasting kingdom that shall never pass away nor be destroyed. This is what the creeds attempt to say in whatever language they use.

Lutherans—and millions in other Christian traditions—embrace that confession, that credo. More about this next time, especially since we believe our eternal destiny rests upon getting this right.

 

We Are Not Celebrating The Birthday Of A Philosopher

Here in the U.S.A. we have the annual controversy about Christmas trees in public places. Some would have them called Holiday trees. Others strongly object, saying that this has been an official holiday since 1870. In this holiday we celebrate the birth of a man whose philosophy is most meaningful to our country. So we must retain the term Christmas tree. However, as all believers know, Jesus persisted in calling himself God's Son. John's Gospel records Jesus openly proclaiming himself to be one with his Father. He is no mere man nor is he merely a philosopher.

"I and the Father are one." The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?" The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." - Jhn 10:30-33 ESV

The Gospels are packed with parallel statements.

• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. - Jhn 1:1-2 ESV
• But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." ... that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. - Jhn 5:17, 23 ESV
• Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." - Jhn 8:58 ESV
• All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ... The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, - Jhn 17:10, 22 ESV
• All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. - Mat 11:27 ESV
• Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. - 1Ti 3:16 ESV

We Christians at least are not celebrating the birthday of a mere man whose philosophy has been influential. Jesus himself will not permit it. Of course U.S. President Thomas Jefferson did indeed consider Jesus to be nothing more than a man. He purposely cut out all references in the Bible to Jesus' divinity, creating the well known Jefferson Bible, also known as The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. In this book Jefferson focuses on the words of Jesus, chiefly the Sermon on the Mount and his parables. He eliminates the miracles and ends the story with Jesus' burial. One edition also contains a very short section with some of Jefferson's other writings.

In his famous book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis makes this statement, 

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

Let us who believe in and trust in Jesus as living Savior and risen Lord make it abundantly clear in our proclamations. Jesus is not a mere philosopher. He is Emmanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:18-25). Hallelujah! Jesus, true God and true Man, is the reason we celebrate this season.