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2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 [+/-]2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 [13]But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. [14]To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. [15]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. [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, [17]comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (ESV)

We have spent the last few weeks looking at what Paul calls the rebellion.  We have examined its content and its context.  The word itself is “apostastia” and it describes people who stand far away from God in actuality but with their mouths and in their hearts they really believe that they are close to God and that God is close to them.  They profess with their lips that Jesus is Lord but their lives revolve around the desires of their flesh and the directives of the world.  They are deceived by the devil and delivered over by God to live out the their lives under this deception.  Paul seems to indicate that this way of living has been present in every age since the coming of Jesus but will be more extensive and more intensive when we get closer to the end. In fact, it is not inaccurate to argue that the most popular and prevalent form of Christianity as we get closer to the end will be of this sort.  I am reading as a part of my quiet time this year a devotional book by A.W. Tozer who doesn’t write any bad books so anything you read by him is helpful.  In a recent installment he wrote these words, “there was a time when a person would not have dared to say, ‘I am a Christian’ and not have known that their entire being was completely surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus.  But we are living in a time when people profess to be Christians while living however they please to live believing that at some point they will move to a deeper experience of the Lordship of Jesus.”  And he adds that we have to come to think this as normal and acceptable.  And it will be in the last days when the rebellion is rampant.

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