READ 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3

Think first about the end times and the deception that is going to take place.  Verse 3 states, "Let no man deceive you by any means."  

There has always been deception in the world, and yet it will intensify in the last days.  Here Paul is talking about some deceptive teaching which the new believers of Thessalonica were receiving.  

I don't think that every time deception is taught it is intentional in nature.  I do not believe that every person who teaches error intends necessarily to do so.  

Sometimes people misunderstand scripture and misread scripture. They misinterpret 

Scripture and what they teach are deceptive.  Not that they intend it to be, but they have misread what God says in His Word.  

On the other hand, I think it is very clear that there is some deception that is conscious and purposeful in nature.  There are those who intend to deceive.  This is what was happening in Thessalonica, so Paul says, "Let no man deceive you..." concerning the message of the day of the Lord.

He says in verse 2 how this wrong teaching was being delivered.  How it was being given to the people.  You need to look very closely because I think today we have similar teaching and methodology that is being used.  

“That ye be not soon shaken in mind…” The word, shaken, carries the idea of being unsettled.  It was a word that was used to describe a building being shaken by an earthquake.  The tense of the verb is an indication of the arrival of that particular teaching, and when this particular thing was taught among the believers of Thessalonica it was like an earthquake.  It absolutely shook them.  It unsettled them.  

Then he says, “or be troubled."  The word, “troubled”, speaks of an inward state of anxiety.  It speaks of alarm. In other words, a teaching that so suddenly came, so hastily was delivered to them, that it shook them like an earthquake, and it produced in them a state of alarm.

How did these young Christians get shook up like that?  How do young Christians get mislead today in these areas?  

In verse two, put the first two little phrases together.  He says, "neither by spirit nor by word."  

First notice, most wrong teaching is an abuse of the Holy Spirit.  

It is a misuse of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers to illumine our hearts.  John 16:13 states that the Spirit of truth, “will guide you into all truth…” Evidently, there were those who had come to the church in Thessalonica who claimed to have some special revelation in a spiritual utterance.  

The thing you have to keep in mind is that at this time in church history they didn't have the New Testament Bible like we do.  It was in the process of being written.  So, in the New Testament church, before the New Testament canon of Scripture was completed, there was the office of the prophet. 

The prophet was a man who had a particular gift of prophecy.  That means he was able to speak the literal message of God.

You and I today have the completed New Testament.  The office of the prophet, in the sense it was used in the New Testament, is no longer in use in the church.  We do not need the office of the prophet in the New Testament sense because God has given us the text of the New Testament.  God has given us His Word. 

If a person today was prophesying, what he said would have to agree with Scripture!  

He certainly wouldn't be allowed to contradict Scripture.  Yet, if he spoke what was already in Scripture, what's the point of speaking it, it's already here.  But there were those who were coming into public worship and claiming to have the gift of prophecy. Claiming the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they were teaching a teaching that was in clear contradiction to what Paul had already taught these believers. 

We are witnessing the same kind of thing in our day.  It is an amazing phenomenon. We are witnessing, in Christendom today, those who are claiming to have the gift of prophecy.  They are claiming that what they say is spirit-inspired.  They are claiming that they have the gifts of wisdom, the gifts of knowledge, and the gifts of revelation, so that God, through them, gives a special word -- a spiritual word for the church. They say something like this:  “God has given me a word for you.”  It is wrong and dangerous whenever someone claims God speaks audibly to them, and they claim to have the gift of prophecy.  

"By spirit or by word."  Some spiritual utterance is an abuse of the role of the Holy Spirit.  There's a very simple way that believers can check all of this out.  In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, the 18th chapter, there is a specific passage that shows just exactly how believers are to discern whether or not what they are being told is correct.  The way you are to do it is to see if it comes to pass.  But the Old Testament standard is absolute, 100% accuracy.

Notice secondly, not only were they claiming it was by spirit and word, but also by letter – vs. 2 “neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us…” Paul said there were letters that were claiming to come from him.  Evidently, somebody had written them a letter and signed Paul's name to it.  

Now, they are abusing the Holy Scripture.  The same thing goes on today. 

Liberalism messes with the Holy Scriptures.  Liberalism denies the teachings of the Bible.  Cults add to the Holy Scriptures. There are cults that say what you have in the Bible is fine, but we have some additional revelation. 

The book of Mormon is one example.  The book of Mormon is very clear that it was taken from some writings of a man who was writing concerning some of the landscapes up in Ohio.  That's been pretty well proven. Yet there are some people who say that you have to have the Bible and you have to have this too.  No, no, when God completed the canon of Scripture in the book of Revelation, He specifically said no one is to take from, nor to add to this Book.  

The Bible is God’s Word!  The Bible is God's final revelation to man, it is the sole authority for all we believe and do.  

 False teaching - deception today may come as an abuse of the Holy Spirit.  It may come as an abuse of holy Scripture.  What God's children are to do so that they won't be shaken up by this is to go to the Word.  Go to the Bible. 

What were they teaching?  They were saying that the day of the Lord was at hand. They were saying that they were in the day of the Lord right then.  Obviously, that was not true.  

Notice how deception works. 

It takes the atmosphere in which people find themselves at that time.  What was the atmosphere?  Read the 1st chapter and you'll find that these young Christians were going through all kinds of persecution and tribulation.  They were suffering persecution because they were Christian.  Then, along came this deception saying, "you're having troubles, you're being persecuted. You're in the Great Tribulation.  It sure feels like it to us.”  And they lost their hope.  They lost their joy.  They lost their victory in the Lord.  

Invariably false teaching causes people to lose their joy in the Lord. So, he speaks a word here about end-time deception.  Tomorrow we will study what I call end time correction.

Your Friend and HIS,

Pastor Abbott

MEDITATIONS

1.  Why do you believe it is so easy for people to be theologically deceived?

2.  Why will theological deception increase as we move closer to the end times?

3.  How do people deceive others using the Holy Spirit as their crutch?

4.  How do people deceive others by misrepresenting the Word of God?