2 Thessalonians Chapter 2

vs 8

It's nice to think that even when this lawless one is revealed, Jesus is going to come and kick his ass. Now note that this verse doesn't say he'll do it immediately, but he will do it eventually. And all he's got to do is turn up. Nice.

vs 9

What does that mean, in accordance with the work of Satan? It means what you think it means - that the lawless one will work in the same way Satan works. But isn't the lawless one Satan himself? I believe we are now allowed to be confused.

In any case, while the miracles, signs and wonders might be counterfeit, they are still impressive. And that's why we aren't meant to put our faith in miracles and signs, but in the knowledge of Christ and his resurrection.

vs 10

The whole purpose of this lawless one (in accordance with Satan) is to deceive people into not being saved. But notice! They do not perish because they were deceived (although that is something we say so often in churches and mission conferences) - they perish because of their attitude towards the truth. Satan might be a great deceiver, but God won't let him stop someone from being saved. Only we can do that ourselves (bring it on, Calvin).

vs 11-12

This has got to be one of the few NT references to a very biblical, especially OT idea - that God will send delusion, or do something negative to people for their condemnation. It's hard for us to understand I guess, but we know God does it. He sent evil spirits to plague Saul, he hardened Pharoah's heart. But note that he doesn't do these things until they've already denied the truth. Basically, it's like a judgement of God on those who deny him.

So what's the difference between Satan's deceit (apate) and God's delusion (plane)? Well, the truth is there isn't much, but if you want to get technical... apate refers to a concealing of distortion of the truth - so Satan tries to hide the truth from you. Plane comes from the root of wandering and straying (the idea being that you've taken the wrong road) - so God gives you a wrong road to go down, and you go down it. Satan tries to hide the truth; God just gives you the option to ignore it. I don't know how 100% correct that is, but that seems to be the lexical reading to me.

vs 13

Again, God has chosen the Thessalonians. He has chosen them to be saved, but by a certain way - to be saved the the Spirit and through truth. There are plenty of books on predestination, election, and even God's sovereignty more generally if you're dead keen to get even more confused on this issue. But the one good thing I have gotten from books like those is that it is not necessary for God's eminent all-powerful decision-making to be incompatible with our own ability to make decisions.

vs 14

God's chosen instrument to bring about this salvation was PS&T's gospel. Again, notice the personal attachment.

vs 15

And so because God chose that method of transmission, the Thessalonians should hold to it. Teaching or traditions? With the word paradosis, I don't really think it matters. It is the act of giving up or giving over - the same word is used when you surrender a city. So whether you think of them as traditions or teachings, it's the same in the greek. After all, how do you learn traditions except by someone's teaching?

vs 16-17

Because God has given us eternal encouragement and hope, we can have faith that he can give us temporal encouragement. Because he has the power to do these things, we can have faith that he can give us strength in this world. Interesting to think that our faith for God to do something in this world is proportional to the amount of faith we have for God to do something eternal. Not that I'm saying that God needs our faith to do the work - just that if we believe God can do eternal things, we certainly believe he can do the temporal things, or at least that's how our faith should work. I personally don't have a problem with that (it's come out in a lot of my sermons) but I think it might be cold comfort to some people. Anyway, I'm not sure that PS&T are drawing up a rule of faith. I think they are more using an example for the Thessalonians who do have faith in God's eternal power, and so are encouraged to believe in his temporal power also.