Chapter # 2 Paragraph # 1 Study # 5
December 13, 2015
Dayton, Texas
(040)
1769 Translation:
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 [
Even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
1901 ASV Translation:
8 And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord
Jesus shall
slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his
coming;
9 [
even he], whose
coming is according to the working of Satan with all
power and signs and lying wonders,
10 and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that
perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie:
12 that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
- I. The Lord's Reaction to The Lawless Man.
- A. He will "consume" him.
- 1. The word, found only three times in the New Testament, means something along the lines of "reducing something to its elemental parts".
- a. The disciples want to call fire from heaven upon the opposition to burn them to death (Luke 9:54).
- b. Paul, using a metaphor of chewing food to its smallest part, says to the Galatians that "if you bite and devour...take heed that ye be not consumed..." (Galatians 5:15).
- c. In this text the "consumption" will be by the spirit/breath of the Lord's mouth, but it does not have the Pauline metaphor in mind; it is more of a spewing forth of "breath". This sets up our understanding of Revelation 19:20 where Jesus casts the Beast "alive" into the Lake of Fire. That he is "alive" when cast into the Lake of Fire implies that the "breath" simply blows him into that Lake.
- 2. Putting all of the above together, we get the point: the destiny of this Man is to be cast alive into a lake of fire that does not annihilate him, but does reduce him to the essence of his rebellion (fire for his body, weeping for his soul, and rage for his spirit: Matthew 13:42). A thousand years later this Man is still "alive" and "in the Lake of Fire: Revelation 20:10.
- B. He will "destroy" him.
- 1. The word translated "destroy" means more "to completely void" than "to destroy".
- 2. The idea is that the incremental workings of the mystery of lawlessness will be brought to a cataclysmic frustration: all that work for nothing! Nothing is worse than having everything one is committed to go up in smoke and ashes.
- 3. The instrument of this "destruction of all ambitions and goals" is the "brightness" or "manifestation" of His coming.
- a. The word that the translators struggled over is used in six texts in the New Testament. In 1 Timothy 6:14 Paul urges Timothy to "keep the commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the 'appearing' of our Lord...". In 2 Timothy 1:10 the purpose of God is "...now made manifest by the 'appearing' of our Savior Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel...". In 2 Timothy 4:1 the Lord Jesus Christ "...shall judge the quick and the dead at His 'appearing' and His kingdom." And in 2 Timothy 4:8 a crown of righteousness is laid up for "...all them also that love His 'appearing'". And in Titus 2:13 the blessed hope is coupled with "the glorious 'appearing' of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ." The Authorized Version translators chose "appearing" in every case except this current text.
- b. When we put all these six texts together to see what Paul is indicating, it seems apparent that an "appearing" is some form of greater manifestation to make more clear what is not so clear by words alone. Thus, the ASV is a better translational choice.
- c. That it is this "manifestation unto clarity" that "destroys" the man of the lawlessness means that Jesus' "coming" is revealed to be for multiple purposes, one of which is to bring "lawlessness" to ruin.