(1) В¶ Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, (2) That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
It should seem, from the opening of this Chapter, that the Church had at this time, strong apprehensions in their mind, that the day of the Lord was at hand. And it is probable, from what the Apostle saith in those verses, that the Church of the Thessalonians had been strengthened in this opinion, by their misconstruction of the Apostle's former letter. 1 Thessalonians 4:15. Paul, therefore, in this Chapter corrects this error; and, under the Spirit of prophecy, relates to the Church, an awful event, which must first take place in the earth, which should be the most distressing in its consequences, to the Church of the Lord, that could be. The great day of God, saith he, shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that Man of Sin be revealed, the Son of Perdition. Reader! pause over this account, before you go further. A falling away. Not from grace. Not the people of God. Paul had before told the Church, in his former Epistle to the Thessalonians, that their election of God was known. 1 Thessalonians 1:4. And in the same Epistle, he had fully declared, that God had not appointed his people unto wrath, but to obtain salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:9. The falling away, therefore, hath no respect whatever, to the real Church of Christ; but wholly to the mere nominal Professors of christianity, and which were numerous as soon as the Empire became Christian, and nations possessed belief in Christ, merely as a religion of state policy, without one act of grace in Christ. A falling away from this profession became, and hath continued common, ever since. But what hath this to do with Christ? Men cannot fall away from what they never had! A man cannot lose grace, who never had grace. There is but one real, and decisive mark of the true faith in Christ; namely, the being regenerated, and born again of the Holy Ghost. All the profession in the world, of believing in Christ, is no profession at all, as to its vital principles, before this act is wrought in the soul. And, therefore, men falling away from a mere profession, is all that Paul meant, by the expression. But, there never was, neither is it possible it should be, a falling away, in a single instance, of a child of God, whom God the Spirit hath regenerated: for that happy soul is thereby made partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:3-4, The man of sin, and the son of perdition, come next to be considered. The account the Apostle gives is very alarming.