The mystery of lawlessness.

 

In my morning Bible reading and study in 2 Thessalonians 2, the phrase "the mystery of lawlessness" caught my attention in a different way.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is removed. - 2 Thess. 2:7

In this chapter, Paul is reassuring the Thessalonians that no, Christ hadn't returned. He starts the chapter reassuring them that the false spirit, the false word, or the false letter that had convinced them otherwise was wrong (2 Thess. 2:2)

Stop there for a second.

A false spirit (i.e. a false revelation or prophecy). A false word or message (someone spoke a lie to them directly or personally). A false letter (something written taught them a lie). Are these three modes of deception rampant today or what?

From there, Paul proceeds to reassure them that he is correct, describing what will happen with the coming man of lawlessness (the antichrist). This man will oppose every "god" and faith practice (one-world religion). He'll exalt himself, and call himself god. He'll perform false signs and wonders. He'll deceive many, and God will send a strong delusion to those apparently eager or easily deceived. The mystery of him and what he is about is already in place and at work. And he'll be restrained until the time is right (after the rapture), though in the end Jesus will destroy him easily in a moment.

But that mystery of lawlessness.

A mystery is anything we don't understand, something that is unclear, or something that doesn't make sense.

We like mysteries. We are intrigued by mystery.

We have a sin nature that makes us want to pursue the secret, the hidden, the knowledge we don't have that someone else does. It gives us access to an elect group, perhaps, or gives us the power or right to hold ourselves higher than those who don't know. It's an addiction, this desire to know more, to know what we don't or can't. It's why people turn to psychics and astrologers and false prophets, clamoring to know the future.

An unsolved mystery is like an unresolved piece of music, a puzzle missing its last piece, or a TV show that cuts out at the cliffhanger and never gets to the denouement. It eats away at us to find that last bit of understanding, to be the one who finally gets it.

Just look at how we argue about things of the Bible we can't know on this side of Heaven. We'll split a church or burn a virtual flame war on an online theological forum arguing a mystery.

One of the highlighted verses in my Bible is Deuteronomy 29:29, which tells us that the secret things belong to God. In other words, there's stuff we aren't and can't know. It's for Him to keep it, or reveal or bring understanding when the time is right. 

We see that in the concept of progressive revelation where, for example, end times understanding has increased the closer we get to the end. The times we live in make things apparent to us, more than they were to people 100 or more years ago. And of course, God reveals understanding of scripture for the time and people as needed (see Daniel 12:3-4).

The mystery of lawlessness is breathtaking right now.

Riots, burgeoning civil war, protests, authoritarian control, rumors of war, the soft early pings of war—it is everywhere. South Africa, Haiti, Lebanon, France, the U.K., Russia, the U.S., Iran, Afghanistan, Israel...save for Antarctica, no piece of land is free from the growing unrest, chaos, and lawlessness. (And for all I know, the people on Antarctica are arguing right now as I write this.)

For believers, and even for non-believers who hold to certain orderly moral ethics and codes, it is a mystery. 

The bizarre pandemic deception of the masses, the unrest, the fomenting clashes against ethnic groups, the illogical identity confusion, the imploding censorship, the growing inflation...it makes no sense to this group. It serves no purpose. It seems to be destroying the good and replacing it with evil. It is trashing and breaking up necessary national and cultural foundations. What brought this about, why isn't something being done to stop it, and why are people instead feeding it?! It is a confusing mystery!

Don't chase the mystery.

It is a mystery of lawlessness. It will never make sense to the believer beyond our understanding that it must and will happen ever-increasingly at the end. We shouldn't focus on that mystery, but feel our faith grow instead because what God said would happen is happening.

But some chase the mystery.

When you chase the mystery, you begin turning away from God, and your focus goes down the rabbit hole. You become more concerned with conspiracies (some of which are true, some of which aren't) to the point of trying to band together with people to "fix" that evil with your own power instead of seeing it all as a spiritual battle. Or perhaps you become more caught up solving Qanon proofs or tracking down the global elites evil connections and activities than you do reading and studying your Bible. Maybe your energy is devoted to organizations and activism that are combating areas of lawlessness, trying to push it back and reclaim lost ground, forgetting that the lawlessness, even in its current state, is being restrained by God to the degree that He wills it to be.

Do you chase God like you chase the mystery?

Do you lift up in prayer the things that are breaking your heart that you see happening in the world, talking it out with God, or do you spend hours on the internet hunting down information to "wake" people up?

Be prayerful and honest about this. Ask God to talk to you about this, in your prayer and Bible study.

For some, God has directed you to shine light on specific areas of the lawlessness. But otherwise, our purpose now is to bring glory to God and get as many people to Jesus as we can with the time that's left, not try to make sense of the mystery of lawlessness.

Be thankful the lawlessness you see hurts your heart and is confusing and makes no sense to you. Imagine if it did.