Deeper Reflection
IN 2 THESSALONIANS 2, PAUL’S EMPHASIS ON DECEPTION is clear. He begins with a strong exhortation, “Let no one deceive you in any way” (2 Thess 2:3). Mark the absolute terms that Paul uses: “no one” and “any way”. We must be consciously alert to not being deceived at all. Behind the antichrist is “the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders…with all wicked deception” (v.9-10a). And unbelievers “believe what is false” under “a strong delusion” from God (2 Thess 2:11).As Satan’s instrument, the antichrist will have the supernatural “power” to perform “signs and wonders” (v.9). Knowing what human beings can be easily drawn to, Satan uses that as an effective key to deception: supernatural power, signs and wonders. The signs and wonders are not illusions performed by magicians. They are supernatural, marvellous, tangible and believable. The signs and wonders are “false” – “probably not in the sense that they will be fakes, but in the sense that they will deceive rather than enlighten”⁴. While this “will happen exclusively in the future” when the antichrist appears “to deceive the church on a massive scale”⁵, it “has already begun to take place”⁶ as “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work” (2 Thess 2:7). There are those who call Jesus “Lord”, but are not His true disciples; and they can “prophesy”, “cast out demons” and “perform many miracles” in Jesus’ name (Matt 7:22-23). In other words, they look so Christian. And Jesus has this one word for us: “Beware” (Matt 7:15). 

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⁴ John R. W. Stott, The Message of Thessalonians, The Bible Speaks Today (IVP, 1991), 172 ⁵ G. K. Beale, 221 ⁶ G. K. Beale, 220