• Are You an Imitator of Christ or an Imitation Christian?
    The Watchtower—1983 | January 15

    • A Threat From Within!

      Unbelieving Jews had brought persecution upon the young congregation from the outside, but now even greater danger was threatening from within! Evidently some in the congregation were spreading twisted views about Jehovah’s day as being imminent. Paul hastened to set things straight, saying with regard to that “day”: “Let no one seduce you in any manner, because it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction.”​—2 Thessalonians 2:1-3.

      When Paul, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, warned the congregation of this coming “man of lawlessness,” the details of that one’s lawless course were still a “mystery,” or a religious secret. However, the apostle mentions that even while he was yet with them he “used to tell” of this future apostasy and the “restraint” holding it back.​—2 Thessalonians 2:5-7.

      If we at this point open our Bibles to 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 and examine the context of Paul’s words, we, too, can discern what Paul had in mind. The “apostasy” to come would be rooted in a lack of “love of the truth.” It would result from a ‘believing of the lie’ and taking “pleasure in unrighteousness.” It would come boldly to the fore soon after the removal of the “restraint” referred to by Paul. It would continue all the way down to the ‘manifestation of the presence’ of Jesus Christ, at which time Christ would expose and do away with that “lawless one,” bringing it to nothing.​—Compare 2 Thessalonians 2:8 with Isaiah 11:4 and Revelation 19:11, 14, 15.

      Identifying the “Man of Lawlessness”

      Judging by the longevity of the “man of lawlessness,” from Paul’s day down to Christ’s presence, it had to be​—no, not an individual but a class of people. Since this lawless one “lifts himself up over everyone who is called ‘god’ or an object of reverence,” application of the term focuses on the leaders of the apostasy. They would be associated with misleading “powerful works” done in Christ’s name. (Compare 2 Thessalonians 2:9 with Matthew 7:22, 23.) Multitudes would join themselves to them as an easier religious way, soothing to the conscience but unburdensome to a selfish, worldly, even immoral way of life. Such elements of counterfeit Christianity were already “at work” among professing Christians in Paul’s day.​—1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; 5:6-9, 14, 15, 19-22; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15; compare Matthew 25:41-46.

      Paul and the other apostles and older men of the Christian congregation served as the “restraint” against such forces, shepherding the flock according to Christ’s example. In view of the threatening apostasy, Paul admonished the Thessalonians in these words: “So, then, brothers, stand firm and maintain your hold on the traditions that you were taught.” Following the death of Paul and the other apostles, self-seeking men pushed truth aside, set themselves up as leaders and led the flock astray. Only those who responded to Paul’s counsel were made “firm in every good deed and word.” The “man of lawlessness” became identified as the clergy of a counterfeit Christianity.​—2 Thessalonians 2:15-17; compare Matthew 13:24-30, 37-43.a

      Awaiting Jehovah’s Day

      Paul had to warn the Thessalonian Christians of still another danger: That of becoming complacent or spiritually drowsy with regard to Jehovah’s day. Some religious writers of our time have tried to play down the significance and urgency of the Scriptural message about Jesus’ “presence and . . . the conclusion of the system of things” by reference to Paul’s later words: “We request of you not to be quickly shaken from your reason nor to be excited either through an inspired expression or through a verbal message or through a letter . . . to the effect that the day of Jehovah is here.”​—Matthew 24:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 2.