Fathers

2 Thessalonians 2

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Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you not to be quickly shaken in your mind, and not be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as if from us, saying that the day of Christ has already come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction, he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God. Don’t you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things? Now you know what is restraining him, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming; even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which he called you through our Good News, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word or by letter. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.

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What the Fathers say

2 Thessalonians 2:11

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

"He will send," instead of: He will permit him to come. Look, first they rejected the truth, and then they abandoned God, and falsehood took hold of them. The apostle calls "the working of delusion" the deeds of the antichrist, which he performs in order to deceive, or thus he also named him himself, acting at the instigation of Satan, in order to seduce many.

Commentary on 2 Thessalonians ↗

Cyprian

Not to recognize sins lest penance follow is the wrath of God, as it is written, "And the Lord gave to them the spirit of a deep sleep," lest they actually return and be cured and healed by their lamentations and just satisfactions after their sins. The apostle Paul in his epistle states and says, "For they have not received the love of truth that they might be saved. …

Epistle LIV.13 ↗

Irenaeus

"But," say they, "God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants." Those, then, who allege such difficulties, do not read in the Gospel that passage where the Lord replied to the disciples, when they asked Him, "Why speakest Thou unto them in parables?"-"Because it is given unto you to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven; but to them I speak in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not hear, understanding they may not understand; in order that the prophecy of Isaiah regarding them may be fulfilled, …

Against Heresies Book 4 ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

But their sin and punishment is their deception; hence he says "God shall send them", i.e., permit to come to them, "the operation of error." "God has mingled in their midst a spirit of confusion" (Isa 19:14). "I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets" (1 Kgs 22:22). And this is why he says "to believe lying", i.e., the false teaching of the Antichrist. "For which reason God gave them over to a reprobate mind, that they might do things which are not fitting" (Rom 1:28).

Commentary on 2 Thessalonians ↗

Bonaventure

The third flow from the light of faith consists in the rapture of love: at such times, the soul always perceives inner joy even in the face of insults and hardships. And it is at its highest when the burning soul feels that the Lord makes it taste the children's bread. Now this is the highest point of faith, the summit: to be inebriated by actual experience and to have no desire for the world. This will be the defense of such a soul in the time of the Antichrist: God sends them a misleading influence that they may believe falsehood.

Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9 ↗