Many mysteries are spoken of in Scripture, mostly the revelations of God for the enlightenment of His people. The divine mysteries are found in the Holy Scriptures for all to read, but the very language that unveils God’s secrets to His people hides them from the men of the world. Profound natural wisdom is not the key to open the secrets of God, nor can religious education communicate to the natural intelligence what lies in the mind of God. Only those who have the divine nature as born of God, and who have the Holy Spirit to teach them, can apprehend what God has disclosed in His word for His people.
Men may speculate regarding the future, and some with greater natural vision than others may be able to foresee from the trend of events what will or may happen a few years hence; but as regards certainty about the future, the man of the world is baffled; he can only hope against hope as the leaders of the world’s affairs grapple with the complex situations of which they are not the masters, but by which they are carried along, whither they do not know. But the Christian is not uncertain, for God has revealed in His word to us “the mystery of His will” (Eph. 1:9), the great secret of what He is about to do. He is going to head up all things in Christ very soon, the things in the heavens as well as the things upon the earth, Christ will be over all, and His saints will be with Him to share His kingdom and His glory in that day.
The Mystery of Iniquity
In Second Thessalonians, Paul, in the first chapter writes of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to execute judgment “on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 8). At that time His own will be with Him, for “He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe” (verse 10). But there were those who were trying to upset the young believers at Thessalonica, by telling them through word and letter, the latter purporting to come from Paul himself, that the day of Christ had already come; the day of glory for God’s people, and of judgment for the unsaved. In chapter 2 of this epistle the Apostle deals with this matter.
He tells them in verse 3 not to let any deceive them, for the day of the Lord will not come until the apostasy first comes, and the man of sin is revealed. The apostasy, or the falling away, is the giving up of the profession of Christianity, and if not of the form that is outward, there will certainly be the abandonment of the foundation truths of the Gospel. Nor will this be confined to what is Christian, for even among the Jews there will no doubt be the giving up of the religious teaching professed by the orthodox among them, and that will be tenaciously held by a small remnant till the end.
But among the Jews there will be another evil, the revelation of the man of sin, “the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” The Lord had forewarned His disciples of what would take place in the last days, and had said to the Jews, “I am come in my Father’s Name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (John 5:43).
Daniel had prophesied of this one, the false king, writing, “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished” (Dan. 11:36). Isaiah had also foretold his coming and judgment; and in the Revelation, John sees him as a beast, a creature without heart and conscience, in league with the head of the revived Roman empire (Rev. 13:11–18).
It must have been evident to the saints at Thessalonica that neither the apostasy, nor the man of sin, were yet in evidence. Evidently, while with them, the Apostle had already spoken of these things, for he says “Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?” How necessary it is for Christians to be constantly reminded of the things they learned at the first.
The forces of evil are not allowed to proceed unchecked, for the Apostle can add, “And now ye know what withholds that he might be revealed in his time” (verse 6). God in His government will not allow evil to go beyond the limits He has set, and this government continues while the saints are on earth. So that we should never be alarmed by the trend towards the abandonment of the truths of God, or by the different kinds of evil that rear their heads in these days. The man of sin, who is bound for perdition, will not come till the time prophesied for him, and that will be before the day of Christ arrives, the day for His display in glory.
Yet though the full-blown apostasy was not then come, or the man of sin revealed, “the mystery of iniquity” was already at work. There was a secret working of evil that would culminate in the apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin. And if it was working in that day, how much nearer is the culmination now. In the Christian profession today how many leaders there are who have given up the foundations of the faith. All the great human systems, that profess to be Christian, are much further advanced in open infidelity than they ever have been before. Things are hastening towards the public giving up of the doctrines that have been long professed, though many have not held them in their souls.
Lawlessness will mark the man of sin, but it marks the secret working of evil now. Whatever the veneer, whether religious or political, beneath there is the lawless spirit that resents all authority. Man desires to do his own will, not the will of God, and he will not be bound, not even by his own signature, by the truth of God, or by the authority that God has given in human government. Men have no relish for restraint, wherever they are found, whether in Christendom, Judaism or heathenism; they desire the exercise of their own self-will, and this is becoming increasingly evident in Christendom today.
But there is a restraint, holding back the forces of evil that would readily crush all that is good: “He who now lets will let, until He be taken out of the way” (verse 7). The Holy Spirit is still here, and will remain till the church is gone, and He will go with it. So that while the mystery of iniquity is still with us, and will be until the evil is no longer secret, but public in that lawless one, the false prophet, the antichrist, the man of sin, yet we can rest in the knowledge that nothing is out of hand; all is in the hand of the Son of God, and there is the restraint of God’s providential government in the world, and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the house of God.
The “wicked one” who is to come will be dealt with by the Lord, for He shall consume him “with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” This will be the beginning of the day of the Lord, and antichrist will be destroyed before the Lord sets up His kingdom. There was then no need for the Thessalonian saints to trouble about the day of the Lord being present, for at that day all evil will have been dealt with by the Lord.
Antichrist’s coming “is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders” (verse 9). He will imitate the Lord Jesus, but how different the source of his power and how different the character of his wonders. The Lord’s power was from on high, antichrist’s from beneath; the Lord’s signs were from the Father, antichrist’s from Satan; the Lord’s wonders were in grace and in truth, antichrist’s are in falsehood.
Christ came to open the eyes of men, that they might know God in all the love of His heart, and they might be brought before Him in righteous grace; but antichrist will come “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish.” Those that perish had refused the truth in Jesus, not receiving “the love of the truth that they might be saved; and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
The strong delusion would seem to permeate the whole of the sphere where antichrist has influence. His authority was perhaps limited to Palestine, but his influence would appear to cover Christendom as well. How very sad is the end of all who have refused the testimony of God concerning His Son.
The Mystery of the Faith
The faith is the whole body of Christian doctrine that was once committed to the saints. We can think of it in its parts, in its foundation truths, or in relation to its topstone in the purpose of God concerning His Son; but in whatsoever way we view it, it brings Christ before us as the One in whom we learn all that God is, whether in His nature of love, His disposition of grace towards men, or as the centre of all God’s thoughts, both in relation to His present place at God’s right hand, or in relation to the coming day, when everything shall be headed up in Christ for the pleasure of God.
While the faith is primarily concerned with the revelation of God, and with Him in whom He has been revealed, the teaching of divine grace at once brings out the blessing that God has for those whom He has called, and the present place of privilege enjoyed by Christians. Everything in Christianity belongs to the realm of faith, so that faith in the individual is required to apprehend the body of doctrine in which “the faith” consists. Moreover, the faith must be held with a good conscience, or shipwreck of the faith may follow, as in the case of Hymenaeus and Alexander, of whom we read in 1 Timothy 1:19-20.
Those who cared for the things of God in the local assembly required the moral and spiritual qualities for their offices; and of these we read in 1 Timothy 3. Bishops had to be blameless “the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach…he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” These were not simply the qualities of a good man naturally, but the qualities and qualifications that were developed through the word of God working in the heart.
Deacons, who concerned themselves with looking after the outward matters of the assembly also required to be “grave, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.” They were not called upon to minister the mystery of the faith, but they were required to hold it, and with a good conscience. The faith had to manifest itself in their lives, which was the evidence that it was held in the conscience.
The faith is a great secret from God, although written in indelible letters on the pages of Scripture for all to read. What God has now revealed in the Gospel was largely secret till Christ took His place on high. Life and incorruptibility were not brought to light until the risen Christ sent forth the Gospel. The place the Gentiles were to have in divine blessing; the place the Son of God was to occupy as Head over all things; the call of the church, and many other truths were secret till Christ sent His Spirit to reveal them; and they are still a mystery to the man of the world. Only those who have trusted Christ know the mystery of the faith; and this we are to hold, whether deacons or not, with a good conscience.
R. 23.12.64