2 Thessalonians 2:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

We heard that there is one God, from whom are all things, and therefore we did not believe.” Antichrist will take this excuse from them. When he comes and commands nothing righteous, but only lawlessness, they will believe in him solely because of his false miracles. Then their mouths will be stopped. Indeed, if you do not believe Christ, you should believe Antichrist still less. The former said that He was sent by the Father, while the latter will say something entirely different. Therefore Christ said, “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, him you will receive” (Jn 5:43). But they will say, “We saw signs.” Yet many great miracles were also done by Christ. Therefore they ought far more to have believed in Him. Moreover, much was foretold about Antichrist: that he is lawless, that he is the son of perdition, and that his coming is according to the working of Satan. By contrast, it was foretold about Christ that He is the Savior and will bring countless blessings. Who then will be condemned? The Apostle himself explained this, saying, “Those who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness.” By “the love of the truth” he means Christ: “because,” he says, “they did not receive the love of the truth.” Christ was both, and came for both: out of love for mankind and to reveal the true meaning of all things.

And the phrase, “God will send them a working of deception,” is said by the Apostle in place of, “He will permit deception to appear,” so that the lovers of wickedness may be revealed. For God will not send this deception, but will destroy it by the word of His mouth.

Blessed Theodoret says, “‘God will send a working of deception’ is said by the Apostle in place of, ‘He will permit deception to appear,’ so that the lovers of wickedness may be revealed. For God will not send this deception, but will destroy it by the word of His mouth.” “They would not have believed in Christ even if Antichrist had not come. But he will come in order to expose them. Then they will not be able to say, ‘Because Christ, a man, called Himself God, for precisely this reason we did not believe in Him. We heard that there is one God, from whom are all things, and therefore we did not believe.’ Antichrist will take this excuse from them. For when he comes and commands nothing righteous, but only lawlessness, they will believe in him solely because of his false miracles. Then their mouths will be stopped. For if you do not believe Christ, you should believe Antichrist still less. The former said that He was sent by the Father. The latter will say something entirely different. Therefore Christ says, ‘I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, him you will receive’ (Jn 5:43). But they will say, ‘We saw signs.’ Yet many great miracles were done by Christ. Therefore they ought rather to have believed in Him.” Moreover, there were many prophecies about Antichrist: that he is lawless, that he is the son of perdition, and that his coming is according to the working of Satan. By contrast, it was foretold about Christ that He is the Savior and will bring countless blessings. All this was said to strengthen the faith of the Thessalonians. The same can be said to people today, both to believers and to those falling away from the faith.

In addition, Antichrist will appear in every deceit of unrighteousness among those who perish. That is, his activity will seem entirely consistent with the demands of justice, but in reality it will be the denial of every righteousness. It will lead others into every kind of injustice. Still, Antichrist will produce such an effect only among those who are already on the path to perdition (έν τοις άπολλυμένοίς). This will be their punishment because they did not wish to receive the love of the truth. Thus, in the Apostle’s understanding, not only truth itself is given to man, but also love, the striving toward it. The Apostle most likely has in view here the truth revealed in Christ, or the Gospel, love for which the Apostles sought to implant in men’s hearts. For this guilt, this unwillingness to receive and love the truth, God will punish men by sending upon them, or subjecting them to, the power of deception (ενέργεια πλάνης). Thus they will believe falsehood in its whole form opposed to God (τω φενδει), if they did not wish to believe the truth. This manifestation of faith in falsehood is needed so that judgment over sinners may take place. Thus the appearance of the man of sin must serve as a touchstone, the final trial for mankind. In it, each person will decide definitively where he stands: on the side of truth or on the side of falsehood.

But when at last they completely give up and surrender to the destructive path they have chosen, when they unite themselves with it and join it with their hearts, and cease even to think of leaving it, then God withdraws His restraining hand from the evil spirit of deception. Once permitted, he rushes upon them, enters their hearts, and there begins to exert the working of deception, drawing them toward falsehood. And he will draw them. They will receive falsehood with all their heart, and then they will manifest it outwardly and visibly join themselves to Antichrist. But by this only what was hidden within will come out. Chrysostom asks, “Why, you say, will God permit all this? Do not fear, beloved, but listen to what the Apostle says. Antichrist will prevail only over those who are perishing, who would not have believed even if he had not come.” Theodoret adds, “The phrase, ‘God will send them a working of deception,’ is said by the Apostle in place of, ‘He will permit deception to appear,’ so that the lovers of wickedness may be revealed. For God will not send this deception, but will destroy it by the word of His mouth.” Oecumenius says, “‘He will send’ should not be understood as though God sent it. The Apostle is accustomed to express God’s permission in this way.” Theophylact says, “‘He will send’ means that He will permit him to come. See, first they rejected the truth. Then God abandoned them, and falsehood took possession of them.”