Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power and signs and lying wonders:
ου εστιν η παρουσια κατ ενεργειαν του σατανα εν παση δυναμει και σημειοις και τερασιν ψευδους
10 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Then, explaining who this one is "whose coming is according to the working of Satan," he says, "with all power and signs and lying wonders." That is, he will display great power, but nothing in it will be true. On the contrary, the aim of everything will be deception. The Apostle foretold this so that those living then might not be deceived. He also says, "with lying wonders," meaning either deceptive wonders or wonders that lead into deception.
"The one whose coming is according to the working of Satan." The Apostle teaches us what Antichrist is: he is a man who has Satan within him, and Satan will act through him. "With all power and signs and lying wonders." That is, he will display all his power, but he will have nothing true. On the contrary, everything will be deceptive. "With lying wonders" means wonders that are counterfeit, or that lead astray those who pay attention to him. Paul foretells this so that those living at that time may not be deceived.
While the Apostle’s obscure words are interpreted conjecturally by some in one way and by others in another, one thing is certain. Christ will not come to judge the living and the dead before His adversary, Antichrist, comes to deceive those dead in soul. Yet this deception on his part is already the work of a hidden divine judgment. For his coming will be “according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with every unrighteous deception among those who perish.” Then Satan will receive liberty, and through him Antichrist will act in a most marvelous yet lying manner. People often ask why these signs and wonders are called false. Is it because he will deceive mortal senses with phantoms, so that he will seem to do what he does not do?
Or is it because these wonders, though true in themselves, will draw into deception those who do not know the devil’s power? Such people will believe they could be performed only by divine power, especially since he will then receive an authority he never had before. For it was no phantom when fire fell from heaven and at once destroyed many servants and numerous flocks of holy Job. Nor was it a phantom when a storm rushed in, destroyed the house, and killed his sons. Yet these were acts of Satan, to whom God had given such power (Job 1:16-19). Therefore, for which of these two reasons the wonders and signs are called false will become clear at the proper time.
Moreover, the coming of the apostate is "with all power and signs and various lying wonders." When the Apostle says that he will come with all power and signs, no one should think that there are any illusory and deceitful signs which he will be unable to perform.
Like the Egyptian magicians (Ex 7:11), and even more than they, he will display signs.
Great will be the struggle, brethren, in those times, especially for the faithful. Signs and wonders will be performed with great authority by the serpent himself.
In terrifying illusions he will show himself as though like God. He will fly through the air, and all the demons, like angels, will ascend before the tormentor.
For he will cry out with power, changing his appearance and terrifying all men beyond measure.
Who then, brethren, will prove to be guarded and unshaken, having in his soul the faithful sign, the holy coming of the only-begotten Son, our God?
What will happen when he sees this inexpressible affliction coming from every side upon every soul? For nowhere at all, neither on land nor on sea, will the soul have any consolation or rest.
What will happen when he sees the whole world in confusion, and each person fleeing to hide in the mountains? Some will die from hunger. Others will melt like wax from thirst, and there will be no one to show mercy.
What will happen when he sees every face shedding tears and, with intense desire, asking, "Is there anywhere on earth a word of God?" He will hear in answer, "Nowhere."
Who will endure those days? Who will bear the unbearable affliction when he sees the mingling of nations, coming from the ends of the earth to see the tormentor?
Many will worship the tormentor, crying out with trembling, "You are our savior." The sea is troubled. The earth dries up. The heavens give no rain. The plants wither.
All who live in the east of the earth flee to the west from great fear. Likewise, those who live in the west of the sun flee to the east with trembling.
The shameless one, having then received authority, will send demons to all ends, boldly proclaiming, "The great king has appeared in glory. Come and see him."
Who will have such a diamond-hard soul as to endure all these temptations bravely? Where, as I have said, is such a man, whom all the angels would call blessed?
Yet he will throw the earth into confusion. He will terrify all with false, magical signs.
If someone is not sealed with the mark of the beast, he will not be captured by his imaginary signs. Moreover, the Lord does not withdraw from such people, but enlightens them and draws them to Himself.
We must understand with all exactness, brethren, the hostile and imaginary signs of the enemy. Our Lord will come to us all in stillness. For our sake, He will repel the devices of the beast.
Preserving the unwavering faith of Christ in purity, let us make the power of the tormentor unstable. Let us acquire a steadfast and firm mind, and the powerless one will withdraw from us, unable to do anything to us.
Yet with all this, he will perform signs, wonders, and terrors with great authority. He will take cunning measures to please everyone, so that the people may quickly come to love him.
He will not take gifts. He will not speak angrily. He will not show a gloomy appearance. Rather, he will deceive the world by a well-ordered outward bearing until he becomes king.
Therefore, when many ranks and peoples see such virtues and powers, they will all suddenly have one thought. With great joy they will proclaim him king, saying to one another, "Will another man be found so good and just?"
Soon his kingdom will be established, and in anger he will strike three great kings. Then he will be exalted in heart, and this serpent will vomit forth his bitterness.
He will throw the universe into confusion, move its ends, oppress all, and begin to defile souls. He will no longer show reverence in himself.
On every occasion he will act as a man harsh, cruel, angry, irritable, violent, disorderly, fearful, repulsive, hateful, abominable, fierce, destructive, and shameless. He will strive to cast the whole human race into the abyss of impiety.
He will produce many signs, but falsely, not in truth. In the presence of a great crowd that praises him for his imaginary wonders, he will utter a mighty voice.
The place where the crowds standing before him are gathered will shake. He will say, "All nations, know my power and authority!"
In the sight of the spectators, he will move mountains and call islands out of the sea. Yet all this will be by deception and illusion, not in reality.
Nevertheless, he will deceive the world and deceive the eyes of all. Many will believe and glorify him as a mighty God.
Assembly of saints, lovers of Christ and faithful ones, I, the wretched one, with tears beg and exhort you. Let us not be easily caught by the enemy. Better said, let us be hard to catch through the power of the Cross.
The unavoidable struggle is already at the doors. Let us all take up the shield of faith. With love let us draw from the divine fountain the hopes that save our soul.
By this fountain, beloved brethren, I mean the uncreated and consubstantial Trinity, the fountain that pours forth life. If our soul is guarded by such a weapon, the serpent is trampled down.
Yet we must pray that we "enter not into temptation," and that we not flee in winter. Therefore be ready, as faithful servants who love their Master and receive no other.
For this impious and terrible one will come first, in his own time. He intends to seize, slaughter, and destroy the chosen flock of the true Shepherd.
He will take the appearance of the true shepherd in order to deceive the sheep of the flock. But those who know well the holy voice of the true Shepherd will at once recognize the deceiver.
The voice of the impious one in no way resembles the voice of the true Shepherd. The voice of the thief is wounding and feigned, and it will soon be known what he is.
Let us strive, then, friends, to know in what form the shameless serpent will come to the earth. The Savior, intending to save the human race, was born of the Virgin.
In human form He trampled the enemy by the holy power of His Godhead. He was meek and humble on earth, in order to raise us from earth to heaven.
God, who was truly and really conceived, was incarnate and born in our flesh from the Holy Virgin. By His suffering on the Cross, He saved all, giving commandments.
He will also come again on the last day to judge the living and the dead. He will repay all, righteous and impious, according to their works, as the righteous Judge.
Knowing this, namely that the Lord will come again from heaven in the glory of the Godhead, the enemy will devise to take upon himself the form of His coming and deceive all.
But if our Lord will come to earth on light-bearing clouds, like fearful lightning, the enemy will not come to earth in this way, nor on bright clouds, because he is an apostate.
Indeed, his instrument, Satan's instrument, will be born of a defiled woman. He himself will not become incarnate. Rather, the all-defiled one will come in his form, like a thief, in order to deceive all.
He will come pretending to be reverent, humble, meek, hating injustice, as he will say of himself. He will pretend to abhor idols, prefer piety, and be kind, a lover of the poor, exceedingly comely, very constant, and gentle to all.
He will especially honor the Jewish people, because the Jews will be awaiting his coming.
Yet with all this, he will perform signs, wonders, and terrors with great authority. He will take cunning measures to please everyone, so that the common people may quickly love him.
He will not take gifts. He will not speak angrily. He will not show a gloomy appearance, but will always be gentle. So he will deceive the world by a well-ordered outward bearing until he becomes king.
When many peoples and ranks see such virtues, perfections, and powers, they will all suddenly have one thought. With the greatest joy they will make him king, saying to one another, "Will another man be found so good and just?"
Most of all, the people and murderers, the Jews, will render him honor and rejoice in his reign. Therefore he too, as if providing for them by preference, will appoint for them all a special place and temple.
During the reign of this serpent on earth, the nations will become his allies with all eagerness. Edom, Moab, and also the Ammonites will worship him with joy as the lawful king. They will be his first helpers in battle.
Soon his kingdom will be established, and then he will strike three great kings in anger. After that, he will be exalted beyond measure in heart.
That serpent will vomit forth his bitterness, spewing deadly poison from Zion. He will throw the universe into confusion, move its ends, oppress all, and defile many souls.
He will no longer act as a reverent, caring, and gentle man. On every occasion he will be harsh, cruel, angry, irritable, violent, disorderly, fearful, repulsive, hateful, abominable, fierce, wicked, destructive, and shameless.
In his frenzy, he will strive to cast the whole race of mortals into the abyss of impiety. He will produce great signs and numerous terrors, showing everything falsely and not in reality.
In the same way, the tormentor will move mountains, but only in a false illusion, not in reality. In the presence of a great crowd from many peoples and ranks, praising him for his imaginary wonders, he will utter a mighty voice.
The place where the crowds standing before him are gathered will shake. With boldness he will say, "Know, all nations, the great power of my authority. Behold, before you all I command this great mountain standing opposite us to cross over now from beyond the sea and come here to us at my word."
The defiled one will say, "I command you, cross over here now through the sea." In the sight of the spectators, the mountain will move, without in any way having moved from its foundations.
For the all-defiled one will have no authority over what the Most High God planted and established at the beginning of creation. Rather, he will deceive the world with magical fantasies.
Likewise he will command another mountain, lying in the depths of the great sea in the form of a very large island, to leave its place and stand on dry land, on pleasant shores, for the spectators' pleasure.
Although the island will not move from the sea at all, it will seem to be a mountain standing on dry land. Again this serpent will stretch out his hands and gather a multitude of reptiles and birds.
In the same way, he will enter the abyss and walk upon it as upon dry land, presenting all this as an illusion. Many will believe and glorify him as a mighty god.
But those who have God within themselves will have the eyes of their heart enlightened. Through sincere faith they will see exactly and recognize him.
Everyone who has the fear of God within himself, and whose heart's eyes are bright, will know exactly that neither did the mountain move from its place, nor did the island pass from the sea onto dry land.
The antichrist will do all this in his own name. He will not tolerate the most pure name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit being named, because he will be a fighter against God and the son of perdition.
When everything takes place as has been said, and the nations worship him and praise him as god, the Most High in the heavens will reveal His wrath day by day and turn His face away from him.
At last there will be grievous famines, prolonged plagues, constant earthquakes, scarcity of food everywhere, great affliction, distress everywhere, continual deaths, great fear, and unspeakable trembling.
Then the heavens will give no rain. The earth will bear no fruit. The springs will dry up, and the rivers will run dry.
The grass will not grow, and no green thing will appear on the earth. The trees will freeze at the roots and will not put forth shoots. The fish and whales in the sea will die.
For he will not gain power over all, but over those worthy of destruction, those who would have deprived themselves of salvation even without his coming. The Apostle says this in the words that follow. He also informs us that the wonders will not be true. Such wonders are also produced by those who deceive through sleight of hand. They present as gold what is not gold at all, and do other things that are soon exposed.
“And he shall speak words,” he says further, “against the Most High” (Dan 7:23). He is a blasphemous man and a transgressor of the law. He will receive the kingdom not from his ancestors, but will seize power through sorcery. Who then is he, and by what power will he act? Explain it to us, Paul. “Whose coming,” he says, “is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess 2:9). By this he means that Satan will use him as an instrument, acting in him by himself. For knowing that there will no longer be forgiveness for him at the judgment, he will wage open war, not through his ministers as usual, but by himself. He will act in every “sign and lying wonder.” Being the father of lies, he will deceive the imagination through false actions.
Thus the people will seem to see a dead man raised, though he has not been raised. They will seem to see the lame walking and the blind seeing, though no healing has taken place. Paul also says: “the adversary, who exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship” (2 Thess 2:4). “Above every god” means that Antichrist will hate idols. “So that he sits in the temple of God.” In what temple? In the ruined Jewish temple, not in the one in which we now stand. Why do we say this? So that no one may think we flatter ourselves. If he comes to the Jews under the name of Christ, and wants the Jews to worship him, he will pay special attention to the temple in order to deceive them more. He will show them that, being of the race of David, he wants to build the temple constructed by Solomon. Antichrist will come when, according to the Savior’s saying, not one stone is left upon another in the Jewish temple. This will happen when it either falls of itself from age, or is destroyed in order to build a new one, or for other reasons. Then all the stones will be scattered. I do not speak of the outer circumference of the temple, but of the inner temple where the Cherubim were. Then Antichrist will come with all lying wonders and signs. He will arm himself against all idols. At first he will hypocritically display love for mankind. Afterward he will show cruelty, especially against the saints of God. For Daniel says, “I looked, and that horn made war with the saints” (Dan 7:21). And again in another place: “There shall be a time of distress, such as has not been since a nation was made upon the earth until that time” (Dan 12:1). The beast is fearful, the dragon great, unconquerable by men, and ready to devour. We must say much about him from divine Scripture. For now, because time is short, this is enough.
Who is this restrainer, or what is this restraining thing, as in verse 6? Some holy Fathers soundly thought that by the restrainer the Apostle meant, among other things, civil order and the sovereign who stands at the head of civil society. Lawlessness acts, but it cannot fully manifest itself and triumph over truth. It will triumph only through deception, through “unrighteous deception” in verse 10 and “lying signs and wonders” in verse 9. It will preach complete godlessness, “exalting himself above everything called God” in verse 4. It will violently demand divine worship for itself: “he sits in the temple of God as God, presenting himself as God,” in the same verse.
What restrains lawlessness from such manifestation, and what protects men from violence, deception, and complete godlessness, is civil authority. Some will say that truth alone is enough to put lawlessness to shame, since truth has within itself the power to defeat lawlessness. Such indeed is truth in itself. But it is not so in the conviction of those who “did not receive fully the love of the truth” (verse 10). In them truth is weak and unable to resist falsehood. For such people, truth must be supported by external order and rooted in them by external conditions. This is given by the structure of the state. Truth will triumph finally not through some denunciation of lawlessness. It will triumph because the Lord will slay the lawless one, Antichrist, with the spirit of His mouth and destroy him by the appearing of His coming (verse 8).
In what will the falsehood of Antichrist’s miracles consist? Every true miracle, in its essence, is the production of something from nothing. Only the almighty Creator of the universe, and those clothed with His power, can do this. Therefore the miracles and signs of Antichrist will only appear to be such. In reality they will be either tricks consisting in an imperceptible deception of human senses, or phenomena produced by natural powers of nature that are unknown to anyone. With these mysterious signs Satan will arm his instrument, Antichrist. In the words of the Apocalypse, he will give him his power and great authority (Rev 13:2). In this sacred book some of Antichrist’s miracles are even indicated (Rev 13:13-15). Yet however astonishing they may be, falsehood and deception will still lie at their foundation.
The actions of Antichrist will be performed by satanic power. They will consist of various kinds of false miracles and astonishing phenomena, directed toward the deception of those inclined to apostasy through rejection of the foundations of Christian love and the truth of salvation. In the Apocalypse some of Antichrist’s miracles are indicated. For example, he will bring fire down from heaven and put spirit into the image of the beast, which will speak and act (Rev 13:13-15). St. John Chrysostom says, “Antichrist will display great power, but in this there will be nothing true. The aim of everything will be deception. The Apostle foretold all this so that those living then would not be deceived. By the love of the truth he means Christ.
For Christ was both, and came for both: out of love for us, and to reveal the true meaning of all things.” “But Antichrist will succeed only among those who are of one spirit with him, that is, those who have fallen away from the Lord. Since he himself is the son of perdition, he will succeed in drawing to himself only those who are perishing. And these perishing ones will perish not by God’s predetermination, but because they loved a destructive way of life. It will be the same as in cholera outbreaks, which seize only those who have a predisposition to them” (Bishop Theophan).
Such will Antichrist be. He will appear fully armed with false signs and every deception, with flattering speeches, invented tales, and cunning comparisons of persons and things. “Whose coming is.” The speech is not about the coming itself, but about what kind of coming it will be. “Is” stands for the certain future. It is a settled matter that his coming will be as it is depicted here. Thus the all-ruling God judged and permitted. “According to the working of Satan” refers not to his coming, for he will appear in the world according to the common law of human birth. It refers to his arming with signs. He will act by the power of Satan. In the Apocalypse it is also said that the ancient serpent will give him his power and great authority (Rev 13:2).
Satan will spend all his power on him, for his own end also has come. “With all power and signs and lying wonders.” All this is one and the same: illusory wonders that cause amazement. He will imitate the Lord and the holy Apostles. Only with them everything was true and served the truth. With him everything will be illusory and false, and will serve falsehood in order to advance it. In the Apocalypse some of these wonders are indicated by way of example. He will make fire come down to earth before men, make an image of the beast, and give it spirit so that it speaks (Rev 13:13-15), and the like. But all these will be magical wonders and tricks. Chrysostom writes: “He will display great power, but in this there will be nothing true. ‘In lying wonders,’ he says, either deceptive and apparent wonders, or wonders leading into deception. The aim of everything will be seduction. The Apostle foretold this so that those living then would not be deceived.” Theodoret adds: “The wonders will not be true. Such wonders are also performed by those who deceive through sleight of hand. They show as gold what is not gold at all, and do some other thing that is soon exposed.” Oecumenius says somewhat more definitely: “The signs will be false either because he will show them as phantoms and divert the eyes, or because through them he will lead into falsehood. He will present things in such a way that he can deceive even believers.”
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 16 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS