The Examination of a Section: PART 2 of 2
In Part 1 of this series, we looked at the passage in a very early church writing called The Didache, meaning “The Teaching of the Twelve (disciples),” written maybe about AD 70-80. It was a document relating to the practice of a very early church community, and among other things, it contains a section on eschatology (last things) and prophecy. We considered the first portion of that, and this time will do the remainder.
Paragraphs 8-10
8 And then the world-deceiver shall appear as a son of God;
9 and shall work signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands;
10 and he shall do unholy things, which have never been since the world began.
Now the writer hones in on the evil one who is coming. This is very remarkable because today and for 1,900 years, there are those who deny the events of Revelation and relegate it to past history or an allegory; who deny a Tribulation and even a separate Rapture. Those people are misled, but sadly, they mislead others. The Christians at the time of the Didache had it correct; they knew.
Paragraph 8 tells of a world deceiver who appears as a son of God. We know him as the coming world leader, or the general term most use is Antichrist.
He is known by other names. Paul calls him the son of perdition/destruction; John calls him the beast from the sea – Revelation 13. Paul calls him the lawless one.
{{2Thessalonians 2:3 “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.”
2Thess 2:8 “and then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.”
Revelation 13:1 “He stood on the sand of the seashore, and I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.”}}
Matthew was the book best known to the writer of the Didache, but chapter 24 of Matthew does not contain any verse that would be inclusive of a world leader.
The closest we come to that in chapter 24 are these two references that speak of misleading and deception – {{Matthew 24:24 “for false christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Matt 24:5 “for many will come in My name saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.”}}
Oral tradition was sufficient for them to know something about what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, and remember, Revelation had not yet been written.
In Paragraph 9, (9 – and shall work signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands). Again, the knowledge beyond Matthew except for that reference again in Matt 24:24 was scant but known orally. Signs and wonders will be breathtaking and will have the power to deceive, and the world leader is the great deceiver (in conjunction with the False Prophet).
Could we imagine the very first time a magician sawed a person/lady in two on the stage? Never before seen, and the audience must have been captivated. However, that is just magic. When the world leader and the False Prophet operate, it will not be magic, for it will be the very satanic power of the devil. The whole world will be deceived. It is going to be very spectacular because the world today is familiar with computer imagery and realism and holograms, etc., but it will be the real thing, not this type of technology.
The best understanding of this was penned by Paul – {{2Thessalonians 2:8 “and then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming, 9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”}}
Of course, these 3 Paragraphs we are looking at right now also cover this verse – {{2Thessalonians 2:4 “who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”}}
Paragraph 10 emphasizes the fact that this man is wicked.
10 – and he shall do unholy things, which have never been since the world began.
In other words, the writer knows that the man of sin who is coming will be more wicked than any human being who has walked the earth. Of course, a meditation on Matthew 24 and relevant Thessalonian verses must draw one to that conclusion. We have not seen the likes of it on earth at this stage. We think things are evil enough with people like Xi and Mao Zedong and Hitler and Putin, and the evil drafters of legislation to murder the unborn, and the thrusting of homosexuality onto us all, but all will pale greatly when the man of sin takes the stage.
I find it most disgusting that the early Christians knew these things, even these early people without proper scriptures at that stage, but those who occupy pulpits today with all the knowledge before them, refuse to preach these important matters of the Lord’s return and eschatology. They are bad shepherds of the sheep and ought to be ashamed. What sort of meaningless gospel are they teaching?
One thing we must not forget: Paul spent 3 weeks in Thessalonica, and during those three weeks, he taught these new converts from idolatry and paganism all about the faith, and that included all the eschatology he had been given by the Lord. In time, and in answer to their question, he wrote 1 Thessalonians, and this is what he said in the next letter – {{2Thessalonians 2:4 “… who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?”}}
If Paul knew the importance of the matter of the Lord’s coming and the path of eschatology for “just converted” pagans, why do these deniers in the pulpits and Bible colleges refuse to look into these things. They are false when it comes to the whole gospel. Some readers of RR have contacted me to say they try to interest their pastor/minister in these biblical matters, but they refuse to listen, or they write it off as not important. Shame. Shame.
Shame.
Paragraphs 11 and 12
11 Then all created mankind shall come to the fire of testing, and many shall be offended and perish;
12 but they that endure in their faith shall be saved by the Curse Himself.
The writer was acquainted with {{Matthew 24:21 “for then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall,”}} for all Matthew 24 is post-Rapture, and the confused and misled think otherwise, but the caution is here – {{Matthew 24:4 “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘See to it that no one misleads you.'”}}
All mankind will come into this testing judgment but not the true Church, which is raptured from it. The conjunction “for” that begins verse 21 is collecting all that went before.
Those who will be offended are those who betray and turn back, as Matthew also teaches in chapter 24 – looked at earlier. It is always a mystery to me why some hold solidly to what they have believed, but some will fall away as if they have no perseverance. I don’t know why, but it might be the soil as in the parable of the sower. The writer of the Didache draws on {{Matthew 24:12-13 “and because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold, 13 but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.”}}
The reference in Paragraph 12 above (saved by the Curse Himself) is better translated as “will be saved from under the curse itself.” I am uncertain what was in the writer’s mind, but it seems to be related to loss of faith in the Tribulation or judgment.
Paragraphs 13-17
13 And then shall the signs of the truth appear;
14 first a sign of a rift in the heaven, then a sign of a voice of a trumpet, and thirdly a resurrection of the dead;
15 yet not of all, but as it was said:
16 The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him.
17 Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.
I am going to put all the remaining Paragraphs together, for they are connected with Messiah’s coming, the Second Coming.
Some of these details the writer has stated are derived from Matthew 24 except the resurrection and the coming with His saints. The resurrection is from Thessalonians and possibly Corinthians, by word of mouth, I assume. Events are haphazard and not in chronological order necessarily. Let us look at these individually.
- This is put intriguingly. What is the truth? I see it as only two things. The first is that what Jesus spoke on Olivet was truth, and at the Second Coming, truth will be confirmed. The word “signs” is used, “signs of the truth,” and this relates to what the writer knew from Matthew – {{Matthew 24:30 “and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”}}
The second possibility is the one I like better. The writer is telling verbatim from what he recalls of Matthew 24:30 but uses “signs of the truth” in place of “the sign of the Son of Man.”
Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE, and I think he is using another name for the Son of Man.
- First a sign of a rift in the heaven, then a sign of a voice of a trumpet, and thirdly a resurrection of the dead. People today are confused and misled by others as to the distinctions of the two future comings. The Rapture and the Second Coming are confused, especially by those who try to put the two events into one. That is wrong. There is no excuse for it because many have carefully differentiated the two comings.
Study. Investigate. Study!
However, at the time of the writing of the Didache, scriptures were not available except to the church to whom the letter was written.
They had not started to circulate properly. All was by word of mouth, though this fellowship group may have had Matthew or portions thereof. It is understandable that the writer would lump aspects of the two comings together in mixed order. It is inexcusable today but not for them.
In Paragraph 14, this translation reads as “a rift in heaven” and another, “an opening of the heavens,” and another, “the sign of an outspreading in heaven.” It is referring to the coming of the Son of Man – {{Matthew 24:30 “and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”}}
The trumpet is next mentioned in paragraph 14, obtained from this – {{Matthew 24:31 “He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”}}
However, we know a trumpet is also connected with the Rapture, and it also features in Revelation, unknown to this group of Christians. The one in Matthew refers to the ingathering of the Jewish saints at the Second Coming; they are the elect.
Next one. The resurrection of the dead is a confusing matter for many, I find, when asked to explain all the different resurrections. We will not be doing that, but we know there are several in Revelation. And of course, the one we look forward to is at the Rapture. Jesus did teach a bit about resurrection in Matthew 22, but the writer here would be including material from the resurrection in the two main Rapture passages of the New Testament, I believe.
- This Paragraph is brief, “yet not of all, but as it was said.” I cannot say what the writer had in mind when he wrote this. It would be related to the Second Coming from Matthew, but the Lord does not mention that in the Olivet Discourse. More likely, it would be drawn from the Rapture when the dead in Christ (only them) would be raised.
- The quote used here – The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him – is similar to that which Jude used when he quoted from the Book of Enoch – {{Jude 1:14 “About these also, Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones'”}} (NASB). Of course, the writer could have had in mind something derived from the Rapture – {{1Thessalonians 4:14 “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”}}
Another translates this Didache passage as – “Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.” The Book of Enoch was quite well known at that time.
- Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.
This is a direct quote from Matthew. The last Paragraph in this eschatological passage of the Didache is – {{Matthew 24:30 “and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”}}
CONCLUSION
In time, I suppose the order of events sorted themselves out, but it was a sad thing that when the great persecutions happened from Nero onwards, with 10 great persecution periods, the church generally moved away from these mighty and important teachings of the comings of the Lord, and then they were racked by heresies. They did have the hope of eternal life, but it was hard for them, as you realize when you read material from that time in church history, just trying to live with torture, abuse, and deprivation of all they had. There is the odd mention in the Church Fathers of what lies ahead but no effort to map out any of the future events.
Then the church in AD 325 moved to the Nicean Creed and later on the Apostles Creed, but by then, it became a weak statement about coming back to judge the living and the dead. The church had lost the hope of the Rapture in detail, and the whole of prophecy relating to the events leading to the Second Coming and the blessings for Israel were obscured and forgotten until the Lord began to move in the last 200 years to bring it to us again. Here and there, through the 1,800 years, there were ones who did understand some of the last things, such as hymn writer Isaac Watts, but it was uncommon.
I find it thrilling that this teaching in the Didache, even if incomplete regarding chronology and placement, was there in the very early Church. The early Church knew about these prophetic events in eschatology, but the modern church rejects or neglects this important area.
What a poor reflection of the Laodicean church period (which is ours).