2 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ[a] had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin[b] is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God[c] in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He[d] who now restrains will do so until He[e] is taken out of the way.
I was noting to myself that textually, the NKJV must have been affected by American Evangelicalism in that in v.7, the NKJV editors capitalised "he" in that passage. This is not the same as what you will find in the KJV. In the KJV it is not capitalised. The Church Fathers viewed this "he" as the Roman Empire. The modern view promoted in Evangelicalism is that the "he" in v.7 stands for the Holy Spirit. So in the NKJV we see it in uppercase. At any rate, this is besides my point now. The matter of textual translation is something we can discuss next time - which in my case, KJV once again is the better translation.
Last week the Vatican released a report entitled "The Gifts and Calling of God are irrevocable" . The news media have reported that this document states that the Jews need not believe in Christ to be saved. That is right, you read it well. The passage in the document that teaches this is found 2/3 of the way in the document...
That the Jews are participants in God’s salvation is theologically unquestionable, but how that can be possible without confessing Christ explicitly, is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery.
So therefore, the Jews are saved even without confessing Christ, this reality is an unfathomable mystery? This is blasphemy!
The Roman Church is the Apostasy mentioned in 2 Thess 1:3, the falling away. In this Vatican document, we see an example of how the Roman Magisterium opposes Christ and His many words that speak of the necessity to believe in Him. The Papacy indeed is Anti-Christ. This document exemplifies how the Roman Church is the spiritual whore spoken of by St. John the Apostle. Hear the words of Christ ...
John 8: 24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
Speaking to the Jews, Jesus said in John 8.
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
