"Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter . . . Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for the [return of Christ] will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God . . . And now you know what has been holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the One who now holds it back will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the splendor of His coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved" (II Thess. 2:1-10).

The end time prophecies can be of concern to many who like to know exactly what will come tomorrow. Indeed there is a security in knowing. However, we are warned that Christ will come "as a thief in the night," and that we are to watch for the signs and pray.  The uncertainties do not have to give us over to fear. Three facts in II Thessalonians 2:1-10 are very comforting.

The first fact is that satan is under God's authority (vs. 6). "the Lord said to satan, 'Very well, then, everything [Job] has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger'" (Job 1:12); "Jesus said, 'Away from me, satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.' Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended Him" (Matt. 4:10-11); "Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep . . . No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again" (John 10: 15-18); "Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who has the power of death--that is, the devil--and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Heb. 2:14-15). The Bible is clear, God calls all the shots!

The second fact is that satan has only the counterfeit; God has the real thing (vs. 9). We are warned throughout the Word to beware of false teachers and false prophets. The enemy knows the Word of God and attempts to use it in perverted form as a weapon against us, as when he tempted Eve in the garden and Christ in the wilderness. The wrong spirit can speak right words, so we must be discerning by the Spirit. "Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, 'These men are the servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.' She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, 'In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!' At that moment the spirit left her" (Acts 16:16-18). This was a "python spirit, a mythical snake worshiped at Delphi and associated with the Delphic oracle. The term 'python' came to be used of the persons through whom the python spirit supposedly spoke. Since such persons spoke involuntarily, the term "ventriloquist" was used to describe them" (Zondervan NIV Study Bible note pg. 1678).
I John 4 warns, "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit  that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one that is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood" (1-6).

This is a good transition to the third fact: Those who perish are the ones who fail to love truth.  God is truth, and all that is truth is created by Him. "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6); "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of His glory" (Eph.1:13-14). The verses in II Thessalonians 2 tell us that the Lord Jesus will overthrow the lawless one by the breath of His mouth and destroy him by the splendor of His coming!  Covered by the blood of the Lamb, we need have no fear!

Heavenly Father, open my eyes that I may live daily walking in Your truth, glancing neither to the left nor to the right, keeping my eyes on the prize; and that I may rest daily knowing that You indeed hold the future and the victory. Amen