Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Duane Crowther's Argument for the Fulfillment of 2 Thessalonians 2 Being Sometime in Our Dispensation

  

3. The son of perdition will sit in the temple of God, presenting himself as being God. The existence of a temple is an integral part of this prophetic warning, and the tangible existence of this building is a requisite for the literal fulfillment of the prophecy.

 

Paul visited Thessalonica during his second missionary journey (see Acts 17:1-4), then journeyed to Athens and on to Corinth. While in Corinth he wrote both his epistles to the Thessalonian saints. Bible scholars place the date of these epistles about 50 or 51 A.D. A temple existed at the time in Jerusalem. This temple known as the temple of Herod, stood until 70 A.D., when it was destroyed by Roman legions under the command of Titus. No temple was then found on the earth until such sacred temples were again constructed in the last days, beginning with the Kirtland temple in the mid-1830s.

 

Since the son of perdition must sit in a temple to fulfill the prophecy, he would have to do so in a time when a temple exists upon the earth. This helps to determine the time of fulfillment of the prophecy. If it was fulfilled in ancient times, the fulfillment would have had to take place in the two decades between the time of Paul’s epistle and the fall of the temple, from 50 to 70 A.D. would be an extremely early dating—an untenable dating—for the time the “great apostasy” to have occurred.

 

If fulfilment wasn’t accomplished before 70 A.D., then it must be in the last days era commencing with the Kirtland temple in 1836. Certainly no fulfillment is known from that date to the present, so it must be concluded that fulfillment is yet future.

 

The son of perdition will actually represent himself as being the Christ, exalting himself above all that is worshipped. He will occupy a place in God’s temple (in the New Jerusalem?) and shew himself that he is God, deceiving the unrighteous who lack the spirit of discernment (see D&C 50:1-34; 45:56-57) through lying wonders, and causing their downfall (2 Thess. 2:9-12).

 

4. Christ will destroy the son of perdition with the brightness of his coming. Again, an element of the prophecy aids in its interpretation. Did Christ come in ancient times and destroy an apostate representing himself to be God, or is that event still further? The answer is obvious—history records no event that would fulfill the prophetic warning. The event is yet future.

 

Here, then, is a prophecy of extreme importance to Latter-day Saints. It warns of a false Christ who will have profound influence upon the course of the Church in a future era, and will be able to deceive an unrighteous faction, leading them away into strong delusion and damnation. He must be a Church member to be able to be a son of perdition, and one who enjoys ready access to a temple in the last days. The ultimate message to future Church members was aptly stated by Paul: “Let no man deceive you by any means . . .” (2 Thess. 2:3) (Duane S. Crowther, Inspired Prophetic Warnings [Bountiful, Utah: Horizon Publishers, 1987], 139-40)

 

If there are those who would persist in the assertion that this prophecy was fulfilled long ago as part of the “great apostasy,” they should be prepared to explain:

 

A. Who was the son of perdition?

B. In what temple did he manifest himself as God?

C. When and how Christ destroyed him by the brightness of his coming?

D. What historical records lend credence to such an interpretation? (Ibid., 140 n. 1)