4. II Thessalonians 2 Chiasm: "He it is That Now Worketh"

The first major evidence of the identity of the Man of Sin was presented to me on the second day of the solemn assembly general conference (4/2/95) in which Gordon B. Hinckley was put in as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I attended all sessions and felt a goodness in the messages presented; though I recognized again that so much of what ought to be said was omitted by way of warning and admonishing the people as to a sense of our awful situation. Prior to conference, I had received some premonitions regarding President Hinckley, but the wonderful portrayal of him in the hour-long special about his life left me somewhat baffled. He is an extraordinary man; a super Mormon. That evening, by way of answering my quandaries, I felt impressed to look for a Chiasm in II Thessalonians chapter two. The chiasm in that chapter ended up being one of the more clear of the many chiasms to which I have been led.

I have included a copy here for you to consider. The Joseph Smith translation makes changes in verses 2,3,7-9. The most significant addition is found in verse seven. There Joseph restores the phrase, "And he it is who now worketh, and Christ suffereth him to work." This phrase also happens to come at the focal point of the chiasm.

  JST-II Thessalonians 2:1-14 Chiasm
(mark this current page so you can get back to it)

You can see why after completing this I was astonished. Could this be saying what I think it is saying? I wondered to myself.

Of the three related G-1, G-2 statements, the middle of the three would chiastically be the focal point of the three and therefore the focal statement of the entire chiasm, which I found on the second day of the solemn assembly in which President Hinckley was put in:

"He it is who now worketh"

I realized that just because I found this chiasm on this particular day, did not automatically mean that the person who was put into office in the Mormon Church that day was the man being spoken of. Nevertheless, the fact that the Lord led me to uncover this chiasm on this day seemed to make a statement that I could not ignore.

Knowing that the Lord delights in proving his word, I sought him lead me to additional witnesses. This was a most serious conclusion to draw, and though this chiasm in 2^nd Thes. ii weighed a lot by its own merit, I felt there had to be more. And there was. Much more.

But first, before I go on to those, I would like to comment about some of points in 2^nd Thessalonians ii.

Isn't it interesting that in the focal point of this chiasm, all three G-2 statements are about "work." Work, work, work. And isn't that the hallmark of Mormonism? Work. We think our Christian friends are clueless when they accuse us of not being Christians because we make of none effect the grace of Jesus Christ. In fact it galls us when they fail to notice all our good, Christian (so we call them) works. Why, we never miss church, we pay a full tithe, we go to the temple regularly, and on and on. How could they possibly say we are not Christian. "In fact," we muse, "I've had 100% home teaching for the past year and a half."

I don't know about everyone else -- though I have observed a great deal -- but I do know my own experience. I was raised in an archetypal LDS home. During all my growing up years, my dad was the bishop then stake president -- and a good one at that, greatly loved by the people. He was very proud of me as I began taking on my high school buddies in scripture bashes. The time I really came to my own testimony (so I thought) was when I dug into our topical guide and "figured out" the grace versus works issue and let my Christian buddies have it. Though in retrospect, I imagine that my buddies were not much closer to the truth than I, I can see that I was really off base.

The problem is that we go about establishing our own righteousness, thinking we have to become perfect, then we can come to Christ. One writer⁽¹³⁾ coined a perfect phrase for this backwards approach: spiritual dyslexia. According to the scriptures, we come to Christ first, repenting of our sins, and then we are perfected in him, by him. It is his righteousness we bring forth, not our own. We are less than the dust, and we never forget that. In fact, I have come to believe that God is who he is because he recognizes his own nothingness perfectly. The good we can do when God's goodness flows through us is immeasurable and miraculous.

It wasn't until two years after my excommunication for, among other things, overzealously following President Benson's admonitions to be involved in the fight for freedom, that I really began to understand how simple and powerful the gospel is. I could have never seen it before, because for me to see it required first for me to realize that what we are being taught by the infallible brethren is indeed fallible. When I was free to accept truth without the encumbrance of false traditions, I was astonished at how beautiful and powerful the gospel really is. When we finally live the gospel in all its simple fulness, we will have Zion.

Look at comparison B in the chiasm. Our "gathering together unto Him" is by coming "to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." While we may be grateful for the people in our life who "beseech us" as is mentioned in A-1, we must never forget that it is really the Lord who has "called us," as the A-1 counterpart points out in verse 14. Through the gospel, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ becomes very personalized, even to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, both by visitation as well as emulation, as implied in the A-2 correlates.

Of all the comparisons, those of C-1 through C-5 are probably the most obscure of this chiasm. What is going on here is a parody. Look at the first half of verse two by itself, for example: "That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled by letter, except ye receive it from us; neither by spirit, nor by word." The irony is that on first inspection, this carries the tone of "just follow the brethren." It would seem to say that receiving a communication from the brethren takes precedence over the Spirit or the word, such as of scripture. Now take in the counterpoint in verses 11 and 12: "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." Ouch. C-4 specifically juxtaposes "receiving it from us," or the brethren, and the conclusion, "That they all might be damned who believed not the truth." And how do we obtain the truth? The scriptural promise is that each can receive truth directly from God through the workings of the Holy Ghost. The function of the spirit is alluded to in C-5, but (as a commentary on how Mormons have come to do things) is placed subservient to the brethren. Then, juxtaposed in the chiasm, C-5' provides the corollary to this folly: they have "pleasure in unrighteousness." It is not God's righteousness, but their own unrighteousness that they establish, because of their trust in the arm of flesh.

The correlations in D are pretty straight-forward in describing the deception and falling away that will preceded the coming of Jesus Christ. Isn't it ironic that Mormons love this scripture. They apply it to the apostasy of the early Christian church after the death of the apostles (which may, in a limited sense, be a fair application). Never would a Mormon faithful to the mainstream culture think of applying this falling away to their own beloved institution. Impossible (so they say). In the same deluded promise that the brethren will never lead them astray is the equally preposterous lie that though all previous dispensations have ended in apostasy, this is the only one that won't. That is like saying, "everyone is subject to pride except me." The fitting paradox is that this delusion, with its corollary complacency and irresponsibility, will probably prove to be most responsible for the falling away of this generation than any other factor, "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." This "All is well in Zion" delusion is incompatible with the vigilant watchfulness required of the saints of God who wait for his coming. Paul's reply to this lie is, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for their shall come a falling away."

The point-counterpoint in E-4 and E-5 is worth mentioning. This Man of Sin will "exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped," but "the Lord shall consume [him] with the spirit of his mouth." This man, who will "sit in the temple of God [there are not too many churches today who have temples of God], showing himself that his is God," "shall be destroyed with the brightness of his [the Messiah's] coming." The Man of Sin, "revealed," "shall be taken out of the way."

As for now, "the mystery of iniquity" is that "Christ suffereth him to work."

click here to continue with book (5. II Thes. 2 = Isa. 66 Parallel)

Endnotes

13. ¹³ Colleen Bernard, He did Deliver Me from Bondage, 1994.

"Would God that ALL the Lord's People Were PROPHETS"

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