The Acts of the Apostles (1911) — PDF Scan 272

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266 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES and lie proceeded to emphasize the fact that the papal power, so clearly described by the prophet Daniel, was yet to rise, and wage war against God's people. Until this power should have performed its deadly and blasphemous work, it would be in vain for the church to look for the coming of their Lord. ''Remember ye not," Paul inquired, "that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things!" Terrible were the trials that were to beset the true church. Even at the time when the apostle was writing, the ''mystery of iniquity" had already begun to work. The developments that were to take place in the future were to be "after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." Especially solemn is the apostle's statement regarding those who should refuse to receive "the love of the truth." "For this cause," he declared of all who should deliberately reject the messages of truth, "God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Men cannot with impunity reject the warnings that God in mercy sends them. From those who persist in turning from these warnings, God withdraws His Spirit, leaving them to the deceptions that they love. Thus Paul outlined the baleful work of that power of evil which was to continue through long centuries of darkness and persecution, before the second coming of Christ. The Thessalonian believers had