Your focus determines your reality (lemmy.nz)

submitted 5 hours ago by s@piefed.world to c/atheistmemes@lemmy.world

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[-] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 6 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Edit: fixed an error I made during copy paste

Went to check context....but boy, do you need a lot of context to get what this in reference to. Spoiler: the stand-alone quote isn't far from the in-context meaning:

Thessalonians 2:

1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 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.

5 Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 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. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

[-] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago

I still don't get it.

[-] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 4 points 3 hours ago

Thought I had it too, but after starting to type it out realized there was a flaw in my logic.

So basically my understanding of this after some more reading:
People are thinking that the rapture happened, so one of Jesus' people are telling them it hasn't since there needs to be a powerful anarchist and/or Anti-Christ that comes about (the "lawless man"). The anarchist is gonna have powerful magic and will be preaching that he'll give the people a better life than god or whatever to get them off the path of god.
Okay cool, so the people (who are pre-sorted by god into the godly and condemned) will see this guy and some will be tempted by the lawless man, but won't necessarily do anything to deviate from.gods path. So god is gonna come along and do something* to make them actually deviate from the path of god (which is the delusion).

*the specific Greek phrase used in the original text is only used once here and so there isn't a good bead on what that delusion is/could be. The key thing appears to be that god will actively do something to make the damned be damned.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 2 points 1 hour ago

I know virtually nothing about this, but "the lawless man" in an ancient context doesn't sound to me like an anarchist. I think "tyrant" is the more likely interpretation.

[-] Tyrq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 53 minutes ago

Yeah, a tyrant is lawless in the sense that they're "above" the law, and uses a hierarchy to enable that end. An anarchist is lawless in the grassroots "I ain't licking your boots" questioning the asserted authority of others sort of way

[-] rollin@piefed.social 3 points 3 hours ago

you're not missing much. The bible contains two letters ("1 Thessalonians" and "2 Thessalonians") which were written by Paul and addressed to the Christian community in Thessalonica (in Greece). Paul was a Jewish religious figure who initially rejected the idea that Jesus was the Messiah, and persecuted anyone who did believe it. Probably just imprisonment, nothing as bad as replacing "Happy Christmas" messages with "Happy Holidays" like modern Christians are subjected to.

Anyway, he had some kind of mental breakdown on the road to Damascus, details are unclear, it was very hot and he was probably dehydrated so heatstroke is the likely cause. In any case, after that point he had a 180 and became a massive fan of Jesus and wrote a load of letters like this, and he was convinced that Jesus would be coming back very soon to enact violent retribution throughout the land. In Thessalonians 1, he says, "we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord", which echoes what Jesus allegedly said, "Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away before all these things take place."

Of course they were both wrong. The world did not end in their lifetimes, and that's why everyone today accepts that both of them were merely having a mental breakdown and, to be blunt, chatting shit. Right?

this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2026

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