y of Revelation 13 ends with the
redemption of the church which immediately follows. Rev. 14:1-5.

6. 2 Thess. 2:9-12: "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan,
with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of
the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause 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."

Here, again, we have the great fact brought out with still more startling
emphasis, that there is to be a great outbreaking of Satanic power among
men, just before and up to, the coming of Christ. And if we already see
the preliminary and even far-advanced working of this power in
Spiritualism, the world should stand aghast at the perils of the times in
which we live. The coming of Christ is brought to view in verse 8, and
verse 9 states that at that time Satan will be working with all power. The
common version is calculated to obscure this passage. The words "even him"
(verse 9) are wrongly and unnecessarily supplied. Literally rendered, the
last clause of verse 8, and the first of verse 9 would read as follows:
"Whom the Lord ... shall destroy with the brightness of his [Christ's]
coming; of whom [Christ] the coming is, after [or at the time of] the
working of Satan," etc. The word "after" is from, the Greek {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} (_kata_),
which when referring to time, as in this case, does not mean "after or
according to," but "within the range of, during, in the course of, at,
about," as in 2 Tim. 4:1, where it is rendered "at."

So here is a plain declaration that at the very time when Christ comes
Satan will be working in the hight of his power, by signs and lying
wonders (wonders to prove a lie) to keep the people under falsehood and
deception. Verses 10-12 tell who his victims are, and why they become
such: they are those who preferred the pleasures of sin to the practice of
righteousness, and so would not receive the truth, nor the love of it. In
all such cases God's throne is clear. He always, as in this case, sets
truth first before the people, gives them a chance, and calls upon them to
embrace it, and be saved. But when men, as free moral agents, whom God
will not force into his kingd