Our next question is based on the verse in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 where Paul mentions the Antichrist. And the question asked is this. In 2 Thessalonians 2:4, is it significant to the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem? Or is this symbolic of the body of Christ? There in that verse, it mentions the temple that the Antichrist sets himself up as a God in the temple of God. Is the Scripture suggesting there to be a temple for the Antichrist to set Himself up in as God?
Also, it seems that in his dialogue with Trypho, Justin Martyr understood Jerusalem will be built again after it was destroyed. All right, on this topic, it's one of those topics we know almost nothing because Paul was talking about a future event that still had not happened in the days of the early Christians. So therefore, they couldn't talk about it meaningfully. They could guess, but you know as one of them said, prophecy is best understood once it's been fulfilled.
When it hasn't yet been fulfilled, then yeah, we're just guessing we can make educated guesses. Now, I don't think Justin Martyr is talking about Thessalonians 2:4. In his dialogue with Trypho, as you point out, he was saying that in the millennium, after Christ returns, that the temple would be that Jerusalem would be rebuilt you know after Christ returns in the millennium. So he's not specifically talking about the prophecy about the Antichrist.
In fact, I would say he's talking about a time after the Antichrist has already been destroyed by Christ. I'm going to read to you just a couple of quotes you know how two different early Christians understood this passage. John Chrysostom writes, " The Antichrist is a man in whom Satan fully worked, for he is a man. He will not introduce idolatry, but will be an opponent to God. He will abolish all the gods and will order men to worship Him instead of God.
He will be seated in the temple of God, not that temple in Jerusalem only, but also in every church. " So he's seeing as the Antichrist is someone who will infiltrate the church and that the temple being spoken of isn't the temple that had been in Jerusalem, but that the church being the temple of God and that that's the temple. So he's someone who's going to infiltrate the church is what Chrysostom was expecting. But again, he is just guessing. It's an educated guess. It's a reasonable guess, but we don't know.
Cyril of Jerusalem, who lived, oh, I don't know. His life would have intersected with that of Chrysostom. His writings are a little earlier than Chrysostom's sermons, if my chronology is correct. He writes, " The majority have fallen away from the sound doctrines and are readier to choose what is bad than to prefer what is good. " Now, he's speaking about the Arian heresy that was going on just full blast in his day. And what he says is actually not true.
The Arians were not the majority, but it may have seemed that way to him at the time. He says, " So there you have the falling away, and the coming of the enemy is to be expected next. " The enemy, he's meaning the Antichrist. Meanwhile, He, the Antichrist, has begun to send out His forerunners here and there so that the spoil may be prepared for Him when He comes. Therefore, brothers, look to yourselves. Watch over your souls carefully.
" So Cyril of Jerusalem, a very respected bishop, somebody that I often quote from, he's thinking this is about to happen in his day because the Arian heresy seemed to be just flourishing at that moment, that he was assuming it was going to go from there and it would go from bad to worse, that more and more people would be drawn into that heresy and then other heresies, and this was all preparing the way for the Antichrist. Well, of course, that didn't happen, at least not in the way that Cyril was expecting it.
We could argue that Major Heresy came into the church. I would say it did, in that the church became aligned with the state and the two became one at some point. Church and state were joined together. And then the state church began persecuting other Christians, whether they were true heretics or falsely labeled as heretics, the church began doing something it never had the right to do and something very wicked.
One of the most wicked incidents in church history was the church persecuting people who disagreed with it, whether those people were legitimate heretics or were really legitimate reformers. So heresy did come in. And I think you could say, yeah, it began there with Constantine at the time of the Arian heresy, and it just went from bad to worse after that. But it's in a way that Cyril is not talking about. It's not what he was expecting to happen, but there might be some truth to what he's saying.
But other than that, yeah, we really don't know. We are going to have to wait and see what happens. But again, Justin, I don't believe, was expecting the temple to be rebuilt before Christ returns. At least that's how I read him.
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