Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/80

 Therefore, God shall send them the operation of error, to believe a lie."

If we examine these very remarkable words of the Apostle, we shall see that his object was to instruct his Thessalonian disciples that the day of our Lord's second coming was not so near at hand, as some, who had misinterpreted our Lord's words (St. Luke xxii. 82), "Amen I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away, till all things be fulfilled," had supposed.

He tells them, therefore, that many things are to happen in the world before that day arrives: that it will not come "until there has been a revolt first." Now this word, which our English Catholic version thus renders, is in the original Greek termed "," and in the Anglican version it is translated a falling away, which comes nearer the expression of the Latin Vulgate, which words it "discessio," than either the original Greek or the English Catholic version, although the latter professes to follow the Vulgate. But the English word "apostasy" would certainly come nearer to the Greek than any other, and we must not forget it was in the Greek that the Apostle wrote. The Apostle then foretells, that before the day of the Lord, that is the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall arrive, there will be "the apostasy," that is, "a