Closing Remarks

In behalf of the evangelism committee of Faith Reformed Protestant Church, I thank, first, the board of Reformed Believers Publishing for assisting Faith’s committee by printing extra copies of the August 2025 issue of Sword and Shield and distributing those copies to the mailboxes of members in the Protestant Reformed church of Loveland, Colorado. That issue contained an edited version of a lecture that Faith’s evangelism committee sponsored, which lecture exposed how both the former and current ministers of Loveland Protestant Reformed Church have corrupted the gospel-truth of justification by faith alone in their preaching. Because of the board’s noble assistance in this matter, our committee was able to put this lecture before the faces of those upon whose shoulders such miserable teachers bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne.

Second, I thank the copy editors. When you receive an issue of Sword and Shield in your mailbox, what you do not see is how late my article in that issue was submitted to the copy editors for their review. Oftentimes my articles show up in the copy editors’ inboxes two weeks after our editor in chief, Reverend Langerak, has requested articles to be submitted, so that the copy editors have only a day or two to read and edit my articles. And not only are the copy editors very patient toward this reoccurring problem, but they also are very good at their work.

Furthermore, what you do not see when you receive an issue of Sword and Shield in your mailbox is the sacrifice that the wife of each editor makes while her husband busies himself in the task of writing. It is likely that these women sacrifice the most, and I thank my wife for sacrificing her husband to this righteous cause.

In light of Reverend Langerak’s speech this evening, let me conclude my comments by placing that Protestant Reformed officebearers’ conference in the context of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

According to 2 Thessalonians 2, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is preceded by two major precursory signs. “That day of the Lord shall not come,” says the apostle, “except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (v. 3). The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ causes and is preceded by a falling away and the revealing of the man of sin.

Those two major precursory signs are related: In order for that man of sin to be revealed, there must be astounding departure and massive apostasy from the truth. There is no wickedness—no, not in all the world—like the wickedness of those who, being confronted with truth, contradict it, saying, “That’s not the truth!” There is no wickedness like the wickedness of those who meet Jesus Christ face to face in the preaching of the truth and who crucify him afresh and put him to open shame. Do you believe that? It is not the wickedness of Sodom or Tyre or Sidon, but it is the wickedness of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum that prepares the world for the coming of the son of perdition, “who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (v. 4).

And just as the spiritual and heavenly kingdom of Jesus Christ comes by the power of his Spirit with all power and signs and truthful wonders and with the pure proclamation of the gospel, this carnal and earthly kingdom of the son of perdition—who is the ape of Jesus Christ—comes “after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness” (vv. 9–10). This man of sin, being the personal culmination of a history-long movement of antichrist according to his headship of a deified state, will dazzle and overawe all those who have fallen away.

The apostle goes on to describe those who constitute that falling away as “them that perish.” He says that the coming of the man of sin is “after the working of Satan…with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish” (vv. 9–10, emphasis added). And as any Greek student knows, the present tense of that description is important. They are perishing. Certainly, that describes them at any point of their existence in the world. But that ongoing existence of perishing is simply the manifestation of what is eternally true in God’s eternal present. Because God conceives of them as perishing, that is who they always are. They did not begin to perish when they refused to believe the truth that was preached to them. They did not begin to perish when they refused to repent. They did not begin to perish when they refused to depart from their apostate churches. No, they are perishing. They came into this world perishing. They pass through this world under that living word of God’s wrath: “Perish.” They enter the grave perishing. Their soul awakens in hell perishing. They enter the final judgment perishing. And perishing, they are sent body and soul into everlasting damnation.

They are “them that perish,” the apostle says, “because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (v. 10). What explains all apostasy is this: God never gave to them the love of the truth. Because God did not will their salvation and eternally appointed them unto perishing, God did not give to them the love of the truth. If the truth comes to you and you do not receive it, it is because you have not received the love of the truth. When a man departs from the truth, it is because there was never any love of the truth in him. Why do men refuse to believe the truth when that truth is taught to them? Is it because the proclamation of that truth did not come in quite the right manner? Is it because they did not understand that proclamation of the truth and they needed clearer instruction? No. It is because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Even if, in the place of a dull and feeble man standing behind a pulpit, an angel came to those who are perishing and expounded the truth to them with all the eloquence of heaven, they would still say “that is a lie” and mercilessly cast that truth from them.

“And for this cause,” the apostle continues, “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (v. 11). When the truth comes to them—that is, when Christ comes to speak to those who are perishing—and they say, “That’s not the truth! You teach a lie!” then God judges that. God is always judging. And God judges that wickedness by sending them strong delusions.

The speeches given at the Protestant Reformed officebearers’ conference are the unfolding of exactly what the apostle is talking about here: God is sending the Protestant Reformed Churches strong delusions, beginning with her most esteemed ministers. How else can you explain why the glorious truth that was proclaimed this evening can be so scorned and mocked and ridiculed? God is sending the Protestant Reformed ministers strong delusions, so that they believe a lie. They believe it. They do not love the truth. They love the lie. They want to develop that lie over against the truth with which Christ has confronted them. And that is because God is actively—actively—causing them to perish. “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned” (vv. 11–12). What is going on in the Protestant Reformed Churches is the preparation of a religious church world for the coming of the man of sin. And you must believe this: These strong delusions to which God is giving over the members of these churches are the same strong delusions according to which they will prostrate themselves before a man and worship him.

“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (vv. 13–14).

So as you see such things, look up. As you see such a great falling away unfold before your own eyes, “look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).