Paul
prophesied a few years after the man of sin would do, 'Exalt himself
over all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he would
sit in the temple of God, and show himself as God.'
Then followed a strange scene, which will help to explain much of
this Epistle of St. Peter. The Jews of Jerusalem did not rise in
rebellion. They did what St. Peter told the Jews of Asia Minor to
do. They determined to suffer for well-doing,--to die as martyrs,
not as rebels. Petronius, the Roman governor who was sent to carry
out the order, was a strange mixture of good and bad. He was a
peculiarly profligate and luxurious man. He wrote one of the foulest
books which ever disgraced the pen of man. But he was kind-hearted,
humane, rational. He had orders to set up the Emperor's statue in
the temple at Jerusalem; and no doubt he laughed inwardly at the
folly: but he must obey orders. Yet he hesitated, when he landed
and saw the Jews come to him in thousands, covering the country like
a cloud, young and old, rich and poor, unarmed, many clothed in
sackcloth and with ashes on their heads, and beseeching him that he
would not commit this abomination. He rebuked them sternly. He had
a whole army at his back, and would compel them to obey. They
answered that they must obey God rather than man.
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