βHymenaeus and Alexanderβ¦I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blasphemeβ (I TimothyΒ 1:20).
Who were these guys, how were they blaspheming, and what does it mean when it says Paul delivered them to Satan? Whatβs Satanβs address anyway? Well, there seems to be more than one Alexander in the Bible, but there is only one other mention of a Hymenaeus:
ββ¦Hymenaeus and Philetusβ¦concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of someβ (II Tim.Β 2:18).
If our text is speaking of the same man teaching the same error, it would appear that by the time Paul wrote these words in his second epistle to Timothy that Alexander had learned not to blaspheme. But Hymenaeus had evidently gone on to find a new partner in a man named Philetus. These new βpartners in crimeβ then proceeded to βoverthrow the faith of someβ by continuing to teach Hymenaeusβ error, βthat the resurrection is past already.β
Since the βoverthrowβ of Sodom involved itsΒ complete destructionΒ (Gen.Β 19:24,25), the overthrow of a believerβs faith must involve the same.Β I know it would destroy my faith in God if I thought that the resurrection of the Rapture had taken place and Iβd been left behind, instead of being caught up to meet the Lord in the air with those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord as God promised (I Thes. 4:15-17).
Rather than allow the faith of Godβs people to be overthrown like that, Paul went on in the very next verse to argue that the resurrection couldΒ notΒ be past:
βNevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,Β The Lord knoweth them that are Hisβ¦β (II TimothyΒ 2:19).
Paul responded to Hymeneusβ error by declaring that the Lord knows them that are His, so there is no way He would have leftΒ anyΒ believerΒ behind at the Rapture!
When Hymeneus and Alexander first began to teach otherwise, Paul delivered them to Satan in the same way he told the Corinthians to deliver a man to Satan (I Cor. 5:5), by putting him out of the assembly (v.2,13). That may sound harsh, but Paul knew it was the only way Hymeneus and Alexander would βlearn not to blaspheme.β
When we think of blasphemy, we think of cursing the name of God (Lev. 24:15,16), but there are other ways to blaspheme. When the king of Assyria suggested that God couldnβt deliver His people the way He promised He would (II KingsΒ 18:33β19:2), Hezekiah pronounced it βblasphemyβ (19:3). And this is the kind of blasphemy of which Hymeneus and his cohorts were guilty as well. When they suggested that God couldnβt deliver every member of the Body of Christ at the Rapture, as He promised He would in the epistles of Paul, they too blasphemed!
If you are thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ plans to employ a βno man left behindβ policy at the Rapture, donβt forget that after assuring us that βthe Lord knoweth them that are His,β Paul went on to tell us how we can express our gratitude for that assurance: βLet every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquityβ (II Tim.Β 2:20). source
