Second Thessalonians 2:8-10 The revelation of the man of Lawlessness
2 Thessalonians 2:8-10 · Andrew Molloy · Sep 5, 2021
Thessalonians, No. 32
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192412387

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're studying the second part here of verses five through eight, five through, where am I? Five through 10 of 2 Thessalonians chapter two. We're on eight through 10 today. Let me just go ahead and read 2 Thessalonians 2, one through seven to give us the context.

Paul says, now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together with him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed by either a spirit or a message or a letter, as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come, that is the day of the Lord, unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

Verse five, Do you not remember that while I was with you, I kept telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

That brings us through verse seven, and our passages today are verse eight. Then that lawlessness, that lawless one who will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. That is the one who is coming in accord with the activity of Satan and all power and signs and false wonders. And with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. And there's through verse 10, we're doing eight through 10 this morning.

I want to do a kind of structure that I think of when I think of 2 Thessalonians 2, 1 through 10, and that is Paul, kind of an overview. Paul, in his first epistle to Thessalonians, he comforts these believers about being caught up in the rapture. and that their loved ones will be resurrected at the rapture just before they get caught up to be with the Lord, all part of one event. So Paul is comforting the Thessalonians in his first epistle.

He doesn't go into detail about the day of the Lord or the tribulation in the first epistle. And I think I read one commentator and I agree with him that in 1 Thessalonians 5, 1, he says, now as to the times and the epics, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. I think what he's saying there is, You know, we don't have to go into this in too much detail. You won't be there, so don't worry about the times and the epics of when this happens. To keep the details light and to keep them focused on the blessed hope of the rapture.

But in 2 Thessalonians they had the problem, they thought they were in the day of the Lord. So now he needs to bring up the tribulation, he needs to bring up the rapture. But he keeps it to the beginning point and the midpoint of the rapture and the end point of the day of the Lord. As you can see on this next slide, the beginning point is in chapter two, verse one, and that's, now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together with Him. That gathering together with Him is the beginning of the day of the Lord, or the Daniel 70th week. It's the word of the Lord, gathering together, is epi-synagogue, is it translated, transliterated, gathering together.

Then he does the midpoint, who the man of lawlessness or the beast opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship. And here's the midpoint, so that he takes up his temple, his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as God in verse four. Then he gives us, he goes to the end point, and this is kind of all out of, he does this out of order, but nonetheless, the three points are there. Then that lawlessness one, that lawless one, in verse eight, will be revealed, that's the mid-tribulation point, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming.

That's verse eight, and that's the end point of the tribulation. And I kind of took this old slide from Roger Howell's class here, and I just expanded the tribulation part of it. You see the church age there on the left, and the rapture that happens, and then the tribulation. So what he's doing is covering the beginning, the coming of Christ for his saints, the rapture.

The midpoint, and you can see the midpoint is, and we see this in our passage today, the beast, the man of lawlessness, reveals himself in the temple right at the midpoint. He breaks the covenant with Israel, which is not in our passage today, but that is also what happens at the midpoint. Also what happens at the midpoint is you see up above is Satan is cast down from heaven. He gets kicked out of heaven, down to earth. So he's got three and a half years, the time of Jacob's trouble, the great tribulation to really wreak havoc on the earth. And the end point, Over here is the return of Christ, the second coming. And he'll judge then. He'll throw the beast and the Satan into the lake of fire, and all that goes with that at the end point of the tribulation.

You can see the two, I put in the two, Armageddon, And I'll put a supplement in with this lesson today afterwards. It's kind of in two phases. You have that battle of Armageddon, the Ezekiel 38 battle. It's not a battle, but the army, the North Army, is destroyed by a supernatural convulsion of nature.

And they think that's right at the midpoint. uh... and that causes the the beast the man of laws is the man of sin to break that covenant with uh... with israel and to reveal himself who he is and then the second part of armageddon and you see at the end there is another battle uh... it's in jerusalem and that's when christ returns and he wipes out the army of the south and the army of the east come upon jerusalem So Andrew, question. Yeah. So you said in the mid-trib, you know, Satan leaves heaven and comes to do disaster in the earthly sphere, right? Yeah.

You see him existing in heavenly places now? Yeah, he has access to heaven, right? He's not in heavenly places, but he has access to heaven. He can go up and talk to... Isn't that your understanding? He doesn't live in heaven, but he has full access. And he accuses the brethren. Yes, he does work down here on earth. But he is, right now all those demons in him have access to heaven. He can go into, I think, the throne room of God and accuse the saints, things like that. But he gets kicked out. He can no longer have that access is what is kind of intimated in scripture.

What do you think of this gap? Can you see my mouse? This gap time I have there. I think there might be a gap time after the rapture before this covenant is signed. That's a tough one, that's a tough one. Yeah, because otherwise the covenant needs to be signed right then, right there. But who knows? I think Vern had that position, but I put it in there just in case.

Okay, so let's look at this lawless one. From verse eight, then that lawlessness, lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. Prior to the study, I thought that this This lawlessness, lawless one, I can't say that. The beast in the book of Revelation, the man of lawlessness, the man of sin.

I thought that he was the Antichrist in Scripture, or he was referred to as the Antichrist in Scripture, but that turns out to be not the case. We refer to him, but look at this, look at these verses in 1 John. It's from 2.18, 2.22, 4.3, and 2 John 1.7. Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard the Antichrist is coming, and even now many Antichrists have appeared, from this we know that it is the last hour.

Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. And this is a good description of the Antichrist of Revelation as well. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you have heard that is coming, and now it already is in the world. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those that do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. But you can see in those passages that it's a general description of someone and a bunch of people who are of anti-Christ, or against Christ, against the things that, who He is, His essence, and things like that. He's here now, and it's talking about a spirit of the age, kind of, and a mindset of false prophets, ministers, who have the spirit of the Antichrist.

So the Antichrist, who is the beast, and who is the man of lawlessness, is never actually referred to specifically as the Antichrist. But we've kind of got that passed down through the ages. And it's true, he is, but just an interesting point of this lawlessness. Lawless one. It might help to know that it's only the Apostle John that refers to him as Antichrist. man of lawlessness as well, and the deceiver is another one. So there's several terms for this individual. The important thing to know is it's a person, it's a human being.

Yeah, and so the point is the term Antichrist is only referred to by John, but And we'll look at that. So hold that thought there, Roy. Well, the other thing, Andrew, is that this is going to be, I think, initially a political leader to bring light to the world. I think he's going to be very deceptive. Right. Hold that thought, too. OK.

But the man that is coming in the tribulation period, even though he is the final genuine article, and he's a man, he's a definite man, he's the genuine article antichrist, is referred to with specificity as other things, just as Roy's point here, and here it is.

He's referred to as the bloody and deceitful man, the wicked one, the man of the earth, the mighty man, the enemy, the adversary, the head of many countries, the violent man. the son of the morning, as opposed to Christ being the bright and morning star, the spoiler, the nail, the branch of the terrible ones, the profane and wicked prince of Israel, the little horn in Daniel 7, 8, the prince that shall come, the vile person, the willful king, the idle shepherd, the man of sin, the son of perdition, So you get the point. He's referred to as many things except the Antichrist. The lawlessness, the lawless one, the angel of the bottomless pit, the beast, which is in our scripture reading Is it? No. He's, in our scripture reading, it's a man of lawlessness.

To these could be added the one coming in his own name, the king of fierce countenance, the abomination of desolation, and the desolator. So, Pentecost makes the point that it is possible to see how extensive the revelation concerning this individual is. He takes up a lot of real estate in Scripture, actually. Look at all those verses up there. It is not surprising since this one, this Antichrist, this man of lawlessness, is Satan's great masterpiece in the imitation of the program of God.

And you can see I crossed out two of these, the Assyrian and the King of Babylon. And I think because this was from Arthur Pink's book. And I think that those two terms refer to two specific kings back in the Old Testament, the King of Babylon being Nebuchadnezzar and the Assyrian another king, possibly Cyrus. So those are two actual kings.

So I kind of crossed those out and you can see I put a question mark at the, when he refers to him as the Antichrist. It's interesting, Arthur Pink in 1912 lived just over the pass here. He was the pastor of this church in Silverton. up, you know, just a stone's throw away from here. So that's kind of cool. Arthur Pink. More about who this lawless one is. And this goes to, I think, your point, Bob.

He does not appear until the later times of Israel's history. He will not appear until the day of the Lord has begun. His manifestation is now being hindered by the restrainer, and his appearance is preceded by a departure. That's what we've been studying in the last couple weeks.

He is a Gentile. He comes from the sea. He comes from the vestiges of the Roman Empire. He's kind of referred to as Roman in nature. He is a political leader, as you said, Bob. His influence is worldwide. He is an alliance maker. He is intelligent and persuasive. but also subtle and crafty.

He doesn't force things, at least in the early part of Daniel's 70th week. Nations give him willing consent, so they're not forced to do anything they don't want to do when he comes to power. He comes to power through a peace program. And I added this last bullet point, my opinion is in the first three-and-a-half years or before, if there's a gap period before the actual seven-year tribulation starts, I think he's going to bring a pseudo-millennium to the Earth, or at least its conditions.

I think he's going to solve things like global warming, increase crops, bring crops to parched places in Africa and water and better living conditions to the impoverished, bring maybe new technology so that people, green energy, so that people are just, wow, this guy can do everything. And kind of miraculously too, right?

Because one thing he is, he's a counterfeit. And I think some of the things of the millennial kingdom will be counterfeited. Just as the covenant with Israel is a counterfeit of the Abrahamic covenant. So more, this is where it gets, this is where it gets bad. This is where he gets evil.

But his interest in power and authority are insatiable. He introduces changes to long-established laws and customs. At the three-and-a-half-year mark of the Tribulation, he breaks the peace covenant with Israel. He then proceeds, introduces a system of idolatrous worship, and sets himself up as god in the jewish temple of the tribulation period he blasphemes god he is energized by satan who is referred to in revelation as the dragon and he receives authority from satan he's the head of satan's lawless system uh... and it has its apex this uh... this mystery of lawlessness uh... which is even now in the world And he's the head of that system.

He is also a false Christ, a pseudokristos. Christ refers to him as a pseudochrist. He uses that term in Matthew 24. He's a pseudochrist of Satan's religious system, that harlot system. He is received by the world and apostate religious system or the church down there on earth in the tribulation period as God because of the blindness of the tribulation period unbelievers. That's the strong delusion that is next week, right? In 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 11. So I think you have that, Roger? Yes, I do. Yes, so we'll learn about that next week.

He is also able to display miraculous signs and wonders in conjunction with his next in command, Kamala Harris. In one of Merriman Gold's Sunday School lessons, he mentioned, and this dates that lesson, he said it was Henry Kissinger, but we all know that that turned out not to be true. So back in his time...

Anyway, yes, the Antichrist or the man of lawlessness has a next-in-command. It's the false prophet. The false prophet is Jewish. He's the second beast. And then I go into a little here of the Armageddon, an alliance built against the beast called the Northern Confederacy.

It includes Russia, Iran, the scripture refers to Ethiopia, Libya. and then Germany and Turkey. But that Ethiopia and Libya could be references to countries bordering Iran, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, or Turkmenistan borders. So it could be one of those. But it's definitely Russia, Iran, Germany, and Turkey. So they form an alliance. And I'll put a supplement in the lesson after we're done here. This alliance assembled and encamped in the Jezreel Valley. And as you know from Ezekiel, they come to take a spoil of Israel.

God destroys them by some supernatural display. That's Armageddon part one. And that could be the trigger to trigger the man of lawlessness, the beast, to break the seven-year peace covenant with Israel. And the beast and Satan will start to persecute Israel very badly at this time.

And he sets himself to be up as God in the temple about that time. He will then take over Jerusalem. So he'll actually move into Jerusalem. And he has a 10 nation alliance himself, right? Of 10 nations, the Antichrist or the Beast. He will take over Jerusalem and gear up for Armageddon part two against the Kings of the South and the Kings of the East. And so the second battle takes, placed in south of Jerusalem and Edom and Jerusalem itself.

He also destroys the harlot system, the religious Babylon system, which is the apostate church system in the tribulation period. That system helped bring him to power, but then he destroys it so he can rule over himself. Recording in progress goes into a protracted battle with the king or the nation's The king of the east and the south But his end here's his doom He's gonna be destroyed by the Lord Jesus Christ that is coming with his saints and destroyed by, you see it up there in verse 8, he'll be slayed with the breath of Christ's mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. So maybe it's even a word that Christ utters that will destroy him. Then they both will be cast into the lake of fire, Revelation 19, 20.

So there's the lawlessness of the lawless one, the beast. There's his doom. So let's go on to look at verse 9. That is, the one who is coming in accord with the activity of Satan, with all the power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception and of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. That's verse 10. So we've looked at this, Satan gives the beast man of lawlessness, his ability to perform false signs and wonders.

And this goes to Roy's point, he made this point last week, and you might be interested in this, Roy. Swigert argues that the man of sin is possessed by a certain demon. He is called the son of destruction, the Antichrist, because of his abomination is related to the rise of Apollon in Revelation 9, 11.

And it's been often noted that there are presently chained groups of angels who have been confined to the abyss because of their behavior in the pre-flood world. Halfway through the tribulation period, these chained demons are released by an angel from heaven who has the keys to the abyss. And this is all in Revelation 9.

They have a king over them called Abaddon or Apollyon. This is very appropriate, since there was a center of worship to Apollo located on the Isle of Patmos, where John was exiled, writing Revelation. One of the symbols of Apollo, the god Apollo, was the locust. He dwells in the physical body of the man of sin, whose identity has not been revealed until that time.

It could be argued, and I think Roy made this point last week, that he could be possessed by a demon, this one king demon named Apollyon. And it's interesting that locusts appear several times as a plague in the Book of Revelation, and the demons and the locusts with the hair and things like that. I just think that's interesting. I just kind of put that in there for you to kind of chew on.

Christ speaks specifically of the signs and false wonders in Matthew 24, 24. For false Christ and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders. So as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. So let's look at briefly at the signs and false wonders. And I just pasted Revelation chapter 13 here.

Then I saw another beast, that's the false prophet, coming up out of the earth. And he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, that's our antichrist, whose fatal wound was healed. And here's one of these false signs and wonders. He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men.

So I imagine that's like when Elijah was on Mount Carmel and the fire came down and consumed his, what do you call those? Group of stones, what's the word I'm looking for? Where you sacrifice a bull. I've lost the name. Altar? Thank you, altar. So, yeah, the fire comes down and it consumed Elijah's sacrifice on the altar in front of the, the false, the priest of Baal, right?

The other sign is there in verse 15, and it was given to him. to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image to be killed. So somehow this image of the beast has breath and can talk and things like that. So who knows what that is, but that's a false sign in 1 or 2. And then in 16 it goes on to, and it's interesting, I'll just read verse 16 and he causes all the great and small and the rich and poor and the free men and The slaves to be giving a mark on their right hand or on their forehead He provides that which provides that no one will be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark either the name of the beast or the number of that of his name and here is wisdom let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast so the number is that of a man and his number is 666 that's a familiar passage but all this in chapter 13 is the false prophet doing all this so you think of the antichrist is the one with the the six six six and things like that and the one who is doing this taking over the economy so that no one can buy or sell but it's really his next in command, the false prophet, who really does a lot of the legwork for the man of lawlessness, or the man of sin.

Oh, Andrew, just a clarification then. We're talking in the second half of the Tribulation, there's two individuals, right? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay. Two, I'd say two human beings, two human men. Right, okay. And Satan totally empowers the second, but obviously the first. Yeah, obviously. Other spirits also. Yeah, or this great demon king. So, you know, depending on... And second clarification really relates to something I think we know, but just to clarify from my perspective.

So when Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire, the Millennium starts at that point? Not Satan. I mean the second man, right? I thought you said that Satan's casting one of your commentaries. Well, Satan has changed for a thousand years, right? Yeah, but you know, is Satan here at that time? I thought he still was.

You're saying he's cast in a lake of fire. One of the commentators at least indicated that in what you're quoting. But at the end of this, the tribulation period, right? So he's got full reign in the second three and a half years. So when is he cast to the lake of fire? When? Yes.

I would say when Christ returns, he's gonna... Okay, so then there's no Satan, but sin is still possible during the Millennial Kingdom, correct? Yeah, but sin will be chained. But that's the sin nature we all have, right? Christ is going to rule with an iron hand. The only thing that will cause sin in the Millennial Kingdom is your own internal sin nature. And Satan can't come and knock on your door and cause you to sin or cause demons to He has no influence over that thousand-year millennial kingdom.

So it's just, and it, you know, so yeah, they'll still sin, and then they'll rebel at the end of the thousand years, right? There'll be another war, another, it sounds like Armageddon again, but it's not, but it's Gog and Magog from the four corners of the earth, and they're gonna come against Christ and Christ's rule, and then they're gonna be destroyed, but that's, Satan is released at that point though.

It is the beast and the false prophet that go into the lake of fire in the ends of the tribulation. The bottomless pit? Satan, no. Yeah, that was my thought. Yeah, yeah, so you're saying that Satan is cast into the bottomless pit, the abyss? Right. And not the lake of fire.

Here's a kingdom, and this is an interesting point. Why does we have a kingdom with Satan locked up? Why is there a period of time in God's program for the millennium? Here we've had all these periods where Satan is active, and our sin natures are active, but here's a period where he's not active, it's just our sin natures that are active. And it's not a, in that sense, it's not a perfect kingdom.

Man is not perfect. He rebels against God at the end. He's deceived by the release of Satan. And there's another battle. Then a period of time after that is... I don't know how to say this, but there's a term in the scripture that says it's the fullness of time. How long that is? the thousand generations long. That's another rule of God that's perfect, absolutely perfect.

We need to be reminded that we're not part of this process, at least down here. No, we're out of here. That's right. And are you going to talk about the 144 No, no, I didn't go into that because I'm trying to keep it. Roger, you need to do that. It's your next. Yeah, that's all in there too.

Here's something to think about this some of the signs and false wonders that the man of sin does You'll see I think I've highlighted it here Same passage revelation 13. It says that it refers to this fatal wound that was healed and in verse 14 14 it says to make an image of to the beast, the beast had the wound of the sword and has come to life. So it sounds like the beast, or what we know as the Antichrist, gets killed, and then his wound is healed, and he gets resurrected.

But I don't know if that's the case, because only... The point is made that only God has the ability to raise someone from the dead, the resurrection power. And it's not part of his resurrection program that Roger was giving in the 10 o'clock hour. So that's never mentioned.

So they think that that wound that is healed is one of the nations that has come back, one of the 10 nations that has come back to life. Maybe Rome, maybe Italy, who's sort of a non-entity in today's world, but maybe they are a great power at the end, they come back to life. So I just wanted to point that out. And then just one final thing about, as we wrap up this apostate church, the harlot, or the religious Babylon system. It brings us back full cycle to what we've talked about in the last couple weeks and with discussion about the apostasy.

The fact is there is an apostate church alive and active during the tribulation. it's it's district will have its own maturity in the tribulation uh... and i think that's the unseen that is referred to up there in first ten uh... those who did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved so they must be saved in in the church age uh... me now they're members of this apostate church and they don't have love of the truth But it's referred to as a church in the Tribulation Age, but not our church. So Pentecost is the complete apostasy of the period on the part of the professing church. Note that word, professing. Prevents the church from being in the world.

That's us, Christ's church. The only organized church ever mentioned in the tribulation is the Jezebel system and the harlot system of Revelation 17 and 18. The beast who has dominated the harlot system rises against her and destroys her and her system completely. Without doubt, the harlot system was in competition with the religious worship of the beast promoted by the false prophet. And her destruction is brought about so that the beast may be the sole object of worship, of false worship, as it claims to be God. So there's just a bit about that apostate system, the church. But I'll put a little supplement in there, too, from Ironside at the end. So there we have it. That's a lot. That's a lot. Yeah, it is. That's going to be a test. Right.

But yeah, it really goes into detail about that man of lawlessness in those verses and sort of what happens in the tribulation. So we looked at it. So I hope I just touched on the players and the big points so that You know, it will kind of sink in. Maybe it'll sink in better if you read the slides in the comfort of your own home with a mug of hot tea or something. There you go. But it's a big subject, isn't it? This whole section. And it's given to it.

The prophecy is 29, it was calculated it's 29% of the Bible. takes up dealing with prophecy for the return of Christ. So it's an important subject, nearly a third of the Bible. So any final thoughts? One of the important things is it's such a terrible thing that we're looking at here, but in contrast, losing And yeah, that's an amazing thing that this is all written out in detail, fantastic detail, but it's all done, right? It's yet future, but it's written as if it's in the past, because God has mapped all this out in his word. That's what I find pretty fascinating.

Yeah, Hebrews 2.14 is a great verse that reflects on that, Andrew. and you know it's interesting is that there are so many believers today who think that what's happening right now is so terrible but they don't even realize what's coming. I mean, you know, if they think this is bad, it's really kind of interesting, you know, that some people are apoplectic almost about what's happening right now. They just don't realize the whole scope And then some people, I think some churches or pastors out there are maybe concentrating too much on this stuff, making this their focus, which you shouldn't, because this has nothing really to do with us. But it was our focus today, because it's our passages.

Or you could do a study on it. But yeah, it's interesting stuff. That's great stuff. So yeah, good. You got the picnic tomorrow? Yeah. We do. Come on down. Come on down. Oh, yeah. Yeah, right. And is Courtney going to be well enough to do that? Apparently so. He's Courtney. It's an act of God. He'll have a lot of help. He can walk? OK. I'll just close in the word prayer really quickly. Our Father, we thank you for what you say in your word about the end times, and it's given to us for our profit, and we're blessed by looking into it this morning, and we thank you for that. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.