Antichrist Summary. 2 Thessalonians 2
In 2 Thessalonians Paul is
addressing a question that was raised as a result of what he taught in the
first letter he wrote to the Thessalonians. He wrote these two letters at the
end of his second missionary journey. One of the questions that came up in
relation to the first letter was what happens to these Christians who die? He
answers this in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, and then in chapter five he
starts talking about the day of the Lord and that it comes as a thief in the
night. To a world that has no knowledge of biblical prophecy it comes as a
surprise. The term “the day of the Lord” is a special term used in Scripture as
a time of divine judgment and is one that is used specifically of the end time
judgment near the end of the Tribulation period, the judgments that culminate
in the campaign of Armageddon and then the second coming of Jesus Christ. That
caused some other questions because there were people who had become confused
and had begun to teach that the day of the Lord had already come.
But the day of the Lord had
not (and has not) come, it is a future event, and that what Paul is addressing
in 2 Thessalonians chapter two. 2 Thessalonians 2:1 NASB “Now we
request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and
our gathering together to Him, [2] that you not be quickly shaken from your
composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if
from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.” He is telling them
don’t get upset when you hear people teach that Jesus Christ has already come,
that He came in judgment in the clouds, and don’t get upset when you hear
somebody saying that these prophecies were fulfilled and that we are already in
the Tribulation or in the kingdom in some way. In some versions, e.g. NASB and NIV, “day of the
Lord” is used in v. 2 instead of “day of Christ.” The reason is that there are
some manuscripts which read differently and there are two basic views that have
developed over the last couple of hundred years. One view that has dominated
scholarship over the last 150 years or so is one that has now come to be called
“the eclectic view.” Earlier it was articulated by two British Anglican
scholars, B.F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort. Their view basically was, if it is
older it is correct. That is an oversimplification but the problem is that an
eighth century manuscript could be an exact faithful copy of a 2nd
century manuscript that is older than a third century manuscript, and the
manuscripts that are the oldest ones that we have were found in the desert in
Egypt and in Sinai, an area where obviously because it is dry it would be
preserved and last much longer. So one way to characterize their approach to
these things is to say that if any two of these four MSS agree it has
to be the original reading. The other view is that the majority of MSS is the
correct view. That is sometimes referred to as the Majority Text or sometimes
the Byzantine Text because there are hundreds if not thousands of these MSS and readings
that were found, mostly in the area of
2 Thessalonians 2:3 NASB
“Let no one in any way deceive you, for {it will not come} unless the apostasy
[or, falling away] comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son
of destruction.” We learn some important things here about the Antichrist.
First of all there is something about when he is known, when he is first
revealed and people know him. The command is a Greek expression using an aorist
active subjunctive to express a very strong prohibition: Don’t any of you be
deceived. The emphasis is really on knowledge: know the Scriptures; know
doctrine; don’t be caught up in this web of deceit because you are ignorant and
haven’t studied your Bible, haven’t understood these things. The idea of
deception runs through this chapter because the man of sin, the Antichrist, is
going to be one who works in deception. 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10 “{that is,} the
one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and
signs and false wonders,
Second, that day will not
come unless the falling away occurs. The term “the falling away” is the noun apostasia [a)postasia] which does mean rebellion, abandonment, a state of
apostasy, defection, and it can also mean departure. The verb primarily means
departure in the New Testament and that it is how it was used many times in
secular literature. If the coming of Christ can be at any moment with nothing
before it then to say that a great apostasy must first occur is to say
something else has to happen before Jesus can come back—and which apostasy was
it? The church, different groups, go through these cycles of departure from the
truth. But if this means departure of the church in terms of the Rapture of the
church when the Lord comes in the clouds to take his body of believers away,
that is what this passage is describing. So the day, the judgments of the
Tribulation will not come until the Rapture comes first and the man of sin is
revealed. So we see this order there: first the Rapture, the revelation of the
man of sin, the Antichrist, and then the day of the Lord.
The other term that is
interesting here is “the son of perdition [destruction].” First he is called
the man of sin because his very being is the personification of sin and arrogance,
so this is one of the many titles for the Antichrist that are given in the
Scriptures. The second term “son of perdition” is also a term for the
Antichrist but that phrase was also used in John 17:12 by the Lord Jesus Christ
in His high priestly prayer to refer to Judas Iscariot. “While I was with them,
I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and
not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would
be fulfilled.” He was one who never trusted in Christ, never believed Him, and
so he was called the son of perdition. It is important to understand what this
means. The phrase “son of” is a Hebraism. In English when we say so and so is a
son of something then what we are talking about is their background, their
derivation, their parentage. In Hebrew idiom the phrase “son of” indicates that
you have the same characteristics as the noun at the end of the sentence. So if
a person was a murderer he would be called the son of a murderer because he had
the characteristics of a murderer. If they are a fool they are called the son
of a fool. Son of perdition means that this is a person who is characterized by
perdition. But what exactly does that word mean? It translates the Greek word apoleia [a)pwleia]
which means perdition or destruction, and it is the noun form from the verb apollumi [a)pollumi], to
perish. John
This man of sin is described
further in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 NASB “who opposes and exalts himself
above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in
the
2 Thessalonians 2:8 NASB
“Then that 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.” He is
lawless because he has rejected the laws, the absolutes of God. During the
Tribulation first a quarter of the earth’s population will be killed by various
plagues and the seal judgments, then in later judgments another one third are
killed, and that would apply to Israel. (In the holocaust of WW2 one third of
all Jews world wide were killed) Probably one
Summary:
1. We are not to be deceived. Only truth applied can protect us from deception. 2 Thessalonians 2:10. We have to know the truth. It is only when we have the Word of God in our soul and we believe the Word of God that we can avoid deception.
2. The Tribulation will not come until after the departure, i.e. the Rapture. 2 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.
3. The Holy Spirit is the one who restrains. 2 Thessalonians 2:6, 7.
4. The man of sin is revealed after the Rapture.
5. The son of perdition opposes and exalts himself over God and replaces God. He is to be worshipped as God.
6. The lawless one indicates that he rejects the law of God.
7. He is called the Antichrist, which means he is a substitute or a pseudo-messiah.
What we have seen on our recent study:
1.
The origin of the
Antichrist is out of the fourth empire, out of
2.
He does not arise
out of the former area of the Greek division of
3.
The Antichrist
does not arise until after the Rapture of the church.
4.
The Antichrist
may not be clearly identified until he signs the peace treaty with
5.
He is going to
have incredible military skill. He will crush his opponents through military
power.
6.
His path is the
path of destruction. Daniel 7:19; 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Destruction is his
destiny and he destroys all that is in his path.
7.
He is empowered
and indwelt by Satan; he doesn’t do this by his own power. Daniel
8.
He exalts himself
above God and every other god. He places himself at the very center of worship.
Daniel
9.
He is arrogant,
Daniel
10.
He is the master
of deception, 2 Thessalonians 2:9.
11.
He sets himself
up to be worshipped in the