LAWLESSNESS: THE MAN AND THE MYSTERY
2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-12
NASB
1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the [a]coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your [a]composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a [b]message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the [a]apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above [a]every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? 6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 7 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. 8 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 [a]coming; 9 that is, the one whose [a]coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and [b]signs and false wonders, 10 and with [a]all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God [a]will send upon them [b]a deluding influence so that they will believe [c]what is false, 12 in order that they all may be [a]judged who did not believe the truth, but [b]took pleasure in wickedness.
2:1 [a]Or presence 2:2 [a]Lit mind [b]Lit word 2:3 [a]Or falling away from the faith 2:4 [a]Or everyone who is called God 2:8 [a]Or presence 2:9 [a]Or presence [b]Or attesting miracles 2:10 [a]Or every deception 2:11 [a]Lit is sending [b]Lit an activity of error [c]Or the lie 2:12 [a]Or condemned [b]Or approved
NLT
1 Now, dear brothers and sisters,[*] let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him. 2 Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us. 3 Don’t be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness[*] is revealed—the one who brings destruction.[*] 4 He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God.
5 Don’t you remember that I told you about all this when I was with you? 6 And you know what is holding him back, for he can be revealed only when his time comes. 7 For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. 8 Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, but the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming.
9 This man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. 10 He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. 11 So God will cause them to be greatly deceived, and they will believe these lies. 12 Then they will be condemned for enjoying evil rather than believing the truth.
[2:1] Greek brothers; also in 2:13, 15. [2:3a] Some manuscripts read the man of sin. [2:3b] Greek the son of destruction.
Enough page-turning novels, big-budget films, and chilling documentaries have been made about earthquakes that even people in the middle of Minnesota know the kind of destruction they bring. But nothing compares to the unsettling terror of actually experiencing one.
During our more than two decades of living in California, there weren’t any native Californians I met who couldn’t tell their own story of dread from having endured an earthquake. Sometimes there would be only slight tremors, easily confused with the rumbling of a passing tractor-trailer or a low-flying jet. Other times there would be a prolonged shuddering —the kind that makes you lose balance or gets you to run for cover. Broken dishes, cracks in the walls, blaring car alarms, and some frightened children are usually the extent of most California quakes.
But every Californian has listened to a myriad of expert geologists talk about “the Big One” —a future earthquake along the San Andreas Fault that would rock the Richter scale at 8.5 or more. “When it comes,” they say, “it’ll be a showstopper. It’ll make all the previous earthquakes in California’s history look like minor nuisances —subtle warnings of the devastation to come.”
What the Big One is to the Californian, the Great Tribulation is to the whole world of lost humanity. Throughout history there have been tremors of minitribulations, false prophets and false messiahs, wars and conflicts, disease and deceptions. But when the Great Tribulation hits, those past trials will all seem like mere shivers compared to the extreme destruction that will lead up to the second coming of Christ.
From My Journal
Prophetic Momentum
2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-2
I remember the time I spoke to the Los Angeles Rams at their pregame chapel service . . . and later that night they creamed the Dallas Cowboys. The evening before Super Bowl XIV, I spoke to the Steelers . . . and they ripped apart the Rams the next day. Then I spoke to the Dodgers before they took the field against the Reds . . . and they cleaned their clocks!
When a winning streak happens in sporting events, sportscasters call it “athletic momentum” —that surge of assurance, that deep sense of confidence that says, “No doubt about it; we’re gonna win this thing!” If I didn’t know better, I might call my pregame-chapel winning streak “prophetic momentum.” Maybe I could lead sports teams to believe I have such a gift: “You guys wanna win? Just invite me over a few hours before the game, and it’s in the bag. When I speak, you win!”
Yeah, right.
No reason to kid myself. In the long run, I’m about as prophetically gifted as your local weathercaster. And my momentum is about as surging as a poached egg. Whatever connection there was between my speaking and somebody’s winning was purely coincidental. Prophetic utterance is not my bag.
True prophets —the authentic variety —have long since passed off the scene. But they once walked the earth like spiritual giants. They were daring men and women who were willing to stake their lives on the absolute truth of their claims. They allowed no margin for error in judgment, no mental mistake of even the smallest detail. And they didn’t predict obvious generalities like “The sun will come out tomorrow.” Nor did they prophesy in elastic stanzas like “A slender man, right of hand, will cross a line, before the nine.” (That could mean anything!) On the contrary, original, genuine prophets took risks . . . and were highly accurate.
Back then, a prophet was a true prophet because he or she passed a very simple (yet exacting) test: If the prophet was truly speaking the word of the Lord, whatever was prophesied would occur. If the prophet happened to be a phony, nothing would happen. Moses laid down that precept in simple terms in Deuteronomy 18:20-22. A prophet could make only two possible grades on this test: A or F. Ace it or flat-out flunk it. Worse than that, the fake prophet was to be put to death if the predicted stuff didn’t happen (cf. Deut. 13)!
But if God’s hand was on that prophet . . . if the person was indeed God’s mouthpiece . . . the people should have stood back in fear. What was predicted was sure to happen. The prophetic momentum was awesome. And I do mean awesome! Every one of those true prophets was a summa cum laude graduate of the School of Divine Presence. They didn’t mess around. They never missed.
Today, however, that same kind of prophetic precision falls flat. In fact, many have undertaken what I call “the dating game” —a half-baked attempt to pinpoint the day Christ will return. All of these predictions are made, mind you, in spite of the fact that Jesus Himself said that only the Father knows when that event will occur (Matt. 24:36).
Guard against setting dates and don’t follow those who do. Remember Y2K? We were told all the computers would crash and burn. Everything would grind to a halt. Nothing happened. I know people who based their ministry on that false prediction. Some even wrote books about it. I confess . . . I was tempted to write the authors and say, “Hey, how’s your book selling . . . now that it’s January 2?” Don’t set dates. Don’t think someone’s teaching is “deep” because it predicts the exact time of Christ’s coming. Jesus said, “It is not for you to know” (Acts 1:7). Never forget that!
While he was still present with them, Paul had taught the Thessalonian believers about the day of the Lord and its terrors. But in his forced absence, they had become confused about the timing, fearing that the tremors of trials and tribulations they were experiencing at the hands of their persecutors were the quaking of God’s Great Tribulation judgments. They thought the day of the Lord, which Paul had clearly taught was not for the children of light but for the children of darkness, had already begun!
In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, then, Paul attempts to brace the doctrinal legs of the church that were weakening because of their misunderstanding of the end times and their misinterpretation of current events. How like our own day, with its prophecy hacks and end-times quacks wrongly setting dates, misidentifying prophetic fulfillments, and foolishly watchdogging innocent nominees for “Antichrist.”
It’s time for us to let Paul set the record straight.
— 2:1-2 —
All of us in this fallen, post-Genesis 3 world go through various trials and tribulations. There are pressures, conflicts, and struggles we will wrestle with until the day we die. Some of these are more severe than others. We will endure pain from diseases and injuries, sometimes even unto death. We experience persecution, oppression, and injustice that test our faith. All of us face these tribulations each day —some of us more than others.
But the Bible teaches that there will be a time of great —ultimate —tribulation that will send the entire world and all people into devastating calamity. Nobody will escape it. Unlike today’s trials and tribulations, the Big One won’t come and go with periods of tranquility and relative calm. Instead, the severity of the Tribulation will continue to increase over the course of seven years, climaxing at the Battle of Armageddon and the physical return of Christ as Judge and King (Rev. 6–19).
Like all Christians, the Thessalonians had been living with the first kind of trials and tribulations . . . and many of them had become severe, perhaps seemingly unbearable. They may have been tempted to think they had crossed the line from minor tribulations to the Great Tribulation. It surely didn’t help that some false prophet decided to spread the rumor that the day of the Lord had come, that the Tribulation had commenced, that any rescue Christ had promised to those who were awaiting Him (1 Thes. 1:9-10) had passed, and that the Thessalonians had been left to face the judgments and wrath of the end times.
This is why Paul addresses this subject head-on, hoping to put an end to their confusion by clarifying the facts. Paul’s main concern is that they not be “quickly shaken” from their composure or “disturbed” (2 Thes. 2:2). The term “shaken” comes from the Greek verb saleuō [4531], meaning to waver, totter, or move to and fro.[57] It can refer to a literal shaking, as in an earthquake (Acts 16:26), but it can also describe the psychological result of people who are stirred up or agitated (Acts 17:13). The Thessalonians had been shaken up, agitated, stirred to confusion by “a spirit or a message or a letter” claiming to come from those with apostolic or prophetic authority —perhaps even from Paul or Silas themselves (2 Thes. 2:2).
The result of this was that they were “disturbed.” Jesus used the same term, throeō [2360], in warning his own disciples to not jump to hasty conclusions concerning the coming of Christ based on hearing of “wars and rumors of wars.” Jesus said, “See that you are not frightened (throeō), for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end” (Matt. 24:6). It may very well be that Paul had this very saying of Jesus in mind when he told the Thessalonians not to be “disturbed” by people who claim that the day of the Lord has come (2 Thes. 2:2). If so, Paul is saying that the Thessalonians had fallen into the trap Jesus warned His disciples about: jumping to the hasty conclusion that the end had come based on their experience of the tremors leading up to the Tribulation.
Rather, Paul wants them to stand firm, retain their composure, and not be shaken from their convictions concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus and their gathering together to Him (2:1). He wants them to avoid the wrong conclusion —based on deceptive misinformation —that “the day of the Lord has come” (2:2). He had already taught them in the previous letter that prior to the day of the Lord, Jesus Christ would sweep His followers from the earth and gather them together with Him in the sky (1 Thes. 4:17). The false rumor had spread, however, that the day of the Lord had come. This had numerous, potentially disastrous implications. Either (a) Paul’s teaching concerning the end times in 1 Thessalonians 4–5 had been wrong, making him a false prophet; or (b) Christ had already come to rescue the church, but the Thessalonians had been left behind!
How would Paul correct this error and refute the false teaching of the rogue spirit, message, or letter? He could have simply asserted, “No, listen to me! Trust me! I’m right about this! The ‘day of the Lord’ judgments haven’t started yet; what you’re experiencing are just normal trials and tribulations.” But if the Thessalonians already believed the false teachers or false prophets, Paul’s authority had already been undermined. So simply countering the error would do no good. However, if they were afraid they had been left behind, Paul’s assertion that this was not the case could have backfired too: What if Paul himself had been left behind as well? Maybe some other group of super saints had been rescued and the rest had to go through the Tribulation!
EXCURSUS: DAY OF THE LORD, RAPTURE, TRIBULATION, AND MILLENNIUM
2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-12
Bible teacher Thomas Constable offers this definition of the day of the Lord as synthesized from the entire Bible’s teaching on the subject:
The Day of the Lord is the period of history mentioned repeatedly in the Old Testament during which God will bring judgment and blessing on the people of the earth in a more direct, dramatic, and drastic way than ever before (compare Isa. 13:6, 9; Zeph. 1:14-16). From other New Testament revelation concerning this period of time it is believed that this will begin after the Rapture of the church, and will include the Tribulation and the Millennium.[58]
Besides “day of the Lord,” three more terms bear a closer look: Rapture, Tribulation, and Millennium. In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he had given details about the Rapture of the church. The Rapture is that event when believers of every age, in every place, living or dead, will be resurrected or transformed into glorified bodies and snatched up to heaven to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thes. 4:13-18). Paul clearly distinguished the Rapture and rescue of believers from the coming wrath of the day of the Lord, noting that those judgments will be for the wicked who dwell in darkness (1 Thes. 5:1-6; 2 Thes. 1:6, 8-9).
When the day of the Lord comes suddenly, “like a thief in the night,” it will involve a definitive period of earthly judgment —the Tribulation —followed by a definitive period of earthly blessing —the Millennium. The period of destruction and wrath known as the Tribulation was foretold by the prophet Daniel (Dan. 9:24-27) and described by Jesus (Matt. 24:7-9, 21-22). During that period of intensifying judgments, during which the Antichrist will reign, many Jews and Gentiles will be saved (Rev. 7). It is in reference to these “tribulation saints” that Jesus calls for perseverance to the end (Matt. 24:13). The Great Tribulation of those days will climax with the return of Christ to earth as King (Joel 3:12-17; Zeph. 1:14-18; Rev. 6:12-17; 19). After vanquishing His enemies, Christ will establish His kingdom on earth, known as the Millennium, the first thousand years of His eternal reign as the promised Davidic King (2 Sam. 7:16; Ps. 89:3-4, 33-37; Rev. 20:4-6). Following this Millennium, a final resurrection of the wicked and purging of heaven and earth (Rev. 20:7-15) will make way for the new heaven and new earth, in which eternal righteousness dwells (Rev. 21:1-8; 2 Pet. 3:13).
What was Paul to do?
With calming words, Paul corrects the false report by reviewing the order of end-times events and explaining how it is impossible for them already to be in the day of the Lord. Four words summarize Paul’s description of the day of the Lord: defiance, delay, destruction, and delusion. His point is that the day of the Lord couldn’t have begun because these clear, unmistakable, surefire signs of the Tribulation were not present. The logical conclusion? The trials and tribulations they were currently experiencing, though challenging, were nothing compared to the events of the coming day of the Lord.
It’s as though Paul made a long checklist of clear “day of the Lord” events and said, “Okay, you really think you’ve been left behind and you’re in the day of the Lord? Well then, which of these marks of the day of the Lord are happening now to convince you of that?” By the time he was done describing the various events under the four “Ds” of the day of the Lord, the Thessalonians would have had to admit that they had jumped the gun.
— 2:3-4 —
In 2:3-4, Paul outlined the chronology of events that will mark the first stages of the day of the Lord: defiance. The beginning of the day of the Lord, Paul says, will be marked by a widespread apostasy. The Greek word, apostasia [646], can mean either political revolution against a king or religious rebellion against God. We know from later end-times revelation that both of these things will occur when all nations abandon the worship of God for the worship of the Beast —the Antichrist —in one worldwide empire (Rev. 13). F. F. Bruce notes, “Since the reference here is to a worldwide rebellion against divine authority at the end of the age, the ideas of political revolt and religious apostasy are combined.”[59] Paul used a definite article —the apostasy. This suggests that he referred to a religious and political condition of the world of which they were already aware.
In essence, Paul’s saying, “Look around you. People are still coming to Christ. They’re still turning to God. Our own apostolic ministry attests to that. There’s still order rather than chaos. The apostasy hasn’t happened yet. Therefore, what you’re experiencing can’t be the day of the Lord.”
Paul then says that a second clear mark of the day of the Lord will be the revelation of the “man of lawlessness . . . the son of destruction” (2 Thes. 2:3). Leon Morris notes:
Throughout history there have been many who have done Satan’s evil work (cf. the “many antichrists,” 1 Jn. 2:18), and this is a warning against over-hasty identification of the man of this chapter with any historical personage. Paul’s concern is not with the evil ones who appear from time to time, but with the most infamous of all, one who will appear in the last days. He never uses the term “Antichrist,” but plainly he has in mind the being John calls by this name.[60]
To further describe this figure, whose presence marks the arrival of the day of the Lord, Paul draws on some standard, well-known Old Testament language and imagery, taken especially from passages in Daniel 7–12 that describe this final end-times Antichrist figure in some detail.[61] The man of lawlessness will oppose every god and object of worship, claiming to be greater than all gods. In fact, he will claim to be God himself, taking a seat in God’s temple in Jerusalem —evidently a future end-times Tribulation temple that has yet to be built. These images and ideas of the coming wicked ruler of the end times were well-known since Old Testament times and helped Paul to firm up the Thessalonians’ understanding of the coming Antichrist.
In other words, between Paul’s earlier teachings concerning the end times when he was with his readers and the clear teachings of the Old Testament concerning the Antichrist, the Thessalonians should have realized that the “man of lawlessness” had not yet been revealed. Paul’s argument against the Thessalonians’ hasty adoption of false teaching is clear:
- The Tribulation (day of the Lord) is marked by the coming of the man of lawlessness.
- The man of lawlessness has not yet been revealed.
- Therefore, the day of the Lord has not yet begun.
Ariely/Wikimedia Commons
The temple in Jerusalem plays an important role in biblical prophecy. Though the second temple (a model of which is pictured above) was destroyed nearly twenty years after Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians, a future end-times Tribulation temple will be rebuilt before the Antichrist enters the new temple, claiming to be divine.
— 2:5-7 —
In 2:3-4 Paul spells out the mark of defiance —defiance from the world of godless apostates who have turned their backs on God . . . and defiance from the Antichrist, who will embody all lawlessness and destruction to such a degree that he will claim to be God himself and receive worship (2 Thes. 2:3-4; Rev. 13:1-6). Now Paul describes the mark of delay (2 Thes. 2:5-7). This one is not so much a mark of the advent of the day of the Lord as it is a clear indication that the Tribulation has not, in fact, begun.
These verses form a sort of parenthesis to Paul’s discussion. He reminds the Thessalonians of something he had taught them face-to-face when he was with them and they first received the gospel (2:5). Paul says that something is restraining the man of lawlessness, so that at the right time he will be permitted to enter the political and religious spotlight and embody deception and destruction throughout the whole earth (2:6).
There have been many interpretations of what this “restraining influence” (2:6-7) actually is —human government, the Roman Empire, Israel, a powerful angel, the preaching of the gospel, the Holy Spirit, the church . . . the list could go on. Charles Ryrie explains it best when he writes, “It is really impossible to see how the restrainer can be anyone other than God Himself. Undoubtedly, God uses good government, elect angels, and other means to restrain evil, but the ultimate power behind such forceful restraint must be the power of God and the person of God.”[62]
I take the view that the restraining power is the Holy Spirit working primarily through the church in the world. Today, the Holy Spirit restrains the world’s lawlessness chiefly through the church. His presence in believers shines as the light of the world and permeates secular culture as the salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13-16). When the church is taken to be with Christ in the air (1 Thes. 4:16-17), the children of light will be removed from the world of darkness, leaving a pitch-black night (cf. 1 Thes. 5:4-8). In the resulting darkness, every vestige of goodness will evaporate; every remnant of truth will unravel. And, what’s worse, the man of lawlessness, the Antichrist, will take center stage. Yes, the “mystery of lawlessness” is already at work in the world (2 Thes. 2:7), just as the “spirit of the antichrist” is already present (1 Jn. 4:3), inspiring many little “antichrists” (1 Jn. 2:18). However, Satan’s spiritual wickedness is presently restrained, unable to take complete control, as it will when the restrainer is removed.
Paul’s logic against the Thessalonians’ faulty view that the day of the Lord had come is impeccable. F. F. Bruce sums it up this way: “The restrainer has not yet been removed, therefore the man of lawlessness has not yet appeared, and a fortiori, the day of the Lord has not yet arrived.”[63]
— 2:8-10 —
Paul challenges the Thessalonians’ twisted end-times chronology first by demonstrating that the defiance of apostates and the Antichrist has not yet come (2:3-4) and, second, that the delay caused by the restraining force of the Spirit working through the church is still holding back wickedness (2:5-7). Now Paul recounts the destruction of the final match of Christ vs. Antichrist when Jesus returns in power (2:8-10).
When the restraining power of the church is taken out of the way at the Rapture, “that lawless one [the Antichrist] will be revealed” (2:8). Though the time of his reign will be short, it will be marked by unparalleled satanic deception, with “power and signs and false wonders” (2:9). Then, God will allow the man of lawlessness to exercise his “deception of wickedness for those who perish” —the unsaved (2:10). After that, the Lord God will say “Enough!” At the second coming of Christ to earth, with a mere breath from His mouth, the contest will be over. The kingdom of darkness will be pierced and vanquished by the Light of the World.
— 2:11-12 —
Before Christ obliterates the man of lawlessness, many will believe the Antichrist is their savior, embracing his diabolical worldwide religious cult and submitting to his global empire —primarily because of the signs and wonders he will be able to perform by the power of Satan (2 Thes. 2:9; Rev. 13:12-14). These people, having rejected the truth stubbornly and repeatedly, will fall for the Antichrist’s delusion —the fourth clear mark that the day of the Lord will have arrived.
Of course, nothing on earth occurs without God’s permission. Satan may have vast freedom during the future Tribulation to deceive billions of people into worshiping the Antichrist. But his power will still be only as great as and for as long as God’s judgment allows. During the Tribulation judgments of the day of the Lord, when the Antichrist reigns over the world, God will send upon the unbelievers a strong deluding power, so they will be sealed in their rebellion (2 Thes. 2:11-12).
It wouldn’t have taken the confused Thessalonians long to realize that none of their persecutors and oppressors were wowing anybody with “power and signs and false wonders” (2:9). In fact, the apostles like Paul were still performing true signs, wonders, and miracles, persuading people of the truth (2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:4). Clearly, then, the day of the Lord had not yet arrived.
APPLICATION: 2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-12
Faith and Hope, Not Fear and Fretting
A lot of preachers avoid the end times because although people find it interesting and informative, it’s sometimes difficult to make it immediately relevant and transformative. How much easier it is to read a handful of verses from Proverbs and start instantly to apply their tidy truths to our lives. But what do we do with passages of Scripture that describe future events from which, by God’s grace, we will be rescued?
Let’s take a moment, step back, and put ourselves in the place of the Thessalonians who were confused about end-times events. Their confusion led to consternation. They had become concerned that either Paul’s promises of salvation for the children of God had been false or they had somehow missed out on Christ’s rescue plan.
Are you confused about the end times? Do you watch the news, wondering whether this or that current event might be a sign that the Tribulation has come upon you? Do you see lawlessness among the world leaders and wonder if one of them may be the Antichrist, poised to unleash his hellish fury on all humanity? In short, is your focus on judgment or salvation . . . wrath or rescue? Are your thoughts dwelling on the glorious salvation of 1 Thessalonians 4 or the dreadful judgments of 2 Thessalonians 2? Are you basking in the light . . . or fretting in the darkness?
Knowing what the Bible teaches about the future has important implications for how we view the world and where we focus our attention. Those who have a fuzzy, imprecise understanding of the order of future events —like the Thessalonians did —end up being Antichrist-focused, worried that so-and-so political leader might be the man of lawlessness or that such and such news event might be one of the seals or trumpets of Revelation. But those who have a clear outline of the future —as presented by Paul —are Christ-focused, looking not at the world and its growing darkness, but looking up “to wait for His Son from heaven . . . who rescues us from the wrath to come” (1 Thes. 1:10).
When we have the right information, we will live in faith and hope, not fear and fretting. When we embrace the full story of “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him” (2 Thes. 2:1), we won’t be “quickly shaken” from our composure or “disturbed” by false information (2:2).
Don’t let misinformation drag you down and take your focus off of Christ. Get your facts straight concerning the coming of Christ. Then look up with hope as we “eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory” (Phil. 3:20-21).