2 Thessalonians Chapter 2
A word of Warning, continued
VERSE 3 “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.”
If we were not familiar with Present Truth (truths now due in our day) we might think of the “man of sin” as a literal being, as some individual or wicked person, but IT is NOT, it is a false religious SYSTEM just as the “man of God” is the true Church, a collective body made up of component parts or “joints.”
The ideal is the picture of Jesus as the head and the Church as the body parts. Similarly, the man of sin is an organization with a person (the pope) as the head and the corresponding component parts of the Antichrist system (the Papacy) as the body. The man of God is The Christ, The Elijah, with Jesus as head. The man of sin is the Antichrist, the Papacy, a religious system, with Satan as its head. As the head of the man-of-sin system, Satan works through Papacy, whereas Jesus, the head of the man of God, works through the ecclesia, the Church.
Paul received much information through visions. Although he was not allowed to reveal in detail what he saw, he was probably given certain parameters of liberty within which he could inform the brethren. With all the knowledge Paul was given, he would have carefully, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, selected the words he used when writing his epistles. Every single word is meaningful. Even a seemingly simple adjective can be extremely revealing. The point is that Paul was well informed about the length of the time period before Jesus’ invisible return—it was not short, and the great Antichrist system had to first grow and develop and be recognized. General recognition of the man of sin did not occur until Martin Luther’s day in the 1500s and the Protestant Reformation. Tyndale in England was just as clear on the subject as Luther, but Luther was favored as being the sixth messenger to the Church.
“Let no man deceive you by any means [the means listed in Verse 2: spirit, word, or letter]: for that day shall not come, except there comes first a falling away (the apostasy, which had its beginnings not shortly after the last of the Apostles died, but more particularly when in 539 A.D. the abomination of desolation was set up), and (secondly) that the man of sin be revealed (exposed, made apparent).”
Even if a spirit being should come visibly, they were not to believe it was Jesus, for the day of Christ’s presence would not come until, first, a falling away from the faith occurred and the man of sin was revealed. Although Paul could not give details, his mention of the apostasy was a hint of what had to take place; namely, the man of sin had to come and be revealed before Jesus could invisibly return. A great deception would precede even the beginning of the day of Christ.
The “man of sin” is called the “son of perdition” because the system is going into everlasting destruction, never to rise again. Stated another way, under the symbol of the beast, the system will be cast alive into the lake of fire and brimstone (Rev. 19:20). The deception at the end of the Millennium (Rev 20:7, 8) will not be along religious lines for all religious systems devised by men will have long since met their demise.
The natural mind thinks of the man of sin as a literal individual, a literal man—something like Judas, who was also called the “son of perdition” (John 17:12). The word “perdition” means everlastingly lost.
We continue with Verse 4 in our next post.
A word of Warning, continued
VERSE 3 “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.”
If we were not familiar with Present Truth (truths now due in our day) we might think of the “man of sin” as a literal being, as some individual or wicked person, but IT is NOT, it is a false religious SYSTEM just as the “man of God” is the true Church, a collective body made up of component parts or “joints.”
The ideal is the picture of Jesus as the head and the Church as the body parts. Similarly, the man of sin is an organization with a person (the pope) as the head and the corresponding component parts of the Antichrist system (the Papacy) as the body. The man of God is The Christ, The Elijah, with Jesus as head. The man of sin is the Antichrist, the Papacy, a religious system, with Satan as its head. As the head of the man-of-sin system, Satan works through Papacy, whereas Jesus, the head of the man of God, works through the ecclesia, the Church.
Paul received much information through visions. Although he was not allowed to reveal in detail what he saw, he was probably given certain parameters of liberty within which he could inform the brethren. With all the knowledge Paul was given, he would have carefully, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, selected the words he used when writing his epistles. Every single word is meaningful. Even a seemingly simple adjective can be extremely revealing. The point is that Paul was well informed about the length of the time period before Jesus’ invisible return—it was not short, and the great Antichrist system had to first grow and develop and be recognized. General recognition of the man of sin did not occur until Martin Luther’s day in the 1500s and the Protestant Reformation. Tyndale in England was just as clear on the subject as Luther, but Luther was favored as being the sixth messenger to the Church.
“Let no man deceive you by any means [the means listed in Verse 2: spirit, word, or letter]: for that day shall not come, except there comes first a falling away (the apostasy, which had its beginnings not shortly after the last of the Apostles died, but more particularly when in 539 A.D. the abomination of desolation was set up), and (secondly) that the man of sin be revealed (exposed, made apparent).”
Even if a spirit being should come visibly, they were not to believe it was Jesus, for the day of Christ’s presence would not come until, first, a falling away from the faith occurred and the man of sin was revealed. Although Paul could not give details, his mention of the apostasy was a hint of what had to take place; namely, the man of sin had to come and be revealed before Jesus could invisibly return. A great deception would precede even the beginning of the day of Christ.
The “man of sin” is called the “son of perdition” because the system is going into everlasting destruction, never to rise again. Stated another way, under the symbol of the beast, the system will be cast alive into the lake of fire and brimstone (Rev. 19:20). The deception at the end of the Millennium (Rev 20:7, 8) will not be along religious lines for all religious systems devised by men will have long since met their demise.
The natural mind thinks of the man of sin as a literal individual, a literal man—something like Judas, who was also called the “son of perdition” (John 17:12). The word “perdition” means everlastingly lost.
We continue with Verse 4 in our next post.
