7. PAUL: II THESSALONIANS 2
Did Paul ever deal with the question of the antichrist? Most assuredly. And as one might expect, this passage, II Thessalonians 2, has been abused quite a bit through the years. Let’s look at the first 12 verses.
In the first place, Paul meant in no way to divide the coming of Jesus from our gathering to Him. If he had meant to do this, surely He would not mention these events in reverse order. (I’m using the mentality of the pre-trib people.) In fact, the order is correct, and it happens all at the same moment. Jesus comes to earth, and on His way to us we are gathered up from everywhere.
The church in Thessalonica had caught hold of a rumor that God’s people had already been raptured up! Paul writes this note to them to settle forever the church’s thinking about some secret unknowable rapture. He does in fact what Jesus does with this question. He places before the coming of Jesus a very clear sign. Remember Jesus’ sign? The abomination of desolation. For Paul, it is the one who commits that horrible sacrilege. Thus it is the same sign!
In his further comments he uses terminology straight from the book that Jesus referred to, the book of the prophet Daniel! For example compare 2:4 to Daniel 11:36:
2:4, “...who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped…”
11:36, “...he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods…”
Two events, says Paul, must come before the day of Christ’s return. They can be viewed as two parts of the same event. First a slow but clear backsliding of God’s people. I believe it could be so large in its scope that the Bible will be largely a forgotten, unknown Book. Remember the conditions at Jesus’ first coming! The Scriptures had been hidden from the eyes of men so greatly that the clear prophecies regarding the when and where of His appearing were not commonly known.
So it will be, I believe, when He comes again. The Gospel message, though having gone everywhere, will have lost its grip on multiplied millions, as one can see in Europe and other parts of the West today. Christian values in society will be swept away by the “newer thinking”. There will be a blending of church and world to the extent that lukewarmness will prevail and straightforward Biblical truths will be largely ridiculed or ignored.
Thus it will be easy for the second sign to occur, the rise of a lawless society headed by a lawless antichrist. The spirit of the age will be liberty, which easily erodes into lawless ways, the “no one can tell me what to do” mentality.
Thus will rise, says Paul, “the lawless one”, “the son of perdition.” The self-exaltation and blasphemy which will be his hallmark have been documented not only in Daniel but in John’s work. The Spirit is saying the same thing many times, so we will not miss it.
But Paul adds a few very important facts from the revelations given him personally.
First he indicates the difference between what men like Antiochus (of old) and Titus did, historically, and what antichrist will do. He claims that antichrist will profane an end- time temple, not by placing an idol in it, not by offering a pig at its altars, but by entering that holy structure himself and proclaiming to the world that he is the God of Israel! He will claim to be God in the flesh!
Paul jumps from that astounding fact to the fact that the Thessalonians should now know (since he visited them and told them, or because of something he just shared) what is holding back the rise of antichrist. If they should know, perhaps we should know too. This is not meant to be a secret. Yet this passage is under contention in most church circles that discuss it. It is as though they too have unwittingly entered into the mystery of the holding back of information, as Daniel was told to do, so that the information would not be lost on persons who did not need it. The more our “scholars” try to unlock these verses, the more bound they become!
The prevalent view is that the one holding back, or restraining, the antichrist and thus Christ’s return, is the Holy Spirit. The teaching goes that when the Spirit, which lives in the church, rises with the church and out of the world, before antichrist and before the tribulation, to a safe place in Heaven, then antichrist, who has been waiting for this very thing, is now free to do whatever he wants! He will then rise to power.
Does not compute.
• The Spirit’s presence is not confined to the church. Remember in your own life how the Spirit came from outside of you to the inside of you to bring you to Christ? Before you were in Christ, the Spirit was working with you.
• The Bible already says that there will be a falling away of truth and righteousness to allow for his rise. It is not the removal of bodies but the removal of faith that gives antichrist the nod in any generation. The Bible gives several examples of Satan fully working his work on the earth, with God’s permission, and the Holy Spirit still here. His work on Job and Jesus are two glaring examples. Satan does not need the Spirit’s removal, only the Spirit’s permission, to do his own evil will on earth.
• Without the Spirit in the earth, how can those be saved who will indeed come to Christ during the Tribulation period? All of those who contend for a pre-tribulation rapture agree that there are indeed saints here during that evil time, but they refuse to allow that they are part of the Body of Christ, the Church! If they are saints, holy ones, they had to be saved by the Holy Spirit.
I believe that the concept of restraining is not all that complicated. In fact John the revelator gives us a classic example in Revelation 9. There, an angel is given a key to the Bottomless Pit. When the key is used, there is unleashed on earth a plague of locusts. We are told later that it is out of this same Pit that will come the beast. Cannot we assume that a similar angel is now restraining this evil man, and that at a command from Jesus he will open that Pit once more, and free the one who is now being restrained there?
Another key example is back in the book of Daniel (10-11), where Gabriel tells Daniel that he can only stay a short time because he has to get back into the heavenlies to help Michael fight with the demon spirits of Persia and Greece. Angels under God’s direction are restraining world powers all the time, so that everything is done at “the appointed time.”
I believe that he who now restrains, using Paul’s language (2:7), is indeed an angelic force keeping antichrist in place until the exactly correct time. When the angel is told to step aside (“he is taken out of the way”, 2:7) the lawless one will be revealed.
That tells us that the lawless one was being held prisoner in Paul’s day (he who now restrains, 2:7). This fact alone rules out the possibility that the coming seventh world emperor, still future in Paul’s day and ours, will be “killed with the sword” and rise again as antichrist immediately.
Paul shows us, further, what is revealed by John about how antichrist will surface as a world leader. It seems that every step will be prefaced by a lying wonder or miracle. The part of the world that does not know the true God will have no choice but to believe that this man is God.
Remember that Paul saw all of this before John did, aided only by Daniel’s prophecy, the Gospel accounts circulating, and the messages the Spirit gave to him, perhaps as a part of that mysterious trip he took to the third heaven (II Corinthians 12). His word serves as the final confirmation of all we have found.
CONCLUSIONS
And what have we found, exactly? One last review of the important points:
• Jesus says this age will begin to come to an end shortly following the world’s greatest catastrophe, which itself follows the revealing of the abomination of desolation.
• Jesus points us to the prophet Daniel for preliminary definitions of that abomination.
• In Daniel we are introduced to Antiochus Epiphanes who began an anti-God, anti-Jew campaign decades before Christ appeared.
• Gabriel leads us to believe that though Antiochus began his career in ancient history, his final blasphemous rise to power will be at the end of all things.
• The abomination of desolation, the sacking of Jerusalem, the persecution of believers, spoken of by Daniel the prophet is fully orchestrated by Antiochus in a three and one half year period of supernatural power.
• John confirms all by using the same visual demonstration that there will arise such an evil man, who will do the same destruction, the same persecution, the same blasphemies, in the same time frame as Daniel has already recorded. He will even rise to power from the same “Great Sea.” John and Daniel agree.
• John lets us know that the final world dictator will be one who has been raised from the dead, thus allowing for one who began in antiquity to end in the last days.
• Paul agrees with all of the above, using the man of sin as the sign that must happen before Jesus comes.
• Paul says that even now this one is being held back, so that he will be revealed at the right time in history.
The evidence is then clear and concise. There are things all along the way that we cannot quite figure out. Like, exactly how shall he appear? But then, we believe Elijah shall return and we do not allow that question to stop us from believing it. Our faith tells us that, as a detail is needed , it will be provided.
For now it seems to me important for us to take on a last-days mind-set that is more accurate than that with which we were raised. It demands more faith, more acceptance of the Word as is, less explaining away of hard things. But a solid faith has always demanded this. May the Lord keep our eyes open, ready to see and know what is happening in God’s plan.
EPILOGUE
There are many antichrists. The apostle John who gave us much of the antichrist literature lets us know that from the first century on there will be in this last hour those who will be anti-God, anti-Christ (I John 2:18-23). These persons can be politicians aiming for power and wealth, public figures of all sorts in the secular world. Or they can be teachers in our churches (II John 7). These heretics will promote the idea that God did not become flesh, or that Jesus did not die for us, or that there was no Jesus, and a host of other lies. You may label them as John did: antichrists.
And of course, the coming of antichrists precedes the coming of the real Christ in our lives. We are forever surrounded by moments of opportunity for Jesus to come to us. He can come in the Spirit or through His Word. He will one day come to us in death. And this Jesus can be served today in the same way as when antichrist later will be defeating saints of God. We can choose to follow or deny Him every day.
So the cautions and warnings that would apply to that last generation must apply now. When you see antichrists, look even harder for Jesus. When you see antichrists, be aware that you are being deceived. Believe nothing of what this antichrist-dominated world system presents, believe only what God has said.
But none of the above, the existence of antichrists, the daily deaths of believers, none of it nullifies the reality of the one antichrist who will come at the end. Antichrist is coming. John said it. To him the existence of previews only proved the main event would be soon. He believed he lived in the very last hour. So do we. Only his grace and waiting on lost souls prevents him from giving the signal to the restraining angel. Is he waiting on you? On a friend of yours or family member that you care about dearly? Don’t stop praying, don’t stop trying to bring them in as his grace waits…
Few will recognize antichrist, even though the evidence abounds. Many believers will have fallen away. Faithful ones will be systematically weeded out and decapitated. The world will grow very dark, even as it is in some of its corners today. Let us who are of the light walk in that light, warning all of the judgment that shall surely come on all humanity.
