In 2Thessalonians 2, Paul, addressing the return of our Lord, writes, “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,” 2 Thessalonians 2:3. The man of sin, and the great apostasy, must come first, before our Lord returns.
So who is this man of sin? By taking a look at what is said about him, we can arrive at the answer.
1. The apostasy (the falling away) must come first. This falling away is more than just a few departing from the truth, into their own doctrines; for that was already occurring (“for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work”). It rather refers to a more general, wholesale departure from the truth that would grow out of the lawlessness. The rise and takeover of the church by Rome is this falling away. She asserted dominion over the church, and codified her false doctrines as the law of God.
2. The mystery of lawlessness was already at work, but was being restrained. This had the effect that the man of sin would be concealed until his time. Those who became christians, but who did not remain in sound doctrine, were lawless, as they didn’t follow the law of Christ; this is the mystery of lawlessness, Matthew 7:21-23. They considered themselves as following Christ, yet substituted there own doctrines for his, 2Timothy 4:3-5. This was being restrained, in the sense that as of that time it had not yet been allowed to run free and gain the primacy in the church. There are various examples and warnings in the New Testament, however, of this lawlessness already taking place. This is the spirit of Antichrist, false christianity. See 3 John 9-10, Romans 16:17-20, Philippians 3:17-20, 2Timothy 4:3-5, Acts 20:28-31, and Jude.
3. At the time of Paul’s writing, the man of sin had not yet been revealed, for there was one who was restraining him. The falling away was being restrained, until the time came for the one restraining to be removed. This one, was an unwitting Roman government. Their prosecution kept the church from running open and free, which subdued the lawlessness from running rampant. This restraint was ‘taken out of the way’ when Constantine proclaimed Christianity the state religion of Rome in 313. The church then quickly comingled with and became the power of the government. The man of sin then arose and was revealed, as the falling away came to pass. The man of sin is not the antichrist, but is an antichrist.
4. His coming is according to Satan, with all lying wonders and deception, with power and signs. In the garden, the serpent did not deny God, but rather twisted his word to deceive Eve into following a lie. One of the main devices of Satan is deception, appearing to bring the truth of God, but only bringing a lie, and those who work his works are of the same, as it is written, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works,” 2Corinthians 11:13-15. Therefore, he will appear to bring the truth, and to be following God, but it is a deception.
“With all lying wonders and deception…” Does not catholicism have its statues that cry, etc.? But the miracles which Christ and Moses did were true miracles, done in the sight of all, for the express purpose of confirming the truth, that it was from God. But the things that the man of sin does, are lies; he cannot work true miracles, otherwise the confirming power of them for the truth would be nullified. In addition, if the wonders were true, would he not constantly do them, and in the open, to deceive as many as possible? Instead, the things he does appear to be wonders, that the deceived might the more readily believe the deception.
5. He is called ‘the son of perdition’. Perdition means destruction, not in the sense that they are the ones doing the destruction, but rather that their path leads to destruction, as in Matthew 7:13; thus Revelation 17:8 states, “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition.” A son of perdition, therefore, is of those whose end is destruction.
There is one other in the New Testament who is called the son of perdition. This is one who had the truth, but would not walk in it, and so still gave the appearance of being godly, but yet was ungodly; in John 17:12, this is the name given to Judas. The other apostles didn’t recognize that Judas wasn’t following the truth. He gave the appearance of godliness, but his heart wasn’t with Jesus.
The man of sin is after the same manner as Judas; he gives the appearance of godliness, but doesn’t follow the truth. He appears to be a follower of God, but is a follower of death and destruction, and leads others astray after him, because he leads them away from the truth, as the serpent led Eve away towards death. He cannot lead them to life, for he himself doesn’t pursue it.
6. Those who follow after him, will be strongly deluded, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, but rather sought after unrighteousness. Unrighteousness is not just immorality, but also creating and following after strange doctrines, which is always from selfish motives (that is, according to their own desires),
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables,” 2Timothy 4:3-4, and again,
“Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple,” Romans 16:17-19, and again,
“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame - who set their mind on earthly things,” Philippians 3:18-20.
“[B]ecause they did not receive the love of the truth…” That they didn’t receive the love of the truth, does not mean that it was being handed out, as it were, and they didn’t get any; rather, as they didn’t have a heart to learn and carefully follow the truth, so they didn’t cultivate a love for it.
“And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie…” Because they did not love the truth, but followed their own ‘truth’ after their own desires, so God gave them over to it, judicially hardened them, and let them go, that they might not return. The most notable example of this is Pharaoh. When someone persists in unrighteousness, and continues to harden themselves against the truth, they can reach a point when God then hardens them judicially, so that return becomes impossible, so that as in the case before us, “they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” They will believe very strongly that they are saved, followers after God, but they are only followers of their own desires.
7. He will remain until the Lord returns, at which time he will be destroyed. The time frame of his existence. The return of our Lord could not occur unless the man of sin had first been revealed, and now having been revealed, he will remain until the return of Christ, at which time he will be destroyed. The false church and apostasy will never pass away, until the earth does. Wasn’t Israel nearly always apostate? Therefore it is no surprise that most of professed christianity is not according to the truth.
So who is the man of sin? The pope, with the falling away being catholicism in general, and the denominationalism that grew out of it.
Judas had to of believed to a degree, otherwise he wouldn’t have remained with Christ as long as he did. He appeared to those with him to be godly, but in the end he was revealed to be who he was by his actions (as to his appearing godly, didn’t all of the apostles question at the last passover whether it would be them that would betray Christ? Even to that moment Judas didn’t appear to them as an enemy). He didn’t remain in the doctrine of Christ, but through fulfilling his own desires stole from God, and sold him to be killed; and so he earned the description ‘son of perdition’.
And so the man of sin is after the same; even in the time of the apostles there were those who sought to be preeminent, as Diotrephes, “I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church,” 3 John 9-10. And so in time Rome exalted herself against the rest of the church, until pope Leo 1, “pronounces resistance to his authority to be impious pride and the sure way to hell. Obedience to the pope is thus necessary to salvation. Whosoever, says he, is not with the apostolic see, that is, with the head of the body, whence all gifts of grace descend throughout the body, is not in the body of the church, and has no part in her grace.”[1]
As to “who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God,” does not the pope say that when he sits in the chair, he is speaking as God, and that he is to be listened to above the scriptures? Remember what Paul wrote in Galatians,
“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed,” Galatians 1:6-9.
Any doctrine not in accord with the New Testament, along with those who bring it, is accursed. Did not all of this arise after Paul wrote this? Thus it is the ‘falling away’, and it is revealed for all to see.
[1] From Schaff’s History of the Church, Electronic Database Copyright © 1999 by Biblesoft