“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 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, 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.” 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4.
The first four verses of chapter two are included here for context, so we can pick up where we left off.
The order of prophecy here is the rapture comes first, then the falling away or apostasy goes into a free-fall, there is a lot of apostasy in the church even now, though not nearly what is coming.
And then the man of sin (Antichrist) is revealed. There is no reason why he would not be politically active during the interim period between the rapture and the tribulation period.
The world will be in chaos after the rapture as governments start to deal with the impossible; the loss of personnel in critical jobs, the breakdown of civil authority and the disasters cause by accidents during the rapture and the financial upheaval after it.
Bear in mind that Christians work in and with, airline pilots, nuclear reactors, water purification plants, sewage plants, electric generators, communications, banks, trucking, emergency services, police, even 911 operators, this will be a first magnitude catastrophe.
If there really are a billion true Christians on earth, there will be a lot of no shows. The world will need an intelligent, benevolent, charismatic man to lead them out of the chaos; this wonderful person will be the man of sin.
Turn on the news read the news magazines and newspaper; other than President Donald J. Trump you will not find one, not one world leader, male or female, who is any more than a brain-dead, politically correct pansy.
“For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.” Luke 6:43.
“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” Matthew 7:20.
The only one of them with any guts at all is Vladimir Putin, and everyone knows, he is not a good person.
When it comes to leadership, the world is a black hole. No wonder the man of sin will become the world’s long awaited messiah, the god-man they have always wanted.
Before the tribulation this man may be active and admired, but it is likely that no one, Christian or Jew will know that he is the Antichrist right away.
When Israel signs the seven year treaty with him, he will move swiftly to consolidate his power. This can be said because he is the first of the four horsemen of the apocalypse which are released at the beginning of the tribulation.
“Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, ‘Come and see.’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.” Revelation 6:1-2.
This event takes place at the beginning of the tribulation and after the rapture; the man on the white horse is the Antichrist. The description says that he has a bow, but it does not mention arrows. This may indicate that he gains most of his power in the beginning through diplomacy.
As you read Revelation though, it will soon become clear that most of his regime is built on bloodshed, a lot of bloodshed!
“And he [the false prophet] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.” Revelation 13:16-18.
This man of sin is called the son of perdition. Only two men in Scripture are called that, Judas Iscariot and the Antichrist. Perdition here means, loss of eternal life; eternal misery. Antichrist is not only destined for perdition, he will drag many souls with him.
There are numerous other names for the man of sin; son of perdition, the little horn (Daniel 7:8), king of fierce countenance (Daniel 8:23), the prince that shall come (Daniel 9:26), the willful king (Daniel 11:36), Antichrist (1 John 2:18), the beast (Revelation 13:1), to name some of them.
And of course many know him as 666, six being the number of man, which is just short of completion. For instance man works 6 days a week and finds rest on the seventh day, but the six finds him just short of rest.
It is an indication of the futility of man’s endeavors because he never finds rest, or completion, as the number 7 represents.
The number seven being the seventh day of creation and the day on which God rested from all his labors from the previous 6 days of work; there are many other instances of the number seven being used to indicate completeness.
For instance the tribulation will be seven years long, and end with Christ’s return completing man’s rule on the earth, it is the final test which will show that the heart of man is nothing but evil continually.
The tribulation will also end the Jewish rebellion against their Messiah, and bring many others to salvation.
“Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” Daniel 12:10.
What the wise will understand is that men and women only become complete when they accept Christ as their savior. It is at that point that life takes on a purpose and meaning.
“What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again. All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:3-9.
Brilliant philosophers have driven themselves mad pondering these very things, yet, unlike King Solomon, “the Preacher”, they exclude the Creator God from their thoughts, ensuring that they will never come up with the answer to life’s futilities.
As a result the best they can come up with is what the atheist, existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre stated: “No finite point has meaning without an infinite reference point.” Man without God is a joke.
In response to this, while the number six is the number of man, the number three is the number of God; God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
Three also represents solidity, fulfillment. To find the volume of a cube the width is multiplied by the length and height; 3”x3”x3”= 27 cubic inches.
If you do not have the measurement for all three sides, you will not have an accurate indication of the capacity of the cube, the same goes if you have one or all of the numbers wrong.
Man, not only has to have God factored into his philosophies for a right assessment of life, he also has to have all three Persons in the trinity to understand God correctly.
Some false sects hold that there is no trinity, but God only; others believe in God and God the Son, but no Holy Spirit, while some may hold that the Son is an angel, leaving God with or without the Holy Spirit who may be more of an influence rather than a Person.
None of these will ever come to the knowledge of the truth without looking at the entire triune God; the Father times the Son times the Spirit equals a tripartite God who is one essence fulfilling three different functions in His creation.
On the other hand the number six not only indicates the futility of man’s existence, it is also the manifestation of the fullness of evil.
This takes us back to the last thing mentioned in the post before this one, “The Falling Away, 2 Thessalonians 2:3”, concerning Satan’s counterfeit trinity, Satan, god the father, Antichrist, god the son, and the false prophet, god the unholy spirit.
These three individuals together represent the absolute depths of depravity to which man can sink. Satan the father times Antichrist the son times the false prophet equals the fullness of man’s sinfulness, represented by their god the beast whose number is 666.
When the measure is full, Christ will return to earth and set up His world kingdom.
“For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is fully mixed, and He pours it out; surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down.” Psalm 75:8.
“Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.’” Revelation 14:9-11.
For those who turn to Christ however, there is the opportunity to cease their futile labors and enter into the seventh day rest of God.
“And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those [the Israelites in the wilderness] who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest…” Hebrews 3:18-4:3a.
“There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” Hebrews 4:9-10.
There will come a time in the middle of the tribulation when the man of sin will demand universal worship.
That means that the Jews will be required to worship him instead of the Creator God Yahweh whom the faithful Jews had begun to sacrifice to and worship in the temple which they had rebuilt.
It is at this time that Antichrist will break his seven year treaty with Israel and desecrate the temple in Jerusalem by seating himself in that place and exalting himself over Yahweh and claiming to be God.
This act is called the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.
“Then he [Antichrist] shall confirm a covenant [treaty] with many [unbelieving Jews] for one week [seven years]; but in the middle of the week [3½ years] he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate [seats himself as God in the temple], even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.” Daniel 9:27.
“And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.” Daniel 12:11.
In the book of Revelation three and a half years, 1260 days (based on the 30 day month of the Old Testament), elapse from the setting up of the abomination of desolation and the return of Christ to destroy the Antichrist and his armies and set up His millennial kingdom.
The 1290 days given in the verse above allow an extra 30 days for the judgment of the godless survivors of the tribulation period.
This place of judgment will include two groups who have survived the tribulation; the sheep, those who have accepted Christ as savior during this period, and the goats representing the people who rejected Christ during this period, see Matthew 25:31-46.
The verse following it allows yet another 45 days. This is perhaps the time it takes for Jesus Christ to set up His thousand year government.
“Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.” Daniel 12:12.
The person who comes to the 1335th day will enter the millennial kingdom set up by Christ and will rest from their labors and the horrors of the tribulation in which they were in constant fear for their life, and the lives of their families too.
There was a time in history when an abomination of desolation was set up in the second temple. The perpetrator was a Syrian king named Antiochus Epiphanes who ruled from 175 to 163 B.C.
Antiochus actually gave himself the name Epiphanes which means “God is Manifest”, but his enemies called him Epimanes, a much more appropriate name meaning “Madman”.
It was Antiochus who persecuted the Jews and forbade them from certain Jewish practices such as Sabbath observances, circumcision, and keeping of dietary restrictions.
However the abomination of desolation in this case was the erection of a statue of Zeus in the holy place and the offering of a swine on the altar of burnt offerings in the temple.
Though this may fit Daniel’s prophecy pretty well, and some have said that it was the fulfillment, Jesus indicated that it was still a future event.
“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those with nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” Matthew 24:15-22.
“…showing himself that he is God.” The rebellion of mankind has been about being independent of God, and now in open defiance of God, man declares himself to be God. Not equal with, but greater than and fully capable of managing, his own destiny.
The Antichrist, “…who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped…” has, by this time, managed to have the apostate super church which began after the rapture, destroyed in the middle of the tribulation.
This was done by the ten kings of the earth because they hated her who is also called the harlot in Scripture, see Revelation 17:16-18.
The man of sin opposed the harlot, he opposed the gods of the earth, he opposes the Jews who worship the living God, and he will oppose those who worship Christ. All who resist will pay with their lives.
“Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?” 2 Thessalonians 2:5.
The Man of Sin, 2 Thessalonians 2:4-5 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 10-17-13, updated on 2-18-21.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. used by permission, all rights reserved.