Who Is the Man of Lawlessness?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:04.000 | Happy Friday, everybody.
00:00:06.000 | Part of mature Bible reading is the willingness to stop and to ponder the hardest realities that God reveals to us in His Word.
00:00:14.000 | We don't skim over hard texts. We press in with questions seeking understanding.
00:00:21.000 | So this summer we're addressing three sobering questions inspired by serious Bible readers working through the first two chapters of 2 Thessalonians.
00:00:27.000 | Namely, is God present or is He absent in His eternal judgment?
00:00:31.000 | 2 Thessalonians 1.9 seems to say that He's absent.
00:00:34.000 | On Monday we addressed that in ABJ 18.01.
00:00:37.000 | Next, many of you have written us asking Pastor John to identify this mysterious man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2. Who is he?
00:00:45.000 | That's today. And then we have a question about God sending strong delusions into the world.
00:00:51.000 | Does He still do something like that today? If so, what is that?
00:00:55.000 | This third question on 2 Thessalonians 2.11 is on the table in one week next Friday in ABJ 18.06.
00:01:04.000 | So today we approach this topic of the man of lawlessness.
00:01:09.000 | Here's one representative email from many.
00:01:11.000 | Pastor John, my name is Jared and I live in San Jose, California.
00:01:14.000 | I was reading through my Bible and recently came across a section about the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 1-12.
00:01:21.000 | At first I assumed this man was Satan himself, but it becomes clear in verse 9 that this lawless one is by the activity of Satan.
00:01:30.000 | So it's not Satan. In your estimation, who is this lawless man?
00:01:35.000 | I don't usually read 12 verses of Scripture when we do an APJ.
00:01:41.000 | But Jared's question can only be answered by specifics from the text of 2 Thessalonians.
00:01:52.000 | So let me read the first 12 verses of 2 Thessalonians.
00:01:59.000 | I think people will find it riveting, frankly.
00:02:02.000 | This is the sort of Scripture people hang on and say, "Whoa, what's that talking about?"
00:02:09.000 | The situation is that some kind of rumor is going around in Thessalonica to the effect that Paul has taught by some letter or some revelation
00:02:22.000 | that Paul himself has taught that the day of the Lord has come, meaning Jesus is going to show up in the clouds any day.
00:02:31.000 | And people were quitting their jobs and mooching off of others, and Paul had to handle this feeling that was running through the church.
00:02:42.000 | And here's how he did it. These are the first verses of 2 Thessalonians 2.
00:02:47.000 | "Now, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him,
00:02:54.000 | we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us
00:03:04.000 | to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
00:03:07.000 | Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion," or could be translated apostasy or falling away,
00:03:20.000 | "comes first, and secondly, the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
00:03:29.000 | who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship,
00:03:34.000 | so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
00:03:40.000 | Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things?
00:03:46.000 | And you know what is restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time.
00:03:53.000 | For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
00:03:57.000 | Only he who now restrains it will do so until he's out of the way.
00:04:03.000 | And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill
00:04:10.000 | with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
00:04:17.000 | The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan is with all power and false signs and wonders
00:04:25.000 | and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.
00:04:33.000 | Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false
00:04:40.000 | in order that they may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
00:04:49.000 | So Paul says that the day of the second coming cannot have arrived
00:04:57.000 | and will not arrive until the great apostasy happens and the man of lawlessness is revealed.
00:05:07.000 | That's his basic answer to the hysteria in Thessalonica.
00:05:12.000 | Here's my summary then from that text of what we can say about the man of lawlessness.
00:05:17.000 | There are questions that are left unanswered, but we can say something.
00:05:22.000 | Number one, he's a man, a human, not an angel, not a demon, man of lawlessness.
00:05:29.000 | Two, he is quintessentially lawless.
00:05:34.000 | That is, he's called a man of lawlessness.
00:05:38.000 | He considers himself absolutely above law.
00:05:43.000 | He is lawless in considering himself subject to no law and no lawgiver and no authority.
00:05:52.000 | Number three, since there's only one person who's above law, namely God who writes it,
00:06:00.000 | the man of lawlessness claims to be God.
00:06:03.000 | It says so explicitly.
00:06:04.000 | Verse four, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship
00:06:10.000 | so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
00:06:18.000 | So this man of lawlessness claims to be the final climactic Antichrist.
00:06:29.000 | I am a man. I am God.
00:06:32.000 | But I'm not Jesus. I don't believe in Jesus. I'm against Jesus.
00:06:37.000 | That's the ultimate expression of Antichrist.
00:06:40.000 | There have been many Antichrists, John says, and this one is the last.
00:06:48.000 | He's going to be destroyed by the mouth of Jesus and the fire of heaven when he comes.
00:06:54.000 | Four, he is born for destruction.
00:06:58.000 | Paul calls him son of destruction.
00:07:01.000 | Verse three, his DNA, so to speak, is from his satanic father.
00:07:08.000 | So he's going to be destroyed.
00:07:11.000 | That's what his DNA is.
00:07:14.000 | He is going to be destroyed.
00:07:17.000 | He has no future.
00:07:18.000 | He is quintessentially lawless and doomed.
00:07:23.000 | Five, as a man, he is coming nevertheless by the power of Satan.
00:07:30.000 | Verse nine, the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan.
00:07:35.000 | He's not Satan.
00:07:37.000 | Jared got that exactly right.
00:07:39.000 | He is empowered and driven by Satan, animated by Satan, serving Satan,
00:07:46.000 | accomplishing Satan's purposes in vain.
00:07:50.000 | Number six, therefore, as a man, he will nevertheless have supernatural power.
00:07:57.000 | Paul calls it all power.
00:08:00.000 | Verse nine, and he will work signs and wonders.
00:08:04.000 | And when the ESV translates verse nine and calls them false signs and wonders,
00:08:11.000 | be careful.
00:08:12.000 | We should not read that to mean they don't really happen.
00:08:16.000 | They're really not supernatural.
00:08:18.000 | This is cloak and dagger.
00:08:20.000 | This is rabbit out of a hat.
00:08:21.000 | No, no, no.
00:08:22.000 | It's not.
00:08:23.000 | It means they really do happen.
00:08:25.000 | Satanic power really is at work in them, but they happen in the service of falsehood.
00:08:32.000 | That's what it means by calling them false signs and wonders.
00:08:35.000 | They serve a lie.
00:08:37.000 | They are signs and wonders in the service of a great lie.
00:08:42.000 | But the satanic supernatural power is real.
00:08:46.000 | That's why it's going to be so deceptive.
00:08:48.000 | Number seven, and finally, therefore, the man of lawlessness will be unparalleled in his ability to deceive.
00:09:00.000 | Verse 10 says he comes with all deception of unrighteousness.
00:09:08.000 | Wicked deception for those who are perishing.
00:09:11.000 | Literally, it reads in all deception of unrighteousness because two verses later,
00:09:17.000 | we see that the way he deceives is by making unrighteousness seem pleasurable.
00:09:25.000 | They found pleasure in unrighteousness.
00:09:29.000 | Now, I would argue that Paul is unpacking in these words, the prophecies of Jesus.
00:09:38.000 | Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 24 10.
00:09:42.000 | Then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.
00:09:49.000 | You see, Christians, this is a great apostasy.
00:09:52.000 | And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.
00:09:59.000 | And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
00:10:07.000 | But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
00:10:10.000 | So Jesus foresaw a great deception, betrayal, a great betrayal, a great apostasy.
00:10:17.000 | And he foresaw a horrible season of lawlessness in which the love of many grows cold.
00:10:26.000 | No matter how many forerunners of this man of lawlessness there have been in history,
00:10:33.000 | we know that none of them is what Paul is talking about.
00:10:38.000 | Some people try to get around this text by saying,
00:10:42.000 | "Oh, there have been lots of men of lawlessness and they've copped up in all kinds of seasons of history."
00:10:47.000 | Well, that's true, but it's irrelevant because this man of lawlessness is going to be destroyed by the final fiery second coming.
00:10:54.000 | Verse 8, "Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth
00:11:02.000 | and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming."
00:11:06.000 | This is it. It's over. End of the age.
00:11:10.000 | This is the coming of verse 1, when Christ gathers his elect from the four winds.
00:11:18.000 | It's the coming of 2 Thessalonians 1, 7, when he comes with his mighty angels in flaming fire.
00:11:24.000 | It's the coming of 1 Thessalonians 2, 19, 3, 13, 4, 15, when the saints will be raised from the dead to meet the Lord in the air.
00:11:34.000 | In other words, the great apostasy and this man of lawlessness are at the climactic end of the age.
00:11:43.000 | They are brought to an end by the glorious appearing of the coming of the Lord.
00:11:51.000 | This is what we hope for. This is what we pray for. Come, Lord Jesus.
00:11:57.000 | Amen. Thank you, Pastor John.
00:11:59.000 | Thanks for the great Bible question. And thanks for all the great Bible questions you have sent us over the years.
00:12:04.000 | Keep them coming in to us. We answer them.
00:12:06.000 | And you can find them in our online archive at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:12:12.000 | You might want to check out that archive. We might have already addressed your question in the past.
00:12:17.000 | Well, here in the States, we are about to celebrate the 4th of July. That's on Monday.
00:12:23.000 | It's a holiday for us, but there are no holidays on this podcast. No, sir.
00:12:27.000 | So on Monday, we are back and we are going to talk politics, patriotism, and the pulpit.
00:12:32.000 | We have a great question on it. Seems like a good time to do it.
00:12:35.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and Pastor John and I will see you back here on Monday.
00:12:39.000 | Have a great weekend.
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