ANTICHRIST

BEFORE WE START LET US LIFT UP JESUS

TO PLAY SONG CLICK ABOVE

THE BEAST - THE MAN OF LAWLESSNESS - THE SON OF PERDITION

Since the times of the early Church, people have tried to work out the identity of the coming Antichrist also known as the Man of Lawlessness, the Beast and the Son of Perdition (Destruction), but have ALL failed to do so. Why? Because the Scriptures clearly teach that he won’t be revealed until after the Rapture, when He that restraints now no longer restraints.

Scriptures tell us that there have been and are many antichrist in this world.

The Apostle John mentioned the name antichrist four times in his epistles.

1 John 2:18 “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that ANTICHRIST is coming, even now many ANTICHRISTS have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”

1 John 2:22 “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the ANTICHRIST, the one who denies the Father and the Son.”

1 John 4:3 “and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the ANTICHRIST, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

2 John 1:7 “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the ANTICHRIST.”

From these verses we know that any person who denies that Jesus is THE CHRIST (THE SAVIOUR) is the antichrist.

Again from this we learn that ANTICHRIST, as Strong defines it in his Lexicon, will be  “AN OPPONENT OF THE MESSIAH”.

The coming Beast (Little Horn), Man of Lawlessness, the Son of Perdition will not only also be the ANTICHRIST, but THE ULTIMATE ANTICHRIST who comes.

As we have constantly states, we. the Church (born-again believers) will NOT know the identity of the coming Beast (Antichrist).  We do however know from Scriptures where he comes from. Lets turn to the Beasts of Daniel and Revelation.

Let us give each of these beast a number.

BEAST 1  Revelation 12:3 “Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having SEVEN HEADS and TEN HORNS, and on his HEADS were SEVEN DIADEMS.”

BEAST 2  Revelation 13:1 “Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having TEN HORNS and SEVEN HEADS, and on his HORNS were TEN DIADEMS, and on his HEADS were BLASPHEMOUS NAMES.”

BEAST 3  Revelation 17:3 “And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a SCARLET BEAST, full of BLASPHEMOUS NAMES, having SEVEN HEADS and TEN HORNS.”

BEAST 4  Daniel 7:7-8 ““After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had TEN HORNS.

BEAST 5  While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a LITTLE ONE, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.”

In Luke 4:5-7 Satan offers Jesus (while in the wilderness) the kingdoms of the earth. “And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, ““I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours””.

Beast 1 (seen as a red dragon) differs from Beast 2 that comes out of the sea in that Beast 1  only has SEVEN CROWNS and they are on his SEVEN HEADS, while Beast 2 has TEN CROWNS and they are on his TEN HORNS.

From Revelation 12:9 we know that Beast 1 is Satan. “And the GREAT DRAGON was thrown down, the SERPENT OF OLD (garden of Eden) who is called the DEVIL and SATAN, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

So we can see in Revelation 12:3 Satan’s control of the worldly KINGDOMS which he offered to Jesus in the wilderness. He is NOT the god of the earth, as the earth belongs to God.

Luke4:4-5 “And he led Him up and showed Him all the KINGDOMS of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this DOMAIN and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.”

These Seven Heads in the verses above are these KINGDOMS Satan showed/offered Jesus in the wilderness and the DOMAIN is best translated as AUTHORITY over mankind.

Satan is the prince of the air (atmospheric region) – Ephesians 2:2 “according to the PRINCE of the power of the AIR” and the god of this world (age) – 2 Corinthians 4:4″in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving”.

Exodus 19:5 “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE”.

Let us now take a quick look at Revelation 17:9 “Here is the mind which has wisdom. The SEVEN HEADS are SEVEN MOUNTAINS on which the woman sits,”.

The angel stresses that it takes WISDOM to understand this explanation! Remember God’s Word in Job 28:28 And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.’” This wisdom is not WORLDLY wisdom but GODLY wisdom which only only comes to those who have a strong and sincere FEAR OF THE LORD. To those that study His Word thoroughly and unwaveringly, just like the prophet Ezra writes in Psalm 149. A good number believe that the seven mountains represent Rome as it was known to have been build on seven hills. We find that worldly wisdom as not much thought has been given to the situation as Rome would be an obvious answer nullifying the angel’s call for wisdom. The word mountain has been figuratively used in the Old Testament to represent a kingdom or power.

A classic example is Jeremiah 51:25 “Behold, I am against you, O destroying MOUNTAIN, Who destroys the whole earth,” declares the LORD, “And I will stretch out My hand against you, And roll you down from the crags, And I will make you a burnt out MOUNTAIN.”

Here God is figuratively speaking of Babylon as a destroying MOUNTAIN. There are other examples in Psalm 30:7; Isaiah 2:2; Daniel 2:35.

So these seven KINGDOMS had strong influence at certain times on the nation of Israel. They are the kingdoms (governments) Satan has used and is using to oppose God and His wonderful plan of Grace and Salvation. These kingdoms are not godly kingdoms but worldly kingdoms, full of love of money (dishonest commerce), false religions (idolatry ), immorality (extra-marital affairs, pornography), violence (murder) and every other sort of evil.

We can see these nations as follows.

Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medes/Persian, Greece, Rome and the coming revived Roman Empire.

The woman or harlot of Revelation 17:1 sits on many waters, which are explained as the people and nations of the world in verse 17:15  And he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.”

The harlot was dressed in purple and scarlet which was the clothes noble people wore in the old Testament times as well as in John’s time and in conjunction with her being adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, she gave the outward impression of beauty and wealth but her inwardly condition is reflected by having in her hand a gold cup full of ABOMINATIONS and of the UNCLEAN THINGS of her IMMORALITY.

Revelation 17:4 “The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a GOLD CUP full of ABOMINATIONS and of the UNCLEAN THINGS of her IMMORALITY,”

Jeremiah 51:7 “Babylon has been a GOLDEN CUP in the hand of the LORD, Intoxicating all the earth.”

In the hand of the Lord here means He uses the cup in the hand of the harlot to bring about His purpose. Just like He used Pharaoh in the times of Israel’s departure from Egypt.  That Babylonian religion has infiltrated all these seven kingdoms (governments) over the course of the ages.

Let us turn to Revelation 17:10 “and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while.”

So of these seven kings five HAVE FALLEN (come to an end, are no more), which are Egypt, Assyria. Babylon, Medes/Persian and Greece. Then the verse says ONE IS, being, in John’s time, the Roman Empire.

These fallen empires were world governments of the then known world. Since the sixth, the Roman Empire came to its end there hasn’t been another world government. The angel again calls for WISDOM here.

Now the OTHER. that is the seventh, has not yet come is the king mentioned in Revelation 17:8 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come”.

The verse above says “The beast that you saw WAS, and IS NOT, and IS ABOUT TO COME up out of the abyss and go to destruction….”

WAS is the Roman Empire in John’s time. IS NOT is the same Roman Empire seemingly coming to an end (slayed?) and IS ABOUT TO COME is that same Roman Empire coming back to life again (revived).

This brings us to Revelation 13:3 “I saw one of his heads AS IF it had been SLAIN, and his FATAL WOUND WAS HEALED.”

Now many writers have claimed this to be the coming Antichrist being assassinated and brought to live again by Satan. Sounds plausible but on close examination we soon discover it is not true.

First of all we must stress that Satan CAN NOT bring to live a dead person. Only God can do this. John 5:21 “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.“

The sixth head (kingdom), the Roman Empire that WAS becomes the same head (kingdom) that IS NOT and thus looks AS IF it had been SLAIN. That same sixth head (kingdom) has its FATAL WOUND HEALED and looks like it is REVIVED and then becomes the SEVENTH head (kingdom), which will be seen as the head (kingdom) with ten horns.

Now here we use WISDOM.

As we read in Revelation 13:3 above, that is one of the HEADS looks AS IF it has been SLAIN and his FATAL WOUND WAS HEALED. The coming Antichrist who is of the SEVEN (HEADS) and is himself also an EIGHTH. So the so called slain head must be the sixth head (Roman Empire in the times of John) and the revived Roman Empire is the seventh head with the ten horns , out of which will come the LITTLE HORN or the ANTICHRIST.

Looking at Revelation 17:12 we read “The TEN HORNS which you saw are TEN KINGS who have NOT YET received a KINGDOM, but they receive AUTHORITY AS KINGS with the beast for one hour.”

Thus we learn that the sixth head (kingdom) which WAS and IS NOT because it looks as if it had been SLAIN, and his FATAL WOUND WAS HEALED. It is revived and shows up as the seventh head (kingdom) but this time it has TEN HORNS on its head.

Below we show a map of the so called planned division of the world into ten economic blocks of the New World Order. Now remember that world orders have existed since the list of seven heads, starting with Egypt etc. We won’t go into this too much as you can google plenty of info about the subject. We believe the power of the Roman Empire is behind this (this map was apparently designed by the Club of Rome) and will eventually emerge as the SEVENTH HEAD (government/kingdom) that has the TEN HORNS, namely the revived Roman Empire controlling the whole world. Out of them emerges the LITTLE HORN who will be the coming MAN OF LAWLESSNESS aka the ANTICHRIST.

In Revelation 17:12 we again read “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.”

The ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom will be the rules in these new economic blocks appointed by the revived Roman Empire and this will be the first time they will have had a kingdom. There are just no other kings in the world that haven’t got a kingdom, let alone ten of them.

 

Now we come to a very tricky part of the prophecy. Out of the ten economic blocks  will come the LITTLE HORN

Let us now quickly look at some of Daniel’s prophecies of the beasts and kingdoms.

First we look at Daniel 2:31-33 “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single GREAT STATUE; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. The HEAD of that statue was made of FINE GOLD, its BREAST and its ARMS of SILVER, its BELLY and its THIGHS of BRONZE, its LEGS of IRON, its FEET PARTLY of IRON and PARTLY of CLAY.”

This was the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream which Daniel interpreted for him.

It portrays four Gentile kingdoms that will rule the world and Jerusalem during the period described by Luke 21:24 “and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the TIMES OF THE GENTILES are fulfilled.“

The TIMES OF THE GENTILES began with Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple.

These Gentile kingdoms are Babylon (the head of Gold), Medes/Persians (breast and arms of silver), Greece (the belly and thighs of bronze) and Rome (legs of iron) and revived Roman Empire (feet partly iron and partly clay.

This TIMES OF THE GENTILES comes to an end when Jesus comes at His Second Coming to destroy the enemies and set up His Millennium Kingdom. This is portrayed in Daniel 2:34-35 ““You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed [fn]all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”

The stone that struck the statue represents Jesus at His Second Coming when He brings an end to the Times of the Gentiles and restores it back to the nation of Israel.

This statue corresponds with the four beast Daniel saw in a vision.

Daniel 7:3 “And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.” These will be the kingdoms that “control” the world during the TIMES OF THE GENTILES, namely Babylon, Medes/Persian, Greece and Rome and correspond with the third, fourth, fifth and sixth heads (kingdoms) of the beast in Revelation 17:3 because the first two heads (kingdoms) were Egypt and Assyria who were not part of the TIMES OF THE GENTILES as they were before Nebuchadnezzar destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple.

The Great Sea in Daniel 7:2 and the sea in Daniel 7:3 points to the Mediterranean Sea and often represents the masses of humanity.

The FIRST BEAST that comes up is BABYLON (the head of gold on the statue). “The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it.”

The lion and eagle were symbols of Babylon meaning it was strong and fast. Its wings were plucked refers to Nebuchadnezzar being brought low by God after exalting himself and crediting himself for the might and riches of his kingdom. For seven years he grazed with the cattle and ate grass until he acknowledged that God was the reason for all that he had and God restored him again as king (Put on his feet as a man and a human mind was given unto him).

The SECOND BEAST that comes up is the Medes/Persian kingdom (the breast and arms of silver on the statue). Daniel 7:5 And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’

A bear is a cruel, blood thirsty and all devouring beast, which reflects on the Persians who were known for their cruelty and the Medes/Persian as great robbers and spoilers. Being raised up on one side means that the Medes were older and stronger than the Persians, while the three ribs in its mouth refer conquer of Babylon, Lydia and Egypt.

The Medes/Persian empire is also depicted as a RAM with two horns in Daniel 8 where he saw the ram butting westward, northward, and southward, meaning like above the conquering of Babylon, Egypt and Lydia. We see a male goat with a large horn rushing speedily towards the Ram and charging it in his mighty wrath, shattering the two horns of the Ram and trampling it down. This portrays the Medes/Persian empire being charged by the Greecian Empire led by Alexander the Great which is the THIRD BEAST.

So the THIRD BEAST that comes up is Greece Daniel 7:6 “After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.”

Alexander the Great was well know for his speed of conquering and is therefor portrayed as a leopard. The tradition in Greece was that at the death of the king his kingdom would go to his heirs. This was not the case with Alexander the Great as his kingdom was divided by his four generals, hence the four wings on its back and the four heads on the third beast in the verse above, Revelation 7:6, both which portray the division of the Greece Empire of Alexander the Great into four kingdoms, namely Thrace (Lysimachus), Macedonia (Cassander), Syria (Seleucus) and Egypt (Ptolemy).  Daniel 11 foretells history in an amazing way as how these four kingdoms slowly dissolved into the Roman Empire, Daniel’s FOURTH BEAST and the sixth (ONE IS) kingdom (HEAD) of Revelation 17:10. Remember John is seeing a vision and is not just talking about his present times. So the kingdom that WAS is the Roman Empire in his times, which becomes the beast that IS NOT is, in our thinking, the fallen Roman Empire, kept quietly alive under Empire Charlemagne and the papal system and becomes the he revived Roman Empire as the beast that IS ABOUT TO COME.

This will explain Revelation 13:3 “I saw one of his heads AS IF it had been SLAIN, and his FATAL WOUND WAS HEALED.” This revived Roman Empire be revealed AFTER the Rapture as NEW WORLD ORDER divided into the ten economic blocks shown on the map above, that will have appointed as their heads ten “kings” that NEVER had a kingdom before. Now from these ten kingdoms  arise THE LITTLE HORN beast who is FROM the seven but himself also an EIGHTH. Revelation 17:11 “The beast which was and is not, is himself also an EIGHTH and is one OF THE SEVEN, and he goes to destruction. Daniel 7:8 “While I was contemplating the HORNS, behold, another HORN, a LITTLE ONE, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.”

HE WILL BE THE LEADER OF THE LAST GENTLE GOVERNMENT.

We will leave the topic at this point and may add to it later on.

REMEMBER – REMEMBER – REMEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DON’T let anybody tell you they know the identity of the coming ANTICHRIST.

Born Again believers will NOT see him or know him. We will be with the Lord in Heaven. Praise the Lord.

2 Thessalonians 2:3 “Let no one in any way deceive you, for IT will not come unless the APOSTASY comes first, and the MAN OF LAWLESSNESS is REVEALED, the SON OF PERDITION (Destruction),”

2 Thessalonians 2:6 “And you know what RESTRAINS him now, so that IN HIS TIME HE WILL BE REVEALED.”

2 Thessalonians 2:7 “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only HE who now RESTRAINS will do so until HE is taken out of the way.”

2 Thessalonians 2:8 “THEN that LAWLESS ONE will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;”

Let us look at this in the order of the above verses starting with 2 Thessalonians 2:3 where we have underlined, put in bold and italics, three words. The first word we will look at is the word “IT” which we understand means THE DAY OF THE LORD (the end-times Judgment), as Paul was warning the people in Thessalonica not to be shaken from their composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a so called letter from him or other elders. They thought that the Rapture had already occurred and they were left behind because some false preachers (a spirit) and some false letters were telling them that THE DAY OF THE LORD had started. Paul had been teaching them that the Rapture would happen BEFORE the DAY OF THE LORD, which starts with the TRIBULATION period. The people of Thessalonica were suffering terrible persecutions and this would have increased their anxiety about having missed out on the Rapture.

2 Thessalonians 2:2:2 “that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that THE DAY OF THE LORD has come.”

Paul quickly went on to say that IT (the Day of the Lord) would NOT come until some events had happened first.

2 Thessalonians 2:3 “Let no one in any way deceive you, for IT will not come unless the APOSTASY comes first, and the MAN OF LAWLESSNESS is REVEALED, the SON OF PERDITION (Destruction),”

This means we are still NOT living in the Day of the Lord, as the APOSTASY still hasn’t taken place and the Man of Lawlessness hasn’t been revealed as yet either. This also means that the Rapture hasn’t taken place as yet because the above two events happen AFTER the Rapture.

 2 Thessalonians 2:3 also tells us that the Man of Lawlessness will be revealed after the APOSTASY comes. So we wonder what the APOSTASY is. The Greek word is apostasia which is translate by Strong as “a falling away or forsake”. “a defection from the TRUTH” and “apostasy”.

Now there are some authors that believe the word apostasy may mean “departure from one place to another place” and connect this with it being the Rapture (Falling away from the Earth)! We find this thinking unacceptable and strongly believe it to mean “departure or defection form the truth”.

If the word may mean “departure from one place to another place” and connect it with the Rapture, we, again,  strongly believe that Paul would have used one of the words used by the other Apostles when describing a departure from one place to another place, metabainō (John 13:1), apolyō (Luke 2:2), analyō (Phillipians 1:23) or aperchomai (Matthew 8:18), all meaning “to depart” (physical departing from one place to another place).The word apostasy, as said before, is translated by Strong’s as “a falling away or forsake”. “a defection from the truth” and “apostasy”. Again, we strongly belief that it means a departure from the truth.

In 1 Timothy 4:1 Paul clearly warns, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will FALL AWAY FROM THE FAITH, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,”

Paul is talking about the same APOSTASY as the one he speaks of in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. He is talking about FALLING AWAY FROM THE FAITH in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, His ministry, His death on the Cross, His burial, His resurrection and His ascension into Heaven to the right side of God the Father. While this APOSTASY is increasing the Holy Spirit is still working to bring people to the Lord.

The only other time the word apostasy (apostasia) is used in the New Testament is Acts 21:21 “and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to FORSAKE (apostasia} MOSES (the Scriptures), telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.” Luke is talking about false teachers teaching the Jews to depart from the Truth.

Remember how in John 14:6 Jesus said that He is the Truth? “Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the TRUTH, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  As well as the Truth Jesus is also the Word. John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Today many people believe in Jesus as a good person but don’t believe the Gospel, the Truth. The Lord’s name JESUS CHRIST is more and more blasphemed as a swear word in many tv programs and movies. Oh yes, they believe in Jesus as a freedom fighter, a wise man or a prophet, but they don’t believe in Him as the Lord and Saviour, Whom God the Father, in His amazing love, has given to us. They don’t believe because they don’t want to believe, they are departing from the Truth! That is very much so happening right now! THAT’S the Apostasy and THAT’S why believe the Rapture is IMMINENT. It can happen ANY MOMENT.

Now we have established that events of the Apostasy and the revealing of the Man of Lawlessness (the Antichrist) don’t happen until AFTER the Rapture, we will now look at WHY we believe the Rapture occurs first and is IMMINENT.

We look now at our second of the four verses above.

2 Thessalonians 2:6 “And you know what RESTRAINS him now, so that IN HIS TIME HE WILL BE REVEALED.”

Here we see that something is RESTRAINING the Man of Lawlessness (the Antichrist) from revealing himself to the world. Like many good scholars we believe that this “WHAT” Paul talks about is the HOLY SPIRIT working in the Church, the Body of Jesus Christ, which is also called “the salt of the earth”.

It is His power that enables us to be the SALT. There is nothing of us  that is able to do the restraining, only the power of the Holy Spirit is capable to do so.

We also read in the above verse that “IN HIS TIME HE WILL BE REVEALED”. This “HE” is of course the Man of Lawlessness (the Antichrist) and God has an APPOINTED TIME for this to happen. Before ANYTHING was created, God already appointed a time for the Man of Lawlessness to be revealed. NOTHING can speed this up or slow it down. God is in complete control.

Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth“.

As believers in Jesus Christ we are preservatives to the world, preserving it from the evil inherent in the society of ungodly men whose worldly, unredeemed natures are corrupted by sin and who walk in their fleshy natures and not in the Holy Spirit. That is why born-again Christians that walk according to the flesh are not very effective as salt, while the born-again Christians that walk in the Holy Spirit are as very salty salt and very effective preserving the world from evil spreading faster.

Let us now look at the third verse we mentioned at the top of this page.

2 Thessalonians 2:7 “For the MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS is already at work; only HE who now RESTRAINS will do so until HE is taken out of the way.”

So what is the MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS?

We know that God showed Paul a number of mysteries. 1 Corinthians 4:1 “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the MYSTERIES of God.”

The word “mystery” denotes something that God has decided not to reveal until the appointed time for it to be revealed. A couple of these mysteries are the mystery of the “CHURCH” which was not known in the Old Testament but became known in the New Testament. Also the mystery of the “RESURRECTION and RAPTURE” which was not known in the Old Testament, but Paul revealed it in 1 Corinthians 51:50-54 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

Again scholars differ on what the mystery of lawlessness may be. We have looked at a good number of them and while some are feasible, they still didn’t feel right. However we won’t go into them as it only helps to confuse you, but you can google it if you desire to do so. We decide to pray about it and just take a good old look at the words. All of a sudden it struck us how simple the answer is, well, according to our thinking anyway.

We will break the word lawlessness in three syllables.

LAW - LESS - NESS

Can you what we see? LAW – LESS means WITHOUT law. The Law of God, including commandments. statutes and precepts, were given to mankind to expose man’s sinfulness. Many parts of the law of God has been upheld (enforced) by governments and all of the law has been preached by the Church. (This of course does not mean hypocritical churches). Jesus warned about wolves (false teachers) would come.

Matthew 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.“

Paul also warned about the wolves (false teachers) in Acts 20:29 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

As more and more churches are closing and many false mega churches pop up everywhere, looking more like entertainment centers than solid Bible teaching churches, people are losing sigh of the Law of God, God’s Word.

The less they know about the Law of God the more they know about the slogan of the world “if it feels good, do it”. They are becoming more and more LAWLESS.

Paul warns us strongly in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, LOVERS OF PLEASURE rather than LOVERS OF GOD, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”

If you are a lover of God you will abide to His Law (Word which is of course Jesus Christ). If you are a lover of pleasure you will not abide to the Law of God.

Can you now see the MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS being at work?

If you read Jeremiah 5 you will see that this godlessness was present in Jerusalem before it fell to the Babylonians.

Jeremiah 5:3 “O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth?
You have smitten them,
But they did not weaken;
You have consumed them,
But they REFUSED TO TAKE CORRECTION
They have made their faces harder than rock;
They have REFUSED TO REPENT.”

Jeremiah 5:4 “For they do NOT know the way of the LORD Or the ORDINANCE (law) of their God.”

Jeremiah 5:6 “Because their transgressions are many, Their APOSTASIES are numerous.”

Because they had turned away from God’s Law and became LAWLESS, their APOSTASIES increased.

This was very much LAWLESSNESS.

The same is happening in this Church age of Grace, from Paul’s time to the present, more and more people are turning away from God’s Law (let’s face it, most of the don’t KNOW God’s Law) and are following worldly laws.

Paul says this eloquently in 2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their OWN DESIRES,”.

Paul also said in 2 Timothy 3:13 “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

1 Timothy 6:20-21 Paul warns Timothy to GUARD the TRUTH that was delivered to him by Paul. ” O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— which some have professed and thus GONE ASTRAY FROM THE FAITH. Grace be with you.”

Again in 2 Timothy 1:13-14 Paul warns Timothy about guarding the TRUTH. “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the TREASURE deposit of DIVINE TRUTH) which has been entrusted to you.”

However, you can guard the TRUTH if you don’t HAVE the TRUTH.

The TRUTH is Jesus Christ. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the TRUTH, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Titus 1:1 “Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the TRUTH which is according to GODLINESS,”

What is GODLINESS?

1 Timothy 3:16 “By common confession, great is the MYSTERY OF GODLINESS:
He who was revealed in the flesh,
Was vindicated in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Proclaimed among the nations,
Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory.”

You can see the mystery of lawlessness at work in Paul’s days when people were going astray from the Faith by following strange, false doctrines. This is even more so at work in our days  and it is still, like Paul says to Timothy, being restrained by the believers guarding the treasure of Divine Truth by the power of the Holy Spirit within us.

As we said above, this lawlessness will explode when the Rapture happens and the Church is removed from the earth and the Holy Spirit steps aside from His “restraining” work. 

The APOSTASY will explode because God will send a deluding influence upon those left behind and who blatantly refused to receive the TRUTH of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which God so freely gives to all whom believe.  John 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER BELIEVES in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

2 Thessalonians 2:11 “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false (a lie),”

We believe THIS is the APOSTASY.

This brings us to the last of the four verses at the top of this page.

2 Thessalonians 2:8 “THEN that LAWLESS ONE will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;”

Once the Rapture of the Church has taken place and the Holy Spirit steps aside (He doesn’t leave the earth) from His restraining work, the Apostasy will reach its peak and the MAN OF LAWLESSNESS (Antichrist) will be revealed.

The world, including the Jews, will THEN be ready to receive the MAN OF LAWLESSNESS (as their MESSIAH) who will be revealed.

The RAPTURE will trigger of the chain of events that make up the End Times.

After the Rapture happens, the Apostasy explodes, the Man of Lawlessness (Antichrist) is revealed, the world will receive him as their Saviour, he will make a 7 year Peace Treaty with many, which is the beginning of the 7 year Tribulation period. He then breaks that Treaty in the middle of that 7 year period, and all hell breaks lose on earth. We will go into this deeper on another page.

Let us now look at some of the contrasts between Jesus Christ and the Antichrist.