The Man Of Sin And The Rapture
Timing Of The Rapture – 4 of 5
THE MAN OF SIN AND THE RAPTURE
As we look at II Thessalonians 2, we discover more information that points to the Rapture at the end of time. In this passage God is teaching us that two events must happen before He is ready to come for His believers. The first is the rebellion, and the second is that the man of sin must be revealed. He will be revealed at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, at which time Christ will slay him with the breath of His mouth. That is, the wicked will be cast into Hell. Let us read these verses of II Thessalonians 2:1-9:
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day sahll not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that, when I was with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time: For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.
Who is the “man of sin”? If we see that he is Satan himself, as he works through his emissaries called false prophets or false Christs, we will find total Biblical validation. We find in these verses that he is worshipped as God. Revelation 13:4 speaks of the dragon, who is Satan, being worshipped.
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying “Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
Thus the language of II Thessalonians 2, which speaks of the man of sin being worshipped, points us to Satan as being the man of sin. But how can Satan be called a man? Isn’t he indeed a fallen angel? We shall see that he is called a man because he was typified by the king of Babylon who, of course, was a man.
In Isaiah 14 we read of the fall of Lucifer. From the context we know that this Lucifer is Satan himself. But as Isaiah 14 discusses the fall of Lucifer, God speaks of Lucifer as a man. We read in Isaiah 14:16:
They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?
He undoubtedly is called a man because he was prefigured by the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4). As Revelation 18 teaches, Babylon is often used in the Bible as a figure of the kingdom of Satan. Thus we immediately see the parallelism that exists. On the one hand we have Babylon, which is ruled over by the king of Babylon. On the other we have Satan’s dominion, ruled over by Satan.
This man of sin, whom we see to be Satan, takes his seat in the temple. What does taking one’s seat refer to? Jesus is seated at the right hand of God ruling over everything (Ephesians 1:20). Thus, to take a seat is Biblical language meaning to rule or have authority. The man of sin, Satan, takes his seat or rules in the temple.
But to what does the “temple” refer? Is there to be a literal reconstruction of the temple? Nowhere is the Bible do we read of a future reconstruction of the temple. The fact is, since the veil of the temple was rent at the time Jesus hung on the cross, the temple in Jerusalem ceased to have any significance as a holy place. Rather, the Bible speaks of the body of believers as being the temple. We read in Ephesians 2:19-21:
Now therefore ye are no more stangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.
In I Peter 2:5 we read:
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
And in I Corinthians 3:16 God emphasizes that the body of believers is the temple, as He declares:
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Therefore we see very clearly that the temple is the church, the corporate body of believers. It is here that Satan will operate as the man of sin. Thus we know that before Christ comes again, the man of sin (Satan) must take his seat (rule) in the temple (the church or body of believers) where he will be worshipped as God. Since he is a spirit, he cannot be seen to literally rule amongst the body of believers. He can rule, however, through false prophets and pseudo Christs who are bringing another gospel than the true Gospel. The Bible speaks of this kind of activity in II Corinthians 11:13,14:
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Similarly we read in Matthew 24:24:
For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
These verses emphasize the utter deceitfulness of Satan in this effort. The gospel he brings will be so much like the true Gospel that even the elect would be deceived if that were possible.
Note in the Matthew 24 verse that these false prophets will come with signs and wonders. Satan will not only come with a gospel so closely patterned after the true Gospel that even the elect would be deceived if that were possible, but he also will give life and vitality to it through signs and wonders. Even as Jesus came 2,000 years ago with signs and wonders as He brought us the true Gospel, so Satan will attest to the seemingly God-like, Jesus-related character of his gospel by coming with signs and wonders.
The passage we are presently studying, II Thessalonians 2:1-9, also speaks of signs and wonders. The false prophets who represent him will come with signs and wonders even as verse 9 teaches:
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.
We must realize, of course, that these false prophets have been so deceived that they are convinced they are servants of Christ. Satan is the great deceiver, the father of lies (John 8:44). Moeover, II Thessalonians 2:10,11 teaches that God himself blinds these who come because they refuse to believe the truth.
Thus we see that God is declaring in II Thessalonians 2 that before Christ comes there must be evidenced the activity of Satan, as those who come with signs and wonders, and who in fact are his servants, will rule or have authority among the body of believers where the true Gospel ought to be proclaimed. These false prophets will be convinced that they are true prophets of Christ. But because they are coming with a gospel other than the true Gospel, they will in actuality be causing people to worship Satan. This is the chief nature of the rebellion which must come before Christ returns. The church, consisting of congregations and denominations all over the world, will be infiltrated and finally overrun by those who bring other gospels. The chief method of immediately recognizing this threat is especially in relationship to the focus on signs and wonders.
We probably should insert here a paragraph on the definition of the true Gospel. In Revelation 22:18 God declares:
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Before these verses were penned, God was declaring His Word by the Scriptures which were available to that time in history. But in addition He brought His divine Word by special visitations of angels, by dreams, by visions, by voices, and by unknown heavenly languages called tongues. Thus Peter and Paul or some of the members of the church in Corinth could receive direct revelation from God. But then God came to the last chapter of His revealed Word. When God wrote Revelation 22 utilizing the Apostle John as His scribe, He indicated His Word had been completed. Never again could there be a vision or a voice or a tongue from God. Thus the true Gospel is circumscribed by the Bible. It alone and in its entirety is the articulated, verbalized Word of God. Therefore, anyone who comes with a gospel based upon the Bible, but to which he has added the possibility of divine truth from other sources such as visions, voices, tongues, dreams, or infallible utterances of church leaders, is bringing what is by definition another gospel. The moment we consider anything at all to be as authoritative as the Bible itself, we then have a gospel consisting of the Bible plus our other source of supposed divine truth. The Bible will then be interpreted not only by itself, but by these other supposed sources of divine truth. Obviously, doctrines will then be forthcoming which will be different from those that come when the Bible alone is considered to be the Word of God. In view of the teaching of Revelation 22:18, these supposed extra-Biblical sources of divine truth (visions, voices, etc.) cannot be of God. Even though they may be from the recipient’s own mind, nevertheless they are ultimately from Satan. Those who listen to these other sources are unwittingly serving Satan rather than God.
Returning to II Thessalonians 2, we read in verse 7:
For the mystery of iniquity doth already word; only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way.
The word “letteth” is an old English word for restrain. This passage is thus teaching that the one who restrains sin will be taken out of the way.
There are those who teach that the one who restrains is the Holy Spirit. And since He indwells the believer, they therefore suggest that this verse must be teaching the rapture of the church.
They are correct, of course, in teaching that the one who restrains sin is God Himself. We need only recall the event that occurred in Abraham’s life. He had left Canaan to dwell in the land of Gerar, to escape a famine. While there, for fear of his life he told the king of Gerar that Sarah, his wife, was actually his sister. Consequently, the king of Gerar took Sarah into his palace. There he was warned of God not to touch Sarah because she was Abraham’s wife. The king of Gerar responded by indicating he had not touched her. Then God declared in Genesis 20:6:
Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me; therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
We know not only from this incident that God restrains sin, but also because of what the Bible declares concerning the nature of mankind. It states that the heart of man is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). It indicates that out of the heart of man comes murder, adultery, etc. (Matthew 5:19). Only because man experiences this restraint is he able to live a reasonable life, manifesting some virtues such as love between parents and children, kindness and loyalty between friends, and compassion on the underprivileged.
We must note, however, that this restraint does not take place because of the presence of believers. While God the Holy Spirit does indeed indwell believers, the Holy Spirit is not limited to them. He does His work of restraining sin in the world completely apart from the believers.
Thus when God speaks in II Thessalonians 2 of taking Him who restrains out of the way, He is not suggesting that the believers will be raptured, for they are not the restraining power. Rather He is indicating that He will remove His hand of restraint, to permit wickedness to multiply. This is indicated by the context. For in these verses God is speaking of rebellion. Matthew 24 speaks of wickedness being multiplied. Revelation 20 speaks of Satan being loosed. All these passages teach one and the same thing. There will come the time when God will allow the world to become desperately sinful. He will accomplish this by removing His restraint on unsaved man and on Satan and his angels. They will be seen to be more wicked than ever.
Returning to II Thessalonians 2:1-11, we see that before Christ returns to receive His own, the man of sin described above must first be revealed. God then declares in this passage that when the man of sin is revealed Jesus will destroy him by the brightness of His coming. That is, Satan and all the wicked who follow him (the unsaved) will be judged and cast into Hell when Christ comes. For it is in Hell that the wicked are punished by eternal destruction.
But notice that II Thessalonians 2:1-3 speaks of the gathering of the believers to meet the Lord Jesus. God is saying that this gathering together of believers to meet Christ will not take place until the man of sin is revealed. Since verse 8 states that when the man of sin is revealed these wicked will be destroyed (that is, judged and cast into Hell) by His coming we immediately can see the simultaneous timing of the assembling together of the believers to meet Jesus (the Rapture) and the destroying of Satan and the wicked (Judgment Day). And since the assembling of the saints together to meet Jesus must be the same event as the Rapture, we see that again we are being taught that the rapture is simultaneous with Judgment Day.
Therefore, again we find total agreement with all the other passages we have looked at which teach that the Rapture comes at the same time as Judgment Day and the end of the world.
Let us now look at one more path that emphasizes this same truth concerning the Rapture occurring at the end of the world.
Continued in RAP5.TXT