Let’s take our Bibles and turn to 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12. If you’re joining us for the first time, we’re in a series called Things to Come. We are outlining the prophetic calendar of God’s Word. Some weeks ago, we started by considering the fact that historically it’s nighttime. Romans 13 tells us that our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. We look out on the world, and the signs and the indicators of the last days are all around us. Then, we looked at the doctrine of the rapture and the pre-tribulational escape and extraction of the church, and that was a blessing. Then, we looked at the church in heaven, facing the judgment seat of Christ. Last week, we looked at the world below and the fact that things will get worse before they get better with the doctrine of the Great Tribulation.
And this morning and next Sunday morning, we’re going to look at the doctrine of the Antichrist. This is a fascinating study. Although dark and dreary in some ways, it’s encouraging in others. It’s a message I’ve called “The Man Who Would Be God.” So, I’m going to try and answer the question “Who is the Antichrist? And am I married to him?” No, I’m only kidding you. Or “Who is the Antichrist, and is he my boss?” No, no, that’s not what we’re going to do. We’re going to answer the questions “Who is the Antichrist? And what’s he going to do? And when’s he going to arrive? And what is God going to do about him?”
So take your Bible. We’re going to take time to read the text, which we will expound this morning and next Sunday morning. 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12:
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.
You’ll see in a marginal reference that can be also translated “the day of the Lord had come.” I think that’s a better translation. Some of the earliest manuscripts translate that “Lord,” not “Christ.” “. . . the day of the Lord had come.”
Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [that is, the day of the Lord] 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.
Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restraints will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
That is a sobering text, and we pray that God will help us to understand it and respond accordingly.
A public committee was interviewing a prospective pastor. As part of the process, one of the members of the committee asked this prospective candidate, “What’s your position on the Second Coming?” Looking him straight in the eye, without skipping a beat, he replied, “I’m for it.” I like that answer.
When it comes to the Second Coming, every right-thinking Christian, every biblically informed disciple of Jesus Christ, is for it. We love His appearing (2 Tim. 4:8). We love it because we’re going to be caught up. We’re going to meet the Lord in the air, and we’re going to be taken to the Father’s house. We love it because we’re going to be rescued from the day of the Lord. God’s going to deliver us from the wrath to come. We love it because those who are alive will be translated, and those who are dead in Christ will be resurrected. You and I will be transformed and given a new body without the limits of our Adamic nature or the limits of decay and death. We’re for it. We’re for it because when we meet the Lord in the air, we’re going to be reunited with our loved ones who have gone on before us. Death might hide, but it cannot divide. Ultimately, we will be with our loved ones in the family of God. We’re for it. We’re for it because when that happens, our works will follow us, and God will reward us according to our faithfulness with eternal blessing. The Second Coming’s good for us, and we’re for it.
But, while the Christian in the church is for it, Satan is against it, and he will seek to oppose it, thwart it. According to biblical prophecy, in the days leading up to Jesus’ return, those days will be marked by the advent of Satan’s superman, the Antichrist—hell’s CEO, chief executive officer.
Think about this, that before we have the revelation of the true Christ, we will have a revolution of a false christ. Let me show you that in our text. Look at chapter 1, verse 7, speaking of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read that “when the Lord Jesus is revealed”—notice that word “revealed”—“from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God.” So, we can look forward to a revelation, an unveiling of Jesus at His second coming. But, if you go to chapter 2, verse 8, we read about the revelation of a false christ, named here as the “lawless one” who “will be revealed.” It’s the same word: who will be unveiled, who will be seen.
So, think about this. Before we have the revelation of the true Christ in power and glory, we’re going to have the revelation of the Antichrist with power, signs, and lying wonders—who will oppose God and who will exalt himself above all that is called God (2 Thess. 2:3–4). Let me just underscore the idea of the Antichrist. The word “antichrist” means “opposed to Christ” or “in the place of Christ.” The prefix “anti” means “against” or “instead of.” So, this is a figure who will appear at the end of human history before Jesus appears. He will be implacably opposed to Jesus Christ and God’s kingdom, and he will be a cruel imitation of the true Christ.
Now, you would know this, but let me repeat it. Satan has always sought to thwart God’s rule. Satan has always sought to hurt God’s people. Satan has always sought to kill God’s Son and His seed from the beginning and throughout human history. And listen, that’s not going to abate in the last days. It’s going to accelerate in the last days. In 1 John 2:18, we’re told, “Little children, it is the last hour; and . . . the Antichrist is coming,” but before he comes, many antichrists will go out into the world. We’re told in 1 John 4:3 that the spirit of the Antichrist is already at work in our world. Satan has opposed God’s king and God’s kingdom, and that opposition will be supersized in a satanic superman who will appear to oppose God and exalt himself above all that is called God.
So, I want us to come and look at this figure. There are over a hundred passages in your Bible on the Antichrist, his origin, nationality, character, career, and global conquest—and none better than the one we’re about to expound: 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12. This is the second of two letters Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica. These two letters have been called eschatological epistles. The word “eschatological” or “eschatology” means “the doctrine of the last days.” These two letters focus on the last days in a way that some of the other writings of Paul do not. Every single chapter in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians makes a reference to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, let’s come and consider this text.
Now, let me put the text in its context ever so briefly. Paul is writing to correct a wrong. Paul is writing to shed some light on a theological controversy that had come about in the life of the church at Thessalonica. Because of increased persecution, they wondered if they were in the day of the Lord. Also, it would seem a false teacher or a pseudo-epistle had come, telling them that they were in the day of the Lord, and that shook them. It was like an earthquake in the life of this church because they believed in the rapture. If you believe that the church goes through the Tribulation, why are they shaken? If they’re truly in the day of the Lord, it wouldn’t disturb them, because they were meant to go through the day of the Lord. And, if you go through the day of the Lord, then the coming of Jesus for the church must be ever so near.
But, you see, they had been taught by Paul that the church is not appointed unto wrath, that they’re children of the light, not children of the night. They will escape the day of the Lord. But now they’re wondering, and they’re being told, “No, you’re in it.” And Paul writes to alleviate their upset. He wants them to know that he didn’t write the letter. This is not something he would’ve taught. In fact, he tells them in verse 5 they need to remember what I told you when I was with you. And so, Paul appeals to what they already know, what they’ve already been taught, and he asks them to do some extra thing. He says, look, you’re not going to face the day of the Lord. You’re going to be gathered to Christ. And remember what I taught you. That day won’t happen until (1) there’s a falling away, (2) the restrainer is removed, and (3) the Antichrist is revealed and declares himself to be God. That is the context of our text. You can’t be in the day of the Lord because the rapture hasn’t taken place, the final rebellion hasn’t come, the restrainer is still at work, and the man of sin hasn’t been unmasked.
Now, we’re going to look at his rise, his reign, his ruin. Now, before I get going, and we’re going to do this next Sunday, you’re probably asking, “Pastor, why didn’t you do it in one week? We’re not looking for the Antichrist. We’re looking for the Christ. So why do I need to know about the Antichrist? It’s depressing. It’s dark.” Well, that’s a fair question, but I want to remind you of why you should have an interest in the doctrine of the Antichrist and why I’m justified to a couple of weeks on the theme.
Number one, it’s biblical. There are over a hundred references to this man’s nationality, character, career, global conquest, and ultimate defeat at the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s a sizable amount of Scripture. That’s a focus that God wants us to focus on. And remember, 2 Timothy 3:16–17: “All Scripture is . . . profitable.” So, listen this morning and don’t be ducking out next Sunday morning. It’s biblical, and if it’s biblical, it’s profitable.
Number two, it gives us a confidence that God will ultimately triumph over evil. Before we’re done today and next week, we’re going to see that the Antichrist is lawless. He’s a rebel. He’s an apostate. He’s an anti-Semite. And he will call the world to worship him in the temple of God. Things will get very dark within world history, and evil will reign for a period of time. But, ultimately, God will triumph. We’re going to see this morning God’s sovereignty, even in the case of the rise of the Antichrist, because he will be revealed in his own time, according to God’s time. We’re going to see that his reign will come to an end quickly at the coming of the Lord Jesus in power and glory. So, the worst will give way to the best. Justice will come, and Jesus will reign. And we need to be reminded of that. Even the most diabolical figure to step onto the stage of human history . . . His reign is under God’s reign, and his ministry and life is not of ultimate authority.
And, thirdly, it helps us see how the world is taking shape for his arrival. We’re going to see this morning that the stage is being set, that the Antichrist may very well be alive in our generation. He may be a boy at school. He may be a teenager at university. He may very well be alive because the world is taking shape. I want you to know that God tells us about the Antichrist not to make us anxious but awake—that it’s high time, that the hour is late. And you and I better be living as authentic disciples of Jesus Christ.
Things are not falling apart—although they are. They’re falling into place, and we’re going to see that. So, hopefully, I have persuaded you to stay awake and come back.
So, we’re going to look at the first thought this morning, what I call the rise of the Antichrist. Next week, we’re going to look at his reign and his ruin. The rise. We’ve already established the fact that there are two revelations attached to the end times. There’s the revelation of the false christ before the revelation of the true Christ.
Now, remember, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the lawless one, as he is described in our text, is a future and ultimate Antichrist. He’s an individual who may be born in our generation. That’s possible but not yet revealed. This figure will be revealed during the day of the Lord. Don’t waste your time trying to identify someone today in politics or contemporary culture with him. If you ever discover the identity of the Antichrist, you’ve been left behind. You don’t want that. So, don’t waste your time on that. We’re given a profile of who he is, but we don’t know his identity. The Antichrist is to come after we have been gathered to the Lord. When there’s a falling away and the restrainer is removed, then he’ll appear.
But I want to say this. Before he appears, remember what we saw in 1 John 2:18. Many antichrists have already gone out into the world. In fact, according to 1 John 4:3, the spirit of the Antichrist is already at work in the world. In fact, our text tells us in verse 7, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.” What does that mean, the mystery of lawlessness? Well, we haven’t yet seen what lawlessness is, and we’re going to see it when he is revealed. But lawlessness is already at work in some measure, anticipating the arrival of the lawless one.
That being the case, it wouldn’t surprise us to see that there are many prototypes of the Antichrist throughout human history. There have been several dress rehearsals for his advent. There have been figures within history that prefigure him. There are men of sin that point to the man of sin. Just this week, I read three books quickly on the Antichrist: one by my friend Mark Hitchcock, another by my brother Ed Hindson, who’s now with the Lord, and another by Ron Rhodes—all trusted, pre-millennial, pre-tribulational scholars. They have a unified thought here that throughout history, there have been lesser types.
Maybe Nimrod is a prefiguration of the coming wicked one. Nimrod was a blasphemous ruler who sought to bring about worldwide organized rebellion against God. Maybe Amalek, the grandson of Esau, whose descendants opposed Israel during the wilderness sojourn. What about the pharaoh of Egypt and the pharaoh of the Exodus, who harshly oppressed the Israelites in Egypt and openly defied the one true God? What about the Assyrian king Sennacherib, who oppressed the Northern Kingdom and arrogantly sought to capture Jerusalem? What about the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, persecuted Israel in exile, and usurped divine prerogatives and called people to bow before his image? You’ve got the Roman Caesars who ruled the world and promoted emperor worship.
And then you have the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes two centuries before Christ appeared, who, in league with apostate Israel, took over Jerusalem, burned it. He took the temple, set up an image of his god, Jupiter Olympus, in the holy place. At one point, he slaughtered a pig on the altar in the holy of holies.
We’ve got all these kinds of prefigurations, dress rehearsals, throughout history, awaiting the coming of the man of sin. Now, there’s three things we’re going to see about his rise: the timing, the triggering, and the tracking.
Well, from our text, 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12, his rise, his advent, his appearance, his manifestation will come at the beginning of the day of the Lord. See, Paul’s argument is you can’t be in the day of the Lord, although someone has told you that or pretended that I said that. You can’t be in the day of the Lord because the man of sin hasn’t been revealed. When he’s revealed after we’re gathered to Christ and after the falling away and after the removal of the restrainer, he’ll be revealed at the beginning of the Tribulation, the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy.
Now, the day of the Lord—as noted in verse 2 and picked up in verse 3—is a phrase that’s used throughout the Bible for immediate judgment and ultimate judgment or for the immediate intervention of God in the life of Israel, often with the focus on judgment and blessing, and the ultimate intervention of God in human judgment and blessing. And so, biblical scholars believe that the day of the Lord is a period of time that includes the Tribulation, the rise of the Antichrist, the return of Jesus, and the establishment of His kingdom.
During that time, when the Antichrist is revealed, he will perpetrate the abomination of desolation. Right? Jesus spoke about that in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24:15), drawing from Daniel 9:24–27. And Paul speaks of it here. Look, the man of sin won’t be revealed until there’s a falling away first. But when he is revealed, he will oppose God, he will exalt himself above all that is called God, and he will call people to worship him in the temple of God. I take the temple there to be the Jewish temple¬—the third temple yet to be rebuilt. The first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and the second temple by the Romans, but there’s coming a third temple. And it’ll be desecrated by this call to worldwide worship by the Antichrist.
So, all of that considered, when you add those facts together, the seventieth week of Daniel will begin with the Antichrist signing a peace agreement with Israel. Then, in the middle of it, he will break that peace agreement, and he will desecrate the temple. We see that the rise of the Antichrist happens in the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy—a seven-year period triggered by his covenant with Israel and then broken with his abominable desecration of the temple, bringing about the Great Tribulation and, ultimately, the coming of Jesus. The point is this, simply. The day of the Lord comes when he comes, and his career lasts seven years.
Let’s move on. The triggering of the rise. That’s the timing, the triggering. In our passage, as Paul sets out to correct the record about the church and the day of the Lord, he says, look, there are several tipping points. There are several trigger points, several turning points, that will tell you that the advent of the Antichrist is imminent. I’ve got four, so stay with me. That’s what we’re going to cover this morning.
The first is this. The first is our gathering together to Christ at the rapture. Paul appeals to their concerns and their confusion on the basis of what they already know, what he taught them in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17, 1 Thessalonians 5:9—that the church is going to be caught up before the Tribulation, that we are not appointed to the wrath to come, which, in the context of 1 Thessalonians 5, is the day of the Lord. We’re not appointed that. And so he begins, “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord . . . and our gathering together to Him.” That’s the first thing he begins with, and that’s because that’s the first thing that will happen. I like the way the New Living Translation puts that text: “Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him.”
So, there’ll be the rapture, which is tied to the removal of the restrainer—which we’ll get to in a moment. But the point is this. Paul appeals to them to not be anxious on the basis of what he taught them. Now, here’s an interesting thought. If our understanding of the rapture is correct, the church will vacate planet Earth. There’ll be an extraction of every saint of God at a moment within history, and at that point, or shortly after that point, I believe the Antichrist will appear. He will make his debut on the world stage at the beginning of the Tribulation after the church has been raptured, and he will fill the vacuum. He will have answers for the questions. He will calm the worldwide chaos. Can you imagine the upset, the upheaval that comes about—the confusion and the chaos that grips the world—with the extraction of the church? And he will come with answers. Maybe his answer is an alien abduction. I don’t know what his lie will be, but soon after the church’s rapture, he will bring calm to the chaos. With the help of the false prophet, he will display signs and wonders to captivate the world, and they will fall for his lie.
Charles Swindoll says this: “This man will emerge after the Rapture, probably to calm the chaotic waters troubled by the unexplained departure of so many Christians. He will be primed and ready to speak. He will stand before not only a nation but a world and will win their approval. Like Hitler, he will emerge on a scene of such political and economic chaos that the people will see him as a man with vision, with pragmatic answers and power to unite the world.”
Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor, helped us to look back on the time of the Second World War and explain the rise and embrace of Hitler. And he tells us that Hitler came on the scene between the wars, when Germany was on its knees. Poverty and chaos ruled the nation, and they longed for someone to bring cohesion and vision and national identity and to offer them hope. And Hitler offered them that hope. He showed himself to be a savior, and the Antichrist will do something similar. In the midst of chaos and hurt and political upheaval, he will appear.
Second is the great falling away. So, what will trigger his rise? One, the rapture, the gathering of ourselves to Christ. And then, the chaos will come from that, and he will step into the chaos and create calm. And then, you also have the great falling away. Verse 3: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [the day of the Lord, v. 2] will not come unless the falling away comes first.” What’s this falling away? This is a word that means “depart, abandon, forsake.” That’s something that was used of a military coup, political intrigue, and also religious defection. I like what the MacArthur Study Bible says: It is “a deliberate abandonment of a formally professed position, allegiance, or commitment.”
Now, here’s the point. It’s personal, and it’s premeditated. It is someone who knows the truth willfully rejecting it, abandoning it, forsaking it. And it’s important you understand that this falling away is not ignorance of the truth. It’s a knowledge of the truth and then a rejection of that truth. When you go to the end of this chapter, God will judge the world, and He will judge people who love not the truth, who will not believe the truth but who will believe the lie. The last days will be marked by theological, spiritual, and moral departure, abandonment, inside and outside the church. The last days will be marked by deception, which will prep the world for the greatest deceiver of them all, who will tell the lie.
We won’t turn to these verses, but Matthew 24:4–5, Matthew 24:10–12, and Matthew 24:24 tell us from the lips of Jesus that the last days will be marked by false christs, pseudo-saviors, false gospels, other gospels. First Timothy 4:1 says this, picking up the theme of the savior: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.”
In the second letter to Timothy, Paul says in chapter 3, verse 13, “But evil men and”—notice—“imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (emphasis added). Are you picking up this theme? The last days will be marked by lies, impositions, deceptions—spiritual, moral, and theological—inside and outside the church. One more verse would be 2 Timothy 4:3: “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 . . . to fables.”
Is that not the day we’re living in? Are we not seeing people abandoning the church, leaving the church? Numbers are dwindling. Maybe it’s a separation of the wheat from the chaff. It’s a good thing. Are we not seeing what Jesus said and what Paul warns about: false gospels, false christs, false teachers?
Just look at the evangelical church in the last lot of years: a denial of the virgin birth and embracing of radical gender, ideology, and undermining of the sufficiency and inspiration of Scripture; a poo-pooing of the blood of the cross and the substitutionary nature of the atonement; a denial of the resurrection; a denial of hell and conscious eternal punishment. We could go on. Look at the cults around us who deny that Christ is incarnate and the Word made flesh, who deny salvation by grace, who deny eternal punishment. We could go on. Those are the days we’re living in.
I don’t know if you followed this. Recently, Harvard University’s organization of chaplains just appointed a new president to oversee the administration of religious communities in Harvard—Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus. The new president is 44 years old. His name is Greg Epstein, and he identifies as an atheist. So, the new chaplain at Harvard University—which was established to create ministers for a new and fledgling nation—has now got an atheist directing faith communities. Crazy.
I don’t know if you noticed this week. A female theological (professed theological) professor at a private Catholic school in Ohio tells us that the Bible teaches transgenderism, that Joseph and his amazing technicolor dream coat was the coat often worn by princesses, that that may indicate that Joseph was trans. It’s nuts. She said that Mordecai breastfed his cousin. She says that the portrayal of God, who’s neither male nor female by the way . . . He’s Spirit. But He created us male and female. But she says those images of God, those feminine images of a midwife or a nursing mother, tell us that God embraces a spectrum of gender ideology. It’s blasphemous. It’s apostasy. It’s scary. And it’s the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
And you know what? You’re going to see more of it because there’s going to be a falling away first, a departure. By the way, I would argue—although apostasy and departure from biblical integrity has marked the church age—the falling away first could be tied to the appearance of the Antichrist. The language here—according to Dick Mayhue, my old professor at The Master’s Seminary—is specific. It’s a particular event. It is something of final magnitude. It’s like the falling away, and the falling away, the departure, the lies will be epitomized in the man of sin, the son of perdition—the lawless one who, through the working of Satan, will seem powerful. He will use lies and signs to deceive, and he will tell the lie. What is the lie? That he’s god and the world should worship him.
Number three, we’ve got the removal of the restrainer. This is verse 5 and following of our text. Remember where we’re at? We’ve looked at the timing of his rise: the beginning of the Tribulation, his seven-year career. We’ve looked at the triggering. It will involve the rapture. It will involve this falling away first, and it will involve the removal of the restrainer. This would be verses 5, 6, and 7: “Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 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.” And what happens when this restrainer is taken out of the way? Verse 8: “And then the lawless one will be revealed.”
Okay, so, what is this force or who is this figure that Paul calls the restrainer, this person or power that’s acting as a retaining wall, holding back the forces of darkness? Well, quite a bit of discussion has been had on that subject. Is it the Roman empire? Is it human government? Maybe angels? They certainly are involved in spiritual warfare. The providence or sovereignty of God, the Holy Spirit, the church, or the church indwelt by the Holy Spirit? Now, I commend a study of that to you, but my own study has brought me to the position that the restrainer is the Holy Spirit who indwells the church. He seals us until the day of redemption.
Now, let me make a qualification. That doesn’t mean that after the rapture, after the removal of the restrainer, that the Holy Spirit is no longer universally present on earth—because that’s impossible. You can’t extract the presence of God from His universe or from this world. Isn’t that the theology of Psalm 139:7–10? Where can we flee from Your presence? Can we go up high enough? No. Can we go down low enough? No. So, if I believe the Holy Spirit, the restrainer, is removed, I’m not saying that He is no longer universally present. The phrase “taken out of the way” can be translated “moved to one side.” So, He’s present, but He’s no longer restraining to the degree He once did through the church, which is salt and light within the world.
Again, to quote my old professor, Dr. Dick Mayhue, I think this is helpful. He says this: “The phrase taken out of the way means ‘moved to one side.’ It is like the closed doors of a dam, which hold back the waters of a lake or river, being opened, or pulled aside, to let the torrent of formerly restrained water freely cascade forward. The restraining doors are still present, but they no longer restrain.” That’s a helpful analogy. So, the Holy Spirit will be present on the earth as He’s always been, but He will be no longer restraining. The doors of the dam have been opened, and it has triggered the arrival and advent of the evil one.
Can I give you a few arguments for my argument?
One, if you look at some of the options, I don’t think they pass the test. This restrainer has got to be omnipotent because He’s restraining the hoards of hell. He’s restraining the epitome of sin. He’s restraining a figure who works according to the working of Satan. So, this figure’s got to be greater than Satan. Only God’s greater than Satan, so I believe this has got to be God the Holy Spirit. This figure’s got to be omnipotent. Human government won’t do that. Angels won’t do that.
Plus, it’s the only view that adequately explains the change of gender. Did you notice in verse 6 that the restrainer is entitled as a “what,” a power: “What is restraining?” But in verse 7, it’s a person: “He who now restrains.” Now, if you look at the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as we find it in the New Testament, the word that’s used for the Holy Spirit, pneuma, is a neuter in the Greek. And yet, when Jesus speaks about Him in the upper room discourse, He always speaks about Him with the masculine pronoun: He. You have this “what” and “who” in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and you have it here in 2 Thessalonians 2.
Number three, the Holy Spirit is spoken of in Scripture as restraining. Acts 7, right? Paul is going to kill Stephen, the first Christian martyr, along with others, and they start stoning this faithful witness of Jesus. And, in Acts 7, Stephen says, “Why do you resist the Holy Spirit?” The Holy Spirit’s seeking to stop them from doing that which is evil, and they’re resisting His resistance or restraint.
And then, the church’s mission is to be salt and light in the world. We are the instrument, aren’t we, through which the Holy Spirit restrains? The presence of a Christian brings light where there’s darkness. The presence of a Christian brings hope where there’s despair. The presence of a Christian is a voice for righteousness against a cacophony of voices for evil. And so, with the pulling back of the Holy Spirit, in a functional sense, the doors are open. That’s got to, by implication, mean the removal of the church.
So, that’s my argument for the fact that as Christians, we are to be salt and light in the community. Look, imagine a world without Christians. It’s bad enough as it is. Amen? But imagine this world without you and me. Old Dr. Barnhouse said, “What is the reason that the Antichrist has not yet appeared?” And he said, “You are!” You’re the reason. God intends for us to remain for this period of time to be salt and light, to evangelize the world or bring the hope of the gospel. Imagine a world without Christians. Imagine government without righteous voices. Imagine universities without godly professors. Imagine school boards without those who speak up for common sense and good. Imagine industry without people of Christian integrity. You don’t want to imagine a world where you have the extraction of the presence of goodness and grace in the life of the Christian.
Let me tell you a story and move on. A well-known professional golfer was playing in a tournament with President Gerald Ford, Jack Nicklaus, and Billy Graham. I’d like to play in that foursome. And after the round, one of the other pros on the tour asked this golfer, “Well, hey, what was it like to play with Billy Graham and the president?” The man replied, “Well, I was bothered by the fact that Billy Graham kept stuffing religion down my throat. Spoiled the whole round!” He kind of went off in a huff, grabbed a bucket of balls, and went over to the practice tee. This guy followed him and said, “What do you mean? Did Billy Graham kind of buttonhole you, pinhole you? Did he treat you roughly?” The guy kind of sighed, and to the confusion of the other man, he said, “No, he didn’t even mention religion.”
Now, this story is told by R. C. Sproul in his book The Holiness of God, and the point of the story is this. “Ah, Billy Graham! I can’t stand it, stuffing religion down my throat.” “Well, how did he do it?” “Well, he didn’t even speak about religion.” How do you explain that? Maybe there was a Christlikeness. Maybe there was an effusion of holiness that emanated from that good man that exposed this man, that convicted this man, that showed him up for what he was not. And that’s what we are. That’s what we need to be until Jesus takes us home. Amen?
Here’s the fourth reason, or the fourth trigger, and we’ll get to a conclusion here. The restoration of Israel and the rebuilding of the temple. Now, this is more implicit than explicit. I can go to “our gathering together to Him” to speak about the rapture. I can go to “the falling away comes first” to speak about the apostasy. And I can go to the verses that talk about the restrainer. But where am I getting this idea of a restored Israel and a rebuilt temple? Well, it’s implicit. In the middle of the seventieth week of Daniel, what did we read? The Antichrist, the prince who is to come of the people who destroyed the temple, will break covenant with Israel. And in the middle of that week, according to Daniel 9:27 and Matthew 24:15 and now 2 Thessalonians 2:4, he will declare himself to be God in the temple of God.
I don’t believe that to be a reference to the church, because in Matthew 24, Jesus talks about when that happens, all of Judea will need to flee. If you go back to Daniel 9, he’s talking about Daniel’s people and the holy city, not the church. This is Israel. This is Jerusalem. And this is a literal temple.
And we read here that there’ll come a point at which the Antichrist, in the middle of the Tribulation, will exalt himself above all that is called God to be worshiped in the temple (v. 4), and you can read about that in Revelation 13.
Point? The Antichrist’s reign and rise is tied to Israel and the temple. By implication, either before he can rise or at his rising, Israel will need to be in the land for him to make a covenant with them. And the third temple will need to be built—which hasn’t happened, but that will happen. We are awaiting the fulfillment of prophetic Scriptures regarding a rebuilding of the third temple, but the stage is being set.
There are those in Israel today who are preparing for the rebuilding of the temple. Israel’s back in the land and in control of Jerusalem, although they have ceded the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock to the Muslim and Palestinian communities. Israel is in the land, and Jerusalem is a cup of trembling. The Temple Mount is a flashpoint. Almost every week, something goes on in and around that area. It’s today’s news. Can I remind you that the October 7th attack by Hamas was named Operation Al-Aqsa Flood? Al-Aqsa is the Dome of the Rock. The attack on Israel on October the 7th was done by Hamas, in their warped mind, to revenge the stuff that was going on around the Temple Mount. It’s today’s news.
It seems impossible that the temple will be rebuilt and that the Jews will occupy it and sacrifice to God, according to Daniel 9:27. In fact, Muslim nations have made it clear that any attempt to rebuild the Jewish temple will lead to war in the Middle East. It seems impossible, but you know what? The days to come will not be natural. They’ll be supernatural. I can’t tell you how it’s going to be rebuilt. I can’t tell you how you’re going to get around that conundrum. But God will see to it. And the Antichrist will see to it.
It brings me to my last thought here: the tracking of his rise. There’s something here I don’t want you to miss. Look at verse 6: “And now you know what is restraining, that he [that is, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the one who exalts himself above God in the temple of God] may be revealed”—notice this little phrase—“in his own time.” Hold on a minute. There’s something here you don’t want to miss. In fact, that can literally be translated “in the season of him.” There’s coming a season when God will allow the floodgates to open, and Satan will run rampant throughout the world. There’ll be an unholy trinity of Satan like the Father, the Antichrist like the Son, and the false prophet like the Holy Spirit. And they will seek to establish an evil empire. They will oppose God. They will hate Israel. And God’s going to allow it “in the season of him.” Satan would love to turn his guy loose on the world right now. He would love to let all hell break loose. Why not? Because God hasn’t allowed it. It’s not the season. It’s not the time. There are events that will trigger it, that will unfold. God is sovereign.
God and Satan are not equals. Amen? Satan is powerful, but he’s not all-powerful. You can see in Job 1 and 2 that the devil is God’s devil, as Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, showed us. He’s on a leash. He has to appear before God. He has to be given permission to touch the saints of God within the purposes and plans of God. In fact, in an ultimate sense, the devil can serve the plan and purpose of God, as well his servant the Antichrist. But I just want you to see that God’s in complete charge of that, in complete control of that. As one writer says, “As there was an exact season for Christ to appear, so also is there for Satan’s false christ. He is but a man; God will determine his permitted season.” That’s encouraging.
Rest assured, the hand of God is ruling and overruling, seeing and overseeing everything that is happening. That’s why Corrie ten Boom said, “There is no panic in Heaven! . . . only plans.” That’s why Adrian Rogers said that the Trinity never meets in emergency session. This is the day of the Lord. This is something He has promised and planned. This is His intervention in righteous judgment and the restoration of Israel, as we’ll see shortly. Man rules, but God overrules.
As we close, I’ve got a question. I’m guessing this is a question you’re asking. Is the Antichrist alive today? Well, my answer to that is he may well be. I can’t say that for sure, but I think it’s an educated guess to say he may well be. In fact, I would make an argument that Satan has someone ready in every generation that he can lay his hands on and push to the center stage of human history for his evil purposes. I’ll tell you why I believe that: because Satan’s not omniscient, just like he’s not omnipotent—which means, like us, he doesn’t know the hour or the day. So, he’s got to have someone ready in every generation for the triggering of the rapture and the falling away and the removal of the restrainer and the advent of the man of sin.
Plus, this is to the argument he could well be alive today. The spirit of Antichrist is already at work. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work. The Antichrist is the lawless one. Is that not our present world, lawlessness in the streets? Crime, brutality, a disregard for people and property. Lawlessness. Our world is getting ready for the lawless one.
The Antichrist is an anti-Semite. He hates Israel. He will dupe them into a peace agreement, and then he will break it. Then, the people in the city of Jerusalem and in Judea, according to Jesus, need to flee. And they better pray it’s not in winter. In Revelation 12, the woman who gives birth to the child, Israel, giving birth to Christ, will be persecuted by the beast. I’m going to ask you a question. Are you seeing any rise in anti-Semitism in our world today? Did we not think we were done with that? Did we not think that ended with the Third Reich? No, it did not.
The Antichrist is a globalist. He’s looking for a one-world government. He wants the world to obey him and worship him. He will want individual nations to cede their power to him. Are we not living in a world where globalism is on the increase and where we have the technology for individuals to reach the world and influence the world?
The Antichrist is a narcissist. He will self-deify himself. You see any narcissism around—love of self and pleasure and this idea of “don’t tell me who I am and what I am because I’m god to myself”? Remember what Shirley MacLaine said? “I am God.”
And then, on top of that, you’ve got the reunited Europe, Israel back in the land, the Middle East crying for peace, technology reaching the world, a political climate for globalism. I don’t know about you, but it’s not hard to envision the advent of the Antichrist in short order. So, could he be alive today? Absolutely. There’s great reason to believe he is.
So, as we close, knowing the time—that it’s far spent, that it’s nighttime historically, and that our salvation is nearer than when we first believed—let’s wake up. Let’s put off the flesh. Let’s put on the Lord Jesus. Let’s double down on our Bible readings and prayer. Let’s double down on supporting the work of the gospel. Let’s double down on evangelism and reaching our loved ones with the gospel, with the truth, before they believe the lie.
I’m a Fitbit guy. I’ve had several Fitbits over my time. And a while ago, my Fitbit kind of got stuck. I’d had it for a while. When I travel, it usually syncs with your phone so that where you are, it represents the time you’re in. But, for some reason, this Fitbit was stuck in California time. So, I might’ve been in London, or I might’ve been in Belfast. I might’ve been in Dallas. But it was stuck. I decided to get rid of it, and then I decided, you know what? I’ll just keep it for a while. And the reason I decided to keep it was because I thought about this. You know what? Whether I’m in Dallas, whether I’m in London or Belfast, my heart’s in California. That’s where June is. That’s where the girls are. That’s where Kindred Community Church resides. And so, I let it be so that wherever I was in the world, I was on California time, where my heart was and the people I love most.
And I think there’s a spiritual lesson. We need to set our affection on things above. Wherever we are in time, let’s think about eternity. Wherever we are on earth, let’s think about heaven because that’s where our heart is. That’s where our Savior resides. And I get a sense He’s getting up, and He’s coming in our direction.
Father, thank You for Your Word. The Bible is an amazing book. It tells us of the past. It helps us interpretate the contemporary. And it shows us the future. And, Lord, as we have learned today, the future for this world, not for the church, is a dark one—a sad and sorry story of judgment and deception and an outbreak of hellish invasion. Lord, we thank You this morning that in Christ we will not face condemnation. We’re not appointed to the time of that wrath, and we praise You for our salvation.
We pray for anyone who’s here or listening who doesn’t know You, that they would run from the Antichrist and run to the Christ and find life and truth. Lord, help us to be aware of the world around us and the shape that it’s taking and to realize that things aren’t falling apart. They’re falling into place. Help us to realize no matter how dark it gets, light will break through, and righteousness will triumph over evil, and Christ will destroy the Antichrist. So, just help us to take these practical, everyday lessons with us. Help us to set our affection on things above and to remind ourselves wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, we’re citizens of heaven. May our conduct and our behavior and our words represent that kingdom for Jesus’ sake. Amen.