- Alright, here we are,
1 and 2 Thessalonians, Preparing for the Second Coming. This is lesson number nine in the series. If you've got your Bibles,
open them to 2 Thessalonians 2, that's where we're going to be. 2 Thessalonians 2. And we're going to ask the question and try to answer the question, who is the man of lawlessness? Have a little bit of review
first, catch everybody up. So these two letters,
1 and 2 Thessalonians contain two major ideas. First of all, thanksgiving
for the faithfulness of this particular congregation, the perseverance of this
particular young congregation in the face of adversity. And then the second, you know, important sections in
both of these letters contain important teaching concerning the return of Jesus Christ, which for various reasons
was confusing them, was causing them some, you
know, some consternation. So the first letter to the Thessalonians contained information about
the actual return of Jesus and what would happen to
believers when Jesus returns. And then the second letter
to the Thessalonians describes key events that must take place before the return of Jesus Christ. And I suppose this was necessary teaching because there were some people in that particular congregation who had begun to say that
Christ had already come, or that Christ's coming was imminent, it was like right away,
it's just happening now, and people were getting
upset and so on and so forth, so Paul is teaching not only
what would actually happen to Christians when Jesus returned, but also what were the things
that had to happen first before he returned. So in this second letter
Paul reassures them that the day, when he talks about the day he's always talking
about when Jesus returns, that the day had not yet come because other events
had to take place first, and the other events
that had to take place, one, the apostasy, the falling away of believers from the truth, that had to take place first, and the revelation of
the man of lawlessness as his restraining influence is removed. Alright, so we're going
to talk about that today. So in our last session we
said that the falling away from the teachings of
Christ had already begun. Now we're going to look at
the possible identification of the man of lawlessness,
who is, you know, who could it be, this man of lawlessness? So let's go to 2 Thessalonians 2 and begin reading in verse 1. Paul writes, Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly
shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message of a letter as if from us, to the effect that the
day of the Lord has come. 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 destruction, who
opposes and exalts himself above every so-called
god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat
in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that
while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 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. 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, that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and
signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish,
because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. This is another one of these long passages where you say to yourself, well I understand all
the words he's saying but when I put all the
words together I go, huh? What's he talking about? So, here he's talking about
the end time will not come unless two things happen. The apostasy takes place, the
falling away from the faith, and remember, I've already
explained that to you. Falling away from the faith, only Christians can fall
away from the faith. Muslims cannot fall away from the faith, 'cause they don't have
the faith to begin with. Atheists can't fall away from the faith, 'cause they don't believe, period. So the apostasy is within Christianity, so you have the truth here, the gospel truth, the Bible truth, and you have people who believe that truth and live according to it. The apostasy is that those
people begin to fall away from, 'cause the truth always remains. People begin falling away from that truth within Christianity, so he
says that's the first thing that has to happen before Jesus returns, and then the second thing
is the man of lawlessness must be revealed. Not just appear, he must be revealed. To who? Well, to Christians, we need to find out who the man of lawlessness is. Okay. So, throughout history there
have been various ideas as to, well, who is
the man of lawlessness? And, you know, we don't
have time in one class to go over all of them, but I've picked the four main ones, the four main ideas that have come forward to describe who is this man of lawlessness. So let's look at the
four main ones, alright? The first one, the Roman Empire. For a long time people thought the Roman Empire was
the man of lawlessness. And it's easy to see why
early Christians might think that the Roman Empire was
the Man of Lawlessness. Roman Empire opposed Christianity, it demanded worship of the emperor as god, it promoted great evil, and the restraining power,
'cause Paul talks about, you know, the restraining
power has to be removed so that the man of lawlessness, you know, really do a lot of evil, so the restraining power was thought to be the actual Roman government, which kept the emperor's power in check and prevented his total
lust for absolute power. Now, this, of course,
this theory falls apart, because the scripture says
that the man of lawlessness would be there, even at the end of time, and then be destroyed
by the coming of Jesus. Well, we see right away
why the Roman Empire can't be the man of lawlessness, the Roman Empire and the
emperors of the Roman Empire are long gone and so it cannot fulfill this portion of scripture, but it was easy to see for the
first couple of hundred years how people would think, wow, this is the man of lawlessness, alright? Another idea who is
the man of lawlessness, lot of people think Satan
is the man of lawlessness. Some think that Satan
himself is that person. He works behind the scenes, you know, to create and promote evil, and then one day actually
becomes human in some form in order to personify
the man of lawlessness. Many people have thought this
is how it was going to happen. As a matter of fact, a
lot of popular movies have used this idea, if
you're old enough to remember, you know, The Exorcist, right? Every movie where the
devil becomes, you know, a human being of some kind, right, is based on this thought here, that somehow the man of
lawlessness is Satan. So, you know, The Exorcist,
Damien, Rosemary's Baby, The Devil's Advocate, all these movies, they all, you know, glom onto this idea and they develop it in a movie. Now, in this theory, the Holy Spirit, perhaps working through the word of God, this is the restraining power, 'cause you got to figure out two things. Who's the man of lawlessness, and what is this restraining power? So in this theory the restraining
power is the Holy Spirit working through the word. The idea is that the Holy Spirit
will be removed at the end so Satan can take human form
and be destroyed by Jesus before he takes over the world. So that's the theory as
it's played out to its end. Now, there are some problems
with this theory as well. In verse 9 Paul says that
Satan is directing this person. Wait a minute. Now we got to have
Satan directing himself, that doesn't make any sense. Satan is directing this person, this person here who's going
to be the man of lawlessness. But in the idea that Satan
is the man of lawlessness, you know, there's a contradiction, Satan is not divided. There's also no indication
that the Holy Spirit is ever restrained by anyone other than an individual sinful Christian. The only person who can
restrain the Holy Spirit is you and me, when we say no to him. When through his word he
says do this, do that, you know, stop this, don't
do this, don't, you know, whenever we say no, I'm
going to do it anyways, well we are restraining the Holy Spirit, we're quenching the Spirit,
right, in our lives. But nobody, you know, holds back the power of the word of God. Also, no one can restrain
the Holy Spirit's power working in somebody else's life. I can't stop the spirit
of God working in you, I don't have, nobody's got that power. Now in Revelation 20:1-3 John is writing in that passage, it demonstrates that
Satan is being restrained for 1000 years, that's not a literally
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, 10, 999, 1000, not literal 1000 years, 1000 years is the New
Testament period, right? Jesus dying on the cross, resurrecting, the gospel is preached,
clock, the clock starts, and all the way 'til today, we're still in that 1000 years. That perfect period of
time that only God knows when it will end, that,
we're in that, okay. So, Revelation shows that
Satan is being restrained for 1000 years, and the agent
of that restraining power is an angel, not the Holy Spirit. So, you know, we got to go
with what the scriptures say. Before the coming of Christ, Satan deceives the world with great power. After the cross and
the gospel is preached, Satan's power is much diminished. Therefore, something else,
through Satan's remaining power, and someone else, manipulated
by him, will manifest itself. So the fact that Satan will be released suggests a great release of
evil power present at the end, just before Jesus returns. So the idea that Satan
is the man of lawlessness has a lot of problems with it. In other words, it violates
other passages of scripture, and whenever you run into that problem you don't change what the scripture says, you change your theory. And a lot of people are in
love with their theories and they, you know, they
don't want to do that. But anyway, that's another
class for another time. Now one of the most popular ideas, especially in evangelical
Christianity, is that the papacy, the Pope and the
institution of the papacy, that's the man of lawlessness, okay. Within Christianity,
the idea of the papacy within Christianity, you know,
it actually fits pretty well with the activity of the apostasy and the idea of the man of lawlessness, so let's look at the
pluses for this theory. As I say, it is a favorite
theory of evangelicals and extreme fundamentalists. I think you heard a couple of years back, you know, Bob Jones University, remember when President Bush
visited Bob Jones University and he was criticized for that. Well, he was criticized
because Bob Jones University teaches this very thing here, and he was criticized by
his Catholic constituency, you know, the Catholic voters,
because they were not pleased that he would honor this
university with his presence that was teaching something
so harsh against their faith. So, some of the pluses for this theory. First of all, it's within Christianity and it's very visible. Secondly, it grew out
of the roots of apostasy sown in the first and second century. When I say it, I mean the papacy. Also the reorganization of
the New Testament church from a local, autonomous, pastoral system to a model of organization based on the Roman hierarchical system, which is what the papacy did, produced four changes
that changed the church. First of all, it separated, you know, the ministers from the laity and made them a special intermediary between God and the church, and it created a class
system within the church. So we know the Bible teaches that in the New Testament church, every single member is a
priest, Revelation 1:6, and every single member has a
gift or a ministry, Romans 12. So this biblical idea that
every member a priest, every person has a ministry, this biblical idea was replaced with an elitist view of ministry by the Roman Catholic Church. The priests were here,
the laity were down here, the bishops were there, the
cardinals were up there, that was not the design and
certainly not the pattern for the organization of the church that is described in the New Testament. Secondly, the papacy and its, and, you know, don't get me wrong, I grew up Catholic so I, you know, I can relate to the Catholicism and I can related to what
is being taught here. But we're not attacking Catholicism, we're simply describing its system, okay. We're just describing its system. So the papacy also, and its
reorganization of the church, gave special authority
to pastors and elders over and above the local congregation and set into motion the
pyramidic power system of the Roman Catholic Church today. Now, the Bible gives leadership
to a group of men, elders, for only one congregation. There is no authority in the
church beyond the local level according to the New Testament. So we have seven elders,
six, seven elders, and those elders are
responsible as a group for this congregation, but they are not responsible for the congregation of the church that meets in Del City or in Eastside or in Northside, or Edmond, they're only responsible
for this congregation, and they lead as a group. No one elder can cross over
to the Nicoma Park Church and say, well, I'm an elder and so you've got to do
what I say and you know, no. The New Testament does not teach that. Autonomous churches led
by local leadership, that was the new system, or excuse me, that was the New Testament
system for church leadership, and that was changed by the papacy. Also, this reorganization under the Pope introduced new church positions and roles that were not found in scripture. Offices such as arch-bishop,
cardinals, popes, these things were inventions of men, not authorized by scripture, which only recognizes certain roles. The only roles described in the Bible for people in the New Testament church are one, evangelists, means to proclaim. You can call an evangelist a preacher, a missionary, a minister,
it's all the same thing, all refers to the same thing. You have the role of deacon. So the evangelist, his ministry is the
ministry of proclamation. That's the ministry that we have. I do it on the Internet,
Marty does it from the pulpit, you know what I'm saying, everybody has a specialized
area where they proclaim. Then you have the ministry
of service, deacons. Specialized service, individuals who are selected
among the congregation and given certain
specific responsibilities. The ministry of service. Then you have the ministry of leadership, and we've talked about
that, given to elders, selected, very strict
criteria for what those men, elders need to be married, they need to manage their families well, they need to have a good reputation in and out of the church, they're not easily given to anger and not drinkers, not brawlers, not, you know, womanize, you know,
there's a lot of things there. But elders, the ministry of leadership. And then, of course, our elders, there are a lot of different words. Just like there are different
words for evangelists, you can call 'em a minister,
you can call 'em a preacher, well there are same thing for elders. You can call 'em a bishop,
you can call 'em a pastor, you can call 'em a presbyter,
you can call 'em an overseer, those are all different words
that describe the same person. So someone might ask, well
why are there different words? Because it describes different elements and different areas in an elder's work. Elder refers to the individual's maturity, pastor means shepherd, refers
to how that individual works, he's a shepherd, that's his task. Overseer describes his responsibility and his authority given to him by God, to oversee the work of the church. Is there another one here I forgot? Presbyter, part of a group, alright. So it's just like me, Michael Mazzalongo. Well, I'm a man, but I'm also a father and I'm also a husband, I'm also a son, I'm also a brother in Christ, you know, I have different things,
but they all refer to me. In the same way, the
Bible has different words all referring to elders. So the elders have the
ministry of leadership, and we also have ministry
of teaching, teachers. They're not necessarily elders or deacons but they've been given the
responsibility to teach because of their skills
and their abilities. Those are the only ordained
roles in the church. Everything else has been
added by human beings. So the papacy changed the
hierarchy, if you wish, and gave some people higher
authority than others. And then this reorganization put into the hands of men,
or boards, or committees the right to change, add,
subtract the teachings of Christ, which is a very serious thing, talk about apostasy. Just give you an example. Again, all I'm doing is
describing a system, alright. So here historically some
of the changes in doctrine over the years instituted by the papacy. Infant baptism, third century. The confessional, an
individual going to a priest to confess their sins, in the
fourth century was instituted. The Bible says who do
we confess our sins to? Well, to each other. [chuckles] If I sin against you, I need
to go to you to confess. If I sin against God, I confess to God, but I don't go to the minister
to confess my sins to him, he has no power to forgive me. The doctrine of transubstantiation began in the ninth century, the idea that the bread
and the wine at communion actually becomes in a miraculous way the flesh and the blood of Jesus Christ, and that miracle performed
through the priest and no one else, that idea
doesn't exist in the Bible, but it was instituted
in the ninth century. You know, the idea of indulgences
in the fifteenth century. In other words, if you
purchased an indulgence it meant that you could speed
through to go to heaven, because in the Catholic
system there's heaven, there's purgatory, and hell. Purgatory's like the waiting
room, if you wish, alright, where there's suffering
there, but it isn't eternal, you spend a certain amount of time there. Well, if you purchased an indulgence you could skip purgatory
and go straight to heaven. When my dad died, remember
I grew up Catholic, when my dad died he was a, you know, he was with the mob, and he had a lot of people at his funeral, and we counted up, there
were 153,000 masses purchased for him to
get him out of purgatory so he could go straight to heaven. We were impressed by that,
you know what I'm saying? But, there's nothing in the Bible. We often think purgatory's
just waiting in line to get your license at the
license bureau on 240, but, they believed that this was the case. Infallibility, the big one, right? Infallibility, in 1870,
the doctrine where the, that said the Pope could
not make a mistake. In other words, he was infallible when speaking from the
chair of Peter ex cathedra, meaning when he spoke on
behalf of the cardinals there was no second
guessing, he was infallible. So that just names a couple, just a couple of things from the past, ones perhaps you have
not grown up as Catholic you might not be familiar
with all of these things, but most of us kind of know
about these particular doctrines. The latest addition being
promoted by the previous Pope is the doctrine of the
Co-Mediatrix of Mary. To me I found that especially
apostate and appalling. The Co-Mediatrix of Mary is this. It's the idea that says
that through her suffering, Mary the mother of Jesus contributes to the sacrifice of Jesus on
the cross for our sins. That's the Co-Mediatrix of Mary. In other words, we're
saved by the atoning work of Jesus and Mary. Yeah. Yeah, enough said. In addition to these things, the papacy as the man of lawlessness also has other points
that support this view. It claims superiority over every believer and demands obedience. It makes itself equal
with God in the sense that the papacy claims
infallibility in matters of teaching and condemns all those
who oppose the Pope. You know, all this traveling by the Pope and shaking hands with
all different groups and so on and so forth, that's, you know, those are photo ops. Those are photo ops. You scratch the surface and
go into Catholic doctrine, the Catholic doctrine states unequivocally that if you're outside the Catholic Church you are lost, period. That doctrine hasn't changed. The Catholic Church has
consistently produced false doctrine, false miracles, elevated ordinary people to
semi-godlike roles of saint in an effort to maintain rulership and credibility with its followers, and all of this done in
the name of Jesus Christ. The role of the papacy is
the largest and longest unbroken apostasy visible
within Christianity. It's not the only one,
but it's the biggest one. Now. Some also think that the
restraining influence, remember in the Bible
two things, you know, man of lawlessness needs to be revealed, and secondly the restraining
power has to be removed, so some believe that the papacy
is the man of lawlessness. So what about the restraining, what's the restraining influence? Well some people believe
the restraining influence over the papacy is the Roman
Catholic Church structure, which has historically
fought with the papacy, a little bit like the states
versus Washington, you know, states rights versus federal government, you know, that arguing, that wrestling that continually goes on for power. Same thing happens within
the Catholic Church. Interesting historical note,
the College of Bishops, you know, the College of Bishops, right, in the Catholic Church, the College of Bishops fought very hard against the introduction of the doctrine of papal infallibility in 1870, but they lost the battle,
they were outvoted. Okay, so others teach that the Reformation and the resulting spread of the Bible into the hands of the common people has mortally wounded the papacy, and that because of this it no longer has the
power that it once had. So, what am I saying here? I'm saying the idea is
that the Reformation was the breath of his mouth, if you wish, that God sent to strike
down the man of lawlessness, which is the papacy. That's how this thinking works here. And only the return of Jesus is left to completely discredit and
destroy this institution. Again, I'm simply repeating
what some scholars have thought concerning the Catholic Church
and the man of lawlessness and how these two are connected. A lot of scholars hold
to this particular view, which I've summarized
concerning the papacy as the man of lawlessness. I mean, it's true that there
are many parallels here, and it's a good argument, and
it's held by a lot of people, but in our study let's look
at some of the problems with this view. First of all, the Pope
does not claim deity. He only claims authority
in religious matters. At the moment the Pope is
trying to unite all religions and foster a greater unity
between, for example, Catholics and Protestants. Recently he was in Turkey visiting mosques and,
you know, shaking hands with many leaders in the Muslim religion. Secondly, in 2 Thessalonians
the apostasy is such that the man of lawlessness
and the system that he fosters is in open rebellion against
Christ and the gospel, according to 2 Thessalonians. So whatever its mistakes,
the Roman Catholic Church promotes belief in the God of the Bible, promotes faith in Christ,
promotes high moral standards. You know, the Catholic Church
has consistently fought against the idea of gay
rights and gay marriage, you know, upholding that. The Catholic Church very solid
against abortion for example and other social sins. You know, growing up I
learned about who Jesus was through the Catholic Church, and I, you know, as I progressed in my religious understanding, and especially my
understanding of the Bible, my understanding of who Jesus
was never actually changed. In other words, in the Catholic Church I was accurately taught who Jesus was. He was the son of God, God made man. I didn't learn that as a
member of the Church of Christ, I learned that as a member
of the Catholic Church growing up, so you know,
we have to kind of, you know, say what is actually
true about this organization. In the end, you know, I believe that the Catholic system and
the papacy, I believe that, and it's my personal opinion, I believe that it's part of the apostasy and they suffer from the
delusions and the errors brought about by the man of lawlessness. Remember, the man of
lawlessness creates delusion. The man of lawlessness, you know, the end result of the man of lawlessness is people falling away from Christ, falling away from the teaching. I believe the Catholic Church,
if it's guilty of a sin it's the falling away from
the teachings of Christ. In other words, they are unwitting tools in the larger scheme of
evil that creates confusion and heresy within Christianity, but I don't believe that they and the Pope are the man of lawlessness
as some people believe. You see, the apostasy is something that happens within Christianity, and I believe that
different unbiblical forms of Christianity practiced
today, which include Roman Catholicism, but
also include Mormonism, and Seventh-day Adventists,
and Jehovah Witnesses, and so on and so forth,
all of these things are individual parts of a general apostasy that began in the second century and continues today in ever,
you know, different forms. It is inaccurate, however, to say that the man of lawlessness is the head or the leader of the apostasy, that's not a biblical idea. The apostasy begins and
it develops in many ways and then the man of
lawlessness is revealed, as a separate event. These are two different events, remember. Paul says first there's the apostasy, then the man of lawlessness is revealed, they're two separate events. So these are separate things
happening concurrently. The Bible does not say that the man of lawlessness
is a religious figure. That's the main reason why the Pope as the man of lawlessness doesn't work, 'cause the Bible doesn't say the man of lawlessness
is a religious figure. Paul says that the man of
lawlessness opposes religion, opposes God, opposes worship, and tries to take God's
place as ruler over men. That's what the Bible says. Although it fits in a lot of ways, the Pope and Roman Catholic
Church as the man of lawlessness does not match important facts that the Bible gives about him. Does the Roman Catholic Church fit within the idea of the apostasy? Oh yes, absolutely. I believe that, it's
very easy to prove it. But is the Pope the man of lawlessness? No. Why, because I don't want him to be? No, because it just doesn't fit what the scriptures say about him. Alright, well I have
just a few minutes left, let's go to the fourth
view, okay, the fourth view. The fourth view is that
the man of lawlessness is a principle of lawlessness. The principle of evil and
rebellion working in the world and manifesting itself
in a variety of people and movements throughout history. So you see the principle of lawlessness, you see it working in the Roman Empire, in the Barbarian Wars, in the Dark Ages, in Nazism and Communism,
in godless philosophy, in fanatic religious aggression. All of these things have
one thing in common. They have a core of evil
that's driving them. So these and other movements
have tried to rule men without respect to God,
or the God of the Bible. Just 'cause some guy, you know, shoots you in the head saying praise God doesn't mean that he's actually praising the God of the Bible. They've used lies, power
and every evil device to achieve their goals. So all have been caught up
in the power of delusion caused by atheistic philosophy or the twisted religion of every age. In every age, I'm saying,
there is this principle of evil that is working in society, and it manifests itself in all
kinds of ways and movements, and evil dictators, and crazy religions, and so on and so forth. For example, every age
produces a new version or face of this evil principle. The materialism in the nineteenth century, humanism of the twentieth century, post modernism in the
twenty-first century, religious fanaticism of our day, all of these are just manifestations of this principle of evil that
is operating in our world. All of them have opposed God, all of them have tried
to destroy true worship, all of them have tried to take God's place in His own temple, and
what is the temple of God? The human being, we're the temple of God. And so the principle of
evil is always trying to take us over as individuals, and this principle of evil, like yeast, working but not being
seen, will continue working in this way until the evil
will be embodied in one person or one movement which will be
more powerful and more evil and more threatening to
man's soul than ever before. The man of lawlessness will pose a threat because his revealing will be accompanied, as the Bible says, by
personal claims to deity, by signs and wonders, by
visibility on the world-wide scope. So follow me here, this principle of evil is always working, always working, manifested in a variety of
ways throughout history, but at some point it'll be
manifested in such a way the most powerful of evil
at some point in time will be manifested. So the understanding is that
it is the man of lawlessness that is being revealed will be the sign that the return of
Christ will be imminent. This principle of evil will
finally be manifested, alright? Now remember, Jesus does not return until the man of lawlessness is revealed. And my question is
always, revealed to who? Well the answer is
revealed to us, Christians. Disbelievers and the wicked
will not recognize him for who he is. Jesus promises that Christians will know. And the question is,
well how will we know? And the answer is, Jesus
will reveal him to us, we don't have to be afraid
that we won't see it, or we'll miss it, or
we'll sleep through it. The man of lawlessness is revealed, he doesn't reveal himself. We don't have to worry,
we will know who he is. Now, the restraining power, the restraining power that holds him back, you know, verses 6 and 7,
is referred to as a person and a power and himself a mystery. This restraining power could
be the opposing principle of law and order as manifested in history throughout various
leaders and governments. So what's holding this
principle of evil back from totally dominating? I think it's the principle
of law and order, and various societies. When this principle of law,
under which we live here in the United States, when
this principle breaks down, the man of lawlessness will
give full vent to his evil, and only the return of Christ will be able to stop it and destroy it. So when we put these ideas together we see a kind of a
historical pattern emerge. God's word is preached, and from it many laws and many cultures are formed to reflect it. The principle of evil then is at work essentially opposing God and
seen in its constant attack against moral and legal standards. The apostasy begins,
and throughout history works to a point where
there is little divine basis for laws and morals of mankind. Does this sound familiar
to you? [chuckles] 50 years ago could you have believed, just 50 years ago, but let's
say 100 years ago, okay? In 1914, you ask anybody in the US of A if the President of the United
States would be caught dead promoting and encouraging
men to marry each other. Or women to marry each other. I mean, people would go
oh, stop, don't say that, you know, I can't stand it. Today, it's normal. Why? Because we've had 100 years of this principle of evil like yeast working in our society,
breaking down our laws, breaking down our moral structures. I mean, you know, I'm not
setting my very limited hair on fire here this morning trying to make some, take a look around. We always say, this country
was formed and based on, you know, the Bible,
Judeo-Christian principles, blah blah blah, yeah, God's
word, so on and so forth. Yeah, that's history,
and what has happened? Well we've slowly but surely
fallen away from all of that. Why, well because this
principle of evil has worked, and somehow we can't, it's
like an octopus, right? We can't seem to get ahold of the thing. So this removal of God's will from the fabric of human affairs and laws permits a final surge of
evil which is personified in a single person or a movement that seeks to replace God and His will as the source for human
values and human laws. When this happens, this will
signal the return of Christ and His word to its preeminent position and destroys once and for
all the principle of evil, the man of lawlessness,
the corrupted world, the wicked and unbelievers who have served the apostasy
and the principle of evil. Now I like this fourth theory to explain Paul's prophecy
for a couple of reasons. First, the emperors of Rome are gone, Satan cannot be divided, the papacy fails the complete description, if you wish, of the man of lawlessness. But the fourth theory explains the past, it explains the present,
and it explains the future without violating any facts
about the man of lawlessness and the apostasy as it is
taught in 2 Thessalonians. So we can choose what
we believe works here, but I think that this fourth theory most accurately explains
most of the facts we have about this teaching. Remember I said at the beginning there's a lot in this
30 minute lesson here? There's a lot to chew on, you know, there's a lot to chew on. This is probably one
of the most complicated and difficult passages
in the New Testament. So, what about us today, you know? Well, we live in a time when
both the apostasy, right, and the principle of evil
are at work in our world and in the church, we're
living in that time. So we need to do two things in response. Again, not running around
thinking, oh the end is near, we don't know. I'll know the end is near when I know who the man of lawlessness is. When I know the man of lawlessness, when that one is revealed, then I'll know, okay,
the next thing to happen is Jesus will return. But remember what I
told you about prophecy? You have to be careful. We know the sequence, right, but we don't know the time frame. I know that A will come before B, and B will come before C, but I don't know how
much distance there is between A and B, and B and C. It could be two years, or
200 years, or 2000 years, I don't, none of us know that. So so far the man of lawlessness
has not been revealed, that's the thing that needs to happen. So what do we need to do? First of all, stay close to
the word of God in all things. I think the idea of the
restoration movement that birthed the Churches
of Christ, you know, whose appeal was let's just go back and stick to the Bible and
be very careful about that, I think that that was
part of the restraining that God, you know, visited upon the world to restrain the evil. And then secondly, struggle
against the principle of evil by preaching the gospel to this world and living holy lives in
order to call the lost into the light and into
the safety of Christ. Now, you know, I've
talked about all this evil and all the stuff going on,
and it frustrates me at times, but I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid. What will happen if they all take over? What will happen if, you know, the Muslims come here and
they destroy everything and they're in charge? That won't change what I got to do. It'll change the way I have to do, but it's not going to change
the way I have to live and what I have to do as a Christian man. It's just going to make it
more difficult for me to do it, but I have absolutely no fear that, you know, I won't
know what to do anymore. I know exactly what to do. I'm just thankful that
I'm able to do what I do, preach the gospel, live a Christian life, and I'm still able to do
that in relative safety in this country, but it might
not always be like that. So let's be sure and remember who we are and what we're about, and that's enough. The Lord will reveal
to us in plenty of time who the man of lawlessness is, and prepare us for His coming. Alright, that's our lesson for today, thank you very much for your attention.
