09/11/2020
PAUL'S REVELATION OF THE “MAN OF SIN”
The apostle Paul seems to have had a penchant for being misunderstood in his writings. Peter makes note of this when he describes Paul’s epistles as containing “some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (II Peter 3:16).
The Day of the Lord will not come unless the "falling away" comes first, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:3. What is this falling away? Is it apostasy, a spiritual departure from the faith, or is it an actual physical rapture?
Paul is writing to the Thessalonians believers about events pertaining to Christ’s second coming. He provides an order that was to take place first. He said that the coming of the LORD Jesus Christ and the gathering of the saints to Him would not take place until two prominent things took place.
The first was “THE GREAT FALLING AWAY,” or literally “THE APOSTASY.” The second event was “the Man of Sin” being REVEALED. In other words, the Antichrist would come BEFORE the LORD would come with and for His Saints.
The Apostasy
When Lucifer fell, he also caused the first and original apostasy in heaven. It is assumed that a third of the angelic hosts apostatized in heaven with Satan. They exercised their free will as self-will, which was in reality, Satan’s will, against God’s good, perfect and acceptable will. The sin was first committed in Heaven. See
- Isaiah 14:12-14, verse 12 says;
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations.”
- 2 Peter 2:4, says;
“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.”
Read also Jude 6, Revelation 12
Therefore the “falling away” are Christians. The unregenerate have nothing to “fall away” from, as they are NOT in CHRIST.
The term “falling away” is an interesting translation of the Greek word APOSTASIA.
The root verb from which Apostasia comes means to “depart from” This verb is used 15 times in the New Testament and only once it’s translated “fall away.”
Tyndale, one of the first to translate the Bible into English and many other early translators of the New Testament, translated this Greek word Apostasia as “a departure” See
– 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 verse 3 says;
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.”
The order that Paul gives has to do with the second coming of Christ at the end of age, NOT in early centuries of church history. It is worthy to notice the various designations that Paul gives concerning this person who was to be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming. His second coming is in Person.
Paul opens by foretelling, first of all, that Christ's return will be preceded by a period of apostasy that could include anything from a falling away, a departure from doctrine or teaching, all the way to and including an outright political rebellion. (to be continued)
