2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 “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, (4) 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. (5) Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? (6) And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. (7) For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. (8) 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. (9) The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, (10) and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (11) And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, (12) that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
In the above passage of scripture the apostle Paul reveals to us that the Day of the Lord will not take place before the man of sin is revealed in the earth. The Day of the Lord that Paul is referring to in this passage is the second coming of the Lord Jesus, and the man of sin that Paul is referring to is the Antichrist. And so in this section we will discuss the key event of the revealing of the Antichrist that must take place before the first resurrection can occur. This, and the following three key events that we will look at, are all linked together, nevertheless I have separated them in order to teach each one more clearly. It is very amusing to see all the predictions that are made by some “prophets” and “teachers” of the end times, as to who they say the Antichrist is. These predictions range from the current Pope to the latest American president, and always changes when that person either dies or moves off the world stage. The bible however, reveals to us a very different person to any predicted by the false prophets and teachers that are out there. With regards to the individual referred to as the Antichrist there are several things that scripture reveals to us about him, for example we know that he comes out of the Muslim faith and that he will emerge as the leader of that faith which is described as the fourth beast in Daniel’s vision (Daniel 7:7-23). To be continued …
Michael E.B. Maher
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