The Works of the Man of Sin

God has said that the kingdom of God, as it now exists, will transform the earth through our obedience to the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20). One day, “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isa 11:9).

Three of the four standard prophetic models deny this statement. Their proponents often use Paul’s “great apostasy” passage (2 Thess 2:1–12) to support their view of the kingdom’s future. 

This view is a mistake. I have said (here) that the Apostle was speaking about apostate Israel. The “great apostasy” is in our past, not our future. This allows us to believe that we can “make disciples of all the nations.” 

Here, I will discuss the works of the Man of Sin to show his apostasy is in our past. It must not cast a spirit of gloom on our future. 

Apostasy

Paul said God would reveal and destroy the Man of Sin (2 Thess 2:3, 8). But “the falling away (Gk. apostasia)” must come first (2 Thess 2:3). 

Most commentators see this as a religious apostasy. Paul later said, “All those in Asia have turned away from me” (2 Tim 1:15). His friends had departed from the faith. But Paul had a broader “falling away” in mind involving civil, political, and military rebellion. As F. F. Bruce says,

It appears more probable from the context that a general abandonment of the basis of civil order is envisaged. This is not only rebellion against the law of Moses; it is a large-scale revolt against public order, and since public order is maintained by the “governing authorities” who “have been instituted by God,” any assault on it is an assault on a divine ordinance (Rom 13:1, 2).¹

Paul was warning the Thessalonians about this kind of apostasy.

Paul based his warning on Jesus’ Olivet Discourse.² As William Hendriksen says, this apostasy “had been clearly predicted by the Lord while he was still on earth (Matt. 24:10–13).”³ It would happen in Paul’s generation (Matt 24:34).

Paul told the Thessalonians about the coming “revolt of the Jews from the Roman government.”⁴ And it happened just as he said it would: the Man of Sin—apostate Israel—rebelled against the Roman authorities (cf. 2 Thess 2:3 ESV). Then God used the Empire’s armies to destroy him. 

Sacrilege

Paul said the Man of Sin “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” (2 Thess 2:4). These realities existed when the Thessalonians read this letter.⁵ Again, the Olivet Discourse supplies the background: “In 2 Thess 2:4 Paul depends on the prophecy of Jesus.”⁶ 

The apostate Jews opposed and exalted themselves “against every so-called god or object of worship” (2 Thess 2:4 ESV). Paul said they were abhorring idols but committing sacrilege by robbing their temples. They were dishonoring God and causing the Gentiles to blaspheme His name (Rom 2:22–24). These Jews would soon rebel against the Emperor, who called himself a god. Their lawless sedition was “already at work” (2 Thess 2:7). 

The Man of Sin—apostate Israel and their corrupt priests—was sitting “in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” Jesus had accused them of such things: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.… They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders” (Matt 23:2–4). They were shutting up the kingdom of heaven against men, neither going in themselves, nor allowing those who are entering to go in (Matt 23:13).

Nehemiah Nisbett asks an important question:

What was sitting in the Temple of God, and shewing themselves as if they were God, if dictating the terms of salvation, and confining the divine favours to themselves, were not?⁷

 And this “tyranny was literally carried on in the very temple of God.”⁸

Israel’s leaders “took their stand … against the LORD and against His Christ” (Acts 4:26–27). “They … called for the apostles and [beat] them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:40). Had God said, “Preach”? They said, “Preach not.” 

The Scribes and Pharisees, sitting in the temple of God, were taking divine authority to themselves.

Restraint

Some force was “restraining … the mystery of lawlessness … already at work” (2 Thess 2:6–7). The Thessalonians knew the identity of that restrainer; we can only guess. But the New Testament, read from an inmillennial⁹ perspective, allows us to develop a possibility.

At a high level, the Roman government restrained the Jew’s apostasy, both religious and civil. William Hendriksen makes an interesting comment about their desire to kill Jesus: “Two obstacles made it difficult for them to carry out their wicked plan immediately: a. the Roman government (John 18:30), and b. the spectators.”¹⁰ They feared the Romans would “come and take away both [their] place and nation” (John 11:48). This fear restrained their wickedness.

From our historical perspective, we can be more specific—the restrainer was Emperor Claudius. John Lightfoot says he was restraining the Jews when Paul wrote Thessalonians. But, he, “being taken out of the way, and Nero, after his first five years, suffering all things to be turned topsy turvy, the Jews … broke out into slaughter beyond measure, and into a most bloodied persecution.”¹¹

Nisbett explains the reasons for this delay: the Jews were too ashamed to revolt against Claudius. He had made two edicts in their favor. One protected the Jews in Alexandria; the other gave them “liberty over his whole empire, without molestation, to observe their own laws and customs.”¹² They would not revolt until he was “taken out of the way.” 

Deception

Jesus had foretold the deceivers that would come in his generation:

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.… False christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Matt 24:11, 24)

Paul told the Thessalonians the deception had started:

The coming (Gk. parousia) 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. (2 Thess 2:9–10)

I again agree with Nisbett: “This language of St. Paul appears to have so decided and striking a reference to that of our Lord in the [Olivet Discourse] … that there is scarcely a single commentator who has not referred to it.”¹³

The Man of Sin—apostate Israel—was full of satanic deception.

Delusion and Destruction

Jesus had said the non-elect in Israel would believe the deceivers (Matt 24:24). Paul told the Thessalonians that “God will send them strong delusions, that they should believe the lie” (2 Thess 2:11).

 Nisbett quotes from Dr. Whitby to show how this happened:

Now to these [deceivers], Josephus doth ascribe the beginning of the Apostasy from the Roman government, and by them he informs us, that it was carried on to the last. The affairs of the Jews, saith he, became worse daily, by reason of those Impostors who deceived the people.… He adds, that in the beginning of the reign of Nero, Impostors and Deceivers, under a pretence of divine impulse, endeavouring innovations and changes, made the people mad, and led them into the wilderness, promising there to them signs of liberty from God, and that the Imposters prevailed with many to revolt. And even when their Temple was in flames, he saith—there were many Prophets who encouraged them to expect help from God, and that they gave credit to them.¹⁴

Jesus foretold the destruction that would come upon the Man of Sin (i.e., apostate Israel) (e.g., Luke 21:22–23). Paul said, “Wrath has come upon them to the uttermost” (1 Thess 2:16).

Conclusion

According to inmillennialism, the “great apostasy” happened in Paul’s generation. And Jesus returned, as promised, to destroy the Man of Sin (i.e., apostate Israel).

This fact allows us to pray in faith, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10). We are asking for a world filled with nations that serve Christ. And God will answer this prayer: “Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him” (Ps 72:11)!

As Paul said, “He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:25–26).

Hallelujah! 

1. F. F. Bruce, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Word Biblical Commentary, eds. David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1982), 167 (emphasis added).
2. See my posts regarding this statement: What “Word of the Lord”?; The Great Apostasy; and The Man of Sin.
3. William Hendriksen, Exposition of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1955), 169.
4. N. Nisbett, The Mysterious Language of St. Paul, in His Description of the Man of Sin (Canterbury: Rouse, Kirkey, and Lawrence, 1808), 59.
5. Paul put his verb and participles in the present tense.
6. Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 14–28, Word Biblical Commentary, ed. Bruce M. Metzger (Dallas: Word, 1998), 700. Hagner is commenting on Matthew 24:15.
7. Nisbett, The Mysterious Language of St. Paul, 50.
8. Nisbett, The Mysterious Language of St. Paul, 51.
9. I documented this perspective in Michael A. Rogers, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days (Tullahoma, TN: McGahan Publishing House, 2020). This book is available here in hardcopy and here as a PDF. A free summary PDF document of inmillennialism is here.
10. William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1973), 518 (emphasis added).
11. John Lightfoot, A Commentary on the New Testament From the Talmud and Hebraica, ed. Robert Gandell, 4 vols. (1859; repr., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), 2:312.
12. Nisbett, The Mysterious Language of St. Paul, 56.
13. Nisbett, The Mysterious Language of St. Paul, 62.
14. Nisbett, The Mysterious Language of St. Paul, 63–64. Whitby is referring to passages like Flavius Josephus, The Works of Flavius Josephus, trans. William Whiston, 4 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974), 4:132f (A.J. 20.148f).