We are studying the one Paul calls "the man of lawlessness". Some people have troubled the Thessalonian believers by telling them that they are living in the end times, otherwise known as the Great Tribulation. While it's true they are suffering hard times, they haven't been left behind to endure the days of God's wrath. As Paul assured them at the end of his first letter, they have not been appointed "to suffer wrath but to receive salvation, through our Lord Jesus Christ". (1 Thessalonians 5:9)
Since he is speaking about the days of wrath, he discusses a person who will be in political power during those days. This person is usually known as "the Antichrist". He will be everything Christ is not, but he will come to power for a season during the last days. Satan has always tried to imitate God, and just as God sent into the world the One who is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being" (Hebrews 1:3), Satan will also send into the world one who is like him---one who will give himself to Satan to do his will.
We only have a few verses to study today but they are quite complicated, more complicated than we can fully look into in the time we have, but I hope you will study with me when we reach the end of the New Testament and take an in-depth look at the book of Revelation.
Paul reminds his readers that he spoke of the end times and the Antichrist while he was with them in person. He says of the wicked one, "He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?" (2 Thessalonians 2:5) It was natural that these believers would want to know the future of the church and the future of the world, so Paul touched on these subjects while he was with them. In addition, he speaks of these things in his letters to them, reminding them in the first letter that Christ is going to call His church out of the world, and reminding them in this second letter of the dark days that will come upon the world after the church has been removed from it. During the days of the peace treaty that the Antichrist will broker in the Middle East, the temple will be rebuilt. But when he breaks his own covenant, he will set himself up in the temple (perhaps as an image to be worshiped) and in those days the prophecy given to Daniel will be fulfilled regarding "the abomination of desolation" in the temple. The Antichrist will desecrate the temple so that it cannot be used to worship God.
"And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way." (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7) The Apostle John said a similar thing about the lawlessness that is already in the world: "This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." (1 John 4:3b) John wasn't saying that the Antichrist was already in the world in the first century BC, but that the attitude of the antichrist was already present. This is the attitude that opposes the truth of the Lord, that refuses to bow the knee to Him or to be obedient to His laws and commandments, and that persecutes those who are faithful to Him. Paul agrees with John, saying that opposition to Christ is already in the world, and that the spirit of lawlessness is ready at any moment to inhabit the one who will embody all the wickedness of the devil himself.
But this won't happen until the appointed time. Someone is holding the emergence of the Antichrist back until the time chosen by God. Who is it? Who is it who is going to be "taken out of the way"? There are many theories about this, ranging from the reasonable to the ridiculous. If you have time you might want to Google the subject because there are far too many theories for us to discuss here. But the one that I feel makes the most sense, and the one which a number of well-respected Bible scholars of our time believe in, is that Paul is speaking of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit literally indwells the people of Christ. While the church remains on the earth, the Holy Spirit is present in the world in a bodily form, so to speak. The church is a sanctifying presence in an unbelieving world, just as a Christian is a sanctifying presence in a home where there are unbelievers. (1 Corinthians 7:14) The people of Christ are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14), so you can just imagine how dark it will be when the church goes home to be with Christ. Think about how many charitable organizations will cease to exist. Think about how many good deeds will cease to be performed. The sanctifying presence of the church will be absent, and that is when wickedness will have free reign for a season.
As we will see when we arrive at the book of Revelation, the Holy Spirit will still perform His office of convicting people of sin and leading them to Christ during the Great Tribulation. It will still be possible for those left behind to be saved, but the Holy Spirit will not be bodily present in the form of the church as He is now. It won't be as easy then as it is now to hear the gospel and come to a saving knowledge of Christ. People won't be free to openly carry Bibles or gather together in churches for worship or be able to turn on radio and TV stations to hear the gospel. The Antichrist is not going to allow open worship of anyone but himself, as Paul explained above in verse 4.
"And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the splendor of His coming." (2 Thessalonians 2:8) The event known as "The Second Coming Of Christ" is not to be confused with what is known as "the rapture of the church". These are two separate events. As we learned in Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, Christ won't set foot on the earth when He calls the church out of the world, but He will call the church up to be with Him. The Second Coming of Christ will take place when He returns to the earth at the end of the seven years known as the Great Tribulation. That is when He will overthrow the one known as the Antichrist.
"The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10) Satan will give the Antichrist the ability to perform signs and wonders. I don't know whether these will be genuine "miracles" or merely the deceptive works of a wicked magician, but those who refuse to accept the truth of God's word will fall for these tricks. It's thought by some scholars and theologians that the Antichrist might stage a fake resurrection, based on the vision the Apostle John has of him in Revelation 13:3 in which the beast has a fatal head wound but is healed. John says the sight of this will fill the whole world with wonder and it will cause the unbelieving world to believe in and follow the Antichrist.
We don't ever want to give too much attention to the works of Satan or to spend too much time dwelling on his evil works. Prophecy is an interesting subject, but as the church we are not to concern ourselves overmuch with observing world events in an effort to determine whether the removal of the church is imminent or whether the man who will become the Antichrist has already been born. Our job is to fulfill the great commission by getting the gospel out to as many people as we possibly can. We aren't to be looking fearfully around us for signs of the end, but we are to be living as if Christ might call us up to be with Him at any time. If we keep that attitude, we are going to have a sense of urgency about using our time on earth to tell as many people as possible about Christ.
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