1. 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 (ESV)
  2. Application

The Antichrist: a man of lawlessness

2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 (ESV)

3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,

As such, this individual man is aptly termed in Scripture Antichrist. That is precisely what he is. The word anti means against. He is anti-Christ, anti-God (opposed to God, opposed to Christ) – consciously, willingly, fully. The word anti also means in place of. This individual seeks to take the place of Christ. He tries to be in the minds of men what Christ ought to be in the minds of men. He is a false saviour. He is a fake. He is a substitute. He is a usurper. He is an imposter. And he brings a false salvation. He tries to supplant Christ, and becomes a worldly, blaspheming, earthly saviour.

As we have said before in this series, the devil always copies God. And the devil always seeks to supplant God in all that he does by copying God. As God sent His Christ – an individual – to be head of His own spiritual kingdom, so too the devil will send his Antichrist to be the individual head of his blasphemous world kingdom.

The apostle Paul here in 2 Thessalonians 2:1–17 is in fact showing how true it is that the devil is always trying to copy God to accomplish his wicked ends. This chapter shows that the Antichrist is the ape of Christ. Notice a few things with me. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 says that this man of sin will be revealed. The word for revealed there is the exact same word that is used when the Scriptures speak of the revelation of Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2:4: The Antichrist claims to be God (he claims to be divine), as Christ claimed to be God (and really was, of course, divine). 2 Thessalonians 2:9: The Antichrist has a coming. That [Greek] word is the same word that refers to Christ’s coming in Scripture. 2 Thessalonians 2:9: The Antichrist comes with power and signs and lying wonders, as God’s Christ came with power and signs and true wonders. Not only will the false church produce miracles (whether true or fake), but the Antichrist himself will be a wonder worker (whether true or fake). He is the ape of Christ.

But as much as he tries to copy Christ outwardly, he only wants to outwardly. His goal is the exact opposite of Christ's goal. His purpose is to be precisely the opposite of Christ’s purpose. Christ came in full allegiance to Jehovah God, in submission to God, to establish the kingdom of God. The Antichrist comes in full allegiance to Satan. 2 Thessalonians 2:9: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3 he is called the son of perdition – that means the son who had his source in perdition (hell), and who is therefore characterized by that perdition from which he comes. The phrase son of perdition is only used one other time of one other person in the Bible, and that is Judas Iscariot, who was the agent in the hands of the devil to betray Christ. A son of hell. The Antichrist is that fully. He is the one who tries to destroy Christ. He is a child of hell. He is Satan’s man on earth, as Christ is God’s man on earth.1

Cory Griess