All of this together is the reason why the apostle Paul calls this individual the
man of sin(2 Thessalonians 2:3). What a striking and unnerving description! Man of sin. The man who himself is sin! The Antichrist, beloved, will be the ultimate expression in himself of the sin of all mankind – specifically the sin that entered into the world at the very beginning. Do you remember what the original temptation to sin was that was given to Adam and Eve in the Garden when they fell? What did the devil say to them in contradiction to God? God had said,You shall surely die when you disobey me.And the devil came and said,You shall not surely die. In fact, the exact opposite is true: You will become God, knowing good and evil. Eve, don’t you see? If you disconnect yourself from this tyrant, you will be able to determine good and evil for yourself in this life! Cut yourself off from Him. He doesn't have to be over you. He doesn’t have to be God and get your life. Serve yourself! Make yourself God and rule over Him!All through the history of this world this is at its root, the essence of man’s sin: That man says in his heart and in his thoughts and in his actions,
I will be God. I will determine what is good and what is evil for myself. I will throw God off and I will become God myself, ruling and setting up my own law after the dictates of my own depraved heart.The root of man’s sin is that in every single sin – however small or however great, no matter what it is – man thinks to exalt himself to the high position of God and to bring God low to a position underneath himself. And when the Antichrist rises in his kingdom and outlaws the worship of Jehovah and proclaims himself God of the earth, he will be the full flowering of all the sin of all of mankind that began with that very first sin in the Garden of Eden. Man himself will be worshipped by all men upon the earth. And man will have finally fully achieved the sin that he was tempted by in the Garden: To be as God, determining good and evil in every respect for men in this world united in opposition to God’s law.It is as this man of sin that the Antichrist is the devil's man. When the devil tempted Adam and Eve, what was he doing? He was seeking to recreate Adam and Eve into the image of himself. Remember, he was the one who originally did this. He revolted against God in heaven before the fall of man. The devil set himself up and said,
Cory GriessI will be God over Jehovah. I will revolt and make Jehovah be in subservience to me.And what he wants is a kingdom of people who are just like him, after his own image, who want to exalt themselves above God and make God in service to them, the whole world together in unified humanity. This Antichrist, and the kingdom that he rules, will be the full flowering of what the devil has always desired for his little sinful sons and daughters. For in man worshipping man, man is actually worshipping (as Revelation 13:1–18 told us) the dragon behind the man – Satan himself. The devil will think in this day that he finally accomplished what he longed to accomplish, that has been driving him from the very beginning: He will think he has made himself God. In the Antichrist, the son of perdition, he will say,I will have a whole world unified in their worship of me and opposed to all that is in the law of Jehovah God.1
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,