BEFORE THE DAY OF THE LORD CAN COME TO YOU
Here then is what must be accomplished in your life before you die:
"Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power: THAT the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be GLORIFIED IN YOU [IN YOU], and YE IN HIM, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thes. 1:11-12)!!
How then does our Apostle Paul tell us this MUST be accomplished? What must happen? What must we do? Or rather what must Jesus do IN US? Here is the Scriptural answer:
"Now we beseech YOU, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him.
That ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that THE DAY OF CHRIST [The Day of the Lord] is at hand [FOR YOU...].
Let no man deceive YOU by any means: for that day shall not come [TO YOU…] except there come a FALLING AWAY FIRST [BY YOU…], and the man of sin be revealed the son of perdition [IN YOU…TO YOU…]; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped [IN YOU…]; so that he as God sits in the temple of God [‘which temple YE ARE’ II Cor. 6:16] showing himself that HE IS [YOU ARE / I AM] a god
Remember ye not, that when I was yet with YOU, I told YOU these things?
And now ye know what withholds [is restraining, is detaining—‘the falling away FIRST’] that he [‘the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition’—YOU…] might be revealed in his time [in YOU and TO YOU—individually, not collectively] in his time [‘his {particular} time’]—FOR YOU and FOR ME and for ALL BELIEVERS IN ALL GENERATIONS UNTIL JESUS COMES TO US ALL, COLLECTIVELY, AS THE MANIFEST SONS OF GOD]."
Long before Jesus can have a COMPANY of manifest SONS and DAUGHTERS of God, there has to be individual begettals by the Holy Spirit of God in chosen individuals in every generation leading up to the coming of the Lord at the end of this age.
"For the mystery [secret, hidden truth] of iniquity [lawlessness] does already work [‘is inwardly working’ The Emphasized New Testament: A New Translation (J. B. Rotherham)]: only he who now lets will let [‘only he who restrains will do so’], until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that Wicked [Lawless One] be revealed IN [IN YOU] and TO YOU, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit [breath] of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming;
Even him [not original], whose coming [the man of sin called son of perdition IN YOU] is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders" (II Thes. 2:1-9).
HOW CHRISTENDOM PERCEIVES THE COMING OF THE MAN OF SIN
Let’s take a little break here and consider a few extraordinary revelations in the last verses we just covered.
The world of Christian theology overwhelmingly teaches that the things presented in verses 1 through 9 are for the END OF THE WORLD ONLY, and that they are ABSOLUTELY LITERAL and that this man of sin called the son of perdition will DECEIVE the whole world. This is so absurd that it becomes almost humorous when we try to picture or imagine such a literal, one-time, worldwide deception, scenario.
Here is what we are told to believe by self-appointed end-time prophets of doom:
A literal TEMPLE will soon be built in Jerusalem.
A MAN [a physical mortal man] will, at some period thereafter, enter this TEMPLE, and SIT down.
This MAN, SITTING IN THE TEMPLE, OPPOSES AND EXALTS HIMSELF ABOVE ALL THAT IS CALLED GOD OR THAT IS WORSHIPPED.
SHOWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD.
BEHOLD, THE ‘MAN OF SIN’ ON INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION
As Sophia on Golden Girls would say: "Picture this…" A thousand cameras are all rolling and beaming the following event to every spot on earth via satellites. A man (a physical, mortal man, with possible body odor, thinning hair, and a pimple on his nose) approaches a newly built, incredibly beautiful, temple somewhere in Jerusalem.
He is dressed in an all white, pure silk Hong Kong suit, with his collar on backwards signifying great religious piety, and having a huge gold cross around his neck. With unbelievable pride and pompous vanity, he enters the temple (followed by a couple dozen cameramen). He then sits (well, I don’t know where he sits, seeing that the Temple in Jerusalem did not have a "throne" in it, as even the Jews knew that the Temple was built for God and not for some man to sit in it—maybe he sits on the floor).
He then announces to those present and to the world via the cameramen, that He HIMSELF IS GOD. Yes, GOD—the Creator of billions of galaxies having billions of stars that are billions of times larger than the earth. And, although he speaks with imperfect grammar and has a rather small vocabulary, the ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE EARTH (save the Hagee/Lindsey readers) will actually BELIEVE that this man IS THE VERY GOD OF THE BIBLE AND THE GOD OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE.
The presidents and leaders of whole countries, taxi drivers, housewives, scientists, atheists, Moslems, WILL BE TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY CONVINCED (albeit it also totally deceived) that this mortal man in the white silk Hong Kong suit, really IS, THE ETERNAL CREATOR GOD OF THE UNIVERSE!! And all the while, sales of "Official Man of Sin dolls" will sell like hotcakes in all the religious junk stands surrounding the temple.
Give me a break! How stupid do they believe the average earthling really is? Would YOU be deceived by such an one? I should say NOT!
But how many earthlings might be deceived by this man of sin were he to hide in the hearts and minds of men in a way that they themselves would be completely at home with this man of sin, the son of perdition? How many? ALL OF THEM—EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM (including ME)! I have been completely deceived by this man of sin in MY LIFE, for MOST of my life! But NO MORE!
Back to our "prophets of doom" scenario. Let’s read on—I will repeat verses 8-9:
"And then shall that Wicked [Lawless One], whom the Lord shall CONSUME, with the spirit of His mouth, and shall DESTROY with the brightness of HIS COMING [Christ’s coming/Christ’s presence]: "Even him [not in original] whose [the ‘man of sin’] coming [or presence] is after [in accordance with] the working of Satan…"
Make no mistake about it: SATAN is completely involved in the coming, presence, manifestation, and even EXISTENCE of this man of sin. Satan knows all about sin, seeing that:
"He that commits sin [as in ‘the man of sin’] is OF THE DEVIL; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works [or ‘WORKINGS’] of the devil" (I John 3:
.
I am now going to make an observation that I believe is inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. One can easily see that if we removed the words "…whom the Lord shall consume, with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming…" and connected the remaining words (leaving out the two words ‘Even him,’ which are NOT in the original Greek), the sentence makes perfect sense:
"And then shall that Wicked [Lawless One], be revealed, whose coming is after the working of Satan…"
We can immediately see that the extra words (added by the King James Version) are quite unnecessary. It became obvious to me that not only could "…whom the Lord shall consume, with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming…" be set off by parentheses, but that it is mandatory that this clause be set off by parentheses. I then, after seeing this consulted the Concordant Version to see how they handled this verse, and I was pleasantly surprised to read the following:
"…[and] then will be unveiled [or revealed] the lawless one (WHOM THE LORD JESUS WILL DISPATCH WITH THE SPIRIT OF HIS MOUTH AND WILL DISCARD BY THE ADVENT OF HIS PRESENCE), whose presence is in accord with the operation of Satan…"
(whom the Lord shall consume, with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming) is a PARENTHETICAL STATEMENT regarding HOW this man of sin, will be taken care of and rendered harmless, IN THE BELIEVER ONLY (the Emphatic Diaglott also puts this clause in parentheses).
So why do I say that it is mandatory that this clause be a parenthetical statement rather than a necessary part of the sentence, which contains this clause?
Answer: Because of what follows next. Verses 10 through 12 prove conclusively that this man [singular] of sin, son [singular] of perdition, he [singular] as God, and showing himself [singular] is NOT JUST ONE SINGULAR PERSON revealed ONCE at the end of the age ONLY. Let’s read it:
"And then shall that Wicked [Lawless One] be revealed [opening parenthetical statement], (whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming) [closing parenthetical statement]; whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in THEM [plural] that perish; because THEY [plural] received NOT the love of the truth [as believers do receive ‘the love of the Truth’], that THEY [plural] might be saved [as are believers in the first resurrection are saved]. And for this cause God shall send THEM [plural] strong delusion, that THEY [plural] should believe a lie: That THEY [plural] ALL [plural] might be damned [condemned] who believe NOT the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness"
The man of sin/son of perdition is UNIVERSAL and found in ALL MANKIND. THAT is how Satan deceives THE WHOLE WORLD (Rev. 12:9).
Men are looking for the BEAST (the man of sin/son of perdition) OUT THERE somewhere, when all the while he has been present INSIDE OF US ALL!
http://bible-truths.com/lake14.html