And then the lawless one will be revealed,
whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth
and destroy with the brightness of his coming.
The coming 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.
and for this reason God will send them strong delusion,
that they should believe the lie,
that they all may be condemned who did not believe
the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
2 Thessalonians 2:8-12, NKJV
There is a war that has been raging for all the millennia and longer that mankind has lived on this planet. When it began is unknown, but where it began was in heaven, centered upon the very throne of God. And why it began was because the mighty archangel assigned to lead the angels in worshiping God had a thought, a delusion really, that he could be exalted above the God in heaven and himself be worshiped. With his lies he led a third of the heavenly host in a rebellion that resulted in their expulsion from the presence of God, consigned to a fate from which there would be no escape. An eternal and everlasting lake of fire that burns with torment forever and ever was then prepared for that devil and his angels. And thus the long struggle began, though the striving is really one sided.
Lucifer, that angel of light and deceiver of mankind, the accuser and trickster and tempter and destroyer, that thief and murderer, that liar and the father of all lies, the serpent of old, the scarlet dragon that rises from the abyss to go to his own destruction, is trying to thwart the will, plan, and purpose of God. But God will not be thwarted. The omnipotent, all knowing, everywhere present all the time God cannot be defeated. He cannot be detoured or delayed. He is never startled, nor is He ever surprised. He is not in danger of being overcome or overthrown. The powers of hell do not threaten Heaven's gates. That shrewd satan is doing his damnedest to reverse his fortunes and resist his fate. And though he cannot, he is also determined to wreak havoc on God's very creation and take as many of God's creatures as he can down with him.
At the end of the age, as grace finds fulfillment and the return of Christ draws near, the Devil will be given full and free reign to do his worst. In a moment when the church of Jesus has been raptured out of harm's way and the gospel message falls silent on earth, unrestrained lawlessness will produce a singular man of sin, the son of perdition. Yet even as he rises to power and consolidates his rule, his time is running out. A short season is destined to be his reign, already limited by prophetic revelation to last seven years. In the midst of those seven years, he will be slain, then reanimated and possessed by Satan himself. He will be hailed as a god, and all the world will be required to worship his abominable image and receive his mark in their hands or their foreheads. Those who refuse will be persecuted to death, pursued, tracked down, and destroyed. And when it looks as if the devil's plan of human annihilation just might succeed, his defeat will be upon him.
For the heavens will open, and a white horse will appear bearing the One who is called Faithful and True, the One whose unknown Name is above every name, who rides with crowns on his head and fire in his eyes and blood on the hem of his garment, with His title boldly written on His robe and on His thigh--King of kings, and Lord of lords. His Word will proceed from His mouth like a double-edged sword, and with a rod of iron in His hands He will smite the nations that have united in battle against Him. And then the end of antichrist will come.
Here are Paul's key facts regarding that day.
60. The Lord will consume the antichrist with the breath of his mouth.
61. The Lord will destroy the antichrist with the brightness of his coming.
But about antichrist's rise and brief rule on this planet, Paul says:
62. The antichrist comes according to the working of Satan.
63. The antichrist comes with all power, signs, and lying wonders--the false Christ. Even Jesus warned his closest followers to be on their guard against this day, because this kind of power will be convincing enough to deceive even the elect of God.
64. The antichrist comes with unrighteous deception. There will be no truth in anything he says or does.
65. The antichrist comes to deceive those who perish.
Here is perhaps one of the saddest declarations in Scripture, and one of the hardest for Christians to accept. All my life, I heard preachers preach and I heard wishful saints proclaim that if people, namely backslidden and uncommitted Christians, miss the Rapture and want to come to Christ afterward, they will just have to give their lives on the chopping block of the antichrist. But Paul makes it clear in 2 Thessalonians 2 that such hope is false hope. Those who have heard the gospel preached, who have been given the opportunity to accept and believe and confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal savior, and who have rejected the message or refused to live by it--those who knew the truth and did not receive it will in turn be deceived. And they will perish with no hope of salvation.
66. Those who perish do so because they rejected the truth.
67. Those who reject the truth will be given strong delusion by God to believe the lie of the antichrist.
68. Those who reject the truth and take pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned.
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