Who Is the “Man of Lawlessness”?

Michie

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Feb 5, 2002
166,650
56,274
Woods
✟4,676,883.00
Country
United States
Faith
Catholic
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Others
Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul wrote this to the Thessalonians about the man of lawlessness:

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 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, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.—2 Thess 2:2.

Re-read the above slowly to see if it applies to the current events in the Catholic Church.

In verse three, we read of that “man of lawlessness.” The Greek word for lawlessness is ἀνομίας, or in the Latin alphabet, anomias. Nomos in Greek is law. This is an example of the alpha-privative which is defined as “the prefix a- or an- expressing negation in Greek and in English.” Thus, the “man of lawlessness” is not going to be a Wild-West shoot-em-up villain, but simply be a man with no reference to any law except himself. The notion that he will take “his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God” means he will replace dogma with himself.

Continued below.