| Jesus and the End-Time The End-Time in Outline The Son of Perdition |
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him, we beg you, brethren, not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting 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 perdition, 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 this? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in this 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, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming. The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12We can insist all we want to, and rightly so, that the figure of Jesus dominates the end-time. But it is also true that standing in the shadows is another figure of great fascination for us. Paul calls him the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition; John in his first epistle calls him the Antichrist. In this person of the end-time there is concentrated all the force of evil in history. Not only is it clear in the New Testament that he will appear, but also that he must appear: "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 perdition." In the light of these words and other passages, traditional eschatology has always seen the end-time as manifesting both the triumph of righteousness and the flowering of evil. Quite naturally the identity of the son of perdition has been the subject of much speculation among Christians throughout history. Since we know neither the day nor the hour of the coming of the Son of Man, then any person now living may be revealed s this personification of evil; many notorious tyrants over the centuries have had the designation "Antichrist" applied to them.1 Fair interpretation requires that we see the son of perdition as a person, since Paul cites him as a definite historical design connected with the appearing of Christ. The mystery of lawlessness may or may not be personal, but the son of perdition must be-the personal expression of evil, the personal wielder of evil power, the personal representative of evil society. But which person? In World War II there was speculation about Adolph Hitler, and during the Reformation there was speculation about the Roman Pope. Neither of them turned out to be the Antichrist of the close of the age, though they stand accused by history of perpetrating much evil in the world. In fact John warns us that "many Antichrists have come," a statement we will deal with in greater detail; according to Paul we will not know who is the Antichrist until the events of the close of the age make him known. Paul puts the manifestation of the Antichrist and his destruction together, as though his revelation will signal his destruction: "And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming." The Antichrist will do his real damage before he is revealed, and that time is now: "The mystery of lawlessness is already at work." Mystery is a difficult biblical word. Paul uses it here, it seems to me to refer to an activity that is manifest but which cannot be explained in human terms; it can be described but not explained. He uses the same word to apply to the resurrection of the dead in 1 Corinthians 15; as resurrection is something wonderful that cannot be adequately explained, so lawlessness is something terrible that cannot be explained. The work of the son of perdition is rebellion, and his greatest asset is lawlessness. In lawlessness nothing retains its meaning; language is based on law, science is based on law; all human contracts are based on law. Law means dependability and consistency; it is God's greatest gift to his universe-the sun will come up, the apple will fall when it loses its attachment to the tree, the typewriter on which I am writing will not dissolve into nothingness. The lawlessness of the son of perdition is not simply an attack on the Western legal system or even an attack on the Ten Commandments; it is an attack on meaning itself. How can language, based on law, understand sheer unreason? For that is the mystery of lawlessness. George Orwell was a secular prophet, but he seemed to understand the work of the son of perdition when he invented the term "doublespeak." Doublespeak is the language of tyrants. In it words have no consistent meaning; they can be used in any way the tyrant chooses. Lawlessness means the end of trust, of knowledge, of guilt, of forgiveness. No one can be trusted to mean today what he meant yesterday; no one can know a fact, because a fact is not constant; no one can sin, because there is nothing to sin against. No one can feel guilt, and no one can be forgiven. If this seems familiar to you, perhaps the mystery of lawlessness has already made great inroads among us. God forgives sins. But what of those who deny the existence of sin because they deny the validity of law? How can they accept forgiveness for that which they deny? How can they feel shame or guilt? The mystery of lawlessness is not limited to one man. It is pervasive; its ultimate goal is to take creation from the hands of God and make pandemonium of it. In this description Paul has a word of good news-the mystery of lawlessness is restrained. It cannot get its own way. The end-time is more than the time of the flowering of evil; it is the time of the triumph of righteousness. For one thins, the Church is in the world, and the Holy Spirit is in the Church. And I believe that a god share of the lawlessness now apparent in business, family, political, and personal life would come to an end if the Christians would make up their minds as to which side they are on and begin to act accordingly. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4). The son of perdition is, as it were, the incarnation of the mystery of lawlessness. He will capitalize on the work already done in preparation for him and so will be a popular and powerful figure among those who have been made ready to receive him. "The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Berkouwer says concerning the Antichrist, "Although we may be acquainted with a few facts about him, it seems that all we really know is that he is not here."2 I am suggesting that we do not even know that much; we do not know whether he is here or not, but we know that we are to resist any who are like him: anyone who 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," can hardly be on the side of God. To be on the side of God is to be on the side of law; that along guarantees our opposition to the mystery of lawlessness and the son of perdition. But this should not be confused with "law and order" righteousness, with its reliance on fear and force. The Bible is clear that the highest law is love; the universe runs on love, and those who accept it are in line with God and creation; they are enemies of anything and anyone that opposes holy love. And, as John makes clear to us, we do not have to wait to the very close of the age to do battle with the Antichrist. When the son of perdition is manifest, the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth; but until then there is much for us to do. 1 Whether or not the Beast of Revelation is the very same as the Son of Perdition of 2 Thessalonians 2 and the Antichrist of 1 John 2:18 depends upon one' interpretation of Revelation. Certainly the Beast is a type of Antichrist. 2 Berkouwer, op cit., p. 260. » Next Page — Many Antichrists » Table of Contents » Home |