THE ANTICHRIST - HIS CHARACTER DESCRIBED
READ 2 Thessalonians 2:3
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”
Notice how the Anti-Christ is described in verse 3.
He is described as "that man of sin." He is going to be a man. He is going to be a real personality...a real individual...a real man.
But here he is specifically called "that man of sin." The word, sin, in the Greek is the noun hamartia, which speaks of wandering from the law of God.
1. He is Described as That man of sin (lawlessness).
In verse 8 you will notice it says, "And then shall that Wicked be revealed." The Greek word translated “Wicked” is the adjective “anomos”. The adjective modifies an implied person. We could say that Wicked One.
"That lawless one be revealed." Here will be a personality who is opposed to the rule of law. He will have a basic inbred, innate hatred of any restriction of any law.
We are living in a culture today where moral absolutes are scorned and looked down upon. The majority of people in American culture today do not believe there are any moral absolutes. So, when there are no rights and wrongs, everything becomes relative. It is right or wrong according to what the individual has to say about it.
According to the Scriptures though, right and wrong are not determined according to a person's opinion about it, but rather they are determined according to what God says. If God says something is wrong, it is wrong. If God says it is right, it is right.
I believe we are living in an atmosphere that is setting the stage for the appearance of this Antichrist. In Matthew 24:12, the Lord Jesus talks about these end-time matters when He says, "…because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."
The word, iniquity is a noun that speaks of lawlessness. Lawlessness shall abound.
So, this man of sin is going to be a lawless one. He will be hostile to the law. The sin of man is going to consummate in the man of sin.
2. Then, it says he will be known as the son of perdition.
The word, perdition, and son of man mean the son of destruction, the son of doom.
In the personality of this Antichrist are the seeds of his own destruction.
He is a man of sin; therefore, he is a man of doom. We do live in a moral atmosphere. Not only is God a God of love, but God is also a God of absolute justice. Because God is a holy God, all unrighteousness and lawlessness are ultimately going to be judged.
The man of sin is also the son of perdition. This personality revealed to us in the Bible as the man of sin or the son of perdition, is evidently going to be a very scintillating personality. He is going to be captivating. He will be ideally suited for our television generation.
In these days, it is very important for a politician, if he ascribes to higher office, to be able to come over well on television. We are now in the days where those, having the ability to communicate by means of television, have tremendous drawing power and tremendous ability to sway the masses of the people.
In fact, television has brought a lot of things in the Bible to within the realm of possibility that were previously impossible to occur. One thing in particular, is where the Bible predicts that the two witnesses on the earth will be killed, and they will be brought back to life. The Bible says all of the world will see it. In previous years we have wondered how that kind of thing could take place. Now, we can actually witness a war going on halfway around the world by means of television.
When the Persian Gulf War occurred, we saw the war as it was being conducted.
Television has brought to our understanding the absolute possibility of the fulfillment of everything as God says it is going to occur.
Evidently, this man of sin is going to have such a dazzling personality, will be such a brilliant speaker, and be so charismatic, that he will have tremendous appeal.
Your Friend and HIS,
Pastor Abbott
MEDITATIONS
1. Are there any areas in your life that you see do not adhere to God’s moral absolutes?
2. How do you judge the trustworthiness of people? Do you do any research to see if there are differences in the things they say and the things they actually do?
3. Today, situational ethics is in place in business and in personal lives. Have you seen evidence of situational ethics being used (i.e. billing two customers for the same service, etc.) What is God’s moral absolute in the situations you describe?
4. Can you think of things, other than television, that is in use today and may aid in the fulfillment of prophecy for the end times?