Will there be a THIRD temple built in Jerusalem?  2 Thess 2:4 which says that the Antichrist will set himself up in the temple and demand worship reserved only for God.  YES, there will be a Third Temple built.  And when it is built, it will have a powerful, prophetic biblical significance!  But 2 Thess 2:4 underscores one troubling truth; in our enlightened era, modern man is not as immune to idolatry as we would like to think we are. 

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”   1 Jn 5:21

“Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, Ez 14:3

Antichrist opposes God

ἀντίκειμαι antikeimai –stand against.  To be an adversary, to oppose. 

He is both the adversary of God and man. 

Satan is called the Adversary. 1 Pet 5:8 

He will hunt down believers and kill them in cold blood.  Rev 13:7

Antichrist exalts himself above God

Exalts ὑπεραίρομαι huperairomai –to lift one’s self up, be haughty. 

The Mark of the Beast is a sign of allegiance and worship. 

The Antichrist will lead a rebellion against God. 

His is an attempt to unify worship, by having everyone worship him.    

Antichrist tries to prove he is God

He sits (as on a throne) in the temple of God, pretending to be God. 

This is the ultimate smear against the creator. 

God is eternal, all powerful, all wise, holy, perfect, loving, all knowing.

It is an absurdity to think any man could be God.

Antichrist does it because he is an imitation Jesus. 

We are setting the stage for the antichrist’s deception. 

The Rebuilding of the Temple

He comes to the temple in a veiled attempt to fulfill prophecy!  Mal 3:1

The Jews pray daily for the building of a Third Temple.

They claim they can build the temple in just 18 months. 

Antichrist may build the Third Temple to imitate Messiah.  Zech 6:12-13

Temple ναός naos –is used of the Holy of Holies.  2 Thess 2:4

The Abomination of Desolation

No one but the High Priest was allowed in the Holy of Holies.  Lev 16:2. 

He enters the temple not to worship God, but to be worshipped as God! 

His entry into the temple is called “The Abomination of Desolation.” 

The ‘abomination of desolation,’ will be in the holy place” Mat 24:15

In the middle of the tribulation He shall end sacrifices. Daniel 9:27

He will set up the abomination of desolation.  Daniel 12:12

He will make the world worship the image of the beast.  Rev 13:13-15

Idolatry is the issue in this passage of Scripture.  The Man of Sin is setting himself up as the ultimate authority to be worshipped by all the earth.  Worship or starve!  Bow down and pledge allegiance to me or die!  God grant that we would not be like the men of Ezekiel’s time who have set up their idols in their hearts.  The stage is now being set for great deception.  Let us turn to God, put Jesus first, and serve the living God.

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Will there be a THIRD temple built in Jerusalem?  The Lutherans don’t think so.  Here’s what they think:  “In general, the answer to the question is No. There will not be a third temple built, and if there is a third temple it will have absolutely no Biblical significance whatsoever.”[i]  WOW!

So what do they do with 2 Thess 2:4 which says that the Antichrist will set himself up in the temple and demand worship reserved only for God?  They make the Scriptures symbolic!  They say that we are the temple, and that an invisible, symbolic Antichrist is, even now, attempting to set himself up in your temple heart calling out for our worship!

But why do they make this passage symbolic?  Especially since something similar to this has already happened in Jewish history in the past?  How do we know if a passage should be taken symbolically?  I angered one man on social media when I told him what I consider to be the golden rule of interpretation.  When the plain sense of scripture makes good sense, seek no other sense; but take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages clearly indicates otherwise.

There seems to be no reason to take this symbolically except that it doesn’t fit with their theological viewpoint.  But, we will be taking it as it was written, and as it was meant to be taken.  YES, there will be a Third Temple built.  And when it is built, it will have a powerful, prophetic biblical significance!

Either way you look at it, it underscores one troubling truth; in our enlightened era, modern man is not as immune to idolatry as we would like to think we are.  1 John 5:21 warns us, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” 

In reality, idols are impotent blocks of stone or wood, and their power exists only in the minds of the worshipers.  Idolatry is a matter of the heart—pride, self-centeredness, greed, gluttony, a love for possessions and ultimately rebellion against God. Is it any wonder that God hates it? 

In the Book of Ezekiel 14:3, the people were pretending to worship God, but God knew better.  He said, “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble.”  And then he said, “Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.”  (6). 

The fact of the matter is, we Christians are really good at hiding our sin!  And we are really good at worshipping idols of the heart behind closed doors.  If we can’t beat idolatry of the heart, how will we ever resist antichrist when he says worship me or die? 

And that is the issue here in this passage of Scripture.  The Man of Sin is setting himself up as the ultimate authority to be worshipped by all the earth.  Worship or starve!  Bow down and pledge allegiance to me or die! 

The stage is being set right now for all this to happen!  Let’s watch the stage being set for the war against worship by the Lawless One.  There are three things we want to remember about his war against God.

Antichrist opposes God

3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped

ἀντίκειμαι antikeimai – To stand against.  To be an adversary, to oppose. 

He is both the adversary of God and man.  Remember his hero, Satan, is called the Adversary in 1 Peter 5:8.  He will hunt down believers to torture and kill them in cold blood. 

In Revelation 13:7 it says, It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.”

And in the very next verse it details his attempt to get the people of earth to turn against God: 

 ⁸ All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

He is not only against God, but he tries to replace God, thus fulfilling the very definition of his name.

Antichrist exalts himself above God

3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped

He exalts himself.  ὑπεραίρομαι huperairomai –to  lift one’s self up, be exalted, be haughty.  He is a boaster.  He likes to stretch the truth about himself.  He loves the praise of men, and he wants to be praised like God.  And the real meaning behind the Mark of the Beast is that it is a sign of allegiance and worship to the Man of Sin.  The Antichrist follows the folly of his mentor Satan who in his initial rebellion tried to exalt himself above God but was cast out of heaven.  Some people never learn! 

He exalts himself above all gods.  Many things are called gods that are not.  There is only one true God.  He exalts himself above all things that are worshipped.  His is an attempt to unify worship.  Perhaps his strategy is that if everyone worships him, than all religious battles will end, and the world will be unified behind him. 

Unfortunately for him, it never works out the way you want it to.  There will be true believers during this terrible time, and they will refuse to worship him, infuriating him, and making him even more ferocious against God’s people. 

Antichrist tries to prove he is God

3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

He sits in the temple of God, pretending to be God.  This is the ultimate smear against the creator.  That a puny little human could possibly ascend to godhood.  What a farce!  It is laughable that any man would claim to be God. 

God is eternal, all powerful, all wise, holy, perfect, loving, all knowing… that any man would think that he could match up to the creator is an absurdity, yet the Antichrist does it because he is an imitation Jesus.  Jesus claimed to be God, but he backed it up with proof.  Antichrist himself will pose a few proofs himself.  They are a few deceptive miracles which pale in comparison to Jesus power. 

Think about this:  Antichrist’s pronouns are almighty, supreme being, immortal one.  He identifies as God!  What?  Can’t I identify as God if I want to?  Does that make me God?  Do you see how our culture today is setting itself up to believe this nonsense?  We are setting the stage for the antichrist’s deception by telling people that they can be anything they identify as.  If I can be a woman, why can’t the Man of Sin identify as God? 

What proofs does he give?  Antichrist attempts his bluff at being God by entering the temple of God and demanding that the Jews, along with the rest of the world worship him.  The question is, why does he find it necessary to come to the temple to prove his claim?  It is an attempt to fulfill prophecy! 

Malachi 3:1 says, “And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight.” 

The Jews, God’s chosen earthly people are waiting for the messiah to come to his temple.  And so Antichrist gives them what they want!  Do you want a fulfillment of prophecy?  I am he!

Did you know that Jews pray daily for the building of a Third Temple. Three times daily they pray the Amidah prayer.  One of the statements in that prayer says, “May it be your will, O my God and God of my fathers, that the Temple be rebuilt speedily in our days.”  It’s a prayer they’ve prayed for almost 2,000 years.

As far back as 2010, a gathering of 10,000 protestors flocked to the temple mount to call for the rebuilding of the temple.  A 2013 pool found that 1/3 of Israeli Jews want the Temple rebuilt. Among religious Jews questioned, 43 percent support construction.  

And as far back as January 27, 1984, in the most ambitious plan to help God out, bring the return of the Messiah and instigate the rebuilding of the temple, a group known as the Lifta band planned to assult the temple mount and blow up the Dome of the Rock.  It was only thwarted at last minute.  The attackers fled, leaving a pile of explosives behind.

And today, Jews in Jerusalem are doing more than just praying.  Just a few steps away from the western wall, rabbis and craftsmen are building what they call a “temple in waiting,” in order to fulfill prophecy.

There are three main groups laboring to make the temple a reality.  Let me introduce them to you:

The Temple Mount Institute –  This organization has made all of the 102 utensils needed for temple worship.  These are on display for tourists to see in the Old City of Jerusalem.  The menorah is covered with 95 pounds of pure gold and has a price tag of $2 million.^[ii]

The Ateret Cohanim – has established a yeshiva school for the training of temple priests.  Their task is to gather qualified Levites and train future priests.^[iii] .^[iv]

The Temple Mount Faithful – Gershon Solomon leads a group called The Temple Mount Faithful.  For several years, Solomon and his followers tried to place the stones on the Temple Mount, and every year they were stopped by Israeli police.^[v]  The group commissioned three cornerstones for the third temple. The six-ton stones were consecrated with water from the biblical pool of Siloam and cut with diamonds.  They claim they once they get the go ahead, they can build the temple in just 18 months. 

And did you know that just last month… Scores of Jews broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.  172 of them raided the mosque from the Mughariba Gate and performed Talmudic rituals there.  The Temple Movement groups called on their followers to carry out massive incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque at midnight before the Jewish Passover.  Supporters believe that their sacrifice will result in establishing the “Temple Mount”.  “We call on all the people of Israel to take a goat or sheep up to one year old and bring the offering to the Temple Mount in the hope that we will be able to slaughter it properly this year,”[vi]

Add the antichrist into this fervor and what do you get?  The book of Zechariah teaches after Jesus returns to earth that He himself will build a brand new Temple called the Fourth Temple, or the Millennial Temple.  In fact Zech 6:12-13 foretells:

‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying:  “Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the Lord; 13 Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne.”

Now I want to speculate a little:  since Messiah builds the Fourth Temple, perhaps to imitate the Son of God, perhaps Antichrist himself will be the moving force behind building the Third Temple.  If true, this becomes another way the man of sin attempts to demonstrate that he indeed is the Messiah. 

Now here in 2 Thessalonians it says that he comes to the temple.  The word for temple  ναός naos – which is a Greek word used specifically of the temple at Jerusalem, but it is even more specific than that.  It is used of the sacred sanctuary itself, consisting of the Holy place and the Holy of Holies.  So he doesn’t just come to the temple, he comes to the holy of holies. 

This is a very significant statement.  No one but the High Priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies, except the Messiah.  If anyone else unlawfully enters the Holy of Holies, he a transgressor of the law!  The penalty for doing so was death according to Leviticus 16:2. 

But Antichrist enters the Holy of Holies not to worship God, but to be worshipped as God!  His entry into the Holy of Holies is called “The Abomination of Desolation.”  It is an event so brash and evil that it covered extensively by Mathew, Mark, Daniel and the book of Revelation.  Let me read a few of those passages and let the implications sink in. 

“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.  Matthew 24

Antichrist shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate. Daniel 9:27

“And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. 12 Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.  Daniel 12

Daniel predicted the following:

1. A future ruler will make a treaty with the people of Israel.

2. The terms of this treaty will be for a “week”—which we take to be a period of seven years.

3. Midway through this time, the ruler will gather his troops and put an end to the sacrifices and offerings in the temple.

4. At that time the ruler will desecrate the temple, setting up some type of sacrilegious object.

5. The desecration of the temple will continue until the judgment of God is finally meted out on the ruler and his followers, 1,290 days (3½ years and 1 month) later.

13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.  Revelation 13

Revelation 13 does not specifically say that the beast places his image in the temple.  However verse 6 indicates that this act of desecration is indeed in the Temple. 

Daniel’s prophecies about the abomination of desolation seemed to have at least a partial fulfillment in 167 BC when a Greek ruler by the name of Antiochus IV desecrated the temple in Jerusalem. Antiochus called himself “Epiphanies” (“illustrious one” or “god manifest”). He set up an altar to Zeus over the altar of burnt offering, and he sacrificed a pig on the altar. Antiochus went even further in his atrocities, slaughtering a great number of the Jews and selling others into slavery. And he issued decrees forbidding circumcision and requiring Jews to sacrifice to pagan gods and eat pig meat. [vii]

What Antiochus did certainly qualifies as an abomination, but it was not a complete fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. Antiochus Epiphanies did not enter a covenant with Israel for seven years, And in Matthew 24 Jesus, speaking some 200 years after Antiochus’s evil actions, spoke of Daniel’s prophecy as having a still future fulfillment. [viii]

We take the futurist view, which sees the abomination of desolation prophecy as still future. 

And that is the issue here in this passage of Scripture.  The Man of Sin is setting himself up as the ultimate authority to be worshipped by all the earth.  Worship or starve!  Bow down and pledge allegiance to me or die! 

1 John 5:21 warns us, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”  God grant that we would not be like the men of Ezekiel’s time who have set up their idols in their hearts.  The stage is now being set for great deception.  Let us turn to God, put Jesus first, and serve the living God.

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[i] https://www.lutherananswers.com/answers/antichrist-temple/

[ii] http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/398613.aspx

[iii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbnXStCItY4

[iv] http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/04/10/israeli-institute-prepares-priests-for-jerusalems-third-temple

[v] http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/398613.aspx

[vi] https://www.palestinechronicle.com/passoversacrifice-extremist-jews-try-to-smuggle-goats-into-al-aqsa-compound/

[vii] https://www.gotquestions.org/abomination-desolation.html

[viii] https://www.gotquestions.org/abomination-desolation.html

How do you find peace in a tyrannical world?  When the whole world has lost its mind, and chaos is king, how do you deal with stress and anxiety? That’s why 2 Thessalonians 2 was written, so that we would not be easily shaken in mind or troubled!  Even if in the midst of political chaos a godless tyrant arises who persecutes the church. 

The Antichrist is Satan’s attempt to defeat God.

Political power is Satan’s attempt raise up the Antichrist.

#1 The Man of Sin – 2 Thessalonians  2:3

He will embody the philosophy “Sin doesn’t matter.”

The only thing that matters is that you win (and defeat God).

#2 The Son of Perdition – 2 Thessalonians  2:3

Son of Perdition – ἀπώλεια apoleia – utter destruction.

Antichrist will be the perfect atheist and the ideal secularist. 

#3 The Lawless one -2 Thessalonians  2:8-10

Lawless one – ἄνομος anomos –man of apostasy. 

He will not care about laws nor especially about God’s law.

#4 The Antichrist – 1 John 2:18 & 22

He will be a pretend Messiah.

He will be against Christianity.

#5 The Legs of Iron and Clay – Daniel 2:40-43

His will be the final earthly kingdom.

It will be strong as iron and weak as clay.

#6 The Willful King – Daniel 11:36–37

He will do what he wants.

Anyone who opposes him will be crushed.

#7 The Beast – Revelation 13:1-8

This is by far the most definitive statement on Antichrist. 

He is θηρίον therion brutal, bestial, savage, ferocious. 

#8 The Little Horn – Daniel 7:23-25

He will have humble origins.

He will have world conquering aspirations.

#9 The Prince that shall come – Dan. 9:26

He will revive the Roman Empire.

He will rule the world. 

#10 The Four Horseman – Revelation 6

He will enter the stage in peace.

He will secure his kingdom by war.

How do you find peace in a tyrannical world?  We must live as light in the kingdom of darkness.  We must not be shaken and troubled when terrible things happen.  God is well aware of the evil of this world.  All of prophecy points to one fine day when Jesus the king of kings and Lord of Lords will put a stop to the craziness and end the rule of the satanic kingdom.  We wait, prayerfully and patiently for that day!

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Lately I’ve had repeated conversations with Christians that go something like this:  “The times we live in are so unsettling!  When I look at what’s going on in our country and our world, it is so disturbing to me.  The bad guys are in power and chaos is spreading.  It is difficult for me to find tranquility in the midst of tyranny.”

How do you find peace in a tyrannical world?  When the whole world has lost its mind, and chaos is king, how do you deal with stress and anxiety?

That’s why 2 Thessalonians 2 was written, so that we would not be easily shaken in mind or troubled!  Even if everyone else falls away.  Don’t be shaken.  Don’t let it ruin your tranquility.  Even if in the midst of political chaos a godless tyrant arises who persecutes the church.  Don’t be easily shaken or troubled.

The Bible says that the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one!  (1 John 5:19).  The entire history of mankind since Satan’s failed revolt against God in heaven, has been characterized by His repeated attempts to mold and manipulate power hungry tyrants to take over the world.  It has happened before, it will happen again.

In fact if you do a cursory study of the tyrants in history, you discover that ambitious, power hungry politicians have dominated recorded history.  It seems like most of history is simply one evil dictator after another oppressing and massacring the masses.  The serpent duped Adam and Eve, and the world has been littered with dead bodies ever since.

Let give you some examples of these dictators:

Nimrod – He’s the first world dictator that we know of.  His name means נמרוד Rebel.  Genesis 10:9 He was a mighty warrior and is considered the leader of those who built the Tower of Babel in rebellion against God.  He was a tyrant. 

Nebuchadnezzar – Despite being a man short in height, Nebuchadnezzar had soaring ambitions.  He dreamed of dominating the world and made no attempt to keep it a secret.  He rose to power with the ferocity of a roaring lion and struck fear into the hearts of men.[i]

Cyrus the Great – He was the founder of the first Persian Empire-the greatest Empire that the world has seen so far.  His reign was marked by extreme cruelty, with numerous instances of torture, flaying, and beheading.  His reign ended when he was assassinated by two of his own sons, who in turn were assassinated by his third son.[ii]

Alexander the Great – Conquered most of the known world, but died doing it.  He was one of the greatest military strategists and leaders in world history. He was ruthless, dictatorial, and ambitious to the point of regarding himself as divine.

Julius Caesar – he ruled the Roman world as dictator he proved himself to be a brilliant political schemer. He was brutal, ruthless and genocidal on a large-scale, as well as dishonorable, immoral, anti-religious and tyrannical. He massacred more than 400,000 people in his conquests of Gaul. His assasination was one of the most famous murders in history.[iii]

Genghis Khan – His name is always synonymous with tyranny and ruthlessness.  Everywhere they went, the Mongols inspired terror, as they looted, destroyed and slaughtered civilians en masse without mercy.[iv]

Napoleon Bonaparte – He was one of the brightest military leaders to have ever graced the Earth.  He used excessive force and violent aggression to conquer foreign lands, and then he plundered and pillaged those lands for resources.[v]

Vladimir Lenin – He was an evil figure who led the October Revolution. He inflicted revolution, war and famine, and demonstrated a chilling disregard for the sufferings of his fellow countrymen and mercilessly crushed any opposition.[vi]

Joseph Stalin – He was a ruthless leader and his brutality knew no bounds. He killed millions of his citizens who dared to oppose him.  His record as a mass murderer must never be forgotten.

Adolf Hitler – He was undoubtedly one of the most devious and diabolical leaders of all time. Hitler plunged the world into a war that would leave millions of people dead, including the 6 million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust.

Mao Zedong – founded the people’s republic of China and started a cult like following of his little red book.  He was responsible for the disastrous policies of the “Great Leap Forward” and the “Cultural Revolution”, which resulted in the deaths of millions of people.

Antichrist – He will rise to conquer the world! The most ruthless, brilliant and satanically inspired leader of all time! He will eclipse the evil and brutality of all these men.  If nothing else, they are Satan’s attempt at bringing the reign of Antichrist to the world before its time. 

Why have we reviewed these world leaders, dictators and tyrants?  Because for most of world history, people have lived under the crush of the iron boot of tyrants.  And that day is coming again, whether it is the antichrist or some other satanically inspired strong man. 

And we Christians need to discover how to live in perilous times!  This the lesson of 2 Thessalonians 2:

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition

Do not be soon shaken or troubled.  And yet the coming of antichrist will trouble the whole world.  It is our goal today to describe to you the character of the antichrist.  We are going to take a deep dive into the world of political tyranny.  We are going to survey the main passages of Scripture dealing with this satanic figure, and then we are going to end by placing our trust in the coming King Jesus who will destroy Him with one little word. 

What do you need to know about antichrist?  The world is looking for a hero.  But they are looking in the wrong place.  They are enamored with worldly characteristics that speak of power and utopia.  They are looking for a strong man who will save the world from insanity.  Satan knows what we are looking for and is a master at deception.  He baits us what we want, and then switches it to the worst of all possible outcomes. 

Why do you need to know about him? Politics will not save us.  Politics will destroy us!  Only Jesus will save us.  Don’t trust in men, trust in God. 

Let’s begin our survey.  Who is this man we call the antichrist? 

#1 The Man of Sin – 2 Thessalonians  2:3

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition

Man of Sin – ἄνθρωπος anthropos human male.  ἁμαρτία hamartia – miss the mark, violate God’s law, sin. 

Hal Lindsey calls this hostile person “the Future Fuehrer,”  He will be Satan’s parody of the God-Man.   The world today is looking for the Super-man.    Christ of God was sinless; the Christ of Satan will not only be sinful, but the Man of Sin.  He will embody the philosophy “Sin doesn’t matter, Character doesn’t count, Morality  is meaningless.  Do as you please. The only thing that matters is that you win.

#2 The Son of Perdition – 2 Thessalonians  2:3

This is from the same verse. 

Son of Perdition – ἀπώλεια apoleia – utter destruction, one who will face the misery of hell.  Not only a human degenerate, but the offspring of the Dragon.  He is completely lost.  Just as Judas Iscariot was lost, so too will he.  He will be the perfect atheist and the ideal secularist.  In the end his degeneracy will get him cast into the lake of fire for eternity. 

#3 The Lawless one -2 Thessalonians  2:8-10

8 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. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

Lawless one (8) – ἄνομος anomos – wicked one, Lawless one, man of rebellion, man of insurrection, man of apostasy.  departing from the law of Moses, violator of law.  This man is a chronic liar.  Jesus was the Righteous One; the Man of Sin will be the Lawless One.

Because he does not care about truth, he uses excessive force, violent aggression, along with supernatural signs as well as lies, disinformation, and deception to conquer and control the world.  He is empowered by Satan and that makes him doubly dangerous. 

#4 The Antichrist – 1 John 2:18 & 22

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.

Antichrist 1 John 2:18 ἀντίχριστος antichristos – ἀντί anti – against, or in place of.  a false Christ, a pretended Messiah, who sets himself up to be the one to be worshiped instead of Christ, proclaiming that he is Christ.  The book of 1 John is the only book that uses this name:  It is used 4 X in the book of 1 John.  That’s what makes him so dangerous.  He has a messiah mentality, and people buy it!

Antichrist accords with the two stages in his career. At first he will pose as the true Christ, masquerading in the guise of religion. But, later, he will throw off his disguise, stand forth in his true character, and set himself up as one who is against God and His Christ.

#5 The Legs of Iron and Clay – Daniel 2:40-43

⁴⁰ And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. ⁴¹ Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. ⁴² And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. ⁴³ As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will attempt to merge his kingdom with all of humanity; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.  

#6 The Willful King – Daniel 11:36–37

36 “Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done. 37 He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all

The willful king – King who shall exalt himself – Dan. 11:36–37 רצון ratsown – will, desire, pleasure, self-will.  He will have so much power he will be drunk with it.  He will do whatever he wants.  He will have an incredibly cultic personality that will draw people into his schemes, and anyone that opposes him will be crushed.  He is a Bloody and Deceitful Man.

#7 The Beast – Revelation 13:1-8

Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. 2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. 4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. 6 Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life

This is by far the most definitive statement on him.  While we don’t know exactly who he is, we do know that he rises from the sea.  The sea usually indicates the Mediterranean Sea, or the gentile nations that surround the sea. 

That he is the The Beast – חֵיוָא‎ cheyva’ beast, animal / θηρίον therion a wild animal, wild beast, brutal, bestial, savage, ferocious.  The Beast is the title by which he is most frequently designated in the Revelation: there are at least thirty references to him under this name in the last book of the Bible.   “The Beast” contrasts him with Jesus who is like a “the Lamb;”

#8 The Little Horn – Daniel 7:23-25

‘The fourth beast shall be A fourth kingdom on earth, Which shall be different from all other kingdoms, And shall devour the whole earth, Trample it and break it in pieces. 24 The ten horns are ten kings Who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; He shall be different from the first ones, And shall subdue three kings. 25 He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time.

The Little Horn – Daniel 7 – “Little Horn” refers to the lowly political origin of the Antichrist, and describes him as he is before he attains supremacy with the ferocity of a lion.

#9 The Prince that shall come – Dan. 9:26

 “And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary” (Dan. 9:26).

This title connects the Antichrist with the Roman Empire in its final form, and presents him as the last of the Caesars. 

#10 The Four Horseman – Revelation 6

Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the [a]seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. 

When He opened the second seal, Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth,

5 When He opened the third seal, So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he brought famine.

When He opened the fourth seal, I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth,

The four horseman – Some have confused the rider of the white horse in verse two with Jesus, but the rider is actually the Antichrist.  A conqueror bent on conquest

These are the main passages on the Antichrist, the Beast of the book of Revelation.  There is coming a day when the future fuehrer will arise and conquer the world.  It is always a terrible day to live when evil men rule.  But it will be worse still. 

He will be an intellectual genius, He will be an oratorical genius, He will be a political genius, He will be a commercial genius, He will be a military genius, He will be a governmental genius, He will be a religious genius.

An old writer has said the name Devil is most suggestive of his character. If “d” is taken away, evil is left. If “e” is taken away vile is left. If “v” is taken away ill is left. And if “i” is taken away and the next letter be aspirated, it tells of hell. [vii]

How do you find peace in a tyrannical world?  We must live as light in the kingdom of darkness.  We must not be shaken and troubled when terrible things happen.  God is well aware of the evil of this world and evil only has a short life span. 

All of prophecy points to one fine day when Jesus the king of kings and Lord of Lords will put a stop to the craziness and end the rule of the satanic kingdom.  We wait, prayerfully and patiently for that day!

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[i] https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4451665/jewish/Nebuchadnezzar.htm

[ii] https://alltrades.substack.com/p/cyrus-the-great

[iii] https://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-05-11/brutal-and-genocidal-dissecting-julius-caesar-to-warn-us-about-trump-and-other-strongmen.html#:~:text=In%20the%20series%2C%20Julius%20Caesar,in%20violation%20of%20Roman%20laws.

[iv] https://www.q-files.com/history/famous-leaders/famous-leaders-a-z

[v] https://www.thecambridgelanguagecollective.com/current-affairs/iy7g8fn9ua8td6y2uw1ic640k28sod#:~:text=Napoleon%20used%20excessive%20force%20and,slavery%20in%20the%20French%20colonies.

[vi] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/people/10-most-ruthless-leaders-of-all-time/vladimir-lenin/slideshow/52120234.cms

[vii] https://ccel.org/ccel/pink/antichrist/antichrist.chap04.html

Have you ever struggled with the thought, that perhaps, when Jesus comes to take his people home, you might be left behind?  What a scary thought, that you might not be worthy enough, and might not make the cut.  Now if you have never trusted Christ as Savior, you will be left behind.  That’s a fact.  But let me just say that there’s not one verse in the Bible that teaches this idea.  There is no partial resurrection, and there are no saints who will be left behind.  So how would you know if you had been left behind? 

#1  The Rapture 1-2

If all the Christians are gone it is because of the rapture. 

The main reason for writing was to calm the churches fears. 

The Rapture is for comfort not for fear. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The Christian will get the Rapture, The lost will get the Wrath.

Chronologically, the Rapture occurs in 1 Thess 4

Chronologically the Day of the Lord, occurs after that in 1 Thess 5. 

The next event on the prophetic horizon is the rapture! 

#2 The Great Apostasy 3

If all churches are empty, it’s a sign that you’ve been left behind.

In Book of Revelation, the church is not mentioned after chapter 3. 

That’s because the true church is gone!

Church goers that were left behind abandoned the church. 

#3 The Antichrist 3-4

The antichrist is the central human figure of the Day of the Lord. 

The antichrist promotes, and encourages the Great apostasy

The antichrist hounds and persecutes believers.

How can we recognize the Antichrist?  Who is he? 

The real antichrist will desecrate the Jewish Temple.

#4 The Restrainer 5-8

Every restraint that keeps dictators from oppressing will be thrown off. 

God will remove the supernatural checks of moral restraint. 

The Holy Spirit will stop restraining evil, leaving the world in darkness.

#5 The Great Deception 9-11

We already live in times of great deception. 

There is coming a day of even greater deception. 

The antichrist will use satanic miracles, and pure lies to deceive.

The entire world will fawn after one man and his lies.

He and his empire will be destroyed by the second coming of Christ. 

The rapture is meant to comfort us, not to leave us in fear of what is to come.  Jesus is coming for us!  However, if you have never trusted Christ as Savior, you will be left behind.  There is only one thing left for you!  Place your faith and trust in Jesus and there will be hope.  Why wait until then!  Trust Jesus today!  GET READY!  Jesus is coming again, and you can be ready to meet him!

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You Know it’s the End Times when…

Have you ever struggled with the thought, that perhaps, when Jesus comes to take his people home, you might be left behind?  What a scary thought, that you might not be worthy enough, and might not make the cut. 

Now if you have never trusted Christ as Savior, you will be left behind.  That’s a fact.  But there actually is a theory out there that not every believer who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ will be taken up into the clouds with him; it’s called the partial rapture theory.  Some people teach that only believers who are faithful or spiritual will be raptured when Jesus snatches away His church. In other words, going up to meet the Lord in the air is conditioned upon our obedience, according to them.

That ought to just scare the begeebers out of you.  What if it was true?  It is fear inducing.  Let me ask you this question:  How good do you have to be to make the cut?  No one knows!  Whatever happened to the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ leading to salvation?  While it is an interesting theory, let me just say that there’s not one verse in the Bible that teaches this idea.  There is no partial resurrection, and there are no saints who will be left down here in a “Christian purgatory,” because they made Santa’s naughty list. 

You’ve Been Left Behind

In fact, one of the main reasons for writing 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 was to calm the churches fears over this very thing.  People were teaching that Jesus had already come again, and that they had been left behind!  And so Paul wrote this section to put that fear to rest.

So how would you know if you had been left behind?  Chapter two gives five identifiable events that will occur that will let you know definitively if the Day of the Lord has come and if you are now facing the Great Tribulation!

#1  The Rapture 1-2

Two messages ago we talked about the rapture.  Here’s how you will know if you’ve been left behind.  If there aren’t any genuine Christians around anymore.  If all the Christians are gone (poof) it is because of the rapture.  You don’t want to miss it.

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,  not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of the Lord had come.

Why did Paul tell them not to be soon shaken or troubled?  Because in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 in his previous letter He had just explained to them that the Rapture was a major cause for comfort and for joy, not for fear or concern.  This is what he said:

The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Paul wrote to comfort them with the rapture, but instead they were shaken and troubled over it!  Why Because someone told them that were now in the day of God’s Wrath.  They missed the rapture and were in the wrath.  So that’s the big Question of prophecy future.  Will the Christian get the Rapture or the Wrath?  If you get the rapture, you get comfort!  If you get God’s Wrath, you get shaken and troubled.  And Paul said, don’t let these rumors trouble you. 

When Pastor Craig preached on 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, he showed you, from Scripture that chronologically, the Rapture occurs in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and the Day of the Lord, occurs chronologically after that in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 

That’s why Paul said, don’t be shaken about the Day of the Lord!  Because the next event on the prophetic horizon is the rapture!  The first identifiable event that will occur that will let you know definitively if you are in the Day of the Lord is the rapture!  The second is the Great Apostasy.

#2 The Great Apostasy 3

Last week Last week we talked about the Great Apostasy.  It is the second identifiable event that lets you know you are in the day of wrath. 

Here’s how you can know.  If you get up one Sunday and pretty much all churches are empty, it’s a sign that church goers have abandoned the faith and you’ve been left behind.

Let no one deceive you; for the Day of the Lord will not come unless the falling away comes first.

Now in the Book of Revelation, which explains what will happen in the future; in the first three chapters the church is prominent.  The church is mentioned 18 times there.  The 7 churches of the book of Revelation are not perfect, but they are vital and are a light to the world. 

However after chapter three they are not mentioned again in the rest of the book of Revelation until the last chapter.  Why not?  Where did the church go?  Why was there not church on earth during the Great Tribulation.  #1 the true church got raptured.  #2 those that were left abandoned the church.  They walked out the front door never to return again.

So let’s just say that you get up one Sunday morning to go to church, and none of the churches in your town are open; and this goes on week after week.  And if you drive past the churches in your town, and the lawn hasn’t been mowed for weeks, and the buildings are eerily empty, and no one drives in the parking lot any more, it’s because the Great Apostasy has come.  And if you start to notice that pretty much every church in town has a for sale sign in front, but no one is buying them.  And when they do get sold they get turned into malls and mosques and theaters, it’s because of the Great Apostasy.  After some investigation you find that churches have closed all over the state, all over the country and all over the world!  No more church! That’s a sure sign that the falling away has occurred and you are in the Day of the Lord. 

#3 The Antichrist 3-4

And the antichrist is really the center or lynchpin of this prophetic passage.  He is the topic of the rest of it.  And it is doubtless that the antichrist promotes, and encourages the Great apostasy and penalizes anyone who wants to follow Jesus.  It is likely that he outlaws the existence of churches.  And anyone who believes on Jesus during the Great Tribulation, he hounds and persecutes. 

The Antichrist is the third clear sign that you are in the end times day of God’s wrath.  So then this question comes up:  How will you recognize the Antichrist?  Who is he?  How do you know?  Let’s face it, dozens, maybe hundreds of people have been named as the Antichrist:

The Pope, Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Henry Kissinger, Mikhail Gorbachev, George Bush, Donald Trump, Barak Obama, Vladimir Putin, and the list goes on, and on.  But this passage gives one very clear way that you can identify the real antichrist. 

Let no one deceive you; for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

This is how you will recognize him.  The real antichrist will enter into the Jewish Temple, into the Holy of Holies and demand that the world worship him!  Oh wait!  There is no Jewish Temple!  Instead, the Dome of the Rock stands in its place.  How in the world is this prophecy ever going to take place?

You see, this is how I know that Hitler wasn’t the antichrist.  Even though he hated the Jews and killed 6 million of them in the Holocaust, as evil as he was, the future Fuhrer will be worse.  And this is how I know that the leader of Hamas, at least at this point, isn’t the antichrist.  Even though they hate the Jews and massacred 1,100 civilians, men, women and children in a gristly and despicable attack on October 7.  The Man of Sin, the son of Perdition, will be worse. 

How do I know that these men are not the Antichrist?   Because the Temple has not yet been rebuilt.  When the Jews rebuild the temple, then you can start looking for the antichrist.  And you will know who he is because at the midpoint of the Great Tribulation, the future Fuhrer will desecrate the temple and demand that the world worship Him!  That’s a pretty identifiable mark.  If you’ve gotten that far into the tribulation, its half way over, and you are most certainly the recipient of the wrath and not the rapture! 

#4 The Restrainer 5-8

Another characteristic of the end times is that every law that protects you, every bill of rights that is mean to keep the government in check, every restraint that keeps dictators and governments from oppressing its citizens will be thrown out the window.  You may be a flag waving patriot now, but that’s going to do you no good when God removes the supernatural checks and balances that keep the world a sane and safe place.  Here’s the prophecy: 

And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.  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.

When God does this it will be like suddenly letting all the air out of a balloon.  One day in the future, the Holy Spirit will stop restraining evil, and if you think things are bad now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.  The wild west is nothing compared to this.  The killing fields of Cambodia will pale in comparison.  The murders of Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler and every other dictator are nothing compared to that day of chaos.  This may seem a little less definitive than the other, but believe me, when it happens it will be like a light switch turning off, leaving the world in darkness.

#5 The Great Deception 9-11

We already live in times of great deception.  It is almost inconceivable that there are people alive today who actually believe that just by wishing, a man can transform himself into a woman!  It can’t be done!  No amount of imagining, wishing, wanting, drugs or operations can do that.  It’s just impossible.  It is equally crazy that educated men and women actually think that through the big bang that everything sprang existence from nothing!  We all know that something cannot come from nothing.  It is impossible.  And no scientific mumbo jumbo, or hocus pocus is ever going to be able to make the impossible possible. 

But there is coming a day of even greater deception.  And here’s how it happens:

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.

If you think that people are delusional today, you wait until the antichrist is in charge.  With the restrainer gone, he will use satanic deception, powerful miracles, lying wonders and pure lies to convince the world to not only follow him, but to worship him. 

When you see the entire world fawning after one man and falling all over him in idol worship, and he can say whatever lies he wants and get away with it, that will be the day that you say, “oops, wish I’d taken a ride out of this world in the rapture!”  Too late for that! 

These five clearly identifiable signs will be the clues you need to say definitively that “yes I am in the Day of the Lord, the Great Tribulation!”  Then you will know that  you’ve been left behind. 

I have a little chart that I want to flash up on the screen that will help you visualize everything I’ve told you this morning. 

This is the Rise of the Antichrist.  It starts with a worldwide, church wide falling away that will culminate in the end of the church age and the death of the church as we know it, known as the great apostasy.

 At or around the same time, shortly before and after that happens, the rapture will occur.  The dead in Christ will rise, and we will be caught up with them in the air. 

Happening at about he same time the restrainer is removed and the Day of the Lord is consummated.

Then the man of sin will be revealed.  He will deceive the world and desecrate the temple.  You can see how he is the lynchpin of end time prophecy.  He in involved in the apostasy.  He deceives the world.  And he desecrates the temple.

However, He and his puny human empire will be destroyed by the second coming of Christ.  Jesus will reign forever more! 

Now as we come to the end of this message, let me say that it is meant to be a comfort to believers.  The rapture is meant to comfort us, not to leave us in fear of what is to come.  Jesus is coming for us!  There will not be one true believer who will miss the rapture.  God knows who are his and we will rise with him and he will bring us to the mansions he’s prepared for us!  What a comfort!

However.  If you have never trusted Christ as Savior, you will be left behind.  That’s a fact.  The only thing you will have going for you is that you have heard this message, and you can identify the events of the end times, and you will know what to do next!  There is only one thing left for you, if you’ve been left behind!  Place your faith and trust in Jesus, and there will be hope, not in this life, but In the life yet to come.  But why wait until it’s too late!  Trust Jesus today!  GET READY!  Jesus is coming again, and you can be ready to meet him!

Should Christians abandon the church?  By some predictions, if current trends continue, some 42 million young adults will be leaving the Church in the next 30 years.  There are many reasons why church attendance is declining, but I think it’s increasingly evident that more and more people believe that it no longer makes sense to attend church. 

The top three reasons why people are abandoning the church

#1. Gradual drift. 

#2. Doctrinal Issues. 

#3.  Moral disagreements. 

Don’t You Fall Away

ἀποστασία apostasia is  “a falling away, defection, , abandonment.” 

Heresy is when a person rejects essential Christian doctrine. 

Apostasy is when a person abandons the church or leaves the faith.

Many heretics still attend church. 

Neither Heresy nor Apostasy is OK with God. 

Every single NT epistle was written to the church or to its leaders. 

Christianity knows nothing of Christians divorcing the church! 

“They went out from us because they were not of us.  1 John 2:19

There is a great apostasy coming in biblical prophecy?

The background of apostasy: 

Apostasy has always been around. 

Apostasy is growing.  It is increasing incrementally every year. 

One day Apostasy will explode. 

The History of  apostasy.

1900s denominations abandoned biblical Christianity. 

1960s New Religious Movements (cults) multiplied.

1980s the church gave up its moral high ground. 

2000s – Rise of the “nones”  Attendance plummeted

We are on the brink of the Great Apostasy. 

Don’t You Be Deceived

Heresy eventually leads to apostasy.  People become deceived! 

ἐξαπατάω exapatao means “to deceive, cheat or beguile.” 

Deception may or may not occur, depending on how you respond!

Many will fall away and hate one another. Mat 24:10–14

Don’t be shaken.  Don’t you be one of those who are deceived.  In darkness there is always hope.  Truth may be forever on the scaffold, and wrong may be forever on the throne, but waiting in the shadows is God.  And He is not moved by the apostasy, no matter how great it may be.  His Word will never return void.  Never lose hope, no matter how dark the night, because even when things are at their darkest, the Son begins to rise.  Jesus is coming back!!

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Should Christians abandon the church?  In a 2021 sermon, Pastor Matt Chandler called leaving the faith “a sexy thing to do.”[i] 

I’m not sure exactly if he thinks that’s a direct quote from the Bible, or just some fancy new interpretation he’s got there.  There is nothing sexy about abandoning the church.  But by some predictions, if current trends continue, some 42 million young adults will be taking the sexy way out and leaving the Church in the next 30 years.[ii] 

There are many reasons why church attendance is declining, but I think it’s increasingly evident that more and more people believe that it no longer makes sense to attend church. 

According to PEW research,[iii] the top three reasons why people are abandoning the church are #1. Gradual drift.  They just gradually find themselves slip sliding away.  Isn’t that sexy.  They have just got other things to do, and church doesn’t seem that important.  After all, our church streams our services live online. I could literally watch live on any device I own anywhere at any time.  #2. Doctrinal Issues.  Our secular world is finding it more and more difficult to stomach the teachings of the Bible.  So they are stepping out.  We just want you to know that, at Pine Grove, while the world is staggering down the slippery slope into chaos and insanity, you can depend on us to stick to God’s Truth.  You will find an island of tranquility and truth here.  #3.  Moral issues.  When it comes to people doubting their faith, the churches stand on abortion, homosexuality and transgender issues is turning a lot of people off.  We sympathize with those who struggle with an unplanned pregnancy and with those who struggle with their identity or sexuality.  And it is precisely because our hearts are filled with compassion that we don’t want them to remain captive to their sin.  Jesus came to set us free from sin, and you can count on us to maintain a clear and compassionate moral stand.  Even if that means some people walk away.

So the flood gates are open, and people are leaving the church in droves.  One man puts it this way: “what you don’t seem to understand is that, respectfully, I don’t go to church because so much of it has become so far removed from the heart of God that I can’t even breathe inside and Jesus is virtually nowhere to be found. [iv]

”The more I attended, the more empty I became. None of it worked. I became less like Jesus and better at pretending. At first, I thought it was me that was missing the Spirit, but then the Light within revealed that it was actually you.[v]

“See, it’s not only what you believe, it’s that you actually believe it. And not just believe it, but act on it, live it, and then demand others do the same.” [vi] WOW!  You see, some people are leaving because we cling to the truth. And we will continue to do so.

Today we are going to answer the big question, “Should Christians abandon the institutional church?”  Has the church fallen into apostasy?  And we are going to answer it in a big way.  Because 2 Thessalonians 2:3 speaks clearly of the day that is coming when the masses will walk out the front doors never to return again, and it calls it that day “the falling away,” or the “Great Apostasy!”

Don’t You Fall Away

The words “falling away,” is the Greek word ἀποστασία apostasia, which means, “a falling away, defection, rebellion, abandonment, a forsaking.”  It comes from the root of the word – ἀποστάσιον apostasion which means a divorce, a departure.  In the first-century world, apostasy was a technical term for political revolt.[vii]

Now Apostasy is different than heresy.  I want to define some terms here.  Heresy is when a person or church rejects essential Christian doctrines.  Some of them reject essential Christian doctrines and yet still claim to be Christian.  They still go to church.  Preach from the pulpit and sing in the choir.

Apostasy is when a person abandons the church, departs from the community of believers and typically rejects essential Christian doctrines.

So here’s an interesting factoid.  You can reject essential doctrine, like the inspiration of Scripture, like the sinfulness of man, like salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and that makes you a heretic, and yet you may still attend church!  Many heretics attend church.  Or you can still believe those essential Christian Doctrines and yet walk out the front doors of the church, and never come back, and that’s what we call apostasy. 

It is technically possible to be a heretic without being apostate, and it is technically possible to be an apostate without being a heretic.  But I can tell you this:  it ain’t sexy to be either one!  Neither one is right before God.  And if you choose to walk away from the church, you are rejecting one of the essential truths of the New Testament. 

Think of it this way:  every single epistle in the New Testament but one (Philemon) was written to the church or to the leaders of the church.  Every single one.  New Testament Christianity knows nothing about Christians divorcing the church!  There is no such thing as lone ranger Christians.  If you reject the church, you might as well be rejecting the entire New Testament.

1 John 2:19 put it this way, “They went out from us because they were not of us.  If they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they it might be clear, that none of them were of us.”

So in reading that verse, do you think that the New Testament approves of “apostasy,” the abandonment of the church?  Does it sound like God thinks that leaving the church is sexy?  

2 Thessalonians 2:3 tells us that a great apostasy is coming.  In biblical prophecy apostasy is an eschatological mark of the impending day of the Lord, a precursor of the final day of judgment.

The event that must come before the return of the Lord is the apostasy.  Paul is saying that the Lord will not come until there is a widespread departure from the faith. 

Let me review with you the Background of apostasy.  There are three streams of apostasy.  The first is that Apostasy has always been around.  It began with Judas Iscariot, has been flowing ever since.  The second is that Apostasy is growing.  It is increasing incrementally every year.  The stream has turned into a rapidly flowing river.  The third stream is not a stream at all, it is the Niagara falls of the river.  There is coming a day when Apostasy will explode and will swell until all streams come together into one great deluge of deception!  That’s what we call the “Great Apostasy.” 

What I am about to tell you is staggering.  I am suggesting that we are in the midst of Apostasy rising, and the falling away is underway. 

I would like us to look at an apostasy timeline.  Since the 1940s, church membership has dropped by 25%!  And church attendance has plummeted a similar amount.  What has caused this? 

#1.  Since the 1900s numerous, mainstream Christian denominations have abandoned biblical Christianity.  Anglicans, Episcopal, some Baptists, Lutheran Church in America, United Methodist, a few Pentecostal denominations, Reformed Church in America, The United Church of Christ, The Presbyterian Church USA, Disciples of Christ, and others too numerous to list have changed their positions and doctrines.[viii]  The Church has fallen into heresy, and that has cost the mainline denominations millions of adherants.

#2 By the 1960’s New Religious Movements or NRMs for short, have multiplied.  Scholars have estimated that NRMs now number in the tens of thousands worldwide.[ix]   In the year 1900 there were an estimated 1,000 religions.  Today there are 15,000!  A virtual explosion![x]  People are leaving the church and joining the cults.

#3.  Beginning In the 1980s, much of the church worldwide gave up its moral high ground.  We now have gay affirming churches, trans affirming churches, and in the most recent debacle, the United Methodist Church decided to embrace and affirm gay marriage, gay clergy and every other moral error.  Due to their loss of morality, some 25% of their churches have left the denomination.  And the heresy continues to infect the church. 

#4 n the year 2000, 45% of all those surveyed by Barna were practicing church goers. That share has consistently declined over the last 20 years. Now, just one in four Americans (25%) is a practicing Christian. In essence, the share of practicing Christians has nearly dropped in half since 2000.”[xi]  Meanwhile the number of religiously unaffiliated adults has increased by roughly 19 million since 2007.  this group – sometimes called religious “nones” – is now larger than it has ever been.  According to a September 2022 Pew study, people identifying as Christian have decreased from 90% of the U.S. population in 1972 to 64% in 2020.[xii]

As a result, today the church is facing its most perilous crisis in history.  We are on the brink of Apostasy.  There is a widespread sense of crisis among evangelicals. We sense that something has gone wrong with the church.

As the tide of public opinion turns against Christianity, two things are happening. Those who are truly born again are moving closer to God and to each other, and those who are Christian in name only are embracing the ways of the world and completing their move away from the faith. This is Apostasy.  If you have considered leaving the church for good, just remember, this prophecy is about you!

Don’t You Be Deceived

Verse 3 begins with the words, “Let no one deceive you by any means!”  Now this is how heresy makes its rounds in the church and leads to apostasy.  People become deceived! 

ἐξαπατάω exapatao (7 times) – “to deceive, cheat or beguile, muddy the waters.”  In this verse it is in the subjunctive mood which is the mood of potentiality.  In other words deception may or may not occur, depending upon how you respond to it!

In Matthew 24, in the middle section of what is generally known as The Olivet Discourse, Jesus appears to refer to the end times apostasy. He says:

“And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:10–14)

This appears to be the background for the Apostle Paul’s teaching in 2 Thessalonians 2. In both accounts, the Great Apostasy, along with the actions of its main character, the Man of Lawlessness, will precede the Second coming of the Lord. “and then the end will come”  Matthew 24

According to Matthew 24, the Falling away will lead to betrayal.  And the reason for their betrayal is because of hatred.  Does any of this sound contemporary? 

Don’t be shaken.  Don’t you be one of the doubters.  Don’t you be one of those who are deceived.  I love the way Matthew 24 14 ends.  “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world, and then the end will come.”

In darkness there is always hope.  Truth may be forever on the scaffold, and wrong may be forever on the throne, but waiting in the shadows is God.  And He is not moved by the apostasy, no matter how great it may be.  His Word will never return void.  Never lose hope, no matter how dark the night, because even when things are at their darkest, the Son begins to rise.  Jesus is coming back!

[i] https://baptistnews.com/article/i-asked-people-why-theyre-leaving-christianity-and-heres-what-i-heard/

[ii] https://www.greatopportunity.org/

[iii] https://churchhealthwiki.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/affiliation-research-discovers-top-reasons-people-join-leave-a-church-pewresearch/

[iv] https://chriskratzer.com/heres-the-real-reason-i-dont-go-to-church/

[v] https://chriskratzer.com/heres-the-real-reason-i-dont-go-to-church/

[vi] https://chriskratzer.com/heres-the-real-reason-i-dont-go-to-church/

[vii] https://www.gotquestions.org/apostasy.html

[viii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations_affirming_LGBT

[ix] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_new_religious_movements

[x] http://www.wnrf.org/cms/statuswr.shtml

[xi] https://onenewsnow.com/church/2020/03/10/barna-decades-of-decline-in-faith-life-laced-with-hope

[xii] https://baptistnews.com/article/i-asked-people-why-theyre-leaving-christianity-and-heres-what-i-heard/