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Commentary on "The Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:112)"
Day 5: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - The Antichrist Revealed (2 Thess. 2:810)
The author opens with the question: “What’s especially important in all this about the phrase , 'they received not the love of the truth’?"
The full verses states:
“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” (2 Thess. 2:9 and 10 ESV).
From here the author goes straight for the old covenant law, the ten commandments, read “the Sabbath”, and ties in the Catholic Church. What an awful blunder, or should I say, deception! The phrase the author quotes here in part is a beautiful mini soteriology. To use it to point back to the “law of sin and death” is appalling. We are simply to love the truth and be saved. By simply I do not mean simplistic, but it is not a complex system of rules and Sabbaths that is required for salvation.
“Through much of Christian history he has operated to undermine God’s law (particularly the Sabbath) and to usurp powers that belong only to Christ” (Jon Paulien).
Interesting. First, it is clear that “the man of sin” is not Satan. He is a man not an angel and verse nine states that he is “by the activity of Satan” making it clear that he is not Satan himself, but under the direct control of Satan. There has been antichrist activity since before the flood (Genesis 6:4), however, Paul is clearly not talking about the general antichrist—he is talking about the Antichrist that triggers the great tribulation described by the Lord Jesus and prophesied of by Daniel. Second, I must point out that the author's words fit so well with the deception that he defends. Adventist doctrine corrupts the truth of the Gospel that tells us “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent”—Jesus, John 6:29. It looks back to the Sabbath of the Mosaic covenant and by doing so robs its adherents of the true Sabbath rest that those who belong to Christ have in Him. It usurps the absolute sovereignty of Christ in our salvation by attempted to put us under the bondage of the law as a means of “vindicating God”. This is tragic.
Regarding the Catholic Church, while few Protestants would disagree that Catholicism has exhibited a great deal of antichrist activity, scripture does not support the assertion that she is the Antichrist. This is Seventh-day Adventist dogma straight from the pen of their false prophet, Ellen G. White. Yes, Rome does appear to be a major player at the end, but a character such as Hitler or Stalin seems to fit the picture of Antichrist more completely.
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised September 17, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Camp Verde, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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