2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. 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; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
It has been usually thought that this passage alludes to the great apostasy of the Church of Rome, and, certainly, if there were a hue and cry raised for the culprit here described, one might well arrest that apostasy upon suspicion. It may not, however, be the man of sin, or the son of perdition; it may be that general spirit which springs up again and again, one of the many anti-Christs that were already in the world even in John’s day. There are many such spirits that are constantly rising up, not outside the Church, there, we could deal with them, but inside the Church, using the words of truth, and the signs of truth to signify something far other than the truth of God. This is the great rock that threatens destruction. Oh, that God’s Church might ever be kept from striking upon it! But there is this rock which would, if it were possible, wreck the very elect barque of Christ itself.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. 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; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
It has been usually thought that this passage alludes to the great apostasy of the Church of Rome, and, certainly, if there were a hue and cry raised for the culprit here described, one might well arrest that apostasy upon suspicion. It may not, however, be the man of sin, or the son of perdition; it may be that general spirit which springs up again and again, one of the many anti-Christs that were already in the world even in John’s day. There are many such spirits that are constantly rising up, not outside the Church, there, we could deal with them, but inside the Church, using the words of truth, and the signs of truth to signify something far other than the truth of God. This is the great rock that threatens destruction. Oh, that God’s Church might ever be kept from striking upon it! But there is this rock which would, if it were possible, wreck the very elect barque of Christ itself.