Peter Barnes: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5
(8 April 2018)
SERMON NOTES : BEWARE THE MAN OF SIN (2 Thessalonians 2:1-5)
– the man of sin must come before Christ returns.
1. We need to beware of deception.
– 2:1-3a. The KJV says that the day of the Lord is ‘at hand’, but it says that he has come. Some are alarmed, even scared out of their wits.
– some claims might come by a spirit (NIV has ‘prophecy’); others by a word; others by a letter, ‘as from us’ – hence 3:17.
– 1 Thess.5:21. Good doctrine bears being repeated – 2 Thess.2:5.
2. The apostasy comes before Christ’s Second Coming.
– apostasy must come first (2:3b), better than ESV’s ‘rebellion’.
– Judges 2:10; Matt.24:12; Acts 20:29-30; Gal.1:6; 1 John 2:18.
3. The man of lawlessness also comes before Christ’s return.
– 2:3b-4. The temple must be the church. The Westminster Confession identifies the antichrist as the pope. Some of the popes have been appalling – John XII (a Harvey Weinstein type), Alexander VI (corrupt, with many children, but no wife), and Julius II (the warrior pope).
– Calvin: ‘when we categorically deny to the papists the title of the Church, we do not for this reason impugn the existence of churches among them’. Nevertheless, ‘Holy Father’ in John 17:11 is a title for God but in Roman Catholicism a papal titles; Tertullian called the Holy Spirit ‘the vicar of Christ’ but it is another papal title; in the bull Unam Sanctam in 1302 Pope Boniface VIII declared that salvation was only possible for those who kissed the pope’s feet, but read Acts 10:25-26; in 1854 Pius IX declared that Mary was born without sin, but read Romans 5:12.