The Mystery or Secret of Iniquity

The Mysteries or Secrets of God revealed to the Apostle Paul - Part 8:

Still taking a brief break from the study of faith we continue examining the 20 occasions Paul used the Greek word “musterion,” translated either “mystery or mysteries,” which actually refers simply to a secret or secrets. I stated last time that today’s would be the last in this series having forgotten two references so it appears we’ll have a few more on this. In this study and the next we consider 2 Thess. 2:7, which reads “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” We need to understand the context of this verse so today’s study covers the verses 1 - 6, which lead up to our text. These are quoted (from the King James Version) followed by an indented explanation/ comments. This will provide the background for our next study when we will consider verse 7.

2 Thessalonians 2:11 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,”

The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together with Him refers to what is called the “rapture” of the Church, the Body of Christ. The Apostle Paul described this event in I Thessalonians 4:13 - 18. The rapture is the hope, or earnest expectation of every believer who has lived since it was revealed to Paul almost 2000 years ago. 1 Thess. 4:13 - 18 taught the Thessalonians and all believers since, that those who have died since then along with we who are alive and remain will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so be with Him forever and that we should comfort each other with these words. The rapture is a comfort and is not the tribulation spoken of in the next verse, which refers to the day of the Lord.

(Verse 2) “That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ (the Lord) is at hand.”

The sources I have indicate the word translated “Christ” in this verse should be translated “Lord.” The Day of the Lord is not the rapture referenced in verse 1 and there is no comfort for anyone experiencing it. Paul had already taught in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 - 52 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

that the “the day of the Lord” had not set in at that time. But they had been persecuted and tried (2 Thessalonians 1:4 - 104 So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:

5 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:

6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,

8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

) and were disturbed by that persecution and/or the teaching from someone that “the Day of the Lord” was upon them. “The Day of the Lord” is that terrible day of tribulation alluded to by Jesus in the Gospels (Matthew 24:4 - 314 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

25 Behold, I have told you before.

26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

) (Compare Daniel 9:2727 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

& Matthew 24:1515 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

) and described in detail in the book of Revelation. So, whereas verse 1 refers to the rapture, which is a comforting expectation for believers, verse 2 refers to the tribulation, which will be anything but comforting to those experiencing it.

This truth was also taught previously by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 - 119 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

where he wrote that God has not appointed believers to wrath (the Tribulation) but that we are to comfort each other with our hope of the rapture. The exhortation to comfort is also repeated in 2 Thessalonians 2:1717 Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

. And he had told the Thessalonians, and us “... to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” 1 Thessalonians 1:1010 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

.

(Verse 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;”

Obviously, some had been spreading false doctrine that was deceiving the believers at Thessalonica. Paul assures them, and us, that the day of the Lord, that terrible tribulation, will not come except “there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”

The words “falling away” are a translation of the Greek word “apostasua,” which means literally “apostasy, defection from the truth, forsake.” This apostasy will be the falling away of the Hebrew and Christian churches that will continue to exist on earth after the true Church, the Body of Christ, which is made up of believing Jews and Gentiles are raptured. In other words, after we who truly believe the Gospel are gone there will still exist on earth those who follow the Hebrew and Christian religions but they will do so in self-righteousness and not in true faith; they will defect from the truth.

The “man of sin,” the “son of perdition” who will be revealed is none other than the Anti Christ. The Greek word apoleia (G684) translated perdition means “ruin or loss; damnable, destruction, die, perish, pernicious ways, waste.” The Anti christ is now held fast in the abyss, the bottomless pit, but he will ascend from there into perdition (see verse 6 and compare with Revelation 17:88 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

). He’ll show up on earth the epitome or personification of ruin, loss, destruction, pernicious ways.

(Verse 4) “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, shewing himself that he is God.”

The Anti Christ, by the power of Satan will ascend out of the pit onto the earth where he will not only oppose God but will exalt or place himself above God. He, under the guise of being God, will actually sit in the temple that will be rebuilt in Jerusalem , ....... and the world at that time will wonder or admire him (Revelation 17:8).

(Verse 5) “Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?”

Paul reminds them that he had taught about the rapture as compared to the Day of the Lord, i.e., tribulation, when he was with them.

(Verse 6) “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.”

The Greek word (G2722, katecho) translated “withholdeth” means to “hold down (fast), etc.” This is in reference to the abyss, which does or will hold fast the Anti christ until the time appointed, Revelation 17:8.

We’ll wrap up our study of verse 7 next time: “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.”