Satan and the Anti-Christ

Part 2

In the first part of this series, we saw how Satan began as the great counterfeiter and that his goal is to get people to worship him over God. In this part we will be looking at the mystery of iniquity and how Satan’s connection to the anti-christ during the tribulation.

The Mystery of Iniquity: (2 Thessalonians 2:1-9)

In this passage there is something called the mystery of iniquity and that it is already at work. The mystery of Godliness is that Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). Satan has a counterfeit of this called the mystery of iniquity. The anti-christ will not be Satan manifest in the flesh but remember that Satan has a seed.

Note in verse 3 we see the anti-christ referred to in two different ways, the man of sin and the son of perdition.

Man of sin:

There is a man that will come forth and may even be alive now who at the beginning of the Tribulation will take over the world as a leader. He may be a political leader or a religious leader or possibly both. He will take the kingdom peaceably and he will cause a period of great prosperity (Daniel 8:23-25 ; 11:24).

There will be peace in the middle east with Israel sacrificing once again, which means they will either build the temple or at least set up the old testament tabernacle. The anti- christ will confirm a covenant with the Jews for one week (7 Years) according to Daniel 9:27. (This covenant will be broke in the middle of the week but more on that later)

Satan, who is the dragon, will give the anti-christ his seat, power, and great authority. Remember when Satan tempted Jesus with all the kingdoms of the world, he told he that he had the power to give them to whomever he would (Luke 4:5-7). This man is portrayed by the white horse rider in the first seal of Revelation 6. (Because of this counterfeit many teach that the white horse rider in Revelation 6 is Jesus Christ, but Jesus is the white horse rider of Revelation 19:11-16 not Revelation 6).

The Son of Perdition:

It appears in Revelation 13:3 that the man the anti-christ is assassinated but note that his deadly wound was healed. Therefore, the anti-christ will rise from the dead (once again a great counterfeit). But when he comes up it is not the man that died but the beast out of the bottomless pit using his body, this is why he is called the son of perdition and is said to go into perdition (Revelation 9:11 ; Revelation 17:8).

At this time he will break the covenant with the Jews and set up the abomination in the holy place (Daniel 9:27). He will also go into the temple and proclaim his self to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). Both he and the false prophet will do miracles to deceive the people, they will set up the image of the beast and cause all that will not worship him and receive his mark to be killed (Revelation 13:11-18). This will be the last three and one half years of the tribulation.

Once again we see the great counterfeiter at work he has a fake Christ that first comes in peaceably, then is killed, resurrected from the dead, doing miracles and requiring worship. What Satan is doing right now is working to set the world up for these events, which is why our passage in 2 Thessalonians said the mystery of iniquity was already at work.