Christian Churches of God

No. 299E

 

 

 

The Man of Sin and the Apostasy

 

(Edition 1.0 20101030-20101030)

 

The coming of the Man of Sin to the church of the Last Days is of great significance and the identification is important to the Body of Christ.

 

 

The Man of Sin and the Apostasy

The Man of Sin is referred to in the texts and Paul’s Second letter to the Thessalonians was written specifically concerning that incident and the timing and sequence of the Apostasy and the Coming of Christ.

 

It is written to the Thessalonians in the name of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This text cannot therefore be misinterpreted as a Binitarian text.

 

2Thessalonians 1:1-12

[1] Paul, Silva'nus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalo'nians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: [2] Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The church at Thessalonika was well founded and was proceeding in the Lord and it appears that the Antinomians got among some of them and spread the Antinomian heresy among them and Paul had to write to them to steady them and also in their affliction.

[3] We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, as is fitting, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. [4] Therefore we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you are enduring. [5] This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be made worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering -- [6] since indeed God deems it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, [7] and to grant rest with us to you who are afflicted, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, [8] inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

 

They were punished for their faith and the observance of the laws of God and the Antinomians attacked the church using that observance as a basis of discouragement.

 

They were to be granted rest when Christ returns and he will inflict justice on those who persecute the church. The punishment of these people was to be destroyed and precluded from the First Resurrection. Anyone tempted to disregard the laws of God into Antinomianism should realise what their punishment is.

[9] They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, [10] when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. [11] To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfil every good resolve and work of faith by his power, [12] so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The basis of the Antinomian attacks on the Churches of God is examined in the paper Antinomian Attacks on the Law of God (No.  164D) at: http://www.ccg.org/english/s/p164d.html.

 

The Advent of the Messiah

Paul then goes on to deal with the fact of the Second Coming of Messiah. There must be a rebellion against the Church and the Laws of God before the Day of the Lord comes. See also the paper The Day of the Lord and the Last Days (No. 192) at: http://www.ccg.org/english/s/p192.html.

 

2Thessalonians 2:1-17

[1] Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him, we beg you, brethren, [2] not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

Thus there will be no need for any letter or word saying the Lord has come.

 

[3] Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, [4] who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

The Rebellion must come first which is the rebellion against the laws of God which is based on the man of lawlessness who is revealed. The Greek for the Rebellion is the Apostasia or the Apostasy which is the falling away from the truth of the Faith. The faith from which they fall away is the law of God. The man of lawlessness is the man of Sin, which is the transgression of the Law (1Jn 3:4). Sin is lawlessness, which in the Greek is anomias meaning the man without the law. All those who follow this doctrine that the law of God is done away are anomian, meaning without law or antinomian meaning against the law. They are one and the same thing. They have been the apostates of the Church of God from the first century. We have seen them develop over the years. The Apostasy developed from the Antinomian Binitarian worship of the god Attis, or Adonis, or Osiris, or Mithras, or Baal by whichever name he was worshipped. It has come to the point that the Churches of God in the western nations are rotten with Binitarian/Trinitarian Antinomianism and they have forfeited their place in the First Resurrection and they think they are righteous because of it.

 

In the modern era the Apostasy began with the false structure of the Reformation churches that developed from the Churches of God that were persecuted by the Roman System. They became the Protestants who again persecuted the Church of God for centuries.

 

These churches further developed from the base structure of the Churches of God of the Sardis era after the Reformation. The early structure saw churches fall into Apostasy. These were the Bible Students who became Jehovah’s Witnesses. They declared the law was done away and simply abandoned any pretence of Sabbath Worship and association with the Churches of God. The same effect was achieved in the Church of God (Seventh Day) when the SDAs drew away from the COG (SD) and abandoned the law of God keeping only the Sabbath and none of the rest of the Fourth Commandment and then became Trinitarian in the West by 1978 and then lost Africa from 2003-5.

 

Herbert Armstrong and the RCG/WCG began the great Apostasy in the Church of God proper when he adopted the false Hillel calendar with the Babylonian intercalations and post-Temple postponements. He introduced Ditheism, and later that Ditheism became Binitarianism and Trinitarianism. He became the idol Shepherd and handed the Church of God over to a complete apostate who declared the Law of God done away and the Trinitarian structure to be the structure and nature of God.

 

This apostate was killed 40 weeks to the day and hour adjusted for the time difference from where he gave the sermon to where he died in agony. The churches became the Sardis and Laodicean systems and have destroyed the Church of God in the West.

 

These churches still to this day teach Binitarian/Trinitarian Heresy and keep the false Hillel calendar or no real calendar at all in some cases. This apostasy will continue now until the witnesses and then to the Messiah. These two churches of the seven will only see a few enter the First Resurrection. We will now examine the texts to see how we can identify the structure and how the false religious system of the Whore and her harlot daughters will be part of the structure of the last days.

 

Paul explains how that mystery of lawlessness was already at work in his day. 

 

2Thessalonians 2 continues:

[5] Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you this? [6] And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. [7] For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. [8] And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming. [9] The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, [10] and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

 

Note here that the mystery was restrained then but it was allowed to be revealed. The power of this antinomian system is by the power of Satan. The final coming of the lawless one will be by the power of Satan and that system is able to be identified by its rejection of the Law of God. This system will come out of Christianity and will if it were possible deceive even the very elect (Mat. 24:24; Mk. 13:22). That means that the Churches of God will be attacked and they will be taken in by this apostasy and many in the Churches of God will fall into the apostasy. They will reject the nature of God and become Binitarian/Trinitarians and they will become Antinomians.

 

The Strong Delusion

How will it be possible for the Churches of God and the Christian world to be deceived? How will Judah go along with these Antinomian lies? How could it be used by the Trinitarian systems as well as Judah?

[11] Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, [12] so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

 

Unrighteousness is the action of people against the Law of God. Justice and Righteousness are the same thing. Injustice is Unrighteousness and is measured and governed by the Laws of God.

 
[13] But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. [14] To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. [15] So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.

Thus God through the Spirit chose those whom He would save from the beginning and they were not to be lost through Antinomian Apostasy.

 

[16] Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, [17] comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

 

So it is through the eternal comfort that God has given us through grace with the Lord Jesus Christ that comforts our hearts and establishes us in every good work and word, which is the action of the elect in accordance with the Commandments of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ.

 

The conclusion of the epistle is to show that we are to speed on and triumph so that we are delivered from wicked and evil men who do not have the faith once delivered to the saints.

 

2Thessalonians 3:1-18

[1] Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph, as it did among you, [2] and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men; for not all have faith. [3] But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from evil.
[4] And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things which we command. [5] May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

 

Thus we are under the direction of the church in the Love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.

 

Note also that indolence was a factor in these who were not of the faith. Paul says:

[6] Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. [7] For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you,
[8] we did not eat any one's bread without paying, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you. [9] It was not because we have not that right, but to give you in our conduct an example to imitate. [10] For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: If any one will not work, let him not eat. [11] For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. [12] Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living.

 

These people were also a drain on the brethren who were exhorted not to be weary in well doing. For truly these idle people are a drain and a burden on the brethren.

[13] Brethren, do not be weary in well-doing.

The commands of the church are to be obeyed and those disobeying are to be marked.

 

[14] If any one refuses to obey what we say in this letter, note that man, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. [15] Do not look on him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. [16] Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all. [17] I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the mark in every letter of mine; it is the way I write. [18] The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

 

We know the text is clear and that the core of the text is in chapter 2 as follows.

 

It is clear that the arising of the Man of Sin or Lawlessness precedes the Christ and that teaching entered the Apostolic church at the time of the apostles. Paul was forced to deal with that false teaching and we can deduce what it was from the teaching of Paul on the heresy. That aspect has been explained in the paper Heresy in the Apostolic Church (No. 089) at: http://www.ccg.org/english/s/p089.html.

 

The Mark of the Church and the Antinomianism of the Last Days was identified by Christ.  He identified it as Antinomianism.

 

Matthew 24:9-10
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. (KJV)

Matthew 24:11-12
11) And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12) And because iniquity (SGD #458-anomia, lawlessness) shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (KJV)

We are persecuted and have only each other to hold on to the faith. Lawlessness abounds in these end-time antinomian preachers. As a result, God’s love grows cold in the many, including within these false preachers themselves. They do not have the Christian love they proclaim to possess.

As we stated above Christ gave us the warning of the problems besetting the Churches of God.

Matthew 24:24
24) For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. (KJV)

In the last decades the Churches of God have been deceived, especially in the western world and Antinomianism and false ministers are rife among them. The history of our doctrines is clear and understood by the elect and they are not deceived but the West has been dreadfully deceived and will lose their position in the kingdom if they do not repent.

 

The Final Delusion

The Strong Delusion is developed in the last days with all signs and wonders.

 

The basis of how the Christian and other elements as well as the Jews themselves will probably be deceived is by means of the Noahide laws.

 

This Apostasy has been established and accepted by the papacy so that the Sabbath may be the right only of Jews and not of Christians and thus the Jews will enforce the Hillel calendar and their traditions. The keeping of the true Sabbaths, New Moons and Holy Days by the Church of God will be persecuted and made almost impossible. Whilst the Christians will be acknowledged as having the right to keep the Sunday and their traditions, the remnant of Islam will keep the Friday preparation evening for prayer, falsely called the Juma’ah as a Sabbath of Islam, when it was not and is not a Sabbath but merely the preparation for the Sabbath (see the papers The Sabbath in Qur’an (No. 274) at: http://www.ccg.org/english/s/p274.html and The Juma’ah: Preparing for the Sabbath (No. 285) at: http://www.ccg.org/english/s/p285.html.

 

Thus with a basic set of rules that pretend to be applicable under the laws of God but which ignore most of them and restrict the Sabbath to Apostate Judaism, the strong delusion will be given to many and the Man of Sin will become entrenched in Antinomian heresy and supported by Apostate Christianity and Apostate and corrupted  Judaism.

 

The Commands of God

The commands of Christ are to endure to the end in patience and they are identified in that endurance by their keeping the commandments of God and the faith or testimony of Jesus Christ. Their reward is the right to the tree of life and entry to the City of God.

• Matthew 24:13
13) But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (KJV)

• Revelation 14:12
12) Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. (KJV)

• Revelation 22:14
14) Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. (KJV)

God’s Law proceeds from His very nature and gives definition and meaning to His love which the Messiah exemplified for us. God is Love. It is not a choice between God’s Law and Christian love. Just as Antinomians attempt to separate God’s Law from His Grace, they cannot separate God’s Love from His Law. God’s Law, His Grace, and His Love all work together for the good of His creation:

• Matthew 19:17
17) And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. (KJV)

 

The Man of Sin in the Psalms

Psalms 9-15 is the division of the Psalms that deal with “The Man of the Earth.”  It follows Psalm 8 that ends with the concept of Rebellious Man: Subdued.

 

The first book of psalms, the Genesis book, is Psalms 1-41.

Psalms 1-8 deal with Man and The son of Man;

Psalms 9-15 deal The Man of the Earth (Antichrist 10:18);

Psalms 16-41 deal with The Man Jesus the Christ.

Psalm 9 deals with the Lawless One (General).

Psalm 10 deals with the Man of the Earth (Particular).

 

Bullinger makes notes on Psalms 9 and 10 (which in the Septuagint are one psalm). They are an irregular acrostic. Seven letters are omitted through the two. The alphabet is broken and irregular “corresponding with the times of trouble.” It is the great tribulation of which they speak. One subject pervades them.

 

The Times of Trouble in 9:9 like Matthew 24, Jeremiah. 30 and Psalm 10:1 seems to imply that the lawless one also impacts at this time. Psalms 9 and 10 are constructed as an acrostic principle, every second verse beginning with a different successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a circumstance which helps to account for the seeming lack of logical sequence. However this pattern needs to be studied as it is deliberate and relates to the lawless one. It shows that the system is tied together over the entire sequence and relates to the satanic structure and hence the Man of Sin given power as the Antichrist.

 

Psalm 9:3-10 deals with the excision of the wicked. The sequence is the excision, deliverance, judgment and restatement of judgment, and deliverance again.

 

The Lawless One in Psalms 9:5, 16 and 10:2, 4, 13, 15 is the Hebrew SHD 7563 rasha: wicked, criminal

 

a) guilty one, one guilty of crime (subst)

 

b) wicked (hostile to God)

 

c) wicked, guilty of sin (against God or man)

from 7561 to be wicked, act wickedly

 

a) (Qal)

 

1) to be wicked, act wickedly

 

2) to be guilty, be condemned

 

b) (Hiphil)

 

1) to condemn as guilty (in civil relations)

 

2) to condemn as guilty (in ethical or religious relations)

 

3) to act wickedly (in ethics and religion)

 

In other words to act against the laws of God as the Antichrist and is identified by Bullinger as such (Comp. Bible fn. 9:5).

 

When reading the text the lawless one is also referred to in 9:6, 15. It is important in verse 15 the heathen sink into the pit that they made.  In verse 16 the wicked/lawless one is snared in the pit he made. The words Haggaion and Selah are added to the text, which mean to contemplate the result and the definitive Selah reinforces it. The singular of verse 16 is followed by the plural wicked ones in verse 17 thus the lawless one is accompanied by a host which are all trapped in the pit they dig for the elect and are all punished.

 

The Hebrew of Psalms 9:9 and 10:1 reads the “Times of Trouble.”  “The oppressed” uses the word Dak crushed in 9:9 and 10:18.

 

Psalm 10:15 has break the arm of the wicked one/lawless one and the evil man, and relates also to the Idol Shepherd in Zechariah 11:17.

 

Those that have not forgotten God and are humble are remembered.

 

Psalm 11 is a Prayer in view of Psalms 9 and 10.

Psalm 12 deals with the Vanity of Man.

The text compares the deceitful words of man and the lawless ones of the earth with the elect who keep the commands of God which are pure.

 

Psalm 12:6 states the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in the furnace of the earth purified seven times. The structure of seven indicates spiritually pure and reflects also the message of God through the seven angels of the seven churches and the seven thunders.

 

Psalm 13 is a prayer in view of Psalms 9 and 10 again. Verses 1-4 is the prayer; verses 5-6 is praise.

Psalm 14 deals with the Depravity of Man and Psalm 15 deals with the Perfect Man.

This is another example of the Man of Lawlessness or Sin; the Antichrist and his Antinomian system and the perfect man that triumphs over that system of lawlessness or Antinomianism. 

 

The Antinomians range from the Atheist to the pseudo-Christian.

 

Psalm 14 states the fool has said in his heart there is no God. God looked down from heaven to see if any understood and sought God. The whole mass had gone aside and had become corrupt. The text filthy here means to corrupt themselves from the laws of God; and there was none that does good, not one (added from the LXX). 

 

Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge means have they no understanding of the commandments of God.

Verse 6 means that these had shamed the counsel of the oppressed one whom they oppressed and persecuted. In other words they rejected the counsel of the elect and rejected the Law of God and corrupted themselves persecuting the elect. 

 

Psalm 14 is a condemnation of a cynical and unrighteous age.  The fool here is not a silly man, but one who is utterly corrupt in his moral character (compare 2Sam. 13:13; Prov. 10:23). There is no God (see 10:4 is not a declaration straight out of modern Atheism but rather a denial that God is concerned with moral retribution according to his laws (compare Pss.  10:11 and 94:7 and cf. fn. to Oxford Annotated RSV. )

 

This text shows that God takes back the captivity of His people and Israel and Judah shall both rejoice in their union.

 

This psalm seems to match Psalm 53 (three Elohim and four Yahovah here) and   seven x   Elohim are used in ps. 53). Psalm 53 is in the Exodus book and also refers to Jacob and Israel.  

 

Psalm 15 forms the text of the Sermon on the Mount (Mat. chs. 5-7). It relates to the Kingdom of God and not the Church of God. It is the kingdom on Mt Zion.

 

The perfect man obeys the laws of God and takes no usury.

 

The next sequence from Psalms 16-41 deals with the man Christ Jesus. Psalm 16 deals with taking his place of suffering. 

 

The Man of Sin is the Antichrist who is identified, and his system is identified, by their rejection of the commandments of God and they have permeated and corrupted Christian teachings for centuries. Their time is almost up. Antinomianism will be wiped out by Messiah at his return.        

 

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