It Must "Look Like" Satan Has Won
2 Thess. 2:3-4
II Thess. 2:1-4 - Satan will sit in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. (He will be saying, "God is dead."
1. There are two things mentioned in verses 1 and 2.
a. The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
b. Our gathering together with Him (the rapture).
2. Verse 3 & 8 - The Anti-Christ will be revealed to the world.
3. A world religion and the devil is the head of it.
4. Verse 3 - There will be a great apostasy.
a. A lot of people are going to stop serving God.
b. See my notes on I Tim. 4:1-3.
5. The Anti-Christ will be revealed.
a. He is now hidden from view, but will soon be revealed to the world.
b. The Anti-Christ has been present for at least 2,000 years: I John 2:18.
6. The methods the Anti-Christ will use.
a. Verse 4 - He will (1) oppose the Christian foundations that have been laid and will (2)exalt wicked ideas by wicked people. (A good example of this is the change our country has seen in the past 30-40 years.)
b. An example of a political family that has opposed conservative values.
1. The Kennedy's are an example of this type of family. (They gained their wealth selling bootleg whiskey.)
2. Movie stars are another example of this type of person. (The vast majority of them are very immoral people.)
c. He will totally destroy every religion except that religion that worships himself. (This is what verse 4 means when it says Satan opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped.
1. Rev. 18 - Babylon (this includes every kind of false religion there is: Catholics are included in this group) is destroyed because they offer a system of worship that isn't directed toward the Anti-Christ. All false religions must be done away with so all people will worship Satan.
2. The major religion Satan is fighting is the worship of God. That is why he will sit in God's Throne in Jerusalem. He won't sit in any other throne.
I Tim. 4:1-3 - Those that go into apostasy are those that once held the truth. They must be in the faith before they can ever turn from that faith.
1. The way they go away from the truth is in two steps.
a. They will first listen to seducing spirits.
b. They will then believe doctrines of Devils.
Why does it have to be this way?
1. This is God's plan.
1. Luke 4:1-6 - Verse 6 -Satan told Christ he had been given a kingdom and he would give it whomsoever he wills. God gave Satan this kingdom because God is the only one with the authority to give a kingdom to anybody.
2. Why would God's give Satan a kingdom? It seems that if God hadn't given Satan a kingdom, we wouldn't have to go through all this trouble.
3. See II Thess 2:6-
a. Verse 7 says it is a mystery that Satan has a kingdom.
b. Verse 9-12 - People won't believe in Christ by faith, so God gives them a kingdom, a time to rule and reign, to serve Satan by sight so they will be under greater condemnation than ever.
c. Matt. 22:36-40 - The greatest commandment in the law is to love God more than anything else, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
d. I Cor. 13:13 - There remaineth three: faith, hope and charity, and the greatest of these is charity (love).
4. Rev. 16 - Notice the very bad things that will happen during the tribulation to people because they don't want to believe Christ by faith.
a. Verse 1 - They will receive the wrath of God.
b. Verse 2 - They will receive grievous sores because they don't want to worship God.
c. See Romans 1 (verse 24, 26 and 28) for three times God turns people over to sin because that is what they want.
d. Verse 3 - Water became as the blood of a dead man. People love to see blood flowing so God will give them plenty of blood to flow.
e. Verse 4 - The fountains of rivers become blood.
f. Verse 10 - The kingdom is full of darkness.
g. Don't think God is unjust.
1. See verse 5-7 - God is justified in what He does.
2. People go to hell because God is letting them go where they say they want to go. They have rejected Christ as their personal Savior, and God will not force them to be saved.
3. II Thess 2:10-12 - They would not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, so God gave them over to believe strong delusion, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Rev. 11:1-13 - The two witnesses. (These two witnesses will help God's plan to make it "look like" Satan has the victory.
1. Verse 5-6 - These two witnesses come with the power and authority to kill those that oppose them.
2. Verse 7 - When they are finished, the beast kills them, and takes their power over fire and uses that power to deceive more people.
3. Verse 8 - The city is Jerusalem, where Satan will reign (see II Thess 2:4)
4. Verse 9-11 - They shall lay on the ground for 3½ days for all the world to see. At the end of that time, they shall be raised from the dead and all the world shall hear the voice calling them to heaven. People still won't believe after the resurrection of the two witnesses because they haven't believed the resurrection of Christ.
Rev. 19 - A description of events in heaven while Rev. 11 speaks about the tribulation in Satan's kingdom. Verse 11 - Jesus comes riding on a white horse.