2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 - the Man of Lawlessness

We now come to some explicit teaching on the return of Christ. The first thing is that He will return. We do not follow or worship a dead teacher, but the living Lord. Secondly we will be gathered to Him. We are going to spend eternity with Christ, this is the goal of our faith.

Next there will be false teachings. In fact it is a good rule of thumb to assume that any teaching on the second coming is nonsense until proven otherwise. So you had better check anything I say carefully! It is good to adopt a Berean approach. Note that there were people who sent letters claiming to be from Paul. So the notion that genuine church letters would just put "from Paul" to add some supposed credibility seems nonsensical.

Next we are told that the man of lawlessness will come and He will set himself up against all other " gods". He will also set himself up in place of God Himself in the temple. Now note that this teaching is remarkably consistent in the Bible, it is not weird! Daniel and Jesus (Matt 24:15) speak of the abomination of desolation. In Revelation we have the beast (Rev 13)'. And verse 5 makes it clear that this was standard apostolic teaching.