Seated in the Sanctuary

The Man of Lawlessness, the Son of Destruction, will be unveiled when he takes his seat in the House of God - 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4.

Jesus will not arrive in glory until two events occur – The Apostasy and the revelation of the Son of Destruction. Not only will this deceiver cause many believers to apostatize, but his true identity will be disclosed when he takes his seat in the Sanctuary of God.

On the day when the nature and identity of this deceiver is revealed, Christians will have a clear choice. They can follow Jesus or this false messiah. Thereafter, there will be no ambiguity. Men and women who choose to follow the Son of Destruction risk “everlasting destruction from the face of the Lord.”

Based on Saint Paul's usage of the term ‘sanctuary of God’ in his letters, his words do not describe the appearance of this malevolent man in the Temple of Jerusalem, but in the Church of Jesus Christ - (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

[Photo by Harry Miller on Unsplash]

The Son of Destruction will perform “lying signs and wonders” to trick Christians who reject “the love of the truth.” Paul expresses no interest in the immediate passage or the larger context of Second Thessalonians in the City of Jerusalem or its Temple.

• “Let no one seduce you in any respect, because except the apostasy comes first and the man without law, the son of destruction, is revealed; HE WHO OPPOSES AND UNDULY ELEVATES HIMSELF ABOVE ALL THINGS THAT ARE CALLED GOD or sacred, so that he sits in the sanctuary of God, presenting himself that he is god” – (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. The verbal allusion is to Daniel 11:36, Septuagint version).

The Greek term translated as “revealed” in the preceding passage represents the verb ‘apocalyptô’ (αποκαλυπτω), meaning “unveiled, disclosed, revealed” - the disclosure of something that was previously hidden.

This lawless man will not appear as who he truly is until the Mystery of Lawlessness has finished preparing for his arrival, “and then the Lawless One will be revealed”:

• “And that which POSSESSES now you know, so that he may be revealed in HIS OWN SEASON. For the mystery of lawlessness is energizing even now, only even until HE WHO POSSESSES comes to be OUT OF THE MIDST. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus WILL CONSUME WITH THE BREATH OF HIS MOUTH, and paralyze by the manifestation of his arrival” - (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8. Note the verbal allusions to Daniel 7:8, 7:18-25, and Isaiah 11:4 [“And with the breath of his lips he will destroy the ungodly one”]. Each allusion is from the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament).

The Greek participle often translated as “restrain” (American Standard Version) or “withhold” (King James Version), ‘ketechôn’ or κατεχων, does not, in fact, mean “restrain,” but instead, the verb signifies to “possess, occupy, keep, or seize.” For example:

• “Let us seize his inheritance” - (Matthew 21:38).

• “Having heard the word, keep it” - (Luke 8:15).

• “Give place to this one, and then you may begin with shame to occupy the last place” - (Luke 14:9).

• “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who possess the truth in unrighteousness” - (Romans 1:18).

The popular rendering “he who restrains” developed from the Latin Vulgate translation of Second Thessalonians, which translates the Greek verb using the Latin verb ‘detineat’ or ‘detineo’, which means, “detain, hold back, prevent.”

Paul’s source of the participle ‘ketechôn’ is the Septuagint version of Daniel 7:18 (“And the saints will possess the kingdom”) and Daniel 7:22 (“The season came, and the saints possessed the kingdom”).

The clause in verse 4 translated as “he will take his seat in the sanctuary” corresponds to the verb “revealed” in verse 3. His presumptuous act will be the moment when his identity is exposed. That is, at least for those who have eyes that can see; presumably, the men and women who “welcome the love of the truth.”

The sentence tells us when and where this creature will be unveiled. This does not mean he will be unknown before that moment, but that his identification as the Son of Destruction will remain hidden until he places himself in the Sanctuary of God.

The Greek verb translated as “revealed” is in the aorist verb tense, which indicates a specific moment or event that will unveil this man’s identity. The aorist verb tense sees an action as a whole unit, a snapshot of a moment in time; namely, point or punctiliar action. That will be the moment when both the truth and the lie will become recognizable, and Christians who continue to follow this false messiah will no longer have any excuses. This is why God “will send them strong delusions, that they should believe the lie” - (2 Thessalonians 2:11).

The verb “revealed” is also in the passive voice, which means the subject, in this case, the man without law, is the recipient of the action. He does not initiate his unveiling, but someone or something else does so. In this context, presumably, the Mystery of Lawlessness or God causes this man to be exposed for who and what he is.

The Greek phrase translated as “sanctuary of God” occurs several times in Paul’s letters (‘ton naon tou theou’ – τον ναον του θεου). The Greek noun ‘naos’ means “sanctuary.” In biblical Greek, it refers to the inner sanctum of the Tabernacle and the Temple, the Holy of Holies.

The Apostle applies this term to the Body of Christ four times in his letters to the Corinthians, and once in Ephesians he uses ‘naos’ by itself for the Assembly, the “holy sanctuary to the Lord”- (1 Corinthians 3:16, 3:17, 6:19, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Ephesians 2:19-22).

The scriptural source used by the Apostle Paul to describe the Man of Lawlessness is the image of a malevolent ruler who persecutes the Jewish people from the Book of Daniel, the Little Horn that wages war on the saints of Israel – (Daniel 7:21-25, 8:9-13, 8:23-26, 9:26-27, 11:30-36).

SITTING IN THE HOLY PLACE

Paul’s description in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 possibly has the saying of Jesus in view as recorded in the Gospel of Mark (“But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not…” Mark 13:14).

If this is so, there is a significant difference. In the Gospel of Mark, the ‘abomination’ is described as “standing,” presumably in the Temple. But in Second Thessalonians, he is seated in the sanctuary. Moreover, the grammatical gender of the ‘abomination’ that is standing “where it ought not” is neuter, not masculine. It is not clear whether Mark has a person or a thing in view.

This end-time deceiver will “seat himself in the sanctuary” (“sit” or ‘kathizô’). This points to his imitation of Jesus. He will be a counterfeit messiah intent on replacing Jesus in the Church.

Each time the verb ‘kathizô’ is applied to Jesus in the New Testament, it is part of a quotation of Psalm 110:1. The Lord said to his Messiah, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool” - (Matthew 22:44, Acts 2:34-36, 7:55).

The Son of Destruction will seat himself. This statement demonstrates this man’s presumptuousness. In the ancient Tabernacle of Israel, only the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies, and only once each year. And the High Priest never sat down in the Sanctuary. The only person ever said to have sat down in God’s presence is the Messiah, Jesus Christ – (Matthew 24:24, Hebrews 1:1-4, 8:1-2).

• “And every priest indeed stands day by day ministering and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God”– (Hebrews 10:11-12).

• “He that overcomes, I will give to him to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches”– (Revelation 3:21).

And so, the passage in Second Thessalonians warns us to watch for the appearance of this deceiver in our midst – in the House of God. He will counterfeit the true Messiah, and by doing so, he will lead many believers to destruction.

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[Citations of Old Testament passages in this article are based on the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint. Text printed in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS represents quotations and verbal allusions from the Old Testament. The Septuagint is represented by the Roman numeral for ‘seventy’ or LXX based on the Latin name of the translation, ‘Interpretatio septuaginta virorum’]

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SEE ALSO:

• Missing Events - (Two events must occur before the Day of the Lord begins: The Apostasy and the unveiling of the Man of Lawlessness in God’s House)

• The Apostasy - (Paul warns of the coming Apostasy, which he links to the unveiling of the Man without Law when he takes his seat in the Church)

• The Son of Destruction - (Many Christians will abandon the faith when the Lawless One, the Son of Destruction, places himself in the Sanctuary of God)

• Assis dans le Sanctuaire - (L'Homme de l'anarchie, le Fils de la Destruction, sera révélé lorsqu'il prendra sa place dans la Maison de Dieu - 2 Thessaloniciens 2: 3-4)