THE MAN OF SIN
T.P. Simmons
We have already touched
somewhat upon the Man of Sin in previous chapters, but now we come to study him
more closely. Before proceeding further, let the student turn and read the
following Scriptures: 2 Thess. 2:3-10; Rev. 11:1-7; 13; 16:13-16; 17; 19:17-20; Dan. 7:8-27; 8:8-25. These last two Scripture
passages have reference to Antioches Epiphanes, the type of the Man of Sin.
I.
THE IDENTITY OF THE MAN OF SIN
1. HE IS TO BE AN ACTUAL INDIVIDUAL
As stated before, we interpret
any passage of Scripture literally, unless there is something in the passage,
or in the context or in some other Scripture that indicates a figurative meaning.
We find absolutely no reason for taking the description of the Man
of Sin otherwise than literally. No institution or agency could sit in the
temple of God. See 2 Thess. 2:4.
2.
HE AND THE BEAST OF REVELATION ARE TO BE THE SAME INDIVIDUAL
We hold this conviction for
the following reasons:
(1) Both are to run their
course during the interim between the two phases of Christ's coming.
Below we show this to be true
of the Man of Sin. And in a previous chapter we have shown that the section of
the book in which is recorded the career of the Beast belongs to that period.
(2) Their
activities are similarly described.
2 Thess. 2:4-10; Rev. 13:6-8.
(3) Both are to be destroyed
at the final coming of Christ to the earth.
2 Thess. 2:8; Rev. 19:11-20.
3. HE IS TO BE A WORLD KING
WITH HIS SEAT OF POWER AT ROME
See Rev.
17:1-11. We hold the seven mountains (vs. 9) to be the seven celebrated hills
of Rome. The five fallen kings we hold to be Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia,
and Greece. The one that then was we believe was pagan Rome. The one that was
yet to come was "Christian" Rome, or the so-called Holy Roman Empire.
The former six kingdoms (the term for kings meaning either kings or kingdoms) culminated in the seventh. The Beast is to be the eighth king
and his kingdom will combine all the power and evil of the seven. The deadly
wound on one of the heads of the Beast (Rev. 13:3) we take to represent the
fall of Rome, A. D. 476. We refer the healing of the wound to the reestablishment
of the Roman Empire with its capital at Rome under the reign of the Beast. The
sea out of which the Beast is seen to arise (Rev. 13:1;
17:1, 15) we take as representing the seething, turbulent, revolutionary mass
of humanity to which the inhabitants of the earth will be reduced by the
rapture of the saints.
We find no satisfactory ground
for holding that the Man of Sin will be Judas reincarnated.
It is certain that God would not actively work such a reincarnation. And the
Devil has not the power to work it. He can possess and dominate men, but he
cannot actually incarnate himself, nor can he reincarnate his dead followers.
The basis of the notion that the Man of Sin will be Judas reincarnated, the
fact that he was called "a devil" (John 6:70), and "the son of
perdition" (John 17:12), and is said to have gone to
"his own place" (Acts 1:25), is insufficient to establish such a
radical idea. We regard this and some other notions concerning the Man of Sin
as fanciful.
Nor is there scriptural ground
for referring to the Man of Sin as the Antichrist in any
exclusive sense. John alone, in his epistles, uses the term; and he applied it
to the false teachers of his day that denied the humanity of Christ (1 John
2:18,22; 4:3,4; 2 John 7). And he said there were many of them then in the
world. The prefix "anti" may signify against or it may signify
instead of. There is no evidence that John gave it the latter meaning. He used
it exclusively as applying to those who were against Christ;
those who denied that Jesus was the Christ.* There is no evidence that the
false teachers referred to by John tried to establish any one of their number
as the Christ. The Man of Sin will be an antichrist, but identifying him as
"the Antichrist," in an exclusive sense, and then taking the prefix
to mean instead of and inferring that he will be a Jew that will pose as the
Christ is unwarranted. The Man of Sin will sit in the temple
and demand worship, but he could do that without posing as the Messiah. As a
type of this, Antiochus Epiphanes erected the statue of Jupiter Olyniphus on
the altar of burnt-offering. The seven forerunners of the Beast or Man of Sin
were not Jews. We hold that the Man of Sin will be a Roman (Italian).
1.
HE IS TO BE REVEALED IN THE INTERIM BETWEEN THE TWO PHASES OF CHRIST'S COMING
As we have
pointed out previously, no individual that fulfilled the description of the Man
of Sin has yet been revealed on the earth. Some think that the papal line is
the Man of Sin. But no pope has ever sat in the temple of God. The Vatican is
not the temple of God. Apostate Christianity is not the temple of God. Instead
it is the habitation of devils (Rev. 18:2). The revelation of the Man of Sin is
now being hindered by some individual (2 Thess. 2:6,7). We
believe this hinderer is the Holy Spirit indwelling every true believer (1 Cor.
6:19) and every true New Testament church (1 Cor. 3:16). It is the Holy
Spirit's restraining influence exercised through believers that now prevents
the revelation of the Man of Sin. Thus believers are the salt of the earth
(Matt. 5:13). The taking out of the way of the hinderer, then, will mean the removal of the Holy Spirit from the earth.** This will require the taking
____________
*"This position was held
in two forms, (1) that Jesus Christ was not literal (5:2), and His humanity
being denied, the Messiahship was denied, since the former was necessary
to the latter; (2) that Jesus and the Logos were only temporarily and, as it
were, mechanically connected; and as the Logos and the Messiah were held to be
essentially identical, so Jesus could not be the Christ."
**We refer here only to the
removal of his special presence as abiding in believers and
the church, which began at Pentecost. This will mark the end of the special
dispensation of the Spirit. His ministry will then revert back to what it was
before Pentecost.
____________
out of the
earth of every true believer. Since this will occur at the first phase of
Christ's coming (1 Thess. 4:15-17), the revelation of the Man of Sin cannot
come about until after the first phase of Christ's coming. And since he is to
be consumed and destroyed at the second phase of Christ's coming (2 Thess.
2:8), he must be revealed and run his course during the interim between the two
phases of Christ's coming.
2.
THE LENGTH OF HIS CAREER WILL BE FORTY-TWO MONTHS
Rev. 13:5. He is to be
revealed about the middle of the great tribulation period and to
continue through the latter half of it. We interpret the forty-two months literally
because that seems most suitable in view of all other indications of time.
Three years and a half answers well to "a time, times, and a half,"
during which he (evidently the man of sin, typified in Daniel) shall
"scatter the power of the holy people (the Jews)" (Dan. 7:25; 12:7),
and during which the woman (whom we take to represent the
Jewish nation) is to abide in the wilderness (Rev. 12:14).
III. HIS ACTIVITIES
1.
HE WILL SIT IN THE TEMPLE, PRETENDING TO BE GOD
See 2 Thess. 2:4. The temple
that the Man of Sin will sit in is doubtless the restored Jewish temple, which
will be the center of worship during the millennium.
Every New Testament church is
a temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16). But this could not be what
is meant in 2 Thess. 2:4. To be seated in a local church would not be
sufficient to satisfy the ambition of this monster of iniquity. And surely the
Scripture indicates a more daring and far-reaching exaltation than this. The
reference in 2 Thess. 2:4 could not be to apostate Christianity, for, as we
have remarked already, apostate Christianity is not the temple of God; but
instead is the habitation of devils (Rev. 18:2). The
reference is certainly to the Jewish temple that is to be restored by the Jews
at Jerusalem some time during the great tribulation period. This, it seems
clear, is the temple that comes into view in Rom. 11:1, 2.
We do not believe that the Man
of Sin will sit personally in the temple, but will be represented
there by his image (Rev. 13:14-17). It is thus that he will pretend to be God,
and not by posing as the Messiah. If he desired to be recognized as the
Messiah, common sense would forbid the allowance of demanding worship of his
image.
2. HE WILL CAUSE INDUSTRY TO PROSPER
Dan. 8:25. He will give the
world the newest of all "new deals"; will be a great industrial
leader.
3. HE WILL DO MANY PRESUMPTUOUS THINGS
4.
HE WILL SUPPORT AND RECEIVE THE PATRONAGE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Rev. 17:2-6. We take the great
whore to represent the Roman Catholic Church (Rev. 17:1-7). Her clothing and
ornaments picture the wealth of the Roman Catholic Church. The abominations are
her unscriptural doctrines and practices. Fornication represents her spiritual
adultery in being espoused to the Pope instead of to
Christ. The harlots of which she is the mother are Protestant denominations.
Her being "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the
martyrs of Jesus" pictures her persecution against true believers
(particularly Baptists) through the dark and middle ages.
From Rev.
18:4 we find that even at the very hour of her destruction she will have some
of God's people in her, as she doubtless has at this time. And God's command
now is the same that it will be at the end: "Come out of her, my people,
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not her
plagues." We say that the Beast will support the Roman Catholic Church
because we first see the whore riding on the Beast (Rev.
17:1-12). We say the Beast will receive the patronage of the Roman Catholic
Church because we regard the second Beast (Rev. 14:11-17) as the Pope. Note
that this second Beast has the appearance of a lamb. This represents the
professed sanctity of the Pope. Note also that, in contrast to the first Beast,
the second Beast will arise out of the earth (Rev. 13:11). The first Beast will
arise out of (the sea) turmoil and revolution. The second
one will have a solid, compact, orderly source- the Roman Catholic system.
5.
BUT FINALLY HE AND HIS TEN KINGS WILL TURN AGAINST THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND
DESTROY HER
Rev. 17:16, 17.
6.
HE WILL PERSECUTE THE JEWS
Dan. 7:25;
Rev. 11:7; 13:7. This will doubtless be occasioned by the refusal of the Jews
to bow to his authority and to worship his image.
7. FINALLY
HE WILL LEAD THE KINGS OF THE EARTH AND THEIR ARMIES AGAINST JERUSALEM FOR THE
BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON
Rev. 16:13-16; 19:17-21. We
regard the false prophet mentioned in these passages as being identical with
the second Beast- the pope, who, after the destruction of the Roman Catholic
Church, will remain in league with the Beast. The battle of Armageddon will
engage our attention in the next chapter.