The mystery of lawlessness is the term referring to the working of the anti-Christ spirits who exercise the spiritual power and authority of the Spirit of anti-Christ, counterfeiting all that Christ is, and is meant to be and do, in the midst of His people.
He does this by assuming the guise of Christ amongst His people and, by deceiving them, he opposes the work of Christ, leading His people away from righteousness and into lawlessness. In the prophesied season, he will manifest in a man and become the anti-Christ, that is, the False Christ of the apocalyptic scripture or, literally, the “instead of” Christ. At that time, he will fulfill the claim he made in Ezekiel 28:2, in which he said; “I am God, I sit in the seat of God in the heart of the sea” (the sea being the nations”) and to which Paul refers in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 where he notes that “he will sit down in the temple of God attesting that he himself is God”; the temple of God being, literally, the temple in Jerusalem, and figuratively, the Church.
In the meantime, until the prophesied season of his parousia has arrived, the mystery of lawlessness is working as a spirit, unrecognised and unobserved, in the world and amongst God’s people; “the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).
The mystery about all of this is that Christianity generally, is completely ignorant of these things and, in any event, would deny that this is happening or that it could happen. Wallowing in religious complacency, handing down the doctrines of men from generation to generation, the Church is not only ignorant of, but totally unprepared for, the coming danger. This itself is a triumph of the deceptive powers of the mystery of lawlessness. But it is all occurring in accordance with the purposes of God and under His authority.
The mystery of lawlessness has authority to do what he is doing and what he is going to do; this he gets from the prophetic word, to which everything and everyone is subject; including God. God will not go outside the prophetic word and this provides not only authority for events to take place, but prescribes limitations, beyond which it is impossible for God, man or the demons of hell to go. The mystery of lawlessness is bound by the word of prophecy to the prophetic line; he may not go outside the prophetic word. As we see repeatedly in the scriptures of the Old Testament, God gives authority to the kingdom of darkness as a way of punishing and judging His people, but He places limits on how far it may go.
One of the most remarkable deceptions which enable him to work unobserved is that he has deceived corporate Christianity into thinking that he has no authority over them; that, once having been defeated at the Cross by Christ he is no longer able to have any impact on their lives. This is to seriously misunderstand what scripture says about the authority of Satan and his counterfeit kingdom for, clearly, he does have authority; authority to deceive and tempt and, in the end times, to visit wrath upon God’s faithful people. He is, after all, both serpent and dragon.
Paul recognised this spirit – the mystery of lawlessness – when he confronted the false prophet Elymas Bar-Jesus who was “seeking to turn the Proconsul Sergius Paulus away from the faith” (Acts 13:9). That, incidentally, is the role of the mystery of lawlessness; to turn believers away from the faith without them knowing it. Paul rebuked him, saying;
“You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all guile and fraud, will you not stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:9-10).
Paul’s description of the mystery of lawlessness tells us much.
As to who he is, Paul reveals that he is the son of the devil, that is, he is the second person of the counterfeit kingdom, counterfeiting the relationship between the Father and Christ Jesus. Jesus, as we know, described the devil as “a liar and the father thereof” (John 8:44); so the son of the devil, the spirit of anti-Christ, is the lie, in the same way as Jesus, the Son of God, is the truth. His role it is to be a counterfeit Christ in and amongst God’s people so that they will believe that the one in their midst is Christ. Remember, as Paul warned the Thessalonians, when he manifests in a man, corporate Christianity, as well as Judaism for a term, will accept him as the true Christ.
As to his nature, he is the enemy of all righteousness, that is, the exact opposite of Christ the true Son of God of whom it is written that He “loved righteousness and hated lawlessness” (Hebrews 1:9). All of his efforts are directed at leading God’s people away from righteousness and into lawlessness. Righteousness, of course, is a two-edged sword. Firstly, biblical righteousness is the state of being right, where “right” is to be in harmony with the Word of God. To be truly righteous, there must be righteousness of mind, or rightly apprehending the word of truth; what Paul referred to as “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). This must come from the Holy Spirit. Secondly, there must be righteousness of conduct, that is, application of the righteous understanding or bringing the life into conformity with that righteous understanding. True righteousness describes the quality of our relationship with God both inwardly and outwardly; inwardly in thinking and outwardly in acting; the Word of truth is to be spiritually discerned and morally applied.
As to the method employed by the mystery of lawlessness, he is full of guile and fraud, pretending to be what he is not; for example disguising himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), and pretending to be the “true light which, coming into the world enlightens every man” (John 1:9), whereas he is the false light, of which Jesus warned; “if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:23). “Certain persons crept in unnoticed” Jude writes, and these “certain persons” are deceiving spirits, whose work it is to deceive God’s people into relying on their senses and disregarding the Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 4).
Finally, as to the intentions of the mystery of lawlessness, he works at perverting the straight ways of the Lord; that is turning God’s people into a false path and onto ways that are not the ways of God; of this, too, we have been warned by Jesus;
“Enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and roomy the way leading to destruction, and many are those entering through it. For narrow the gate and hard the way leading to life, and few are those finding it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
Many are those entering onto the way of destruction, Jesus says, giving ear to perverse misinterpretations of the Word of God. It is up to each and every one of us to seek out the ways of God from God Himself.
We can compare and contrast the work of Christ Jesus with this mystery of lawlessness, who is the spirit of the false Christ, the one counterfeiting Christ.
- One is the son of God (John 1:34) – the other the son of the devil (Acts 13:10)
- One is full of grace and truth (John 1:14) – the other full of guile and fraud (Acts 13:10).
- One loves righteousness (Hebrews 1:9) – the other hates righteousness (Acts 13:10).
- One is the prophet like unto Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15) – the other a false prophet.
- One is the true light which, entering into the world, gives light to every man (John 1:9) – the other the false light, of which Jesus said; “if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:23).
- One points to the ways of God – the other perverts the straight ways of the Lord.
- One is the mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16) who was manifest in the flesh and dwelt amongst us (John 1:14) – the other the mystery of lawlessness who will also manifest in the flesh and dwell amongst us (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
This is the picture that scripture draws of the mystery of lawlessness who has worked, and is working, in and amongst the people of God. It has always been thus; as it was in the Old, so it is in the New.
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