2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God... so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
King James Version
Paul's warning that the Day will not come until the apostasy and the revealing of the man of sin — the son of perdition who exalts himself in the temple as God.
Fulfillment References
Daniel 7:25 Daniel 11:36 Revelation 13:5-8 Matthew 24:15
How Traditions Read This Prophecy
Apostolic (Oneness) PentecostalThe man of sin counterfeits deity — sitting 'as God' — but the one true God, Jesus, destroys him by the brightness of His coming (2 Thess. 2:8).
JewishThe self-exalting tyrant echoes Daniel's 'little horn' and the king who magnifies himself above every god (Dan. 11:36).
CatholicThe Antichrist, the man of sin, who will arise in a great apostasy before Christ's coming.
ProtestantThe man of sin / son of perdition — variously identified (a future personal Antichrist; historically, some Reformers applied it to the papal office) — who exalts himself as God.
OrthodoxThe lawless one who comes in the final apostasy, opposed and destroyed by Christ.
DispensationalA future personal Antichrist who, in the Tribulation, desecrates a rebuilt temple, claiming deity.
AcademicThe 'man of lawlessness' draws on Daniel 11:36 and the self-deifying-tyrant tradition; the 'restrainer' (2:6-7) is a famous interpretive crux.
Scholarship & Sources
The self-exalting figure draws on Daniel 11:36 (and 7:25); 'sitteth in the temple of God' is read literally (a future temple) or figuratively (the church). The identity of 'what withholdeth' / 'he who now letteth' — the restrainer (2:6-7) — is among the most debated cruxes in the New Testament.
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Bible Prophecy Explorer · based on J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy catalogue · an openly Apostolic (Oneness) Pentecostal study resource — all traditions presented fairly. Pastor: C. Myles Young, PhD · Bishop: Nathaniel J. Wilson, Ed.D.