James Arendt
¶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, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. -2 Thessalonians 2:3,4
Believe on not, all true born again Christians in the 16th century knew exactly who the Man of Sin, the son of perdition is! How do I know that? It says so in the Geneva Bible notes, the Bible translated in the 16th century.
All men know who he is that says he can shut up heaven and open it at his pleasure, and takes upon himself to be lord and master above all kings and princes, before whom kings and princes fall down and worship, honouring that antichrist as a god. (4) He foretells that the antichrist (that is, whoever he is that will occupy that seat that falls away from God) will not reign outside of the Church, but in the very bosom of the Church. (Reference https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/geneva-study-bible/2-thessalonians/2-thessalonians-2.html )Who are they talking about? Let's see what the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church about the papacy is. The following is taken from https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/teachings/papacy-37 which is a Catholic website. I added the emphasis in bold.
The Papacy
We also define that the holy apostolic see, and the Roman pontiff, holds the primacy over the whole world, that the Roman pontiff is the successor of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, that he is the true vicar of Christ, the head of the whole Church and the father and teacher of all Christians, and that to him was committed in blessed Peter the full power of tending, ruling and governing the whole church, as is contained also in the acts of ecumenical councils and in the sacred canons (COUNCIL OF FLORENCE, 1439).
Did you get that? Even though YOU may not acknowledge the authority of the Catholic Pope over your life, as far as he is concerned, you belong to him!
Did the Pope take "upon himself to be lord and master above all kings and princes"?
The papal deposing power was the most powerful tool of the political authority claimed by and on behalf of the Roman Pontiff, in medieval and early modern thought, amounting to the assertion of the Pope's power to declare a Christian monarch heretical and powerless to rule.What is the "temple of God" of II Thess 2:4? Is it a rebuilt Third Temple of Solomon in the Endtime? Would a rebuilt temple of Solomon to resume animal sacrifices be of God in spite of the fact Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, already paid the price for the sins of the world?
Pope Gregory VII's Dictatus Papae (c. 1075) claimed for the Pope "that it may be permitted to him to depose emperors" (12) and asserted the papal power to "absolve subjects from their fealty to wicked men" (27).
Oaths of allegiance held together the feudal political structure of medieval Europe. The principle behind deposition was that the Pope, as the ultimate representative of God from whom all oaths draw their force, could in extreme circumstances absolve a ruler's subjects of their allegiance, thereby rendering the ruler powerless. In a medieval Europe in which all confessed the Pope as head of the visible Church, it gave concrete embodiment to the superiority of the spiritual power over the temporal—the other side, so to speak, of the role of Popes and bishops in anointing and crowning emperors and kings. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_deposing_power
1 Corinthians 3:16 ¶Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Whether you agree with them of not, the early Protestants up to the 18th century all interpreted 2 Thess 2:4 to be the office of the papacy, the Popes of Rome standing in the Temple -- the Church - the Christian world - proclaiming himself to be as God on earth having total authority over both your body and your soul.
Satan is the god of lust. He wants to rule the entire world and demand all men worship him. Hasn't he already done that through each and every tyrant and dictator who has ever lived? Many of them considered themselves to be God! The pharaohs of Egypt did, the rulers of all the great empires, the heads of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Grecians, and Romans, most of them, claimed to be God on earth.
Men are mortal and Satan is immortal. I believe Satan has influenced each and every head of world power until their rule ended at death. After one emperor or king died, Satan went to the next emperor or king who had the most world power, from major ruler to ruler from the beginning of history till the present day. Would the god of lust have the patience to wait for a final 7 years of world history to have his fling? NO! He wanted it all from the beginning!
All that to say is this: If you have been waiting for the "rise of the Antichrist," you may have missed seeing all the antichrists throughout history up to the present.
My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.
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