<p>2:8 <i>And then shall be revealed the lawless one- </i>The revealing of this individual would be at the time of the revealing of the Lord Jesus (1:7). The revealing of this individual is therefore a mimicry of the Lord's revealing from Heaven. And the true Christ shall clearly be shown. Just as Judas was revealed for who he was (&quot;the son of perdition&quot;, :3, = Jn. 17:12), so this latter day individual would be revealed.</p><p>&quot;The lawless one&quot; of 2 Thess. 2:8 alludes to &ldquo;the wicked one&rdquo; of Is. 11:4 LXX, who is &ldquo;the Assyrian&rdquo;. So it would appear very likely that the latter day antichrist figure comes from &lsquo;Assyria&rsquo;. And what&rsquo;s going on in the territory of &lsquo;Assyria&rsquo; right now is gripping the whole world&rsquo;s attention.&nbsp;See on Rev. 19:20.</p><p><i>Whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the powerful glory of his coming</i>- The Spirit and brightness of the Lord&rsquo;s coming parallels the description of judgment on the Judaizers in 1:6&ndash;9: &ldquo;...mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance... punished... from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power&rdquo;. This judgment is against &ldquo;them that trouble you&rdquo; (1:6), i.e. the false Judaist &lsquo;brethren&rsquo; who were leading the early church astray (Gal. 1:7). The link with 2:8 shows that it is such false brethren<i> within the ecclesia</i> (temple) who are &ldquo;the wicked one&rdquo; which will be destroyed by the second coming; along with the &quot;man of sin&quot; system of the world. On :3 I suggested there is a religious and secular element to the system in view. 2 Thess. 1:6&ndash;9 also recalls the description of coming judgment on the apostate Jews in Rom.1:18: The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unGodliness, and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness&rdquo;. Paul&rsquo;s words in Thessalonians can also be traced back to Is. 11:4: &ldquo;He (Christ) shall smite the earth (Heb. &lsquo;<i>eretz</i>&rsquo; &ndash; land, of Israel) with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked&rdquo; in Israel, primarily. The Greek for &ldquo;wicked&rdquo; is translated &ldquo;without law&rdquo; in Romans, again making a play on the Judaizers who were claiming to keep the Law. There is a parallel between &ldquo;the mystery of iniquity&rdquo; in v.7 and the &ldquo;wicked one&rdquo; of v.8 &ndash; the revealing of &ldquo;that wicked&rdquo; is therefore the revealing of a mystery, which mimics the &lsquo;revealed mystery&rsquo; of the true Gospel (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:3; 6:19; Col. 1:26). The wicked one was to be &ldquo;destroyed&rdquo;, the Greek for which is also translated &ldquo;abolish&rdquo;, &ldquo;do away&rdquo;, &ldquo;make of no effect&rdquo;, &ldquo;vanish away&rdquo;, &ldquo;make void&rdquo; etc., all in the context of the doing away of the Jewish Law and the system which supported it. This was only fully done with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD70.</p><p>&ldquo;The spirit of his mouth&rdquo; looks forward to Rev. 19:15,21 concerning Christ&rsquo;s destruction of the beast at the last day, which has close links with the man of sin. The emphasis on the destruction of the man of sin by Angels and fire recalls Dan. 7:10,11 concerning the beast&rsquo;s destruction by the Lord&rsquo;s return. Perhaps the man of sin will appear associated with the latter day ecclesia, the temple of God, but he will be linked with the political &lsquo;beast&rsquo; which will then be in control of the world.</p>