<p>2:4 <i>He that opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits in the temple of God, setting himself up as God</i>- I suggested on :3 that the situation envisaged was of a joining together of the Jewish and Roman opposition to Christianity. This would result in a specific individual enthroned in the Jerusalem temple, and also in the temple in the sense of the church of God. The language used here is very similar to the cult of Caesar worship; Nero especially set himself up as God. As explained on :3, this scenario did not come about in the first century although an incipient fulfilment was seen in the events of AD70. We look to a future fulfilment in our days.</p><p>&quot;He that opposes&quot; was clearly the Jewish satan, to which Paul alludes in most of his letters; an organized network of opposition to his missionary work. The word and idea is used in concerning the Judaizers and Jews in Lk. 13:17; 21:15; 1 Cor. 16:9; Phil. 1:28; 2 Tim. 2:25 and 1 Tim. 5:14. This opposition to the Gospel in the Thessalonian context has already been established as coalition of Jewish and Roman forces of evil (see on 1 Thess. 2:18). Their arrogance is well described as exalting themselves above anything that is &lsquo;worshipped&rsquo;, whether Christian or otherwise. This is the same word as &ldquo;devotions&rdquo; in Acts 17:23 concerning pagan idols. The forces of Jewish and Roman evil were to unite to set up an entity which would be above any idol. They made themselves &ldquo;as God&rdquo;, perhaps by imitating Moses, the god of this (Jewish) world&rdquo; (2 Cor. 4:4 and context); James 4:11,12 is just one example of the Judaist&ndash;influenced eldership making themselves equal to Moses. There are two Greek words translated &ldquo;temple&rdquo;, one referring more to the physical building and the other to the spiritual dwelling place of God, i.e. the ecclesia (1 Tim. 3:15). It is this latter one which is used here &ndash; the man of sin sits down (Gk. &lsquo;takes his place&rsquo;) in the ecclesia, showing himself (Greek &lsquo;demonstrating&rsquo;) that he is God. This word is translated &ldquo;approved&rdquo; in Acts 2:22 concerning Christ&rsquo;s approval as God&rsquo;s representative by His miracles. This indicates that the man of sin is an imitation of Christ &ndash; a true antiChrist. The showing that he is God would be through the pseudo miracles of v.9 &ndash; in the same way as Moses was made as God to Pharaoh through the miracles he did (Ex. 7:1). The Judaist&ndash;influenced elders of the Jewish ecclesias seem to have retained the power of the miraculous gifts for a short time after their apostasy (Heb. 6:4&ndash;6); the Jews also had their false miracle workers (Acts 13:6; 19:14). The beast of Revelation also works impressive miracles. Thus as the man of sin did false miracles in the first century through the Jewish miracle workers and their Judaist friends within the ecclesia, so both in the beast system of the last days as well as in the ecclesia, the latter day &ldquo;man of sin&rdquo; will work false miracles.</p><p>In the last days context, the ecclesia will be infiltrated by a &quot;man of sin&quot; who appears to be an apostle, and who in league with the beast, the power dominating the world, corrupts the ecclesia. He is an anti-Christ, a false God. His sitting in the temple of the ecclesia is matched by Tobiah the Arab having rooms in the temple- rooms which should have been symbolic of the dwelling place of God's people with Him (Neh. 7:13 cp. Jn. 14:1-3). He will get this place, as Tobiah got his place, because the ecclesia has failed to grasp the rigid line of demarcation between the things of God's Kingdom and those of Satan's. They will have been deceived by the apparent similarity between the two Kingdoms. The presence of antiChrist within the ecclesia will be the sign &quot;whereby ye know that it is the last time&quot; (1 Jn. 2:18); and 2 Thess. 2:3 and Mk. 13:5,14 say the same thing. The recognition of the presence of such false teaching within the ecclesia will be what tells the faithful remnant that the Lord's return really is imminent. If the &quot;man of sin&quot; is to be connected somehow with the Muslim beast as we have suggested elsewhere, it may be that the vague, outline similarities between Islam and the One Faith are what are capitalized upon in order to make the differences seem minimal. Thus Muslims tenaciously believe in one God and a restored paradise on earth, and Shi'ite Muslims (comprising 99% Iranians and 60% Iraqis) look for the return of the 12th Imam (who they believe has ascended to Heaven) to rule the world. Muslim mosques are fake temples of God, designed as they are around an outer court and two sanctuaries. As Adam desired equality with God (see the allusions to his fall in Phil. 2) and was punished with an inability to hide, shame and nakedness as a result, so Edom will be punished in precisely the same way (Jer. 49:10)- because they too desire equality with God, as Babylon did in Is. 14:13, and as the man of sin will attempt (2 Thess. 2: 4). The connection between Babylon, Edom and the man of sin's blasphemy suggests that he is connected with radical Islamic religious blasphemy.</p><p>The antichrist is a mimic of the true Christ; his kingdom is a parody of God&rsquo;s Kingdom. And the King of Babylon claiming&nbsp;&ldquo;I am and none else beside me&rdquo; are the very words of Yahweh- the King of Babylon is clearly to be identified with the man of sin, who sits as God in God&rsquo;s temple (2 Thess. 2). The &ldquo;man of sin&rdquo; will sit in the temple of God and proclaim that he is God. This is surely the &ldquo;abomination that maketh desolate&rdquo; that the Lord Jesus predicted would sit in the temple just prior to His return. The abomination makes &ldquo;desolate&rdquo;, clearly referring to <i>Jerusalem</i> being made desolate by Babylonian / Iraqi invaders (Dan. 9:2,17). Luke 21:20 parallels &ldquo;the abomination that maketh desolate&rdquo; in Mt. 24 and Mk. 13 with &ldquo;the desolation of Jerusalem&rdquo;.&nbsp;The abomination / abominator will stand &ldquo;where <i>he</i> ought not&rdquo; (Mk. 13:14 RV). He is the &ldquo;one that maketh desolate&rdquo; (Dan. 9:27 RV). A specific individual is clearly implied. Dan. 8:13 RV describes this person as &ldquo;the transgression that maketh desolate&rdquo;- yet it is the abominator that makes Jerusalem desolate. Therefore &ldquo;the transgression&rdquo; is surely being put by metonymy for a man, who will sit in the Most Holy place and make Jerusalem desolate. And 2 Thess. 2 says just the same- &ldquo;the man of sin / transgression&rdquo;. The whole tenor of the Daniel prophesies is that they refer to an individual who will arise in the last days- not someone like a Pope sitting in St. Peter&rsquo;s for centuries. The vision of the 2300 days of abomination- the days during which the abominator will make Jerusalem desolate- &ldquo;belongs to the latter days&rdquo; (Dan. 8:26). These are the days during which the sanctuary and the host of God&rsquo;s people will be &ldquo;trodden under foot&rdquo;; interpreted by the Lord as Jerusalem being trodden down of the Gentiles until &ldquo;the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled&rdquo;.</p><p>It is quite clear that the leadership of Israel's fiercest enemies would dearly love to sit and stand in the Sanctuary if they could get their hands on Jerusalem as they vow they will. He will sit there &ldquo;as God&rdquo;. Another&nbsp;place where we read of a man sitting in the temple proclaiming that he is God is in Ez. 28:2, where the King of Tyre proudly says that he sits as God ruling the seas of the people. The King of Tyre was a prototype for the latter day man of sin. The King of Tyre was &ldquo;in Eden the garden of God&rdquo; where he was &ldquo;anointed&rdquo; and beautifully adorned (Ez. 28:12,14). These descriptions may be further information about the serpent in Eden, although omitted from the Genesis account; and of the idol cult of Tyre being established in the Jerusalem temple in Ezekiel's time. In this case, the fake-Christ anointed one is &ldquo;the old serpent&rdquo;, just as the latter day beast leader will be (Rev. 12). The beast is so often paralleled with its leader, just as the little horn seems to refer to both a leader and a nation / political system. The sudden destruction that comes upon Antichrist in 2 Thess. 2 is the same kind of thing spoken of in 1 Thess. 5:3- &ldquo;When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh&rdquo;. The saying of peace and safety is exactly the language of Daniel regarding the false peace produced in the very last days by Antichrist. It could well be that under Babylon&rsquo;s domination there is a brief boom period for the entire world. This ensures his political survival, and explains why all the world&rsquo;s merchants will weep at his fall. This sorrow by the traders hardly seems likely to happen if the Vatican was destroyed.&nbsp;This person will accuse the brethren of Christ before the throne of God (Rev. 12:10), but will be thrown down by the Lord&rsquo;s return and the establishment of the Kingdom. This is exactly the language of 2 Thess. 2 about the antichrist who is to be destroyed by the Lord&rsquo;s coming. Yet the idea of a false accuser of the brethren before the throne of God takes us back to Job&rsquo;s satan- who seems to have been a pseudo-disciple, bringing down the outpouring of vial-like judgments upon God's people (cp. the scene in Revelation). Antichrist, the man of sin, sitting in the temple of God, is surely the abomination that Jesus said is to be in the temple in the last days, leading to the final desolation. Is. 14 describes the rise and fall of the King of Babylon; he too desired to set himself as God in the temple of God, having first terrorized the nations that dwell on the &lsquo;earth&rsquo;, those situated in the land promised to Abraham between the Nile and Euphrates. This seems so on the cards for latter day Babylon- to terrorize the Middle Eastern world into accepting her leadership, and then to seek to set up the King of latter day Babylon on &ldquo;the mount of God&rdquo;, Zion. Finally, Nahum speaks of how there was one specific Assyrian leader who was to be destroyed by the coming of Messiah. The phrasing is so similar to that found about the &ldquo;man of sin&rdquo;: &ldquo;There is one gone forth out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor&hellip; behold upon the mountains the feet of him Messiah that bringeth good tidings&hellip; the wicked one shall no more pass through&hellip; he is utterly cut off. He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face&rdquo; (Nah. 1:11,15; 2:1 RV).</p>