SUBJECT: Son of Perdition

QUESTION:  Who is the son of perdition?

ANSWER:

To answer this, we will look at excerpts of booklets on prophecy by Mr. Armstrong.

From “Europe and America in Prophecy”:  http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/pubs/europe.htm  

    Paul wrote of the budding apostasy, and made it clear that a false prophet will rise in the last days just prior to the Second Coming of Christ!
    "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come [the Second Coming of Christ], except there come a falling away [apostasy!] 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 [a temple which is yet to be constructed in Jerusalem!], shewing himself [claiming] that he is God.
    "...And now ye know what witholdeth [withstands; resists. Paul is speaking of himself, as one who was "holding back" this growing apostasy] that he might be revealed in his time.
    "For the mystery of iniquity [it was a "mystery" religion; one which condoned sin, or "iniquity"] doth already work; only he who now letteth [restrains] will let [continue to restrain], until he be taken out of the way" (II Thessalonians 2:1-7).
    Here we see a human religious leader who will ensconce himself inside the temple in Jerusalem and actually claim to be divine! claim to be God!
---end of excerpt---

From “The Beast of the Apocalypse:  What is it?”: http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/pubs/beastof.htm

        The Critical And Experimental Commentary says: “That a personal antichrist will head the anti-christian kingdom, is likely, from the analogy of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Old Testament antichrist, the ‘little horn’ (Dan. viii. 9-12); ‘the son of perdition’ (2 Thess. ii. 3-8), answers to ‘goeth into perdition,’ and is applied to an individual, Judas, in the only other passage where it occurs (John xvii. 12). He is a child of destruction, and has but a little time ascended out of the bottomless pit, when he ‘goes into perdition’ (vv. 8,11)....The eighth [beast] is not merely one of the seven....At the same time, there are not eight, but only seven heads, for the eighth is the embodiment of all the God-opposed features of the seven....He does not fall like the other seven (v. 10), but is destroyed, going to his own perdition, by the Lord in person” (Jameison, Faucet, and Brown, vol. VI, p. 712).

---end of excerpt---

 

From “The GreatTribulation—is it about to happen?:  http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/pubs/greattri.htm

        Next time, it will be different. Within only a few years, we may see another terrible war in the Mideast. This time with European forces intervening—perhaps occupying Israel and attacking Egypt (Daniel 11:40-45)—in order to prevent a global nuclear war from breaking out, or halting a war in the region after nuclear weapons have once again been used.
        Which nation could gain the most from appearing as the savior of Israel but Germany, as if in atonement for the holocaust of World War II?
        Which nations could guarantee the safety of the world's most prestigious and most popular religious figure, if he decided to go to Jerusalem?
        What if this "vicar of Christ," who would be viewed as a "prince of peace" were to ensconce himself in a newly-built temple? What if he were to have such power that great signs, wonders, and miracles were performed? What if his very presence there halted a major war already in progress? Read all of II Thessalonians 2 slowly and carefully.
        Paul wrote, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [the coming of Jesus Christ] 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 worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God shewing himself that he is God" (II Thessalonians 2:1-4).
        The "man of sin" who claims to "be God" is the prophesied "antichrist," the great "false prophet" who is in collusion with the beast power. He is prophesied to "sit in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God!"
        The "little horn" of Daniel 7 is the very same person as the antichrist, or the "man of sin," called the "son of perdition."
        Daniel saw the fourth beast as "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns" (Daniel 7:7). This was the last of the four great world-ruling empires depicted in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. It is the same beast as that of Revelation 13, which embodies all the strongest characteristics of its predecessors.
        A vast majority of Bible scholars know that Daniel's prophecy identified the ancient Babylonian, Persian, Greco/Macedonian, and Roman empires. Most of them know that the successive stages of the so-called "Holy Roman Empire" are meant by the ten successive (not contemporaneous) governments of that system revealed in Daniel 7:7-10.
        The little horn is a great church/state religious system, called "Babylon the Great" (Revelation 17:1-5). It is a mystery religion, one that is actually a state, and has concourse with many nations.
        Notice: "I considered the horns [symbols of governments], and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots [the Ostrogoths, Vandals and Heruli were overthrown by the Vatican]: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit [a picture of the second coming of Christ, and the judgment of God], whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels are burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The judgment was set, and the books were opened" (Daniel 7:8-10).
        When does the little horn speak great things? Notice that this prophecy leads directly to the time of the second coming of Christ!
        John wrote of the same thing: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon" (Revelation 13:11).
        This lamb-like beast speaks as Satan, yet "appears" Christ-like. It masquerades as "Christian," but is led by Satan.
        "And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast [he uses the power of the state—military and political] before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed" (Revelation 13:11,12).
        The deadly wound was the collapse of Rome in A.D. 476. The "deadly wound was healed" when the empire was restored by Belasarius in A.D. 554.
        This Christ-like beast is the same as the little horn which speaks great things, the same as the "man of sin" of II Thessalonians the second chapter, the same as the Antichrist.
        Notice: "And he [the lamb-like beast which speaks as Satan] doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast..." (Revelation 13:13,14).
        Just as Daniel's prophecy shows the little horn to be destroyed by Christ at His coming, so Paul wrote, of this man of sin who will appear in the temple of God, "And then shall that wicked [one] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (II Thessalonians 2:8-10).
        This great false prophet is seized by Jesus Christ Himself at His second coming, and thrown into Gehenna fire!
        "And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse [Jesus Christ], and against His army. And the beast [the coming military dictator over the final ten nations comprising the beast power—see Revelation 17:12-14] was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Revelation 19:19,20).
        Obviously, the final fulfillment of the "abomination of desolation" will be in human form, not as an idol, or the sacrifice of unclean animals.
        This time, it is a false prophet who shall "think to change times and laws," and who has a "mouth speaking great things," who will have the power to call down fire from heaven to deceive the world. The blasphemous abomination which will stand in the holy place where it ought not will be the little horn, the Antichrist, the false prophet who is in collusion with the beast power.
---end of excerpt---

From “United States of Europe, When?:  http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/pubs/USE-When.htm

One of the key figures in prophecy at the time of the end—the time of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord—is the infamous "false prophet," who will ultimately claim to be, not just a representative of God, but claim to be God!

Notice: "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [the Day of the Lord] shall not come, except there come a falling away first [a great apostasy—millions embracing a false religion], 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, showing himself that he is God...And then shall that Wicked [one] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan [he will have super-human power, influence, magnetism!] with all power and signs and lying wonders..." (II Thessalonians 2:2-9).

The false prophet is the "lamb-like" beast who "...spake as a dragon [Satan]. And he exerciseth all the power [economic and military] of the first beast before him [the ten-nation "beast" power], and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast [the ten-nation combine], whose deadly wound was healed.

"And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast ... which had the wound by a sword, and did live." (Revelation 13:11-14).

This great religious personage is identified in many prophecies of the Bible!

Notice that the GREAT TRIBULATION is specifically called the "time of Jacob's trouble"! It is a time of national privation and captivity for the two tribes who bear Jacob's [Israel's] name, Ephraim [Britain] and Manasseh [the United States].

God warns, "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble [great trial, or tribulation]; but he shall be saved out of it [he shall go through it, not escape from it]. For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Eternal of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds [picturing slavery!], and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: But they shall serve the Eternal their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them" (Jeremiah 30:7-9). The time setting of this prophecy is inescapable. It is at the time leading up to the first resurrection, which occurs at the moment of Christ's return (I Corinthians 15:50-52).

At the time of Christ's return, His people in America and Britain are pictured as being under the heavy yoke of an enemy! That enemy is identified as Assyria—GERMANY in Bible prophecy—together with a GREAT FALSE UNIVERSAL CHURCH!

Note this well: the great false church is called the "lady of kingdoms" in Isaiah 47. A woman is the symbol of a church; in this case, a church which is more like a state than a church; a church which mixes in global politics; a church which wields political power. "I was wroth with my people [Israel], I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy YOKE. And thou saidst, I shall be a lady forever [an "eternal" church]: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart ... thou ... sayest 'I am' [a blasphemous title, for it belongs only to God], and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow [she is involved in a "marriage" or political concourse with a nation which alone in the world calls itself by the masculine term, "fatherland"], neither shall I know the loss of children [she has daughters—other, smaller churches which came out of her in protest]: But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude ... of thine enchantments" (Isaiah 47:6-9).
---end of excerpt---

Conclusion:  The Son of Perdition is a human person, who will claim to be God and who will carry out the abomination of desolation in the temple at Jerusalem.

See our Two Key Prophecies section at the web site: http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/twokey.shtml

 
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