⁷ For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back^(A) will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

Warnings Against Denying the Son

¹⁸ Dear children, this is the last hour;^(A) and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming,^(B) even now many antichrists have come.^(C) This is how we know it is the last hour.

¹⁷ Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus^(A) and Philetus, ¹⁸ who have departed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place,^(B) and they destroy the faith of some.^(C)

²⁹ I know that after I leave, savage wolves^(A) will come in among you and will not spare the flock.^(B)

³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,^(A) which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.^(B)

⁷ Then the angel said to me: “Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery^(A) of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns.^(B)

⁵ The name written on her forehead was a mystery:^(A)

¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility^(A) and the worship of angels disqualify you.^(B) Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. ¹⁹ They have lost connection with the head,^(C) from whom the whole body,^(D) supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.^(E)

²⁰ Since you died with Christ^(F) to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,^(G) why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:^{(H) 21} “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish^(I) with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.^{(J) 23} Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility^(K) and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

¹⁶ Beyond all question, the mystery^(A) from which true godliness^(B) springs is great: