2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

New Testament for Everyone

The lawless one

2 Now concerning the royal presence of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, and our gathering together around him, this is our request, my dear family. ² Please don’t be suddenly blown off course in your thinking, or be unsettled, either through spiritual influence, or through a word, or through a letter supposedly from us, telling you that the day of the Lord has already arrived. ³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. You see, it can’t happen unless the rebellion takes place first, and the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, is revealed. ⁴ He is the one who sets himself against every so-called god or cult object, and usurps their role, so that he installs himself in God’s temple, and makes himself out to be a god.

⁵ Don’t you remember that I told you this while I was with you? ⁶ And now you know what is restraining him so that he will be revealed at his proper time. ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the restrainer is in place—until he is taken away; ⁸ and then the lawless one will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth, and will wipe him out by unveiling his presence.

⁹ The presence of the lawless one will be accompanied by satanic activity, with full power, with signs, and spurious wonders, ¹⁰ with every kind of wicked deceit over those on the way to ruin, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. ¹¹ For that reason God sends upon them a strong delusion, leading them to believe the lie, ¹² so that judgment may come upon all who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness.