Who is seated in the temple?

2 Thessalonians 2 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, ² that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. ³ Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. ⁵ Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? ⁶ And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. ⁸ Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; ⁹ that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, ¹⁰ and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. ¹¹ For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, ¹² in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

¹³ But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. ¹⁴ It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵ So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.

¹⁶ Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, ¹⁷ comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.

In today’s text Paul is speaking about the return of the Lord, in particular about a false teaching that was being taught which said Jesus had already come. The text begins:    Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,  that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.  Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,  who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.       I try always to be very clear; I am not a Biblical scholar. So rather than trying to look at this text and try to interpret its meaning in relation to prophetic future events, Christ’s return, the rapture of the church and the revealing of the devil, the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, I would rather we look in terms of a direct application to us individually and the time we are currently in.  

Again, Paul says:   Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,  who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.   1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says:   Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.    In Christ we are no longer required to fulfill the requirements of temple worship. We are the temple of God. Jesus says:  "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24) He says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the great and foremost commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38)   How many today fail in these very basic aspects of our faith? If we are the temple of God and we by our own choices allow things which God calls sin and abominations into our lives and into our hearts, then who really is seated on the throne of our temple? At best it is us. At worst it is the devil himself who is displayed as being God. Certainly throughout much of the church today, as blatant sin and unrighteousness is not only tolerated, but embraced and even celebrated as freedom in Christ, the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction has come. He is seated in the temple.

The text says:  And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.      The one who restrains the devil is the Holy Spirit. Some scholars say that the time when the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit is taken away is a reference to the rapture of the church, the taking away of believers before the return of Christ, allowing the rise of satan. In John 14:16-17 Jesus says:    ^“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;  that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”       We need to understand that the Holy Spirit is more than a quiet voice inside us. The Holy Spirit is much more than our conscious to guide us. The Holy Spirit is part of the triune God. The Holy Spirit is as much God as The Father and Jesus. In much of the church today and in the lives of many individuals, the Holy Spirit, the one who restrains the devil, has been taken out of the way through by choice, not by rapture.     "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."       To worship God in Spirit, we must worship and yield to the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit, God in us, must be seated on the throne of our temple.

Here’s what Paul says will happen when the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit is taken away:    Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;  that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,  and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,  in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.        Jesus will indeed be victorious, in fact through the cross He has already been victorious. Yet because some do not believe and receive the love of the truth and the truth of God’s love, because they do not believe and receive the finished work of the cross of Christ, they are subject to a deluding influence, they believe what is false. Jesus says:     This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (John 3:19-20)   

We cannot love both light and darkness. We cannot embrace both the cross of Christ and the very things He suffered and died for on that cross. Either God Himself is on the throne of our temple or we ourselves have taken Him out of the way by our choices. In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus speaks of the coming of the kingdom of God. He says:    Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said,“The kingdom of God does not come with observation;  nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”      We should not look forward to a future time for the coming of the Lord. He will come in God’s time. Instead we should live now with the kingdom of God within us. We should live as those yielded and submitted to the Holy Spirit, loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, worshipping Him in Spirit and truth. We should live embracing the love and truth of the cross of Christ. In Luke 22:69 Jesus says:   “But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God."   Jesus will one day return. Until then He is seated on the throne in heaven, with God the Father. Should He not also be seated on the throne of our temples?  

God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.  It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace,  comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.       Amen