The Lawless One by John Norton Loughborough

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Sep 9, 1875

The Lawless One.

By John Norton Loughborough

DR. MACKNIGHT, in speaking of the papacy, contrasts 2 Thess. 2 : 3, with Dan. 7 : 21, 25 ; 2 Thess. 2 : 4, with Dan. 11 : 36, and Dan. 8 : 25, with 2 Thess. 2 : 8, with Dan. 7 : 11, 25, 26, and 8 : 25, and says : —

Now, as in the prophecies of Daniel, empires governed by a succession of kings are denoted by a single emblem, such as by a part of an image, a single beast, a horn, &c., of a beast, so in Paul's prophecy the man of sin, and the son of perdition, and the lawless one, may denote an impious tyranny, exercised by a succession of men who cause great misery and ruin to others; and who at length shall be destroyed themselves. It is true, the papists contend that one person only is meant by these appellations, because they are in the singular number and have the Greek article prefixed to them. But in Scripture we find other words in the singular number with the article used to denote a multitude of persons; for example, Rom. 1 : 17: Ho dikaios, the just one by faith shall live; that is, all just persons whatever. Titus 1 : 7: Ho episkopos, the bishop must be blameless; that is, all bishops must be so. 2 John 5 : 7: Ho planos, the deceiver, signifies many deceivers, as is plain from the preceding clause where many deceivers are said to have gone out. In like manner, the false teachers who deceived Christ's servants to commit fornication and idolatry, are called that woman Jezebel, Rev. 2 : 20, and the whore of Babylon, Rev. 17 : 5, and in this prophecy, verse 7, the Roman emperors, and magistrates under them, are called, Ho katekon, he who restraineth.

"Further, a succession of persons, arising one after another, are denoted by appellations in the singular number with the article; for example, the succession of the Jewish high priests is thus denoted in the laws concerning them; see Lev. 31 : 10, 15; Num. 35 : 25-28; as also the succession of the Jewish kings. Deut. 17 : 14; 1 Sam. 8 : 11. From these examples, therefore, it is plain that the names, man of sin, son of perdition, lawless one, although in the singular number, and with the article prefixed, may, according to the Scripture idiom, denote a multitude, and even a succession of persons, arising one after another.

"The facts and circumstances mentioned in these prophecies are, for the most part, so peculiarly marked that they will not easily apply except to the persons and events intended by the Spirit of God. And, therefore, in every case where different interpretations have been given of any prophecy, the proper method of ascertaining its meaning is, to compare the various events to which it is thought to relate with the words of the prophecy; and to adopt that as the event intended, which most exactly agrees in all its parts to the prophetic description.

"According to this rule," he says of the interpretation of this prophecy, that "will appear the best founded, which makes it a prediction of the corruptions of Christianity, which began to be introduced into the church in the apostles' days, and wrought secretly all the time the heathen magistrates persecuted the Christians; but which showed themselves more openly after the empire received the faith of Christ, A. D. 312, and by a gradual progress ended in the monstrous errors and usurpations of the bishops of Rome, when the restraining power of the emperors was taken out of the way by the incursions of the barbarous nations and the breaking of the empire into ten kingdoms, prefigured by the horns of Daniel's fourth beast.

While the power of the State continued in the hands of the heathen rulers, and while they employed that power in perse-cutting the Christians, the corrupt doctrines and practices introduced by the false teachers did not spread so fast as otherwise they would have done. At least, they were not produced to public view as the decisions of Heaven, to which all men were bound to pay implicit obedience. But after the heathen magistrates were taken out of the way by the conversion of Constantine, and after he and his successors called the Christian bishops to meet in general councils, and enforced their assumption of divine authority by civil powers, then did they, in these councils, arrogate to themselves the right of establishing what articles of faith and discipline they thought proper, and of anathematizing all who rejected their decrees, a claim which, in after times, the bishops of Rome transferred from general councils to themselves.

These general councils, by introducing the worship of saints and angels, robbed God of the worship due to him; and by substituting saints and angels as mediators in the place of Christ, they degraded him from his office as mediator, or rendered it altogether useless. However, though they thus opposed God and Christ by their unrighteous decrees, yet did they not exalt themselves above every one that is called God, or an object of worship; neither did they sit yet in the temple of God as God. These blasphemous extravagances were to be acted in after-times by a number of particular persons in succession, mean by the bishops of Rome after the power of the Christian Roman emperors, and of the magistrates under them, was taken out of the way. For the bishops of that see, having very early obtained from Christian emperors decrees in their own favor, soon raised themselves above all other bishops; and, by a variety of artifices, made the authority and influence of the body of the clergy center in themselves; and claimed that infallible authority which was formally exercised by general councils; of making articles of faith, and of establishing rules of discipline for the whole Christian community, and of determining, in the last resort, all differences among the clergy, and of anathematizing every one who did not submit to their unrighteous decisions.

"In this manner did the bishops of Rome establish, in their own persons, a spiritual dominion over the whole Christian world. But not content with this height of power, by dextrously employing the credit and influence which the ecclesiastics, now devoted to their will, had over the laity, in all countries where they lived, they interfered in many civil matters also, till at length they reared that intolerable fabric of spiritual and civil tyranny conjoined, whereby the understandings, the persons, and the properties, not of the laity only, but also of the clergy themselves, have, for a long time, been most grievously enthralled in all countries where Christianity was professed.

"This height, however, of spiritual and civil tyranny united, the bishops of Rome did not attain, till as the apostle foretold, that which restrained was taken out of the way; or till an end was put to the authority of the Roman Emperors in the west by the inroads of the barbarous nations; and more especially, till the western empire was broken into ten kingdoms, prefigured in Daniel's visions by the ten horns of the fourth beast. For then it was that the bishops of Rome made themselves sovereigns of Rome and of its territory; and so became the little horn which Daniel saw coming up among the ten horns, and which had the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking, to show that its dominion was founded on the deepest policy and that its strength consisted in the bulls, excommunications, and anathemas, which, with intolerable audacity, it uttered against all those who opposed its usurpations. And, in process of time, the bishops of Rome, having got possession of three of the kingdoms into which the western empire was broken, signified by three of the horns of Daniel's fourth beast being plucked up before the little horn, they call themselves the vicars of Christ, on pretense that Christ has transferred his whole authority to them.

"They also thought to change times and laws, as Daniel foretold; for, as the vicars of Christ, they assumed the power of saving and damning men at their own pleasure, and altered the terms of salvation, making it depend, not on faith and holiness, but on the superstitious practices which they had established, and sold the pardon of sins past, and even the liberty of sinning for the future, for money.

"Moreover they openly made war with the saints, who resisted their corrupt doctrines and practices, and prevailed against them, and wore out the saints of the Most High; for, by the cruel and bloody persecutions which they obliged the princes who acknowledged their authority to carry on against those who adhered to the pure doctrines and worship of Christ, they destroyed incredible numbers of them."—Macknight's Comments, vol. iii., p. 100.

I have quoted these lengthy comments of Dr. Macknight on the man of sin, because, in a concise and clear manner they present facts and arguments bearing upon the subject. In another article I shall proceed to present facts illustrative of the exalting of this power of the papacy.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.