For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
The hidden lawlessness was already secretly at work in Paul's day, creeping into the church little by little in stealth and silence to prepare the way for the great apostasy that would develop into the man of sin. A restraining power held back its full revelation, and only when he who restrains is taken out of the way will the lawless one be revealed and then destroyed by the Lord at His coming. That man of sin is the papacy, rising from the ruins of Rome and carrying its deceptive work forward through a foretold supremacy of 1260 years ending in 1798, so that the message of Christ's coming belongs on this side of that time. Its central work is trampling God's commandments by setting aside the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment and exalting a spurious Sunday sabbath that has no sanction in Scripture, which in the final crisis will be enforced by united church and state power to oppress commandment keepers. That restraint is now being withdrawn from the earth, with the Spirit leaving men to reap what they sowed in increasing disaster, deception and disregard of law, so the hidden working stands revealed in the last days and God's people must work quickly with earnest effort while hid with Christ in God.
Hidden Working in Apostolic Age
The hidden lawlessness was already active in Paul's own day, with errors creeping into the church that would prepare the way for the great apostasy developing into the man of sin and the papal power. Its evil developments still to come would work through Satan's power with signs and lying wonders and unrighteous deception. Its early working appeared as a gradual departure from the simplicity of the gospel, as the church adopted pagan practices to make Christianity more acceptable to heathen converts. By the latter end of the second century its first simplicity had disappeared, and after the apostles died some members departed from Christ's simple teaching and joined in heathen practices.
False teachers began its baleful work early in the history of the church by spreading heresies and ensnaring many in false doctrines. It advanced little by little, at first in stealth and silence and then more openly as it increased in strength and gained control of the minds of men. In that deceptive and blasphemous work the customs, doctrines, ceremonies and superstitions of heathenism almost imperceptibly found their way into the Christian church through compromise and conformity.
That spirit of compromise was restrained for a time by the fierce persecutions the church endured under paganism. When persecution ceased and Christianity entered the courts and palaces of kings, she laid aside the humble simplicity of Christ and His apostles for the pomp and pride of pagan priests and rulers, and in place of the requirements of God substituted human theories and traditions. With the nominal conversion of Constantine in the early part of the fourth century the world, cloaked with a form of righteousness, walked into the church and corruption rapidly progressed. Paganism while appearing to be vanquished became the conqueror, its spirit controlling the church and its doctrines, ceremonies and superstitions incorporated into the faith and worship of professed followers of Christ. This compromise between paganism and Christianity resulted in the development of the man of sin opposing and exalting himself above God, a gigantic system of false religion that is a masterpiece of Satan's power to seat himself upon the throne to rule the earth according to his will.
The seeds were germinating about ten years before Paul's letter to the Ephesians in A.D. 64, with grievous wolves about to enter in not sparing the flock. The church was not then rising and advancing toward perfection in unity as described in Ephesians 4:11-13, but was about to be torn by factions and distracted by divisions. Because Paul knew this apostasy was coming, his word about continuing till the unity of the faith must look beyond the great apostasy to the period of the gathering of the remnant of God's people in the last days, proving the gifts set in the church have not yet served out their time. The church's condition worsened around and after the apostles' deaths, so that period was not the change from imperfection to perfection that would end the gifts. That change belongs to Christ's second coming when faith and hope give way to sight, and the man of sin's later removal of spiritual gifts is an act of apostasy, not God's plan for the gifts to cease.
Restrainer Holding Back Evil
Lawlessness was already at work in Paul's day while a restraining power held back the full revelation of the lawless one, the man of sin, the Wicked. That restraint would continue until he who now restrains was taken out of the way, and only then would the wicked one be revealed. When revealed he will be destroyed by the Lord at His coming, and the time of that fulfillment is approaching. The hidden working was already the working of the man of sin, connected with Satan's deception, lying wonders, rejection of truth, and unrighteous deception, and in the last great crisis that working is now revealed. The verse therefore warns that evil was active even before the Wicked was revealed, and it serves as a warning in connection with protecting youth from harmful influences.
The restrainer is the Spirit of God and Christ's restraining power over Satan. That restraint is exercised through Jesus' intercession in the heavenly sanctuary and through laws and rulers who oppose measures that would hinder God's work. God limits rulers and restrains evil through His agents among them, and evil that had accumulated for centuries was resisted so the third message could be proclaimed. When this restraint is removed evil will be less checked, and when Jesus leaves the most holy place His restraining Spirit is withdrawn.
Christ by the restraining power of God holds mankind back from passing fully under Satan's control. The peace and protection enjoyed even by the disobedient and unthankful is owed to God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. When men pass the limits of divine forbearance that restraint is removed, yet God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression but leaves the rejecters of His mercy to themselves to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning despised, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law is a seed sown yielding its unfailing harvest, until the Spirit persistently resisted is at last withdrawn leaving no power to control the evil passions of the soul and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem proves this, standing as a fearful and solemn warning to all who trifle with divine grace and resist divine mercy, and as decisive testimony to God's hatred of sin and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty.
That restraint is now surely but gradually being withdrawn from the earth and from man. The Spirit leaves human agents with less check, Satan is no longer prevented from exercising his power over men and beasts, and deceptive powers take the world captive under a masterworker disguised under pretense of godliness with numerous disguised, subtle, persevering, untiring agents resisting every restraining influence. As a result dangers, sufferings, disasters, plagues, judgments, casualties by sea and land, and fire and floods in towns and cities increase with more constant frequency, already falling on despisers of grace and forecasting shadows of approaching events of greatest magnitude. This was seen in the flood that swept away Johnstown and recalled in the first Flood that came upon the world, when the Lord allows Satan to create plagues against men and beasts. At the same time infidelity, sectarianism, formalism, sin, soul-destroying doctrines and specious errors abound, the elements of evil combine and consolidate for vigorous resistance to God and truth, the man of sin increases in power, the mystery works with all deceivableness in them that perish while God's authority is scarcely recognized, the world's corruption and disregard of law grow, men fail to recognize sin's source, iniquity passes beyond mercy, and the signs Christ foretold signal the approaching end.
Because the restraining Spirit's withdrawal means time is short and the end is near, when the Lord God of heaven will soon set up His kingdom which shall never be destroyed, the work to save souls from death must be done quickly with every effort. That effort must grow more earnest and intense until the end, with increased faith, watching unto prayer, and present development of a pure, heavenly character. Only those wholly on the Lord's side are safe, and those who humble themselves and keep eyes fixed on God will be hid with Christ in God and will appear with Him in glory when He appears. All who give place to the enemy and are found on the enemy's side will perish with the wicked in those plagues.
God limits rulers for a time, but when Jesus leaves the most holy place His restraining Spirit is withdrawn and rulers and people are left under the control of evil angels. Satan then directs destructive laws that would destroy life if the time were not shortened.
Foretold Rise of Papal Power
The mystery of iniquity already at work in Paul's day is manifested through the Papacy, revealing Satan's character and bringing out the principles of his government. The principle of lawlessness was already active then and found its manifestation in that power which displayed those satanic traits.
The man of sin, also called the son of perdition and that wicked, is the papacy or popery. Its work of deception increases in power and is carried forward persistently until the second advent and to the close of time. Prophecy gave it a supremacy of 1260 years ending in 1798, so the coming of Christ could not take place before the great apostasy and the end of that long reign. Paul's caution therefore covers the whole Christian dispensation down to 1798, and the message of Christ's second coming belongs on this side of that time and was to be proclaimed afterward.
It is the religion of the church of Rome, rising from the ruins after the breakup of the vast Roman Empire. It continues the moral deterioration of the kingdoms, sinking lower and lower as God is cast off and His law is trampled underfoot. Its hidden secrets are a horror to all who know them. Its priests keep their ascendancy by keeping the people in ignorance of the will of God as revealed in Scripture. Its claims of infallibility and inherited religion conceal this iniquity.
Its working appears in men claiming to be Christ's vicegerents on earth, worshiped in the person of the pope and his representative the cardinal, inspired by Satan. Its doctrine teaches people to pray to dead apostles, saints, and Mary instead of a Thus saith the Lord. Those dead are not in heaven but lie in their graves until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven when the trump of God calls the dead forth, so prayers offered to Mary fall to the ground. It opposes all that is called God or that is worshiped and sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. Its 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. For this cause God sends strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness, and then that Wicked shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
It is Satan's ever-present design to draw minds from Jesus to man and to destroy individual accountability. That working was already active, failing when Satan tempted the Son of God, but succeeding better with fallen man. Christianity became corrupted when popes and priests presumed to take an exalted position and taught the people to look to them to pardon sins instead of looking to Christ for themselves.
Attack on Law and Sabbath
The trampling of God's commandments by the Roman church is the work of the mystery of lawlessness. Its deliberate change of the fourth commandment, promoting the first day of the week instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath, is evidence of that lawlessness and of the title mystery of lawlessness. For this Sabbath change the church claims responsibility, while it does not claim intentional responsibility for leaving the second commandment out of its catechisms.
Since Eden there has been a determined effort to destroy the Sabbath of the fourth commandment given as the memorial of creation and to put a false sabbath in its place, so that the memorial of God's works would be lost from the mind and a worldwide apostasy against God's law would result. Disregarding the fourth commandment places men and women on Satan's side of the controversy, because to offend in one point is to be guilty of all. Among professed Christians this appears as idolatry that gives the glory and honor due to God's Sabbath day to a man-made institution and compels others to worship it, leaving them unsealed by God. Those who persist in it unrepentant will be visited with God's retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy.
Sunday observance as a supposed Christian institution arose from this lawlessness already at work in Paul's day. It has no sanction in Scripture and rests on no command or example of Christ or His apostles. Its origin is with the papacy, and it became associated with the papacy rather than with an institution adopted by Christ.
Enforcing Sunday observance recognizes the principles that form the foundation of Romanism. Such enforcement gives renewed life and power to religious tyranny and papal despotism. That revived tyranny threatens liberty of conscience.
The mystery of iniquity was already at work while a restraining power still held back the revealing of the wicked one, and when that restraint is removed the wicked one will be revealed and then destroyed by the Lord at His coming. The time of this fulfillment is approaching, with the world and professedly Protestant churches taking sides against God's commandments, and the coming great issue is the seventh-day Sabbath. The man of sin carries this working forward by satanic agencies to exalt a spurious sabbath and to oppress God's law by oppressive laws against those who refuse to observe it. Powers of darkness are stirring to bring a crisis in which churches are compelled to honor a spurious sabbath, using secret meetings, councils, plans and devices and culminating in laws compelling worship of a rival Sabbath. In the final Sabbath controversy Romanism and apostate Protestantism will unite, using church and state power to deny liberty of conscience, to oppress and persecute those who keep God's commandments, and to authorize their death.
Satan's Deceptive Methods
The mystery of iniquity is Satan himself, who did not abide in the truth and who works with crooked, deceiving, superhuman power. He weaves a hidden net about souls and does not wait for his prey to come to him, but works openly as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and secretly when it serves his purpose best, sinking his voice to the softest whisper and wrapped in garments of light appearing as an angel from heaven. Men have so little knowledge of his wiles and so little understanding of this mystery that he out-generals them almost every time, so they must arouse, wrench themselves from his grasp, and engage in earnest battle putting on every piece of the armor.
Through subtlety he gives his soul-destroying errors the appearance of truth, and because they are a counterfeit of the truth they gain power to deceive minds. He pretends to be the Saviour and benefactor of the human race and thus more readily lures his victims to destruction, ranging the greater part of the world under his generalship as the first great apostate while others watch for the Lord's appearing, until multitudes deluded by rejection of truth accept the counterfeit and humanity is hailed as God. Spiritualism, theosophy, hypnotism, Romanism and like specious deceptions are such mysteries of iniquity, counterfeits that undermine faith in Scripture and must be kept from deceiving and polluting minds.
He works in a special manner with the popular churches to bewitch human minds by his power, to pick flaws with the Bible and with those working in Christ's lines, to turn people against Scripture, so that infidelity prevails everywhere. His influence may come under an angelic appearance as good human wisdom or as God's counsel, not appearing evil at first, then taking hold of minds and growing until it controls what it can or crushes what resists it. Spiritualism expresses this working by advocating a certain kind of faith in Christ by which many Protestants are becoming infatuated, retaining the error that as soon as the breath leaves the body the spirit goes immediately to heaven or hell, which prepares the way for the delusive working of Satan as prince of the power of the air.
That working began in Eden when he personated the serpent and seeks to complete the ruin of mankind, increasing in skill by constant practice upon the human mind. He insinuates himself into the circles of the most educated and refined, not as a monstrous being with hoofs and horns but as a fallen angel uniting highest intellectual greatness with basest cruelty and degrading corruption to charm and capture minds. Using knowledge gained in connection with God as a covering cherub, he subordinates fallen angels and men, misrepresents God, instigates rebellion against Jesus Christ the Commander of heaven, brings agents under his scepter into the synagogue of Satan and his counsels to promote his worship, and imparts refinement, intellectual greatness, scientific knowledge, philosophy, history and worldly wisdom, while worldly-minded men separated from God and not loving to retain God in knowledge exalt themselves as possessing a higher intellect than Jesus Christ. His envy of Christ, claim to a higher position than the Commander of heaven, despising of God's law, and expulsion from heaven explain his character and methods, made more manifest as the Spirit of God is withdrawn from the earth.
In everyone tested on truth he contests inch by inch every advance toward light to hold souls on his side. Those who flee to Jesus in earnest prayer and go to God and their Bibles learn the truth as it is in Jesus, but those who through policy refuse to obey God, like the chief priests and rulers, go to any lengths in deception until the light in them becomes darkness, and how great that darkness is. They are then given up to believe and love the lies they have repeated as if they were truth, and this raid against those who keep the commandments of God does not cease until probation closes. The mystery already works powerfully and cleverly to hinder the gospel, continues through human agencies bringing souls to ruin, has worked persistently so that evil human actions lead many to be lost, and is his uncaused sin and continuing opposition to God exposed by his treatment of Christ as God's enemy behind deceitful claims.
God has written Mystery of iniquity upon the voices and powers that prevail in the world, upon its music and its language called higher education, and upon its worship at Satan's altar by vast multitudes. It is the present condition seen by the heavenly Watcher where the earth is filled with violence and crime, where there is no voice of prayer and no sign that God is recognized, where priests trample the law of Jehovah under their feet with garments stained with blood of souls, where hearts are stained with human blood, where murderous altars are erected and human beings are sacrificed to devils and not to God. It appears in inward guilt and depravity, in wealth gained by every kind of robbery of man and of God, in using God's means to gratify selfishness and greed, in prevailing avarice and sensuality, in revenge against those thought to hinder ambitious plans, in cherishing the character and spirit of the first great deceiver, in accepting him as god and becoming filled with his spirit, in the world bowing before Satan and receiving his power as the power of God. It appears in kings and rulers refusing the yoke of Christ yet bowing at Satan's bidding, in his hidden dominion presenting the kingdoms of the world in their glory and promising them to all who will fall down and worship him, claiming to be the Prince of heaven, presenting entrancing views of the kingdom of God as his own, working to make himself as God and destroy all who oppose him, with miracle-working confirmation through earth and air and water, and with restless, raging religious enthusiasm determined to take and occupy the place of the throne of God in warfare against Creator and Redeemer, a power that has taken the whole world captive.
Closing Manifestations in Last Days
The mystery of iniquity figures largely in the winding up of earth's history and must be carefully searched out with wisdom. Its scenes belong among the last features plainly revealed, standing at the end of the figurative delineation in Daniel and John leading down to the close, and that prophetic fulfillment must be applied in proper order lest misapplication bring confusion instead of light. It is met now by God's people giving the third angel's message to the world.
It is the wicked character and seductive influence of persecuting powers shown to John in many images. It is the detestable work of the ruling powers of the world binding themselves into secret societies and confederacies that do not honor God's law, and the increasingly manifested evil doings of all false religionists. It means the growing public parade of heathen power in the close of time, with heathen deities manifesting signal power before the cities of the world, a work already begun. There are only two parties, those who keep the commandments of God and those who war against His holy law, and those having the light of truth must keep clear of these evils. Its marked characteristic is profession of lamb-like character and features and alliance to heaven while actions reveal a dragon heart, instigated by and united with the same satanic power that made war in heaven when Satan sought supremacy and was expelled.
The man of sin works in mystery toward a final open disclosure to the world of who he is and what his work has been. That disclosure comes after one fierce struggle amid increasing deceptions, delusions, impostures, and false cries of Lo here is Christ and Lo there is Christ, which Christ forbids His followers to go after. At that time the Protestant world grows tender and affectionate toward the man of sin, while mystic Babylon continues its history of not sparing the blood of the saints.
Before that disclosure God's people must meet the coming issue as bold and valiant soldiers of Jesus Christ, with lives hid with Christ in God. They must be wide awake to catch the beams of light shining from the angel who is to brighten the earth with his glory. They must let the messages of the past fifty years be seen in their true force by repetition.
The last great crisis is upon us, and the hidden working of lawlessness already in operation as the working of the man of sin is now revealed, with the one who restrains continuing to restrain until taken out of the way. It now works with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, while the authority of God is scarcely recognized by the beings of His creation, which presses what is being done to enlighten the world. It gathers the world of professed Christians, as Protestantism is being led by Catholic doctrines. The foretold seductive working of the enemy brings apostasy in the closing days even among men and women who have had great light and abundance of evidence of present truth. This apostasy brings grief and cannot be changed by human power, but must be accepted and submitted to as what Scripture said would come, with some who fall having their eyes opened again but for many it being too late to correct their errors, leaving only prayer for the Lord to open blind eyes and give sight to precious souls for whom Christ gave His life.
At the fortress this secret working took the form of persecution carried out through hidden underground passages. Many faithful people lost their lives there. The full history of their suffering and the cruelties committed at the fortified heights will be brought to light at the Judgment.
Warning and Faithful Response
The rejection of truth and the acceptance of a lie mark the fallen churches as Babylon, and the already-working mystery of lawlessness is bound up with that fall and with the corruption that comes from refusing God's messages. Lawlessness was already at work while a restraining power still held back its full development, until that restraint should be removed. That refusal of the messages sent to them is what brings the churches into the condition called Babylon.
The same working gives warning to guard the young and to keep publishing houses clear of Romanism and other satanic theories, delusions, and polluting principles that deceive, oppose the truth, and pollute the minds of all who meet them. Hypnotism, Spiritualism, Romanism, and other deceptive teachings are mysteries of iniquity that must be kept out because they undermine faith in Scripture and spread spiritual error. To publish such teachings and place them before workers, especially young people, helps Satan use them against the truth and prepare a snare to catch souls, and it is unfaithful stewardship before God.
Mysteries of iniquity are at work in other churches, not even excepting the Roman Catholic Church, so great guardedness and caution are required in dealing with them. Ministers must not follow impulse in denouncing and exposing them with personal thrusts and careless words, for on these themes silence is eloquence. Many in the different denominations are deceived yet can still be reached, and a thrust may do much harm and no good and quench conviction in many minds. The right course is to be careful in words, to speak the truth in tones and words of love, to exalt Christ Jesus, to keep to the affirmative of truth, to stay in the straight path marked out, and to let the Word of God, which is the truth, tell the story of the inconsistency of those in error.
Though the conflict with Satan, his angels, and evil men may appear to end in their victory, the days of apostasy will end, those who believed a lie will be defeated, and truth and righteousness will triumph.
The hidden lawlessness was already secretly at work in Paul's day, creeping into the church little by little in stealth and silence to prepare the way for the great apostasy that would develop into the man of sin. A restraining power held back its full revelation, and only when he who restrains is taken out of the way will the lawless one be revealed and then destroyed by the Lord at His coming. That man of sin is the papacy, rising from the ruins of Rome and carrying its deceptive work forward through a foretold supremacy of 1260 years ending in 1798, so that the message of Christ's coming belongs on this side of that time. Its central work is trampling God's commandments by setting aside the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment and exalting a spurious Sunday sabbath that has no sanction in Scripture, which in the final crisis will be enforced by united church and state power to oppress commandment keepers. That restraint is now being withdrawn from the earth, with the Spirit leaving men to reap what they sowed in increasing disaster, deception and disregard of law, so the hidden working stands revealed in the last days and God's people must work quickly with earnest effort while hid with Christ in God.
Hidden Working in Apostolic Age
The hidden lawlessness was already active in Paul's own day, with errors creeping into the church that would prepare the way for the great apostasy developing into the man of sin and the papal power. Its evil developments still to come would work through Satan's power with signs and lying wonders and unrighteous deception. Its early working appeared as a gradual departure from the simplicity of the gospel, as the church adopted pagan practices to make Christianity more acceptable to heathen converts. By the latter end of the second century its first simplicity had disappeared, and after the apostles died some members departed from Christ's simple teaching and joined in heathen practices.
False teachers began its baleful work early in the history of the church by spreading heresies and ensnaring many in false doctrines. It advanced little by little, at first in stealth and silence and then more openly as it increased in strength and gained control of the minds of men. In that deceptive and blasphemous work the customs, doctrines, ceremonies and superstitions of heathenism almost imperceptibly found their way into the Christian church through compromise and conformity.
That spirit of compromise was restrained for a time by the fierce persecutions the church endured under paganism. When persecution ceased and Christianity entered the courts and palaces of kings, she laid aside the humble simplicity of Christ and His apostles for the pomp and pride of pagan priests and rulers, and in place of the requirements of God substituted human theories and traditions. With the nominal conversion of Constantine in the early part of the fourth century the world, cloaked with a form of righteousness, walked into the church and corruption rapidly progressed. Paganism while appearing to be vanquished became the conqueror, its spirit controlling the church and its doctrines, ceremonies and superstitions incorporated into the faith and worship of professed followers of Christ. This compromise between paganism and Christianity resulted in the development of the man of sin opposing and exalting himself above God, a gigantic system of false religion that is a masterpiece of Satan's power to seat himself upon the throne to rule the earth according to his will.
The seeds were germinating about ten years before Paul's letter to the Ephesians in A.D. 64, with grievous wolves about to enter in not sparing the flock. The church was not then rising and advancing toward perfection in unity as described in Ephesians 4:11-13, but was about to be torn by factions and distracted by divisions. Because Paul knew this apostasy was coming, his word about continuing till the unity of the faith must look beyond the great apostasy to the period of the gathering of the remnant of God's people in the last days, proving the gifts set in the church have not yet served out their time. The church's condition worsened around and after the apostles' deaths, so that period was not the change from imperfection to perfection that would end the gifts. That change belongs to Christ's second coming when faith and hope give way to sight, and the man of sin's later removal of spiritual gifts is an act of apostasy, not God's plan for the gifts to cease.
Restrainer Holding Back Evil
Lawlessness was already at work in Paul's day while a restraining power held back the full revelation of the lawless one, the man of sin, the Wicked. That restraint would continue until he who now restrains was taken out of the way, and only then would the wicked one be revealed. When revealed he will be destroyed by the Lord at His coming, and the time of that fulfillment is approaching. The hidden working was already the working of the man of sin, connected with Satan's deception, lying wonders, rejection of truth, and unrighteous deception, and in the last great crisis that working is now revealed. The verse therefore warns that evil was active even before the Wicked was revealed, and it serves as a warning in connection with protecting youth from harmful influences.
The restrainer is the Spirit of God and Christ's restraining power over Satan. That restraint is exercised through Jesus' intercession in the heavenly sanctuary and through laws and rulers who oppose measures that would hinder God's work. God limits rulers and restrains evil through His agents among them, and evil that had accumulated for centuries was resisted so the third message could be proclaimed. When this restraint is removed evil will be less checked, and when Jesus leaves the most holy place His restraining Spirit is withdrawn.
Christ by the restraining power of God holds mankind back from passing fully under Satan's control. The peace and protection enjoyed even by the disobedient and unthankful is owed to God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. When men pass the limits of divine forbearance that restraint is removed, yet God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression but leaves the rejecters of His mercy to themselves to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning despised, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law is a seed sown yielding its unfailing harvest, until the Spirit persistently resisted is at last withdrawn leaving no power to control the evil passions of the soul and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem proves this, standing as a fearful and solemn warning to all who trifle with divine grace and resist divine mercy, and as decisive testimony to God's hatred of sin and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty.
That restraint is now surely but gradually being withdrawn from the earth and from man. The Spirit leaves human agents with less check, Satan is no longer prevented from exercising his power over men and beasts, and deceptive powers take the world captive under a masterworker disguised under pretense of godliness with numerous disguised, subtle, persevering, untiring agents resisting every restraining influence. As a result dangers, sufferings, disasters, plagues, judgments, casualties by sea and land, and fire and floods in towns and cities increase with more constant frequency, already falling on despisers of grace and forecasting shadows of approaching events of greatest magnitude. This was seen in the flood that swept away Johnstown and recalled in the first Flood that came upon the world, when the Lord allows Satan to create plagues against men and beasts. At the same time infidelity, sectarianism, formalism, sin, soul-destroying doctrines and specious errors abound, the elements of evil combine and consolidate for vigorous resistance to God and truth, the man of sin increases in power, the mystery works with all deceivableness in them that perish while God's authority is scarcely recognized, the world's corruption and disregard of law grow, men fail to recognize sin's source, iniquity passes beyond mercy, and the signs Christ foretold signal the approaching end.
Because the restraining Spirit's withdrawal means time is short and the end is near, when the Lord God of heaven will soon set up His kingdom which shall never be destroyed, the work to save souls from death must be done quickly with every effort. That effort must grow more earnest and intense until the end, with increased faith, watching unto prayer, and present development of a pure, heavenly character. Only those wholly on the Lord's side are safe, and those who humble themselves and keep eyes fixed on God will be hid with Christ in God and will appear with Him in glory when He appears. All who give place to the enemy and are found on the enemy's side will perish with the wicked in those plagues.
God limits rulers for a time, but when Jesus leaves the most holy place His restraining Spirit is withdrawn and rulers and people are left under the control of evil angels. Satan then directs destructive laws that would destroy life if the time were not shortened.
Foretold Rise of Papal Power
The mystery of iniquity already at work in Paul's day is manifested through the Papacy, revealing Satan's character and bringing out the principles of his government. The principle of lawlessness was already active then and found its manifestation in that power which displayed those satanic traits.
The man of sin, also called the son of perdition and that wicked, is the papacy or popery. Its work of deception increases in power and is carried forward persistently until the second advent and to the close of time. Prophecy gave it a supremacy of 1260 years ending in 1798, so the coming of Christ could not take place before the great apostasy and the end of that long reign. Paul's caution therefore covers the whole Christian dispensation down to 1798, and the message of Christ's second coming belongs on this side of that time and was to be proclaimed afterward.
It is the religion of the church of Rome, rising from the ruins after the breakup of the vast Roman Empire. It continues the moral deterioration of the kingdoms, sinking lower and lower as God is cast off and His law is trampled underfoot. Its hidden secrets are a horror to all who know them. Its priests keep their ascendancy by keeping the people in ignorance of the will of God as revealed in Scripture. Its claims of infallibility and inherited religion conceal this iniquity.
Its working appears in men claiming to be Christ's vicegerents on earth, worshiped in the person of the pope and his representative the cardinal, inspired by Satan. Its doctrine teaches people to pray to dead apostles, saints, and Mary instead of a Thus saith the Lord. Those dead are not in heaven but lie in their graves until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven when the trump of God calls the dead forth, so prayers offered to Mary fall to the ground. It opposes all that is called God or that is worshiped and sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. Its 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. For this cause God sends strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness, and then that Wicked shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
It is Satan's ever-present design to draw minds from Jesus to man and to destroy individual accountability. That working was already active, failing when Satan tempted the Son of God, but succeeding better with fallen man. Christianity became corrupted when popes and priests presumed to take an exalted position and taught the people to look to them to pardon sins instead of looking to Christ for themselves.
Attack on Law and Sabbath
The trampling of God's commandments by the Roman church is the work of the mystery of lawlessness. Its deliberate change of the fourth commandment, promoting the first day of the week instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath, is evidence of that lawlessness and of the title mystery of lawlessness. For this Sabbath change the church claims responsibility, while it does not claim intentional responsibility for leaving the second commandment out of its catechisms.
Since Eden there has been a determined effort to destroy the Sabbath of the fourth commandment given as the memorial of creation and to put a false sabbath in its place, so that the memorial of God's works would be lost from the mind and a worldwide apostasy against God's law would result. Disregarding the fourth commandment places men and women on Satan's side of the controversy, because to offend in one point is to be guilty of all. Among professed Christians this appears as idolatry that gives the glory and honor due to God's Sabbath day to a man-made institution and compels others to worship it, leaving them unsealed by God. Those who persist in it unrepentant will be visited with God's retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy.
Sunday observance as a supposed Christian institution arose from this lawlessness already at work in Paul's day. It has no sanction in Scripture and rests on no command or example of Christ or His apostles. Its origin is with the papacy, and it became associated with the papacy rather than with an institution adopted by Christ.
Enforcing Sunday observance recognizes the principles that form the foundation of Romanism. Such enforcement gives renewed life and power to religious tyranny and papal despotism. That revived tyranny threatens liberty of conscience.
The mystery of iniquity was already at work while a restraining power still held back the revealing of the wicked one, and when that restraint is removed the wicked one will be revealed and then destroyed by the Lord at His coming. The time of this fulfillment is approaching, with the world and professedly Protestant churches taking sides against God's commandments, and the coming great issue is the seventh-day Sabbath. The man of sin carries this working forward by satanic agencies to exalt a spurious sabbath and to oppress God's law by oppressive laws against those who refuse to observe it. Powers of darkness are stirring to bring a crisis in which churches are compelled to honor a spurious sabbath, using secret meetings, councils, plans and devices and culminating in laws compelling worship of a rival Sabbath. In the final Sabbath controversy Romanism and apostate Protestantism will unite, using church and state power to deny liberty of conscience, to oppress and persecute those who keep God's commandments, and to authorize their death.
Satan's Deceptive Methods
The mystery of iniquity is Satan himself, who did not abide in the truth and who works with crooked, deceiving, superhuman power. He weaves a hidden net about souls and does not wait for his prey to come to him, but works openly as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and secretly when it serves his purpose best, sinking his voice to the softest whisper and wrapped in garments of light appearing as an angel from heaven. Men have so little knowledge of his wiles and so little understanding of this mystery that he out-generals them almost every time, so they must arouse, wrench themselves from his grasp, and engage in earnest battle putting on every piece of the armor.
Through subtlety he gives his soul-destroying errors the appearance of truth, and because they are a counterfeit of the truth they gain power to deceive minds. He pretends to be the Saviour and benefactor of the human race and thus more readily lures his victims to destruction, ranging the greater part of the world under his generalship as the first great apostate while others watch for the Lord's appearing, until multitudes deluded by rejection of truth accept the counterfeit and humanity is hailed as God. Spiritualism, theosophy, hypnotism, Romanism and like specious deceptions are such mysteries of iniquity, counterfeits that undermine faith in Scripture and must be kept from deceiving and polluting minds.
He works in a special manner with the popular churches to bewitch human minds by his power, to pick flaws with the Bible and with those working in Christ's lines, to turn people against Scripture, so that infidelity prevails everywhere. His influence may come under an angelic appearance as good human wisdom or as God's counsel, not appearing evil at first, then taking hold of minds and growing until it controls what it can or crushes what resists it. Spiritualism expresses this working by advocating a certain kind of faith in Christ by which many Protestants are becoming infatuated, retaining the error that as soon as the breath leaves the body the spirit goes immediately to heaven or hell, which prepares the way for the delusive working of Satan as prince of the power of the air.
That working began in Eden when he personated the serpent and seeks to complete the ruin of mankind, increasing in skill by constant practice upon the human mind. He insinuates himself into the circles of the most educated and refined, not as a monstrous being with hoofs and horns but as a fallen angel uniting highest intellectual greatness with basest cruelty and degrading corruption to charm and capture minds. Using knowledge gained in connection with God as a covering cherub, he subordinates fallen angels and men, misrepresents God, instigates rebellion against Jesus Christ the Commander of heaven, brings agents under his scepter into the synagogue of Satan and his counsels to promote his worship, and imparts refinement, intellectual greatness, scientific knowledge, philosophy, history and worldly wisdom, while worldly-minded men separated from God and not loving to retain God in knowledge exalt themselves as possessing a higher intellect than Jesus Christ. His envy of Christ, claim to a higher position than the Commander of heaven, despising of God's law, and expulsion from heaven explain his character and methods, made more manifest as the Spirit of God is withdrawn from the earth.
In everyone tested on truth he contests inch by inch every advance toward light to hold souls on his side. Those who flee to Jesus in earnest prayer and go to God and their Bibles learn the truth as it is in Jesus, but those who through policy refuse to obey God, like the chief priests and rulers, go to any lengths in deception until the light in them becomes darkness, and how great that darkness is. They are then given up to believe and love the lies they have repeated as if they were truth, and this raid against those who keep the commandments of God does not cease until probation closes. The mystery already works powerfully and cleverly to hinder the gospel, continues through human agencies bringing souls to ruin, has worked persistently so that evil human actions lead many to be lost, and is his uncaused sin and continuing opposition to God exposed by his treatment of Christ as God's enemy behind deceitful claims.
God has written Mystery of iniquity upon the voices and powers that prevail in the world, upon its music and its language called higher education, and upon its worship at Satan's altar by vast multitudes. It is the present condition seen by the heavenly Watcher where the earth is filled with violence and crime, where there is no voice of prayer and no sign that God is recognized, where priests trample the law of Jehovah under their feet with garments stained with blood of souls, where hearts are stained with human blood, where murderous altars are erected and human beings are sacrificed to devils and not to God. It appears in inward guilt and depravity, in wealth gained by every kind of robbery of man and of God, in using God's means to gratify selfishness and greed, in prevailing avarice and sensuality, in revenge against those thought to hinder ambitious plans, in cherishing the character and spirit of the first great deceiver, in accepting him as god and becoming filled with his spirit, in the world bowing before Satan and receiving his power as the power of God. It appears in kings and rulers refusing the yoke of Christ yet bowing at Satan's bidding, in his hidden dominion presenting the kingdoms of the world in their glory and promising them to all who will fall down and worship him, claiming to be the Prince of heaven, presenting entrancing views of the kingdom of God as his own, working to make himself as God and destroy all who oppose him, with miracle-working confirmation through earth and air and water, and with restless, raging religious enthusiasm determined to take and occupy the place of the throne of God in warfare against Creator and Redeemer, a power that has taken the whole world captive.
Closing Manifestations in Last Days
The mystery of iniquity figures largely in the winding up of earth's history and must be carefully searched out with wisdom. Its scenes belong among the last features plainly revealed, standing at the end of the figurative delineation in Daniel and John leading down to the close, and that prophetic fulfillment must be applied in proper order lest misapplication bring confusion instead of light. It is met now by God's people giving the third angel's message to the world.
It is the wicked character and seductive influence of persecuting powers shown to John in many images. It is the detestable work of the ruling powers of the world binding themselves into secret societies and confederacies that do not honor God's law, and the increasingly manifested evil doings of all false religionists. It means the growing public parade of heathen power in the close of time, with heathen deities manifesting signal power before the cities of the world, a work already begun. There are only two parties, those who keep the commandments of God and those who war against His holy law, and those having the light of truth must keep clear of these evils. Its marked characteristic is profession of lamb-like character and features and alliance to heaven while actions reveal a dragon heart, instigated by and united with the same satanic power that made war in heaven when Satan sought supremacy and was expelled.
The man of sin works in mystery toward a final open disclosure to the world of who he is and what his work has been. That disclosure comes after one fierce struggle amid increasing deceptions, delusions, impostures, and false cries of Lo here is Christ and Lo there is Christ, which Christ forbids His followers to go after. At that time the Protestant world grows tender and affectionate toward the man of sin, while mystic Babylon continues its history of not sparing the blood of the saints.
Before that disclosure God's people must meet the coming issue as bold and valiant soldiers of Jesus Christ, with lives hid with Christ in God. They must be wide awake to catch the beams of light shining from the angel who is to brighten the earth with his glory. They must let the messages of the past fifty years be seen in their true force by repetition.
The last great crisis is upon us, and the hidden working of lawlessness already in operation as the working of the man of sin is now revealed, with the one who restrains continuing to restrain until taken out of the way. It now works with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, while the authority of God is scarcely recognized by the beings of His creation, which presses what is being done to enlighten the world. It gathers the world of professed Christians, as Protestantism is being led by Catholic doctrines. The foretold seductive working of the enemy brings apostasy in the closing days even among men and women who have had great light and abundance of evidence of present truth. This apostasy brings grief and cannot be changed by human power, but must be accepted and submitted to as what Scripture said would come, with some who fall having their eyes opened again but for many it being too late to correct their errors, leaving only prayer for the Lord to open blind eyes and give sight to precious souls for whom Christ gave His life.
At the fortress this secret working took the form of persecution carried out through hidden underground passages. Many faithful people lost their lives there. The full history of their suffering and the cruelties committed at the fortified heights will be brought to light at the Judgment.
Warning and Faithful Response
The rejection of truth and the acceptance of a lie mark the fallen churches as Babylon, and the already-working mystery of lawlessness is bound up with that fall and with the corruption that comes from refusing God's messages. Lawlessness was already at work while a restraining power still held back its full development, until that restraint should be removed. That refusal of the messages sent to them is what brings the churches into the condition called Babylon.
The same working gives warning to guard the young and to keep publishing houses clear of Romanism and other satanic theories, delusions, and polluting principles that deceive, oppose the truth, and pollute the minds of all who meet them. Hypnotism, Spiritualism, Romanism, and other deceptive teachings are mysteries of iniquity that must be kept out because they undermine faith in Scripture and spread spiritual error. To publish such teachings and place them before workers, especially young people, helps Satan use them against the truth and prepare a snare to catch souls, and it is unfaithful stewardship before God.
Mysteries of iniquity are at work in other churches, not even excepting the Roman Catholic Church, so great guardedness and caution are required in dealing with them. Ministers must not follow impulse in denouncing and exposing them with personal thrusts and careless words, for on these themes silence is eloquence. Many in the different denominations are deceived yet can still be reached, and a thrust may do much harm and no good and quench conviction in many minds. The right course is to be careful in words, to speak the truth in tones and words of love, to exalt Christ Jesus, to keep to the affirmative of truth, to stay in the straight path marked out, and to let the Word of God, which is the truth, tell the story of the inconsistency of those in error.
Though the conflict with Satan, his angels, and evil men may appear to end in their victory, the days of apostasy will end, those who believed a lie will be defeated, and truth and righteousness will triumph.