As Paul explains, the “day of the Lord” will not arrive until the “apostasy” occurs and the “man of lawlessness” is unveiled, the one who will seat himself “in the sanctuary of God.” The Apostle also labels him “the son of destruction,” but is there any additional significance to this second appellation?
In Paul’s letters,
the phrase “son of destruction” occurs only here. “Destruction”
translates the Greek noun apôleia, meaning “destruction, ruin, loss” - (Strong’s
- #G684).
The exact
same term is found on the lips of Jesus in the gospel of John where he
calls Judas Iscariot the “son of destruction.” Certainly, Judas is an
excellent model for the ultimate apostate. But other than his betrayal of
Christ, nothing in his life parallels the predicted activities of Paul’s “Lawlessness
One” – (John 17:12).
Another
possibility is that it refers to this man’s final fate when he is destroyed at the
“arrival” of Jesus. That possibility comports with Paul’s description of
his demise - “Whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of his mouth
and DESTROY with the brightness of his coming.”
However, in
verse 8, “destroy” translates a different Greek word, katargeô, which
more correctly means “disable, disarm, bring to nothing.” And the natural sense
of the genitive construction in the clause “son of destruction” is that
“destruction” characterizes this figure - “destruction” defines what he does.
IN DANIEL
Paul’s
scriptural source for the term is the book of Daniel, especially the
passage in its eleventh chapter describing an evil ruler of Greek descent - “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt
himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things
against the God of gods, and he shall prosper till the indignation be
accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done” – (Daniel
11:36).
This ruler
is featured in Daniel’s several visions where he is called variously the “little
horn,” the “king of fierce countenance,” and the “contemptible
person.” He originates from the “fourth beast” and “wages war
against the saints and prevailed over them,” though only for the time
allotted by the “Ancient of Days.”
This
creature’s “war” includes the desecration of the “sanctuary,” the
cessation of the daily burnt offering, and the erection of the “abomination
of desolation” in the “sanctuary” – (Daniel 7:21-25, 8:9-13, 8:23-26,
9:26-27, 11:30-36).
IN THE SANCTUARY
This background
explains Paul’s warning that the “Lawless One” will “take his seat in
the sanctuary.” Does he mean this man will enter a rebuilt physical temple
in Jerusalem? It is noteworthy that he uses the Greek term for the inner
sanctum or naos, the “holy of holies,” not the word for the
entire temple complex.
Nowhere else does Paul express any interest in the Jerusalem Temple or say anything about a future rebuilt temple. However, he does apply the same term, the “sanctuary of God,” metaphorically to the church.
And since
the topic in the present passage revolves around the “apostasy” of
believers, the context makes it more likely that Paul is referring to the unveiling
of this figure in the church - (1 Corinthians 6:19, 2 Corinthians 6:16,
Ephesians 2:21).
In the eighth chapter of Daniel, the
“little horn” is a “king” from one of the four Greek kingdoms
that succeeded the empire of Alexander the Great, the same “little horn”
that waged war against the “saints” in the seventh chapter - (Daniel 7:21,
8:8-13, 8:21-25).
The only historical figure that meets the
descriptions of Daniel’s visions is Antiochus IV, the ruler of the
Seleucid kingdom that persecuted the Jewish people for over three years (168
B.C. to 165 B.C.), the allotted “season, seasons, and part of a season.”
This king’s “war” included the corruption
of Jewish leaders, the banning of Jewish religious rites, the burning of the scriptures,
the cessation of the sacrificial rituals, and the erection of an altar to his
god, Zeus Olympias, on the altar of burnt offerings in Jerusalem, the “abomination
of desolation.”
According to
Daniel, this “king of fierce countenance… corrupted
the holy people… and magnified himself in his heart, and caused the destruction
of many.” In the Greek Septuagint version of the passage,
the term rendered “destruction” is the same one used by Paul for the “son
of destruction,” that is, apôleia. Most likely, considering the language
and context of the passage in Thessalonians, this is his source for the term
“son of destruction.”
Thus,
Paul employs Daniel’s “little horn” as the model for the final deceiver
who will deceive Christians with “all power and signs and lying wonders.”
Just
as the “little horn” caused many in Israel to fall, so this creature will
cause the destruction of many men and women in the church before his own demise
at the “arrival” of Jesus. He is, therefore, the “son of destruction.”