Church of God News

Who is the ‘Man of Sin’?

One of the most vital yet neglected prophecies in all of the Bible is found in 2 Thessalonians 2…

In verse 8, Paul revealed that the “lawless one”—who obviously has various religious teachings that in fact do not involve obedience to the Ten Commandments—will be revealed, “whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the workings of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (vv. 8-9). So no local “apostasy” in anychurch or small group of churches could possibly fulfill this awesome prophecy—and certainly not without the one who is in charge showing great power, signs and lying wonders.

For those of you who understand prophecy, it becomes obvious that this great “man of sin,” or “man of lawlessness,” ties in directly with the “second beast” of Revelation 13. For obviously describing the coming military/political leader of the final revival of the Roman Empire in Revelation 13:1-10, the Apostle John goes on to describe another “beast” who comes out of the earth and “he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon” (v. 11). So this man looks like the “lamb,” Jesus Christ. Yet His message is that of the “dragon” identified in Revelation 12:9 as Satan the Devil! This coming powerful religious leader “exercises” all of the authority of the first “beast” and causes the revived Roman Empire to persecute the true saints…the great false religious leader—the “ false prophet” (Meredith RC. LCG co-worker letter, April 17, 2013)

The above suggests that if one does not agree with the conclusion that the false prophet is the “man of sin” of 2 Thessalonians 2, then one does not understand prophecy. But is the man of sin the false prophet, the second beast of Revelation 13, or not?

On more than one occasion over the past 5 years, I sent Dr. Meredith detailed biblical information explaining why the man of sin was not the second beast of Revelation 13, and until I saw the above, I never really received a negative response from him (though he had previously published older information with a similar position).

Interestingly, in his The Falling Away sermon (recorded on June 1, 2012), Dr. Winnail taught that the Beast, the King of the North, may be the son of perdition in 2 Thessalonians 2.  But it now seems that Dr. Meredith has clearly taken another position.