Question
What is your understanding of II Thes 2:6-7. What do you think the “mystery of iniquity” is? Who is who and what is what?
Response
Briefly put, my understanding is that “the mystery of iniquity” is the designation that God gives to His formerly kept secret plan of the particular way that He would respond to the “iniquity” of the world when it reached its climax, at which time Satan legally earned the right to reveal his “man of sin.” The prophesied, expected, and scheduled response to iniquity’s climax was to be the commencement of the fifth and final installment to the Fifth Course of Punishment in God’s program with Israel and in His contention with the Adversary over the earth. And the opening phase to that fifth and final installment is the time during which Satan is legally able to exercise his earned right to reveal his “man of sin” and to put him on display to his earthly usurped possession. However, God did not respond to iniquity’s climax with what was prophesied, or expected, or with what was scheduled. Instead He responded with “the mystery of iniquity.” He responded to iniquity with the unveiling of a secret that He had kept. At the very point of iniquity’s climax God responded by suspending His program with Israel along with His contention with the Adversary over the earth. And having done so, (and in the face of iniquity’s climax). God unveiled “the mystery of iniquity.” By His grace God began creating His own godly man, the “one new man,” the church the body of Christ and putting him on display on the stage of this world and its iniquity. And God is now putting him on display to the praise of the glory of His grace and to the fruits thereof, before He permits Satan to proceed with his earned right to reveal his “man of sin” and so put him on display to this world.
This “mystery of iniquity” is what “doth already work”, and as such it legally “withholdeth” the “man of sin” from being “revealed in his time”. Satan cannot exercise his legal right to reveal his “man of sin” for as long as God’s “mystery of iniquity” is in effect. By the nature of the “mystery of iniquity” and its legal consequences in God’s overall contention with the Adversary, the accomplishment of what it provides for holds just and legal precedence over Satan’s earned right to reveal his “man of sin” on the earth and to the world. Hence “the mystery of iniquity” not only “withholdeth” the “man of sin” from being “revealed in his time”, but “he who now letteth” (i.e. God’s own godly man, the “one new man,” who does now legally “let” and so owns the right to the stage of this world), “will let, until he be taken out of the way.” God’s “one new man,” the church the body of Christ legally does have the right to now be on the stage of this world, so to speak.
And “until he be taken out of the way” (which God will accomplish “by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him”), that right will not be legally relinquished. But when “he be taken out of the way”, “then shall that Wicked be revealed”. Satan’s legal right regarding his “man of sin” will then be able to be exercised, and he will exercise it.
This is the gist of my understanding, for what it is worth.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
20021030 B42 DG