ProlepsisOpen in the graph →

Step still to come (one reading among others)

Mystery of lawlessness already at work

The apostle Paul writing, artist’s impression by Rembrandt (c. 1630). An image of the author of 2 Thess, not of the “mystery of lawlessness”, which cannot be depicted.
Artist’s impression The apostle Paul writing, artist’s impression by Rembrandt (c. 1630). An image of the author of 2 Thess, not of the “mystery of lawlessness”, which cannot be depicted. — Rembrandt (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg), Wikimedia Commons · Domaine public

? Not yet happened, no date

See the full entry: sources, objections, answers

In short

The announcement. The apostle Paul, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, writes that the “mystery of lawlessness”, a force of evil, “already works”. The first letter of John likewise says that the spirit of the Antichrist “is in the world already”.

What happened. This has not happened yet in its entirety. The text describes a diffuse influence, already present in the time of Paul and John, which is to culminate later in a specific figure.

What is still debated. values distant from the Bible are not enough to say that the final phase has begun, and moral disagreement, the decline of religion, discrimination and violent persecution are four different things.

Main objection (in French for now)

L’existence de normes culturelles non bibliques ne prouve pas que la Bête soit officiellement entrée dans ses 42 mois : le système peut précéder l’homme qui l’incarne.

The text (World English Bible)

For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way.

2 Thess 2:7

and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already.

1 John 4:3