I've always understood "see" in the verse to mean "enter into' or 'approach' either way, I don't think any of us get to actually see it until God knows the truth of our faith and then it gets down to when the time is right FOR HIM to reveal it.
Works etc. will have no bearing on His will.
So simple a statement, and yet amazingly profound; for you just summed up 2 Thessalonians 2 perfectly.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means:for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work:only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming
This isn't speaking of a rapture event, this is speaking of being born again. It is each of us who is a man of sin, the son that is going into perdition, and we exalt ourselves above the throne of God by thinking that our own righteousness and our own works and obedience to the Law might garner the Lords favor, or that by our righteousness we may add unto to the Lord's. It is that man of sin that is destroyed with the brightness of his coming; for through the death of Christ we are dead to the law of sin, and yet are made alive in the resurrection of Christ. Made alive to walk by faith in the image of Christ in the kingdom of our Lord.
Many do err when they read into these versus the Antichrist, or Satan as the one sitting in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. But quite the contrary, it is Satan who wants YOU to exalt yourself above all that is called God. This has been declared to you from the beginning: Two ways were set before you, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. The Tree of Life by way of Faith, and the tree of knowledge by the way of obedience; and the serpent who deceived Eve saying you shall not die, you shall be as God's knowing good and evil. The serpent has only sought for you to continue partaking of the tree of knowledge, so that you would sit in the temple of God, showing yourself that you are God, judging good and evil. The bible for many is become to them a tree of knowledge, a tree to make one wise, whose only end is death.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but if you seek a closer relationship with the Lord, then put away your bible. If your relationship with God is defined by or is dependent upon the bible, then you are not living by Faith. You already know the scripture, you've read the beatitudes a hundred times: set down your bibles and learn to trust in the Lord. And as
Paul1965 said: when the time is right for HIM to reveal it, you shall become born again, and then you will find in your scriptures an innumerable cloud of witnesses sharing with you their testimony.
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