B.J.
Puritan Board Freshman
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.
This passage always comes up in eschatological conversations. Especially if your a Partial Preterist which I am. Most times people through up to me the fact that this is a future event. I often have subscribed to the Gentrian interpretation that the Man of Lawlessness, and the Beast of Revelation are the same person, Nero.
Quick to attack me are my Idealist brothers who claim that Nero never set himself up in the Temple of God, claiming to be God. For a while it stumped me until today. My question for Idealist, or anyone who does not think it is Nero, or a first century person is this....."Who, rather What, is the New Testament Temple of God?
My answer:
2 Corinthians 6:16 states...What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,and I will be their God,and they shall be my people.
Also,
1 Corinthians 3:16 - 17 states...16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
As well as....
Ephesians 2: 19-22 states....19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
I would like to submit that Nero did do such an act to the NT Temple of God. Furthermore, if this is a future event there must be a rebuilt Temple of some sort so that this Man of Lawlessness Can preform the act of setting himself up in the temple.