Hi, Mike,
What truth is the apostasy talking about? Who is the man of sin/ lawlessness and the son of perdition? I must have been 5 yrs. off and on with these. please help, S____

Hi S____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask:
“What truth is the apostasy talking about? Who is the man of sin/ lawlessness and the son of perdition? I must have been 5 yrs. off and on with these.”
Apostasy is falling away from Truth. So apostasy has no Truth. It is mixed with Truth, but Truth mixed with error Isa 100% error. Truth mixed with a lie is a lie. There is but one Truth. That is why we are told of God’s apostate church:

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

When we read in Rev 1:

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Those with eyes to see and ears to hear will understand that this is a book that we are to keep and experience. That is how it is to primarily be understood. What eschatological end- time lessons are herein revealed are entirely secondary to the inward application of every word of this book:

Rev 22:6  And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Who is to “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book?” Seven times in the 2nd and 3rd chapters we are told by the seven angels to the seven churches that these words are intended for all with “ears to hear.” “These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show His servants the things which must shortly be done.”
This is chapter 22. This is the end of the book. And again we are told that it is “His servants” who are to “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” It is His servants in whom these “things must shortly be done.” It is a short work for the simple reason that the lives of all men are but “a vapor that appears for a moment and then vanishes away:”

Jas 4:14  Whereas ye know not what [ shall be] on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

So Christ spoke in parables to keep the multitudes from “understanding the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” Where are those mysteries to be lived out and experienced? Again, while it is true that there is eschatology, while it is true there is a timetable to God’s Work (read Prophetic Sequence of Events), that timetable is never to be the primary focus of Christ’s elect. Their primary focus is always on the Is part of Christ. What is past was ‘Is’ for those who have lived in the past. What is future will be ‘Is’ for those who will be living at that moment. That is why Christ emphasizes that He “Is, Was and Will Be.” Christ is all three of those facets of Himself. We must never leave out any one of those parts of who He is. Nevertheless, ‘Is’ is primary to knowing Christ. So why did Christ not want the multitudes to “understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God?”
Amazingly enough here again is the answer to where the “mysteries of the kingdom of God” are to be understood and lived:

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

So the parables of Christ, with all of their signs and symbols, just like the book of Revelation, are to be lived and experienced by God’s elect.
For most of my adult life I wondered why the Householder told the servants to let the wheat and tares grow together until the time of the harvest:

Matt13:24  Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is [“within you” – Luk 17:20] likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field [“the world within you and me – v. 38]:
Matt13:25  But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares [ false doctrines and lies within each of us] among the wheat[ God’s Truth withing each of us], and went his way.
Matt13:26  But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
Matt13:27  So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
Matt13:28  He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
Matt13:29  But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Matt13:30  Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

It is God who prepares our hearts to receive His Truth. He and He alone knows when “the time of harvest” has arrived in each of us. It is only at that time that the lies and the tares are “gathered first… to burn them.” Only when we can bear it are the tares burned out of our lives:

John16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, [ even] as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

But when He knows we are “able to bear it” he sends forth his “seven angels” to “gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them.”
It is at this point that we come to see the answer to your question:
Who is the man of sin/ lawlessness? son of perdition? I must have been 5 yrs. off and on with these.”
If you think that this “man of sin/ lawlessness/ son of perdition” is someone over in Europe like the whole world thinks, or some man who will come on the scene in the one generation just before the establishing of “God’s kingdom of the world,” then you do not know or believe that “the kingdom of God is within you;” you do not know or believe that you are to “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book,” and you do not know or believe that “these things must be done shortly… because the time is at hand.”
The “man of sin/ lawlessness/ perdition” who is sitting on the throne of God is Mike Vinson for Mike Vinson. He is you for you, and he is Adam in each and every man who has or will ever live.
“The sayings of the prophecy of this book” are not just the sayings of the book of Revelation. It is the sum of God’s Word which constitutes Truth.

Psa 119:160  The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.

So it is not just the book of Revelation which God’s elect are to live by. It is the whole of God’s Word :

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

It is not possible for the natural man to get his mind around the fact that every word of God must be lived in even His elect. Saul of Tarsus had to “breath out slaughter ” against God’s elect before he was brought to realize that He himself was the very elect he so hated. When did Saul of Tarsus become God’s elect? Here is the answer to that question:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called [ us] with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

So when you read this in 2Th 2:

2Th 2:1  Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2Th 2:2  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.
2Th 2:3  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;
2Th 2:4  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.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [ restrains Christ’ coming within] will let [ restrain], until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed [ within], whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit [ words – Joh 6:63] of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders [ in babes in Christ -1Co 1:1-7 and 3:1-4 and Heb.5:12-14],
2Th 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth [ That man “must live by every word of God” – Mt. 4:4; that Christ’s parables are all concerned with the mysteries of this inward kingdom Mt. 13:11; that the man of sin sits on the throne of God within His people], that they might be saved.

What Paul is telling these Thessalonians is that “the day of the Lord” will not come to any of us until we come to see the man of sin sitting within us on Christ’s throne “in the temple of God.” Paul’s definition of “the temple of God” did not vary from epistle to epistle:

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

2Co 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Where had Paul learned this? Paul, just like John, learned it “by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Paul knew that Christ had said that the kingdom of God was “within you.”

Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Gal 1:12  For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And so it is today. If we say anything within the revelation of Jesus Christ, it will always be in accord with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ:

1Ti 6:3  If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;

So where is this beast/ man of sin/ lawlessness/ son of perdition? He is sitting in the temple of God declaring that he is God. And while the natural man naturally looks without to see dispensational, escatological events in the world all around him, God’s elect have eyes to see and ears to hear what the scriptures say:

1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are .
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Rev 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Well, we all have ears, don’t we? Can’t everyone see that we are told to “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book?” The answer is absolutely not! The answer is that no one can see what is written in the prophecy of this book unless they are “given eyes to see and ears to hear.” The sad Truth is that the multitudes of Christians who come to Christ and hear His parables, are not given the eyes to see or ears to hear what the spirit is saying to the seven churches. Is it not right there in front of their physical eyes? Yes, it is. Can they not see it? No, they cannot. Christ was asked by His own apostles “Why do you speak to the multitudes in parables?” Here is Christ’s simple straight- forward answer:

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

But notice what Christ said to the multitudes just before He was asked this question by his apostles:

Mat 13:9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

“Why do you speak to the multitudes in parables?” Answer: “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”
That is a two- part answer. The reason for Christ teaching in parables Isa 1) “Because it is given unto you to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God…” It is through Christ’s parables that His elect understand “the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” But Christ goes on to tell us that there is also another reason for His parables: 2) “But to them [ the multitudes who come to Christ] it is not given… to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.”
There is the Truth. It is right there before the eyes of us all, and it is being read into the ears of the multitudes every time they read Mat 13. But can they see it? Absolutely not! Why cannot the multitudes of Christianity seen Christ’s plain statement that “it is not given to them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God?” Again the answer is plain and simple:

Rom 11:7  What then? Israel [ the average church goer] hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded
Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them [ the multitudes of Christianity] the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
Rom 11:9  And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:
Rom 11:10  Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.

“Their table” is their doctrines. One of their doctrines is that Christ is right now saving all who He intends to save. Nothing could be farther from the Truth. The Truth is what we just saw. Multitudes are being called to hear and believe on Christ, but very few are being chosen to “understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” The “few chosen” are God’s “very elect.” The Greek word for ‘chosen’ and ‘elect’ is the same word. It is the Greek word ‘eklectos.’

“Many are called [ kletos – 2822] few are chosen [ eklectos – 1588].”
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

The revelation of what God is doing is the story of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph was saved first. Then as the ruler of Egypt he was used to save his brothers, the rejected ‘seed of Abraham.” Here is the formula God is using to save all men:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

God’s elect are not saved to gloat over the suffering of their rejected brothers in Christ. Any who are elect will be made painfully aware that God is “working all things after the counsel of His own will.” Any who are of that blessed and holy few will know that they have nothing of which to glory in the flesh; they will know that “all things are of God.” If you have not yet done so, be sure to read After The Counsel of His Own Will.
I hope you now see clearly who is the beast; the man of sin, the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition. I hope you see clearly that while God charges us not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the fact is that the words “in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die,” shows us that God had intended “before the world began” for all mankind to indeed eat of that tree. The words had proceeded out of His mouth and man would live by these words and need a savior. I hope you see that every story in the word of God is a parable and that those parables are all concerned with the mysteries of “the kingdom of God within you.”
Mike