"THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY"

Dear Brother John, thanks for posting this article as it stirs up some interesting conversation. I agree with Dr. Sproul’s statement on the subject of “The Mystery of Iniquity”; “To this date, I have yet to find a satisfying explanation for what theologians call the mystery of iniquity.” However, he leaves us with the same dissatisfaction with his lame attempt to describe the “Mystery”. I have heard a multitude of preachers expounding on the subject but the Holy Spirit always raised a red flag, mostly because, most of them equate the Mystery of Iniquity to humanities innate disposition to commit sin. This explanation always came up short and forced me to prayerfully seek more revelation on such an important subject. I surmised that if the Mystery of Iniquity was already at work, as described in 2 Thessalonians 2:7, preparing the way for anti-Christ, then this was something we should be aware of. Thessalonians reveals to us that this resident evil will be the downfall of many unless they receive a greater power that is able to restrain the evil that is rotting their soul. To understand the Mystery of Iniquity we must go back to the beginning, before time began, into the heavenly throne room where the divine Godhead is having a planning session. Our Heavenly Father, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, YHWH asks His Son Jesus, “is there anything that you desire?” Jesus answers, “Oh Father, my desire is that I may have a bride?” Jesus asks Holy Spirit, “is there anything that you desire?” He answers, “Yes, I would like to have a dwelling place, a household, a home?” Holy Spirit turns and asks the Father, “Oh Father, is there anything that you would desire?” Father replied, “My desire is to have a family, a company of sons.” Father says, “We will create humans, in our image and after our likeness we will create him, out of one being all of our desires will be met.” Jesus said, “Yes, we will give him a free will so that he will have the power to choose to love us and become a part of our family, our household.” Holy Spirit said, “By giving him free will there is the possibility that he will choose another way.” Father said, “Yes, and if the man falls to his own will the laws of heaven will be broken and man will fall under the judgment.” worship God. This is YHWH God’s desire; that is for man to love him and to make the decision to become a part of His household, to become the dwelling place for the Holy Spirit and to become the Bride of Christ. We all know the story of the fall of mankind, when Adam chose to join Satan in the kingdom of the world, but why did he do it? That is the mystery of iniquity. Man was created to worship God, it is his innate nature to stand in the presence, face to face with his creator. The mystery of iniquity is when man’s innate desire to worship YHWH God is corrupted and he turns to something else, this is called idolatry. 1 Samuel 15:23 gives us the answer, “and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” Iniquity is idolatry. If you are not worshipping YHWH Creator God than you are worshipping something else! In the First Commandment in Exodus 20:2,3,4, “I am YHWH your God _ _ _ you shall have no other Gods before me. You shall not make unto yourself any graven image or any likeness_ _ _ you shall notbow down to them nor serve them. For I, YHWH your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me_ _ _.” In this verse He tells us that iniquity is idolatry. In Luke 4:6-8, the devil made a play to corrupt Jesus through the mystery of iniquity, “If you will worship before me, all will be yours. _ _ _ Jesus answered and said, ‘Get behind me Satan! For it is written, You shall worship YHWH your God and Him only you shall serve.” So to sum it all up, it is man’s innate desire to worship that is corrupted and leads him to worship the anti-christ. We can see the Mystery of Iniquity at work in the world creating the perfect conditions for the Man of Sin to make his appearance and the whole world will follow him.