2 Thessalonians 2:8

And then When every prince and power that restrains is taken away; that wicked Ο ανομος, that lawless one, who boasts himself to be above all laws, and the infallible judge, dispensing with, and interpreting the laws of God, according to his pleasure. Nothing can be more plain than that this wicked or lawless one, and the man of sin, must be one and the same person: shall be revealed This revelation must mean that he would then no longer work secretly, but would openly show himself, possessing the character, and performing the actions ascribed to the man of sin. Whom the Lord shall consume The apostle does not mean that he should be consumed immediately after he was revealed; but, to comfort the Thessalonians, he no sooner mentions his revelation, than he foretels also his destruction, even before he describes his other qualifications; which qualifications should have been described first in order of time, but the apostle hastens to what was first and warmest in his thoughts and wishes. The word αναλωσει, here rendered to consume, Chandler observes, is used to denote a lingering, gradual consumption; being applied to the waste of time, to the dissipation of an estate, and the slow death of being eaten up of worms. He supposes it has the same meaning here, importing that the man of sin is to be gradually destroyed by the spirit Or breath rather, as it seems πνευμα should have been here translated; of Christ's mouth By which expression the preaching of true doctrine, and its efficacy in destroying the man of sin, are predicted. For the mouth being the instrument by which speech is formed of breath, or air from the lungs, the breath of his mouth is a proper figurative expression to denote the speaking or preaching of true doctrine. Accordingly, the preaching of the gospel is termed, (Revelation 19:15,) a sharp sword proceeding out of the mouth of Christ; and (Hos 6:5) God says, I have hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the word of my mouth. See also Isaiah 11:4. Or, the expression may include both the preaching of the gospel and the power of the Spirit accompanying it; and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming By clear, convincing reasons and arguments contained in the doctrine of those that shall speak or write by the Spirit of Christ, or by God's manifest judgments against him in the pouring out of the several vials, Revelation 16. The original expression, επιφανεια της παρουσιας αυτου, is, literally, the bright shining of his coming, and means that, as darkness is dispelled by the rising of the sun, so the mystery of iniquity shall be destroyed by the lustre with which Christ will cause the true doctrine of the gospel to shine. “If,” says Dr. Benson, “St. John and St. Paul have prophesied of the same corruptions, it should seem that the head of the apostacy will be destroyed by some signal judgment, after its influence or dominion hath, in a gradual manner, been destroyed by the force of truth.” According to Daniel, (Daniel 7:27,) after the little horn is consumed and destroyed, the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; a prediction which undoubtedly signifies the general conversion of both Gentiles and Jews to the Christian faith, and the universal reign of righteousness and peace through all the earth.