It would be amis to jump to conclusions when a man of lawlessness appears, full of boasting against God, and blaspheming. It is important to realise that there are forces at work which manifest in such leaders from time to time. It is all about the spirit of lawlessness at work, rather than any one particular ruler. In a few decades to come one such manifestation will indeed, prophecy tells us, be the sign of the last kingdom of worldliness starting its short global domination, shortly to be curtailed by Christ Jesus returning with his saints. I believe the rule of the final man of lawlessness will be a far graver time, and more insidious kingdom, than what we are seeing today. But at least the prophecies about it show us how to understand the present time, and the forces already at work leading up to that time.
