Mysteries: The Mystery of Iniquity

NOTE: THE NOTES from this study are not in the bound notebook any longer where they were originally, there are only partial notes.  I am having to reconstruct of few of these studies from 2 or 3 years ago, and ask for your patience.  In the meantime,  please pray for those who are basically harrassing and stealing from this ministry:  it is unconscionable.

When we consider 'mysteries' we most often begin with the more eminent in Scripture: the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Mystery of the church or other of the mysteries known to most believers. Yet one of the less eminent, is a critical point for doctrine, though hardly discussed as doctrine apart from the notion of sin: The Mystery of Iniquity.

Second Thessalonians contains the one passage with the direct naming of this mystery:

2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [will let], until he be taken out of the way.

What is the mystery of iniquity? For 27 years I have stayed in the word of God, and like others, I equate it with ‘sin’: so often the iniquity mentioned has to do with some failing of Israel, or of individuals, so we tend to pass over the concept anduse it as a synonym for sin. Delving into the Word though, one finds a broader concept, a more detailed aspect of God dealing with man. Further, the general concept of Iniquity is mentioned in many shades, while the concept of the “Mystery of Iniquity” refers to a specific process, which begins early in the Scriptures, (Gen 15:16)

Gen 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites [is] not yet full.

It is interesting that the first mention of iniquity in the scriptures refers to:

1. A gentile nation, and

2. A process, that grows to fulfillment

Already, we see the weaving and wafting through God’s history with man, involving a mystery of a process which will grow over time, and which effects both Israel and the nations.

The last mention in the Scriptures, is Rev 18:5

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

which intertwines the mystery of iniquity coming to fulfillment, in the Mystery of Babylon, as ‘mystery Babylon’, the ‘great harlot’ which has devoured God’s world and saints, is judged. Nations of a false god(s) seem to provide a root for the growth of iniquity.

The direct mention though, to the Mystery of Iniquity is mentioned in 2 Thessalonians by Paul, thusly:

2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [will let], until he be taken out of the way.

This hidden process of iniquity, which flowers and blooms into a world system which poisons and taints all world systems and individuals, is held in check by some restricting act ,process or policy, which is normally taken to refer to the power of the Holy Spirit in limiting the degree to which evil can grow, to which iniquity can go in its destructive and entropic force, as long as the Holy Spirit and the saved of the earth are still on earth.

At some point, most consider, that the great evil attendant since the Garden of Eden which has grown steadily, is still at the outside reaches limited by some unseen bounds. When the ‘mystery of Iniquity goes too far, there appears to be a point of quenching and grieving the Holy Spirit that is so great, that the limit is removed. It could be that the Holy Spirit turns away; it could be that the Word of God is finally removed entirely from the earth, though for now the exact way the scriptures are fulfilled is unseen.