And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
1 Tim 3:16
And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2 Thes 2:6-7
What is the Mystery of Iniquity?
The mystery of iniquity is Satan’s program of religious deception. It is the opposite of godliness. The mystery of iniquity is iniquity packaged as religion. Most churches today participate in that system. Satan always opposes what God is currently doing. God is forming the body of Christ today; Satan opposes it with religious form.
The mystery of iniquity is spiritual deception that does not look like iniquity to most people. Religion today is iniquity. The flesh loves religion (holy days, works, “I went to church so I must be right with God,” etc.). Confidence in a religious system rather than in Christ is spiritual idolatry.
Modern Bible versions and most commentators render 2 Thes 2:6-7 as “mystery of lawlessness” instead of “mystery of iniquity”. This is to be rejected as it is not anarchy or the absence of religion. It is iniquity in the form of religion – Satan’s counterfeit religious system that opposes God’s truth and replaces it. The mystery of iniquity is not open anarchy or the mere absence of Law. 2 Thes 2:6-7 is speaking to iniquity, not to “lawlessness.” One can think of Godliness as being justification; declaring the Body of Christ righteous. Counter to that is iniquity; sin and wickedness. Iniquity here means sin packaged as religion – a crooked, counterfeit system that looks spiritual while opposing the truth God is actually revealing in this age.
Satan uses the mystery of iniquity as his primary weapon against humanity because it does not look like a weapon. He does not need to empty the churches; he fills them with a form of godliness that denies the power thereof. True godliness comes from union with Christ. Satan’s counterfeit is a religious “form of godliness” that denies that power. Legalism, denominationalism, and popular ear-pleasing preaching are expressions of the mystery of iniquity. Satan works through seducing spirits and doctrines of devils inside professing Christianity. Legalism – putting believers back under the Law of Moses after they have begun in the Spirit – is one of Satan’s chief tools. So is the appeal to signs, wonders, and religious experiences detached from the message of grace. So is the substitution of denominational loyalty, liturgical calendars, and human teachers in place of the doctrine committed to the apostle Paul. The unsaved are kept from the gospel that saves today by a system that tells them they are already right with God if they attend, tithe, get water baptized, keep holy days, or perform. The saved are neutralized by the same system when they abandon the mystery of the faith for a mixed program of Law and grace.
The Mystery of Godliness and the Incarnation
God has already answered the mystery of iniquity with the mystery of godliness. 1 Timothy 3:16 is not first of all a statement about the incarnation:
[1 Tim 3:16 KJV] 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
The incarnation had been prophesied for centuries and was therefore not hidden … it was not mystery information given to Paul. 1 Tim 3:16 is describing the Church, the Body of Christ: God is now manifest in the flesh of the many members of Christ’s Body; they are justified in the Spirit; they are a spectacle to angels; the message is preached to the Gentiles; it is believed on in the world; and the age ends when that Body of Christ is received up into glory at the PreTrib Rapture. This was hidden wisdom that none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:8). God therefore formed a new man in which there is neither Jew nor Gentile, offered salvation to all by grace through faith alone, and postponed His prophesied wrath so that a long dispensation of grace might run its course. The same God who hid His mystery from Satan has openly told His people about Satan’s mystery so they need not be ignorant of his devices. Every element of 1 Timothy 3:16 has parallel language applied to the Church, the Body of Christ. The mystery of godliness is therefore “the great mystery concerning Christ and the Church.”
The History Behind the Mystery of Iniquity
When Christ worked visibly with signs, Satan worked with visible demonic activity. Today God works spiritually through His Word; therefore Satan works spiritually through deception and false doctrine, not primarily through the kind of possession and exorcism popularly imagined and portrayed through media.
2 Thes 2:7 states that this mystery “doth already work.” It is Satan’s answer to the mystery of godliness. Satan is a counterfeiter; he has produced an inferior, wicked counterpart to God’s mystery. Where God’s goal is that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, Satan’s goal is that all men be damned. The system therefore presents itself as worship, morality, and church life while substituting performance, tradition, another gospel, another Jesus, and another spirit for the finished work of Christ and the distinctive revelations given through the apostle Paul.
The mystery of iniquity did not begin in the first century A.D.. Cain approached God on the basis of his own works rather than the blood God required. The mystery of iniquity took organized form at Babel under Nimrod and has slithered through history in changing religious shapes – always opposing whatever God is doing at the time. It is therefore older than the Church and older than the New Testament. It was already operating when Paul wrote, which is why he could say it “doth already work.” Its full public manifestation, however, is reserved for Daniel’s 70th Week, after the Body of Christ is removed. Satan can hide nothing from God. God revealed the coming mystery of iniquity in advance so His people can be warned, both now and within Daniel’s 70th Week.
The Effects of the Mystery of Iniquity
The deception is extreme precisely because it is religious. Matthew 7 records people who prophesied, cast out demons, and did many wonderful works in Jesus’ name, only to hear, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Judas, the first “son of perdition,” performed the same works. Hymenaeus and Philetus did not deny the resurrection; they merely misplaced it, saying it was already past, and thereby overthrew the faith of some. A form of godliness that looks orthodox, uses the Bible, and speaks of Christ can still be the mystery of iniquity if it refuses the distinctive truths of this present age – the Body of Christ, justification by grace through faith without the works of the Law, and the believer’s completeness in Christ. The closer the counterfeit stands to the truth, the more dangerous it becomes. The average person living today, and many inside churches, cannot recognize it.
The Future of the Mystery of Iniquity
The mystery of iniquity is not first revealed through the apostle Paul; it aligns with prophetic Scripture and climaxes in the Tribulation period, Daniel’s 70th Week, but it is discussed specifically by Paul because it actively opposes the ministry of the Body of Christ today and it blinds people to the mystery of the Body of Christ. Where God manifests Himself in the flesh through the many members of the Body of Christ, Satan will ultimately manifest himself through the singular man of sin during the Great Tribulation.
The mystery of iniquity reaches its climax after the Rapture of the Church. “he who now letteth” is the presence of the Body of Christ and the dispensation of grace itself. Once that restraining presence is taken out of the way, the man of sin is revealed, first as a covenant-making ruler and then, after a death-and-revival sequence, as the son of perdition indwelt by the spirit from the bottomless pit. He sits in the temple showing himself as God, imposes the mark of the beast, and gathers the world into a one-world religious and economic system. The end of that mystery is not victory. Revelation 19:20 records that the beast and the false prophet are cast alive into the lake of fire; those who take the mark of the beast share the same fate, and Satan himself is later confined there. The mystery that began with religious self-will therefore terminates in open damnation during Daniel’s 70th Week.
The Believer’s Response
Stewards of the mysteries of God must understand both how God works and how Satan works; ignorance of the devil’s devices gives him an advantage.
An unsaved person avoids the mystery of iniquity the only way anyone is delivered from it: by receiving the love of the truth and believing the gospel of the grace of God … Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. The moment a sinner trusts that finished work, he is baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ, justified freely, and made complete in Him. No religious performance, mark, covenant, or holy day can add to that or substitute for it. Those who refuse the love of the truth are given a form of strong delusion found in the mystery of iniquity. The only safe ground within our current dispensation (Eph 3:2) is the gospel Paul preached.
A member of the Body of Christ battles the mystery of iniquity first by knowing what God is doing now and then by refusing every substitute. He holds the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. He rightly divides the word of truth so that he does not mix Israel’s prophetic program with the present mystery program. He preaches the Word, not gimmicks or itching-ear messages. He separates from vessels of dishonor – even those who name the name of Christ -when they teach another doctrine. He walks in the Spirit rather than placing himself back under the Law, knowing that the strength of sin is the Law and that the Spirit never leads a believer under the Law. He tests every spirit, every sign, and every religious system by the words given through the apostle Paul. Sound doctrine, not a form of godliness, is the power that actually produces the life of Christ in mortal flesh and is the solution to avoiding Satan’s mystery of inquity.
Conclusion
These two mysteries, godliness and iniquity, stand in direct opposition until the Pretrib Rapture of the Church, the Body of Christ. One produces millions of people in whom the life of Christ is manifested and who will appear with Him in glory. The other produces a religious system, followed by billions, that ends in a single man of sin and a lake of fire. The believer’s task is not to guess the name of the coming man of sin, to pick a date when the Rapture will occur, or to speculate as to the date that Daniel’s 70th Week will begin, but to stand in the mystery of godliness, to hold to the form of sound words, and to turn away from every form of godliness that denies its power. That is how the Church both enjoys what God has already done and withstands what Satan is still doing today.
