Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/81

 great apostasy:" and this apostasy is coupled with the revelation of "the Man of Sin," evidently showing that the two are identified together, and that the apostasy will be his work; in other words, that there was to be a religious system instituted by the Man of Sin for the purpose of superseding Christianity, and of inducing all men to apostatize from it. Further, the Apostle tells the Thessalonians that the Man of Sin, and the great apostasy he was to usher in, would not be manifested "until that, which now holdeth," or restraineth their appearance, "be taken way" or removed: and then, he concludes, "shall that wicked one be revealed."

At the same time St. Paul declares that "the mystery of iniquity already worketh," which agrees with the statement of the Evangelist St. John, "already are there many Antichrists," It is evident, therefore, that what St. Paul calls "the Apostasy," which he identifies with "the Man of Sin," and what St. John calls "Antichrist," was to be ushered in by the heresies that prevailed in the earliest periods, the connection of which with Mahometanism we have already shown. But St. Paul's prediction to the Thessalonians gives us many other marks by which this Man of Sin was to be known. Now the first of these is