I agree with David Chilton on that from his book Paradise Restored: "As we have already seen, the Caesars were gods. Each emperor was called Augustus or Sebastos, meaning One to be worshiped; they also took on the name divus (god) and even Deus and Theos (God). Many temples were erected to them throughout the Empire, especially, as we have seen, in Asia Minor. The Roman Caesars received honor belonging only to the one true God; Nero commanded absolute obedience, and even had an image of himself built, 120 feet high. For this reason, Paul called Caesar "the man of sin"; he was, Paul said, "the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God" (2 Thess. 2:3-4)." https://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/docs/pdf/paradise_restored.pdf
But it says he takes his seat in the Temple “of God” - that’s a very specific temple lol so yeah if Caesar’s set up temples and call themselves gods that’s fine- but this guy is gonna do it in gods temple, the church.
And he will be revealed after the Great Apostasy and Christ will destroy him at his coming w the breath of his mouth.
Caesar may be a type or shadow, of the spirit of Antichrist, heck later on the bishop of Rome/pope became one for Luther
This isn't an easy text, that's for sure. Some would say that your assertion that the "temple" mentioned here is the church is unfounded. They would say that Paul is talking about a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. I don't believe that's the case, but is Paul talking about the 1st century physical temple, the "temple" of the church, or a future rebuilt temple? I would say he's talking about the temple that was standing then in the 1st century.
This is an interesting view from the article I linked: https://prophecycourse.org/session/more/man-of-sin/
"The man of sin is John of Gischala, a Jewish robber-baron turned Zealot leader. John fulfills Paul’s 2 Thessalonians 2 prophecy:
He was revealed during Israel’s Great Revolt, prior to the nation’s day of the Lord judgment in 70 AD.
He threw off the Mosaic Law, fueling a crime wave, famine and civil war throughout Jerusalem.
He positioned himself over all Israel as a despotic ruler, both symbolically and literally “taking his seat in the Temple of God,” exalting himself even over the Temple objects of worship.
He was “reduced to nothing” at the Lord’s coming in judgment over Israel by the hand of Rome.
A final word from Josephus:
“Yet did John [of Gischala] demonstrate by his actions that these Sicarii [of Masada] were more moderate than he was himself, for he not only slew all such as gave him good counsel to do what was right, but treated them worst of all, as the most bitter enemies that he had among all the Citizens; nay, he filled his entire country with ten thousand instances of wickedness, such as a man who was already hardened sufficiently in his impiety towards God would naturally do; for the food was unlawful that was set upon his table, and he rejected those purifications that the law of his country had ordained; so that it was no longer a wonder if he, who was so mad in his impiety towards God, did not observe any rules of gentleness and common affection towards men.” (Wars 7.8.1.)
In this talk, we established a basic foundation for the timing of this prophecy, covered the four different views on the son of perdition, and finally, we zeroed in on Josephus’ picture of utter lawlessness in Jerusalem during the Great Revolt of Judea. I believe, as a first-century Jewish eyewitness, Josephus is absolutely one of the best sources we have outside the Bible for understanding the trouble of those days. I believe the man of lawlessness was John of Gischala and I believe the historical account given to us by Josephus makes this clear."
I’d love to see older sources-
How did the early church read this passage? How about church fathers?
Etc
