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"What agreement can there be between the temple of God and idols? For we are the tem-
ple of the living God -- as God said, 'I will house myself in them,...and I will walk among
you. I will be their God, and they will be my people" (2 Corinthians 6:16).

"You have built on the foundation of the emissaries and the prophets, with the corner-
stone being Yeshua the Messiah himself. In union with him the whole building is held to-
gether, and it is growing into a holy temple in union with the Lord. Yes, in union with
him, you yourselves are being built together into a spiritual dwelling-place for God!"
Ephesians 2:20-22).

The location, then, in which this man of sin would seek to position himself would be, as
Barnes notes, "the Christian church" -- NOT the Temple in Jerusalem! To this he adds: "It is by no
means necessary to understand this of the temple at Jerusalem....The idea is that the Antichrist
would present himself in the midst of the CHURCH as claiming the honors due to God alone....The
authority claimed by the Pope of Rome, meets the full force of the language used here by the apos-
tle" (ibid., p. 1114).

The man of sin would "sit" in the temple of Yehovah "as God," -- implying he would claim
a place of rulership within the church. "Sit" (kathizo) implies a "seat" (kathedra), from which we
derive the word "Cathedral" -- the bishop's seat. When the Pope speaks "ex cathedra," he is speak-
ing from his seat officially, such pronouncements being considered infallible. Guinness says:
"There, in that exalted cathedral position, and claiming to represent God, the man of sin was to act
and abide as the pretended vicar, but the real antagonist, of Christ, undermining His authority,
abolishing His laws, and oppressing His people" (op. cit., p. 57).

The man of sin is further described as he that "will oppose himself to everything that peo-
ple call a god or make an object of worship; he will put himself above them all, so that he will sit
in the Temple of God and proclaim that he himself is God" (2 Thessalonians 2:4). We understand
from this description that the man of sin would exalt himself in great pride, would make great
claims, would magnify himself above all others.

Similar expressions are found throughout the Bible. The prince of Tyrus was represented
as saying: "I am a God, I sit in the seat of God" (Ezekiel 28:2). The king of Babylon, being lifted
up with pride, was represented as saying: "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God...I will be
like the most High" (Isaiah 14:4-15). Daniel spoke of one who "shall exalt himself, and magnify
himself above every god...for he shall magnify himself above all" (Daniel 11:36-37).

Expressions about leaders exalting themselves unto heaven, exalting themselves above
every god, sitting in the seat of Yehovah, being like the most High, etc., figuratively describe their
pride and arrogance. In the case of the man of sin, he would exalt himself above all others -- above
all others IN THE CHURCH! That is, he would not only claim to be "a" leader in the church -- he
would actually claim to be "THE" leader in the church. The man of sin would claim to be "as
God," exalting himself as head of the church -- a position that belongs only to the Lord himself --
"showing that he is God." There is no article before "God" here in the original Greek; the meaning
clearly is that the man of sin would claim Divine attributes. "This expression would not imply that
he actually claimed to be the true God," writes Barnes, "but only that he sits in the temple, and

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