he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.
During his rise to power the man of lawlessness will be empowered by Satan to perform miracles. In this way he will deceive people who, having deliberately rejected God and chosen evil, give him their support and so fall under God’s judgment. God will use the unrestrained work of Satan as a means of punishing a rebellious world (9-12).