5 I told you when I was with you that all this would happen. Do you not remember?
6 And you know what is stopping that Man of Evil now. He is being stopped now so that he will appear at the right time.
7 The secret power of evil is already working in the world now. But there is one who is stopping that power. And he will continue to stop it until he is taken out of the way.
8 Then that Man of Evil will appear. And the Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath that comes from his mouth and will destroy him with the glory of his coming.
9 The Man of Evil will come by the power of Satan. He will have great power, and he will do many different false miracles, signs, and wonders.
10 He will use every kind of evil to trick those who are lost. They are lost because they refused to love the truth. (If they loved the truth, they would be saved.)
11 But they refused to love the truth; so God sends them something powerful that leads them away from the truth. He sends them that power so they will believe something that is not true.