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E125: Who is the Restrainer in the Bible?
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Mark and Dave discuss a 2,000 year old mystery that Paul wrote about to the Thessalonians. He mentions someone who restrains evil until he is taken out of the way. Who are the possible candidates for this restrainer?
SHOW NOTES:
“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, 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 Thessalonians 2:3-4)
Verse 6-7: And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains WILL DO SO until he is taken out of the way.
So who or what is the Restrainer? Better yet….who would or could be the candidates first?
Institutional Church Governance?
The Government?
The Body of Christ?
The Holy Ghost?
Paul told the Thessalonians believers that a Force “withholdeth” the antichrist from being revealed. If that’s true, which of the forces mentioned earlier are capable of doing this?
I doubt the Institutional Church Governance is capable of that. The Government is definitely not qualified, as they are the workmanship of the antichrist…full of corruption, lies, grumblers, arrogant players, etc. So they can’t possibly be the FORCE for GOOD.
The Body of Christ…simply isn’t up to the task as I highlighted in Episode 123 Put me In Coach. I personally think God empowered us to play a more significant role…but we have fallen way short in my opinion.
Although the Greek doesn’t specifically state the identity of the restraining Force in this verse, it seems to suggest that Paul is referring to the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.
Think of it — what if the power of the Spirit of God was suddenly withdrawn or removed from the earth?
It would be only a brief matter of time before the devil quickly consummated his dream of world domination.
That’s why I think the Holy Spirit is the Great Restrainer, and He is holding back this evil from coming to pass in the world today.
The King James Version uses the word “withholdeth” to describe this restraining work of the Spirit. In Greek, it is the word katecho and carries the idea of holding something down or suppressing something.
It is clear that this is an evil so horrendous that it must be held down, held back, or suppressed lest it be loosed to release a wide range of wicked effects. The supernatural Force Paul refers to is stalling, delaying, and postponing the evil that is craving to be fully released and set into operation.
Peter tells us why the Spirit of God is stalling, delaying, and postponing this dreadful time at the end of the age. In Second Peter 3:9, he says that God is “…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God is holding back the ultimate day of evil to give unbelievers more time to come to Him in repentance. But a day is soon coming when the Great Restrainer will “…be taken out of the way” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).
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