THE LAWLESS ONE (Part 2)

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on March 27, 2019 under PM Bible Study |

PM Bible Study Group: March 27, 2019 from 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8

Theme: God keeps the activities of the Antichrist under restraint until His own appointed time.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

In our last study in 2 Thessalonians, we began considering Paul’s fascinating words to the Thessalonian believers, in Chapter 2, about the coming ‘man of sin’—that is, the Antichrist.

We stressed that Paul was writing these words in order to solve a specific problem. These Thessalonian Christians had fallen into a condition of distress and worry because of some false teaching on end-times matters that had been given to them. And so, in verses 1-3, we considered Paul’s beginning exhortation, “Let no one deceive you.” He told them;

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition … (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3).

Paul was wanting to correct the way that this false teaching had been affecting them. He did so by telling them the things that absolutely must precede the coming of the Day of the Lord. And since those things had not happened yet, they could be assured that the Day of the Lord had not yet come. And then, in verse 4, Paul goes on to explain the character of this ‘man of sin’; showing them that his appearance on the scene would be easily recognizable when it occurred. He said that he would be “the Son of perdition” or “destruction”;

who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (v. 4).

And then, Paul adds this remarkable note in verse 5;

Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? (v. 5).

In just a few weeks of time with them (see Acts 17:2), Paul had taught them a great deal of accurate ‘end-times’ theology; and he is here calling upon them to remember what he had said to them.

And in our last time together, we sought to—ourselves—learn the important lesson he was seeking to teach them: that we must be careful not to be thrown off in our own stability and devotion to the Lord by false or faulty teaching regarding the end times, or by human speculations about its timing. The Bible’s teaching about the end times is not intended to distress us or to distract us with fears. Rather, it is meant to give us a stability of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and in our glorious destiny in Him; and to keep us faithful, prayerful and watchful in the present.

But now, Paul goes on to teach his readers further about this ‘man of sin’. Building upon what we have learned from our previous time together, let’s go on now to consider what Paul has to tell us about the timing of the Antichrist’s coming. We’re not told, of course, specifically when he will come. And Paul was simply seeking to stress to the Thessalonians that the Day of the Lord had not yet come, because the appearance of the man of sin had not yet occurred. But we are told that when he comes, it will be in full accordance with the purposes and sovereign will of our heavenly Father. In verses 6-8, we’re shown that our God keeps the activities of the Antichrist under restraint until His own appointed time. He writes;

And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 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. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming (vv. 6-8).

These words would probably be best seen as ‘parenthetical’ to the structure of this passage. In other words, Paul, in verses 6-8, takes a brief ‘time-out’ to explain something important to us about the timing of God’s program; and then resumes his discussion of the career of ‘the lawless one’ in verses 9-12.

We should see these words as a part of God’s inspired call not to be disturbed, but to keep stable in our faith.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Note first what Paul tells us about …

1. THE LAWLESS ONE’S RESTRAINT (vv. 6-7).

In verse 6, Paul writes, “And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.” There has been a great deal of discussion about what this ‘restrainer’ is. And in all of our discussions of it, it’s important to remember that the Thessalonians knew who or what it is—but that we do not. The Holy Spirit, in guiding Paul to pen these words, saw fit to lead him to keep this knowledge clear to the Thessalonians in their time, but not to us in our time. We should not doubt the Holy Spirit’s wisdom in this. He had His reasons for leading Paul to keep things somewhat cryptic. Whatever or whoever the restrainer is, however, was ‘knowable’; because Paul could confidently say—at the time he wrote to these Thessalonian believers—that they ‘now’ knew.

It’s likely that they ‘now’ knew because of what he had said in verse 5; “Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?” They had been sufficiently informed on the matter. All that Paul had to say was the phrase ‘what is restraining’; and they knew his meaning. But what might this restrainer be that, according to the word that was used, was then currently ‘holding down’ the Antichrist from coming before his time?

There have been several suggestions—some of them human in nature. Some have suggested, for example, that ‘the restrainer’ was the Roman Empire—a mighty earthly kingdom that’s continued existence—in its form at that time—would stand in the way of the kingdom of the Antichrist becoming established. Some others have suggested that ‘the restrainer’ was a particular Roman emperor (perhaps Nero), whose ongoing life and continued reign—though ‘antichrist’ in nature—stood in the way of the true Antichrist’s appearance. (Some have even suggested that Paul spoke in veiled terms and called the emperor ‘the restrainer’ in order to avoid the trouble that would come upon him for mentioning his name clearly.) Still others—in a similar way—have suggested that ‘the restrainer’ was the then-existing Jewish nation; saying that Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 A.D. had to occur first before the Antichrist could come and strike a deceitful bargain with it at its restoration. These all, however, have a weakness in that they describe ‘human’ restrainers; and because the nature of the coming of the Antichrist is satanic, it seems that a far greater power of restraint would be required than human efforts or activities could offer.

Others have suggested a supernatural ‘restrainer’; and this seems like a more likely option. Of them, some have suggested Satan himself as ‘the restrainer’; saying that Satan is the one who—in an ongoing way—’restrains’ against and seeks to ‘hold down’ God’s program of redemption in this world; and that he will continue to do so until he is eventually taken out of the way. This however, while true, does not seem to fit the context of Paul’s purpose in this passage naturally; and would introduce an abrupt change of focus. Others still have suggested that ‘the restrainer’ is the Holy Spirit. And there are a couple of points in its favor. In verse 6, the definite article before the word ‘restraining one’ is put in the neuter gender; and this would be in accord with the neuter gender of the Greek word for ‘the Spirit’. The fact that the male definite article is used in verse 7 would indicate that the ‘restrainer’ is a person. Many who hold to this interpretation see the ‘restraining’ ministry of the Holy Spirit to be an argument for a per-tribulational rapture. They would argue that the church (in whom the Holy Spirit dwells) must first be removed from the earth before the Antichrist can appear; and so, in the rapture of the church, the divine ‘restrainer’ is literally taken out of the way. This, however, may be saying more than the text actually says; and the idea that the Holy Spirit (who is sovereign God) could be acted upon in such a way as to be ‘taken out of the way’ also causes some problems for this argument.

Another very interesting, ‘non-human’ argument is that ‘the restrainer’ is Michael the Archangel. In our previous discussion, we mentioned that many of Paul’s instructions from this passage appear to have been taken from the Book of Daniel—particularly with respect to what Daniel says in Chapter 11 about the coming Antichrist. Throughout the Book of Daniel, we’re told of how angelic forces, who are over nations, are in battle against one another—quite literally ‘restraining’ one another; and Michael himself was described to Daniel as the ‘prince’ who fights for the people of Israel against some of these forces (see Daniel 10:13; also 10:12-11:1). In Daniel 12:1; we’re told this with regard to the prophecy of the coming Antichrist;

“At that time Michael shall stand up,
The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people;
And there shall be a time of trouble,
Such as never was since there was a nation,
Even to that time.
And at that time your people shall be delivered,
Every one who is found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1).

The Hebrew word that is translated “stand up” in the phrase “Michael shall stand up” can be translated “stand still” or “cease moving”. (This same word is used in Joshua 10:13; where we’re told that the moon “stopped” in its course in the sky.) Perhaps the action of Michael ‘standing up’ or ‘stopping’ brings a temporary interruption of his protection of the people of Israel; and a time of unprecedented trouble then follows. This might suggest that Michael’s present protection of the nation of Israel is an act of ‘restraint’ against the Antichrist’s coming.

But again, this is only speculation since we are not told clearly who or what ‘the restrainer’ is. We have to hold all of these possible interpretations with a measure of caution. And we need to remember that the identity of the restrainer is not the main thing for us to note from this passage anyway. The important thing is that a ‘restraint’ is presently occurring according to the will of God; so that the Antichrist only appears in his proper time in the sovereign plan of God for the ages—and not one minute before! As the Bible teacher J. Sidlow Baxter once wrote; “Let us not be so occupied with the problem here that we lose sight of the tremendous fact which is disclosed, namely, that there is in this present age a restraint upon Satan. Thank God, the devil cannot do just as he likes: the strong man’s house has been spoiled by a Stronger! What this sin-cursed world would have been like by now if Jesus had not come, and if Satan were not so greatly restrained in consequence, imagination cannot picture” (J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book, Vol. 6, p. 227.)

Paul then goes on to tell us in verse 7, “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.” The principle of evil that will be the operational dynamic of the Antichrist in his time—that is, the ‘mystery of lawlessness’—is already active in the world. It is a ‘mystery’ only in the sense that it had been unknown to human minds until the time that God chose to reveal it. And He has—now in this age of grace through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ! As it says in 1 John 2:18-23

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also (1 John 2:18-23).

The Antichrist has not yet come. We are now only plagued with ‘many antichrists’ who deny that Jesus is the Son of God and who oppose the gospel. But their activity is limited because of restraint. When that ‘restraint’—whatever or whoever it is—is finally taken out of the way, then the devil’s Antichrist will bring this present ‘antichrist’ spirit into horrifying fullness.

But this will not happen one single minute before God so wills. And that leads us to consider, second …

2. THE LAWLESS ONE’S DESTINY (v. 8).

Paul wrote, “And then”; that is, when the restrainer is removed, “the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.” What a glorious hope!

The activities of the Antichrist will be horrifying—making them the most dreadful times this earth will ever have seen. As Paul goes on to tell us in verses 9-12;

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness (vv. 9-12).

We’re given some of the horrible details in Revelation 12 and 13. But we should note the end of this story. Revelation 19, tells us;

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:

KING OF KINGS AND
LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:11-16).

This is telling us of the victorious return of our Lord Jesus to this earth—right in the midst of the activities of this ‘man of sin’. The apostle John refers to the Antichrist as ‘the beast’; and is given further revelation about him at the Lord’s return:

And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh (vv. 19-21).

Thus, the activities of the devil’s ‘man’ on this earth is cut abruptly and permanently short.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Now; Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 2 may not tell us everything that we would want to know about the end times; and particularly about the Antichrist … and what it may be that restrains his appearance on this earth. But let’s be very sure that we get the main point. His coming is—as Paul tells us—“according to the working of Satan”; but the time of that coming and the outcome of his appearance are not under the control of Satan. Rather, that time is under the control of our sovereign God.

Let’s not be disturbed by these things; but instead, let’s remember the words of our Lord:

“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).

EA