Who is "he who now restrains" in 2The 2,7? /
Anonymous 00, 2011-08-19
Table – The Great Tribulation – classified by events.
Will the Holy Spirit be taken out of the way before the
coming of the Antichrist? / Book W.J. Ouweneel, page 102)
Table – Sequence and Duration of Events in the Last Days.
Has he who restrains already been
taken out of the way? / Discourse 1133
Dear Mr. Horak, First of all I would like to thank you for your very thorough
website Immanuel.at. I have been reading your texts with astonishment for some months, but I
keep on forgetting my questions, because I have already found myself hooked on the next
interesting issue.
So I have now just decided to start by asking you a question about the following biblical
passage:
2 Thessalonians 2,7: 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.
You quote this passage, along with its context, in various articles. Only you do not discuss the
identity of "him who now restrains". If I remember correctly, this passage was an
indication, for Dave Hunt and others, that the Rapture has to take place before the Great
Tribulation. This because according to Dave Hunt (I think it was Dave Hunt) "he who now
restrains" is the Holy Spirit in the form of the congregation, which must first be taken out
of the way (raptured, in other words) before the Antichrist can take up his station in the
sanctuary of the Temple.
I read Dave Hunt’s book "The Occult Invasion" some years ago. If I were to try to find the
passage in his book, I would probably never get around to even making a start with the questions
I want to ask you. I am very greedy for biblical commentaries like yours, because it isn’t
often that you get things so well explained and substantiated. Perhaps actually the argument was
from Roger Liebi and not from Dave Hunt.
At the time, you see, I was looking for indications as
to whether the signs and wonders movement of today is one of the things leading us astray, or
whether it emanates from Jesus Christ. To this end I consulted many authors. Whoever it came
from, this argument calmed my fears, persuading me that I and my children would not have to
worry about the Great Tribulation.
So who, in your view, is "he who now restrains"?
It is surely the Antichrist who is being restrained by this person, or am I again failing to
understand this correctly?
I very much look forward to your answer, and hope that you will permit me to ask further
questions as well. My problem is that I try to take in a whole lot at speed, and after that am
no longer able to get my questions into any kind of order. And what is more, I can’t find the
points any longer that I was wanting to refer to. But I’m not an academic or theologian
either, and have never really done academic or analytical work.
At the time when I read Dave Hunt I was convinced by his argument about the Rapture coming before the Tribulation.
Another argument too has stuck in my mind right up to the present day ‒ that if they are doing
things like marrying and grinding and sleeping, these can hardly be times of affliction, it must
be a time of peace when the Rapture takes place, otherwise they wouldn’t be going on with
these normal activities.
If it were a time when Christians were being persecuted, then the
Christians would undoubtedly be in some kind of concentration camp already, they wouldn’t be
sleeping in a bed or grinding alongside non-Christians… Then too the fact that he comes like a
thief ‒ Dave Hunt thought this couldn’t be possible at a time when the Christians are
desperately longing for the Lord’s arrival, in view of their affliction. But perhaps he comes
like a thief only from the point of view of unbelievers?
(…) I’ve always been told ever since my conversion that the Lord Jesus could come back and
rapture us any day. There wouldn’t be any conditions still needing to be fulfilled. This is
also the doctrine taught by my Free Evangelical congregation.
This visitor prefers to remain anonymous.
Before I answer the visitor’s questions, I would like to briefly
explain a note that I recently received in order to better understand the
following. Advocates of pre-tribulationism (doctrine of pre-rapture), that is,
of the opinion that the rapture will take place before the great tribulation,
have expressed the following opinion.
One thinks that my argumentation below, with Rev 7,14, is absolutely correct,
but one is of the opinion that these are only the brothers and sisters of the
end-time church – i.e. exclusively the believers from the great tribulation. But
the great rest of the church of Christ therefore would still be raptured
before the Great Tribulation.
What these people fail to take into account is the fact that we have no
scriptural evidence for such a separate rapture, whereas the rapture of the
church at the Lord’s return is documented by prophecies Paul received from the
Son of God.
Since these relationships do not play an essential role in answering the
questions about the time of the rapture, they were not originally mentioned. In
order not to withhold these Pauline prophecies from the interested reader, they
have been inserted here afterwards.
Readers who are already familiar with this situation can use this
link to read on in the text with the answers to the
visitor’s questions.
Those who are Christ’s will be raised at His coming.
1Cor 15,20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits
of those who are asleep. 15,21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.
15,22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 15,23 But each in his own order:
Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, 15,24 then comes the end,
when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and
power. 1Cor 15,20-24;
Paul shows us here above, in 1Cor 15,20-24, the order of the various raisings. First Christ
was raised and ascended to the Father into heaven. At his subsequent Resurrection the Lord came (physically)
to life again and appeared to the Disciples on earth. This happened already, and we have enough convincing
reports about that in the Gospels.
The next raising is the raising "out of" the dead and will take place at the Return of the Lord.
When he comes, those who are Christ’s, will be raised.
Paul reports this event in two of his Epistles to us. He received a revelation from the Lord
in this matter, a "word of the Lord", as he says. And in this revelation he was told that those who
are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede the dead in Christ.
The dead in Christ will rise first and will be caught up together with those who are alive.
1The 4,15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are
alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 4,16 For the
Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of
God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 4,17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
1The 4,15-17;
And Paul confides this secret to the brothers and sisters also in his First Epistle to the
Corinthians. He specifies here that all of this will take place when the last trumpet sounds (that is to say
the seventh and last trumpet in the Revelation of John 11,15). Then the Lord will descend from heaven, and
first the dead, who died in Christ, will be raised. Then those who are still alive and remain will be caught
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, who obviously will be waiting on a cloud in
the air.
On the basis of the statements of Paul, above, in 1Cor 15,20-24 and 1The 4,15-17 as well as below, in 1Cor 15,50-55 – which – as has been proved – are speaking of the same event all three – we can now draw some
conclusions about the identity of those who will be caught up.
As Paul mentions the last trumpet as sign for the beginning of this event, we
have so far assumed that this is the time of the seventh trumpet. But on the
basis of more recent knowledge (Rev 7,14), at this time the raptured church
would already be in heaven in front of God’s throne.
Therefore the only alternative is that the "last trumpet" mentioned by Paul is
based on the trumpets of the angels, which the believers will gather on earth:
And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect.
Mt 24,29 "But immediately after the tribulation
of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
24,30 "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky,
and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.
24,31 "And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will
gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to
the other. Mt 24,29-31;
And the hint in 1The 4,17 "we who are alive and remain" adds to this impression that those who are alive
and will be caught up here, are those who survived the time of the antichristian persecutions.
It is said of the dead who are raised first here and then caught up together with those who are alive above,
in 1Cor 15,23 and 1The 4,16 that these dead are those "who are Christ’s" and "who died in
Christ".
The dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
1Cor 15,50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 15,51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we
will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 15,52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be
changed. 15,53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
15,54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on
immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "death is swallowed up in victory. 15,55
"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" 1Cor 15,50-55;
Here, in 1Cor 15,50-55, Paul makes it clear to us that we cannot enter into eternal life with
our fleshy, material body. The reason why this is important is because – as he prophesies – at the Return of
the Lord there will be faithful alive who will not die, but who are to be caught up. But those living will not
precede the "dead in Christ" at the Rapture. First those dead will be raised with a spiritual body
and will be "imperishable" (or "imputrefiable" as Luther translates in the German
version). Then, also those who are alive will be "clothed" with a spiritual body, and thus they will
be all immortal. So, their bodies will be like the body of the Lord Jesus right after he has been raised. And
then both groups will be caught up together, that is to say they will float on the clouds to the Lord Jesus in
the air and get into heaven.
NOTE: The Antichrist mentioned in this discourse always refers to the first,
the human Antichrist.
(See also Discourse 86: "The first and the second Antichrist.")
Thank you for your visit to Immanuel.at, your friendly remarks and your comments.
You are quite right in noticing that this biblical passage has been quite frequently referred to at
Immanuel.at, but without further explanation, in view of a lack of fresh insights on the subject. In
the interpretation of the passage 2The 2,1-12, this specific verse, 2The 2,7, has been a matter of
extreme controversy ever since the last century. In connection with your inquiry, however, and in
the light of a more recent understanding arrived at after some years of thought, I have come up with
a new point of view which not only succeeds in refuting the traditional and controversial
interpretation but also offers an explanation of the passage that is more in accordance with
Scripture. In the interest of a better overview, here is the biblical text:
The mystery of lawlessness will not be revealed until he who now restrains is taken out of the way.
2The 2,1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2,2 that you not be quickly shaken from your
composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect
that the Day of the LORD has come. 2,3 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, 2,4
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. 2,5 Do you not remember that while I was
still with you, I was telling you these things? 2,6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in
his time he will be revealed.
2,7 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. 2,8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay
with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 2,9 that is, the
one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false
wonders, 2,10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not
receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 2,11 For this reason God will send upon them a
deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 2,12 in order that they all may be
judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. 2The 2, 1-12;
In order to answer our visitor’s question as it relates to the verse 2The 2,7, we
must first of all have regard to the context of this scriptural passage. Paul is apparently writing
to the Thessalonians in response to a report that has reached him. He has learned of the spread of
rumors in Thessaloniki which assert that the Day of the Second Coming of the Lord, along with the
Rapture of the faithful, has already dawned. In view of the fact that these lying assertions had
even been backed up by reference to a supposed letter from Paul to the same effect, the Christian
faithful in Thessaloniki were understandably confused and anxious, seeing that the Rapture ‒
as they supposed ‒ had already happened and they had clearly not been raptured along with the
rest.
If we now look closely at the text, we can see that Paul is putting the brethren’s
minds at rest in confirming that this Day of the Second Coming of the Lord and the Rapture of the
faithful has not yet occurred. And to prove it, he now gives them an exact account of the sequence
of these events of the Last Days.
The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him.
2The 2,1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2,2 that you not be quickly shaken from your
composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect
that the Day of the LORD has come. 2The 2, 1- 2;
After warning the Thessalonians not to allow themselves to be led astray by any "messages"
of any kind, Paul demonstrates to them that this day cannot already be here, because it has to be
preceded by an unmistakable event that cannot possibly be overlooked: the apostasy (falling away
from God), otherwise known as the Great Tribulation, must come first, and at the same time the man
of lawlessness ‒ the Antichrist ‒ must be revealed.
For it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction;
2The 2,3 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,
2,4 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. 2The 2, 3- 4;
The day of the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Cor 1,4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God
which was given you in Christ Jesus, 1,5 that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech
and all knowledge, 1,6 even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, 1,7 so that you
are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1,8
who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1,9 God
is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.1Cor
1, 4- 9;
So will the Son of Man be in His day.
Lk 17,24 "For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one
part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.
Lk 17,24;
So first of all the Antichrist and the Great Tribulation must come, before the Lord
returns for the Rapture of the faithful. This is an unambiguous demonstration, then, that there is
no such thing as a Rapture before the Great Tribulation (as taught by the Pretribulationists)
‒ on the contrary, the Great Tribulation must be undergone by the congregation of Christ. Our
Lord, too, reveals to us the very same sequence of events, in his discourse on the Last Days in Mt
24 and 25:
After the "tribulation of those days" they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of the sky.
Mt 24,29 "But immediately after the tribulation of those days
the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the
sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 24,30 "And then the sign of the Son of Man
will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the
Son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 24,31 "And He
will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect
from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. Mt 24,29-31;
As the above text ‒ "They will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of
the sky" ‒ tells us, this again is a prophecy of the Second Coming of the Lord. And the
promise that follows ‒ "And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will
gather together His elect" ‒ confirms that we here have to do with the Second Coming of the
Lord for the Rapture of the faithful.
And the Lord now tells us in Mt 24,29 that he will come immediately after the
tribulation of those days" ‒ in other words, after the judgments of the 5 seals in
Rev 6,1-11. For attentive readers of the Bible, then, there could not be a better
demonstration of the fact that the Second Coming of the Lord and the Rapture happen
after the tribulation of those days – and not before.
(See also Discourse 106: "The
false teachings in the Christian congregations.")
So it is irresponsible of some preachers in Christian congregations that they lead
the brethren astray, because they are too complacent to study the Bible themselves (I wouldn’t
like to impute the deliberate intent to deceive), by simply parroting the hot air they have been
served up with by other preachers for the better part of the past century.
The great danger here is of course that the Antichrist (the Greek prefix anti can mean both "against"
and "instead of") will come as the "instead-of Christ". He will claim to be the real Christ
and the real Messiah, and will abuse our Lord Jesus Christ as an impostor and blasphemer, just as
the Jews have already been doing for almost two millennia, ever since Caiaphas, their High Priest,
first pronounced this same judgment when condemning the Lord to death (Mt 26:63-66). And the
Antitrinitarians of today are already doing all they can to deny the divinity of our Lord and demote
him to the status of the human being "Yeshua", which of course the Antichrist will later be
happy to corroborate.
(See also Discourse 107: "The denial of the
Trinity, the false Catholic Trinity and the true biblical Trinity")
Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard
equality with God a thing to be grasped
Phil 2,5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ
Jesus, 2,6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a
thing to be grasped, 2,7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and
being made in the likeness of men. 2,8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 2,9 For this reason also, God highly
exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 2,10 so that at the name of
Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Phil 2,
5-10;
This is the Antichrist, who does not acknowledge Jesus Christ (in the form of God) as coming in the flesh..
2Jn 1,7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who
do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
1,8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a
full reward. 1,9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have
God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. 1,10 – If anyone comes
to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a
greeting; 1,11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. 2Jn 1, 7-11;
This is the antichrist, the one who denies that Jesus is the Son.
1Jn 2,22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the
Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 1Jn 2,22;
And then all those Christian brethren in the Free Evangelical and other Christian
congregations who have been taught by their preachers, as our visitor reveals in her above comments,
that "the Lord Jesus could come back and rapture us any day and that there wouldn’t be any
conditions still needing to be fulfilled", will hail this false Christ with joyful acclaim and
worship him as the Son of God. And so will the Jews, incidentally, who will welcome him as their
Messiah.
That is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders.
2The 2,7 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. 2,8 Then that lawless one will be
revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance
of His coming; 2,9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with
all power and signs and false wonders. 2The 2, 7- 9;
And just as false preachers today tell the brethren in the congregations that the
foundation of the State of Israel in the year 1948 was the "Gathering of Israel by God", so
transposing events which are only to happen at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom of our Lord
Jesus Christ into the present, perhaps here too the Antichrist will play fast and loose with time
and announce that the Rapture has been postponed, until he has got everything on earth "sorted".
And they will all believe him, because he will perform all kinds of signs and wonders and the whole
world will be amazed.
For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.
2The 2,9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity
of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 2,10 and with all the
deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth
so as to be saved. 2,11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so
that they will believe what is false, 2,12 in order that they all may be judged who did not
believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. 2The 2, 9-12;
Finally when we look more closely at this text from Paul, we find yet another
irrefutable indication that the Second Coming of the Lord, and so the Rapture as well, will only
take place after the beginning of the Great Tribulation. In verse 8 of the text under discussion, Paul prophesies
that the lawless one ‒ the Antichrist, that is ‒ will be annihilated by Jesus Christ
when he comes:
The lawless one whom the Lord will bring to an end, by the appearance of His coming;
2The 2,8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will
slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 2The 2,
8;
So if the Antichrist is to be removed by the Son of God, on the Second Coming of the
Lord for the Rapture, the Antichrist must surely have been ruling the world up to this point, which
means that the Great Tribulation must already have begun. And this gives us a further proof that
the beginning of the Great Tribulation and the Antichrist are to be assigned to a time before the Second Coming of
the Lord and the Rapture.
In view of all these biblical proofs, it would indeed be a kind of "deluding influence" ‒
to quote Paul’s words in the above passage ‒ to believe, and to preach, that "the Lord
Jesus could come back and rapture us any day. There wouldn’t be any conditions still needing to be
fulfilled", so preventing the faithful from knowing of the time of the Great Tribulation and
concealing from the brethren the coming of the Antichrist.
(See also Discourse 71: "Is
the next major event of world history for the faithful the Rapture?")
But on the assumption that the majority of preachers will not be deliberately
propagating false doctrine here, we would like to try to understand how it is that this point of
view has been able ‒ in spite of so many biblical counter-proofs ‒ to maintain itself
with such persistence, so that it has practically attained to worldwide acceptance. An example of
this, perhaps, is the argument our commentator quotes as coming from the American preacher and
author of many books Dave Hunt (if she really did find this teaching in his works). She
writes above:
(…) At the time when I read Dave Hunt I was convinced by his argument
about the Rapture coming before the Tribulation. Another argument too has stuck in my mind right up
to the present day ‒ that if they are doing things like marrying and grinding and sleeping,
these can hardly be times of affliction, it must be a time of peace when the Rapture takes place,
otherwise they wouldn’t be going on with these normal activities. If it were a time when
Christians were being persecuted, then the Christians would undoubtedly be in some kind of
concentration camp already, they wouldn’t be sleeping in a bed or grinding alongside
non-Christians…
Dave Hunt’s basing his argument, however, on the supposition "that if they are
doing things like marrying and grinding and sleeping, these can hardly be times of affliction, it
must be a time of peace" does actually seem a trifle surprising. Does the author really think that
people won’t be either eating or sleeping in the time of the Great Tribulation? And as he refers
to concentration camps ‒ even in the Nazi concentration camps people ate and slept, how could
it be otherwise? And they did even get married after all!
(The marriage
of Auschwitz / German)
But the basic error which Dave Hunt commits here is the error of all false interpretations:
they take a verse out of context and use it as the basis for constructing a whole story.
If Hunt had read – and above all quoted! – the statements made by our Lord in Lk 17,26-30,
just before this text (Lk 17,34-35) which he refers to, then his readers would not have any
problems about understanding the matter.
It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building;
Lk 17,26 "And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it
will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 17,27 they were eating, they were drinking, they
were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and
the flood came and destroyed them all. 17,28 "It was the same as happened in the days
of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were
planting, they were building; 17,29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it
rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 17,30 "It will be just the
same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.
17,31 "On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the
house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the
field must not turn back. 17,32 "Remember Lot’s wife. 17,33 "Whoever
seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will
preserve it. 17,34 "I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one
will be taken and the other will be left. 17,35 "There will be two women
grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. 17,36
"Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left."
17,37 And answering they *said to Him, "Where, Lord?" And He
said to them, "Where the body is, there also the vultures will be
gathered."Lk 17,26-30;
For here the Lord says that at this time of the Rapture it will be the same
as it was in the time of Noah and in the time of Lot. And in both cases human beings had
fallen away from God so far that God was compelled to annihilate them – in the time of Noah
the whole of humanity but for eight persons, in the time of Lot all the inhabitants of Sodom
und Gomorrah and the other cities in the Jordan Valley.
And the very argument that Christians will be sharing a bed with unbelievers
in fact proves that these are times where you are not in a position to choose your bedfellow
‒ as was the case, indeed, in the concentration camps of the past. Why do we suppose
the Lord tells us, in Lk 21,12:
But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.
Lk 21,10 Then He continued by saying to them, "Nation will rise
against nation and kingdom against kingdom, 21,11 and there will be great earthquakes, and in
various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 21,12
"But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you,
delivering you to the synagogues(!) and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My
name’s sake. Lk 21,10-12; (See also Mt 10:17-18)
Are these then "times of peace" for Christian believers? Or who are we suppose
these persecuted people to be? Jews perhaps? Hardly! For Christ’s name’s sake only Christians
will be hated and persecuted. And then the Lord also tells us: "Unless those days had been cut
short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short."
These "elect" must be the congregation of the Last Days in the Great Tribulation (Mt 24:22-31).
And the Lord tells them that when they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, they should straighten
up and lift up their heads, because their redemption is drawing near. This clearly must mean that up
to this point they have been hanging their heads in fear and desperation as they wait for the coming
of the Lord. So we can rest assured that these will not be "times of peace".
But when these things begin to take place, straighten up, because your redemption is drawing near
Lk 21,27 "Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with
power and great glory. 21,28 "But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and
lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." Lk 27,27-28;
(See also Table 19: "The persecution of the
Christians in the Last Days")
But these parables of the Lord in Lk 17:26-29,34-35 are above all designed to give
the disciples ‒ and the congregation of the Last Days ‒ more detailed information about
the sequence of events at the Rapture. The Second Coming of the Lord will happen suddenly, of
course, but at the same time it will be visible worldwide like the lightning which "when it
flashes out from one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky" (Lk 17:24). And this
will surprise the unbelievers in the same way as the contemporaries of Noah were surprised by the
Flood, and those of Lot by the annihilation of Sodom: they will just be carrying on with their
unbelieving lives, and will not be expecting anything of the kind to happen. As we can see from
this, there is no such thing as the "invisible Second Coming of the Lord", as some preachers
(especially American preachers) would have us believe!
And at the end of the Lord’s explanation, in Lk 17:37, the disciples then ask him, somewhat
confusedly, "Where, Lord?" ‒ in other words, where should they go to make sure they are
not left behind. The answer of the Lord now tells us two things. On the one hand it looks as if he
hasn’t registered their question at all. In fact, it sounds as if he is talking of something quite
different, when he says, "Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered." And yet
this was just the thing that the disciples ‒ and still more importantly, the faithful of the
Last Days ‒ needed to be told.
It seems as if, in saying this, the Lord meant to tell them, "Don’t suppose that you need to go
to any specific place. If God has numbered all your hairs and knows every sparrow on its rooftop,
don’t you think He will be able to distinguish you and your body from all other people? When I
come, I will send out my angels to gather those who are Mine. And just as the vultures know
instinctively where the body is to be found, so too the angels will know where they are to locate
the faithful."
(See also Discourse 12: "Must the congregation of
the Last Days seek out a place of refuge for the Rapture?")
The false doctrine of Pretribulationism (which postulates the Second Coming of the
Lord and the Rapture of the congregation occurring before the Great Tribulation) doubtless
originates with the complacency of some biblical commentators. This incorrect interpretation was
first posited, and then, sadly, adopted by many commentators, more or less without serious
examination. The principal reason for this, of course, is the shortage of time for biblical study.
But there is another, much more serious reason as well. Many biblical commentators are at the same
time authors and preachers, and get an appropriate emolument for their sermons, books, lectures,
courses and seminars. And of course it is a truism that you can sell more books and get more people
in your audience, more people attending your courses etc., if you tell them "good news". The
message that they may have to go through the Great Tribulation, on the other hand, is of course very
far from being "good news". And so, without any regard to the testimony of Scripture, people
have searched for arguments that would contradict this point of view.
This is actually the reason why Paul says we shouldn’t accept payment for our sermons, but should
work with our own hands ‒ as he himself did.
But we urge you, to attend to your own business and work with your hands, and not be in any need.
1The 4,9 Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for
anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 4,10 for indeed
you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren,
to excel still more, 4,11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to
your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, 4,12 so that you will
behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.1The 4, 9-12;
With labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you.
2The 3,7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our
example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, 3,8 nor did we eat
anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so
that we would not be a burden to any of you; 2The 3, 7- 8;
Paul was a tent maker by trade (Acts 18:3-5). And here he insists that such people
should follow his own example in earning a living by practicing their own worldly profession, so as
to avoid being a burden to the brethren in the congregations. If they exercise leadership functions,
or teach and give sermons in the congregation, they should do it free of charge. The view that "If
it doesn’t cost you, it isn’t worth anything" is of purely worldly origin, and testifies to
the stupidity of worldly people and to their inability to judge things in accordance with their
content and recognize their true value.
Among Christians, however, leaders, teachers and preachers are subject to the following simple
principle ‒ if they have received their knowledge from the Holy Spirit, they have received it
free of charge, and they should pass it on free of charge; but if their knowledge does not come from
the Holy Spirit, they should keep it to themselves, and not go on to inflict it on other brethren.
The attempt by biblical interpreters to "save" the congregation from undergoing the Great
Tribulation has then ‒ as is often the case with efforts of this kind ‒ floundered from
one mistaken theory to another. In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul writes of the "Wrath
of God":
For God has not destined us for wrath.
1The 5,9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for
obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 1The 5, 9;
And from this they now infer, perfectly correctly, that the faithful of the Last
Days will not be obliged to go through the "Day of the LORD and the Wrath of God". But then
‒ again in direct contradiction of the statements of Scripture ‒ they equate the
Day of the LORD and the Wrath of God with the Great Tribulation, and again we have an argument that is
incorrect in biblical terms, but which is nonetheless highly attractive in its appeal to the public,
to the effect that the Rapture should be relocated to a time before this "Wrath of God" and the
suppositious Great Tribulation.
In actual fact the "Tribulation of those days" and the "Day of the Wrath of God" are two entirely separate
episodes in the sequence of the Last Days. The Great Tribulation comprises the appearance of the
Antichrist in Rev 6:1-2 (1st seal), then the "Tribulation of those
days" with the associated
catastrophes in Rev 6:3-8 (2nd to 4th seals) and the Second Coming of the Lord
in Rev 6:12-14 (6th seal). The proof of this is the parallelism of the events of Mt 24
with those of Rev 6 and 7, and above all the statement in Rev 7,9-17, where the congregation of the
Last Days coming out of the Great Tribulation is seen by John as already being in heaven:
(See also Discourse 61: "Is the Great Tribulation
identical with the Day of the LORD and the Wrath of God?")
These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Rev 7,9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude
which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before
the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;
7,10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb." 7,11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the
elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped
God, 7,12 saying, "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and
might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen."
7,13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white
robes, who are they, and where have they come from?" 7,14 I said to him, "My lord, you
know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation,
and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 7,15 "For
this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and
He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.
7,16 "They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor
any heat; 7,17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them
to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes." Rev 7, 9-17;
These are people from all nations of the world, and following the Rapture they are
standing in heaven, before the throne of God. And one of the elders says of them, "These are the
ones who come out of the great tribulation". So if these people of all nations come out of the
Great Tribulation, it necessarily follows that prior to this they must have been in the Great
Tribulation, and so cannot have been raptured before the Great Tribulation occurred. This is another
biblical passage which the advocates of a Rapture before the Great Tribulation have either failed to
read or else have reinterpreted. And then they go on to write books and give sermons on the subject!
(See also: Discourse 862: "18 Arguments for Placing Rapture before the Great Tribulation – and their Refutation")
By contrast with the Day of the Wrath of God, with its trumpets and judgments of the
bowls, the "Tribulation of those days" ‒ the first four seals of Revelation ‒ does not appear to
include any judgments by God. Here it is rather a matter of those worldwide catastrophes which human
beings have brought on themselves through their greed for power and profit and their exploitation of
the planet. The struggle for the last remaining resources then plainly results in those wars in
which will rise "nation against nation", and "kingdom against kingdom" (Mt 24:7) and "men slay one
another" (Rev 6:4).
(See also: Discourse 05: "The parallel course of
events of Mt 24 and Rev 6 and 7.")
Following the Second Coming of the Lord, with the Rapture,
we find the Day of the LORD / Day of the Wrath of God starting in Rev 6:15-17 / Rev 8:1-6 (7th
seal). This includes the judgments of the trumpets and the bowls in Rev 8:7 and Rev 16:1, and comes
to an end with the 7th bowl of wrath (Rev 16:17). And Paul’s promise in 1The 5,8,
quoted earlier, that "God has not destined us for wrath" refers specifically to this Day of the
Wrath of God. This is not the appointed destiny of the faithful of the Last Days, because they
should have been raptured long before this, after the "Tribulation of those
days" and on the Second Coming of
the Lord.
The beginning of the birth pangs: The tribulation of those days – Seal #1: The man of lawlessness 6: Second coming of the Lord, rapture | |||||||
< 1st seal > (Rev 6:1-2;) White horse: rider has a bow. A crown is given to him, he goes out conquering and to conquer. |
< 2nd seal > (Rev 6:3-4;) Red horse: takes peace from the earth. A great sword is given to him, men slay one another |
< 3rd seal > (Rev 6:5-6;) Black horse: a pair of scales in his hand, wheat, and barley expensive but oil and wine not damaged. |
< 4th seal > (Rev 6:7-8;) Ashen horse: Death, and Hades follow. Authority over 1/4 of the earth, wild beasts, famine, pestilence |
< 5th seal > (Rev 6:9-11;) Underneath of the altar: martyrs call for judgment. They wear a white robe, rest until their brethren are killed too |
< 6th
seal > (Rev 6:12-17;) Great earthquake: sun is black, moon is like blood, stars fall, sky is rolled up, mountains, islands moved |
a6th sel |
< 7th> seal > (Rev 8:1-6;) Silence in heaven 1/2 hour Incense on the altar 7 angels with 7 trumpets thunder, sounds, lightning |
The day of the LORD: The two witnesses of God
prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days clothed in sackcloth (?) |
|||||||
< 1st trumpet > (Rev 8:7;) Hail, fire, mixed with blood 1/3 of the earth burned up 1/3 of the trees burned up all green grass burned up |
< 2nd trumpet > (Rev 8:8-9;) Mountain burning falls into sea, 1/3 of the sea blood 1/3 of sea-creatures died 1/3 of ships destroyed |
< 3rd trumpet > (Rev 8:10-11;) Torch-star from heaven 1/3 of rivers wormwood 1/3 of springs worm- wood, many men died. |
< 4th trumpet > (Rev 8:12-13;) Sun, moon, stars: 1/3 of them darkened for 1/3 of the day and 1/3 of the night |
< 5th trumpet / 1 woe
> (Rev 9:1-12;) Star with the key of the pit: smoke darkens the sun, locusts hurt only the men without the seal for 5 months. |
< 6th trumpet / 2 woe
> (Rev 9:13-21;) Angels from Euphrates: fire smoke and brimstone killed 1/3 of mankind, the rest of mankind did not repent. |
a6th trp |
< 7th trumpet / 3 woe
> (Rev 11:15-19;) World’s kingdom is God’s. God’s wrath has come. Time for judging the dead. Thunder, sounds, lightning |
The day of the wrath of God: The
dominion of the demonic Antichrist / Death of the 2 witnesses / The nations tread
Jerusalem under foot |
<a7th trp> |
||||||
< 1st bowl > (Rev 16:1-2;) Poured out on the earth: a loathsome, malignant sore on people who had the mark of the beast. |
< 2nd bowl > (Rev 16:3;) Poured out into the sea: becomes blood like that of a dead man, every living thing in the sea died. |
< 3rd bowl > (Rev 16:4-7;) Into rivers and springs: the waters became blood. They poured out blood of saints: they now have blood to drink |
< 4th bowl > (Rev 16:8-9;) Poured out upon the sun: men scorched with heath they blasphemed the name of God and did not repent. |
< 5th bowl > (Rev 16:10-11;) On the throne of beast: kingdom became darkened, men have pain blasphemed God and did not repent. |
< 6th bowl > (Rev 16:12;) On the river Euphrates: its water was dried up so the way is prepared for the kings from the east. |
a6th bwl |
< 7th bowl > (Rev 16:17-21;) Lightning, sounds, thunder great earthquake as never before, no islands, no mountains |
=========================================================================================================================== |
== |
<a7th bwl> =================== |
|||||
The returned Antichrist: death of the two
witnesses |
|||||||
a6th sel after 6th seal (Rev 7:1-17;) No harm to earth, sea trees, until the 144’000 are sealed. Those out of the Great Tribulation before the throne. The Lamb will guide them to springs of water of live God will wipe every tear from their eyes |
a6th trp after 6th trumpet (Rev 10:1-11; 11:1-14;) A mighty angel in a cloud. At the sound of the 7th trumpet the mystery of God is finished. There will be delay no longer. The two witnesses will be killed by the beast Earthquake in Jerusalem |
a7th trp after 7th trumpet (Rev 12:1-17; 13:1-18; 14:1-20; 15:1-8;) The woman and the dragon, the fall of Satan and his angels. The beast out of the sea overcomes the saints. Antichrist and false prophet: the dominion of the two beasts. The Lamb and the 144’000 standing on Mount Zion. Three angels: gospel, judgment has come, Babylon is fallen. Blessed who die Beginning of the judgment, the Son of Man reaps the earth. Those who had been victorious over the beast and its image sing Moses’ song The 7 angels with the 7 bowls of the wrath of God. No one was able to enter the temple until the 7 plagues were finished. |
a6th bwl after 6th bowl (Rev 16:13-16;) Satan, Antichrist and false prophet send spirits of demons performing signs to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war on the great Day of God to the place which is called Armageddon. |
a7th bwl
after 7th bowl (Rev 17:1-18; 18:1-24;) The fall of Babylon (Rev 19:1-21; 20:1-15;) Battle Armageddon Antichrist false prophet in lake of fire
Judgment, 1st Resurrection
Last fight, Last Judgment (Rev 21:1-27; 22:1-21;) The New Creation |
In the light of the understanding we have reached through the above analysis ‒
to the effect that the "Tribulation of those days" and the Day of the Wrath of God are two separate events in
the Great Tribulation and especially in view of the biblical fact that the Second Coming of the Lord and
the Rapture of the congregation will only take place after the "Tribulation of
those days" ‒ we can now turn to the interpretation of the difficult passage in 2The 2,5-7. Here once again is the text of
these verses:
The mystery of lawlessness will only be revealed if he who now restrains is taken out of the way.
2The 2,5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I
was telling you these things?
2,6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.
2,7 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. 2The 2, 5- 7;
Paul has not expressed himself very clearly at this point, nor has he made it
entirely plain what he is getting at. The reason for this may be, first of all, that Paul had
already explained all these connections to the Thessalonians when he was with them in person, as he
mentions in verse 5. On the other hand it might be the case that Paul did not think a detailed
description was actually needed, as these statements were in any case self-explanatory ‒ as we
will see below.
Paul’s supposedly "veiled" account, however, now gives rise to the first of the two "standard
interpretations" of the passage ‒ that Paul deliberately avoided writing more openly because
in speaking of the restraining element, the "what" of verse 6 (referring to an object in Greek),
he meant to refer to the order of the Roman empire, the person who restrains (the "who" of verse
7) being the Roman emperor, and he wished to avoid getting into difficulties with the Roman
authorities. This interpretation, it must be said, involves "resurrecting" the Roman empire if
we are to explain its still being in existence in the Last Days.
But with a background of this sort Paul would obviously have had to assume that the Roman empire was
the "thing" and the Roman emperor the "person" restraining the man of lawlessness. What the
advocates of this interpretation seem to have overlooked, however, is the fact that both the Roman
empire and the Roman emperor clearly themselves have a Satanic background, and so could have no
interest in restraining the power structures of the Antichrist, or the Antichrist himself, in any
way.
On the contrary, if we look at world history over the last two thousand years, it is clear that the
rulers of this world ‒ from the Roman emperors down to Hitler in our own day ‒ have
always tried to bring about a world government of this sort. Thanks to the working of the Holy
Spirit, however, they haven’t been able to succeed so far.
(See also Discourse 1042: "Are all governments
of the world ordained by God?")
Verses 6 and 7 (of 2The 2, FH) state that there is still a "restraining
force" in the world today ‒ both a person ("he") and also a thing ("what"),
which restrain the full unfolding of evil (the apostasy of the faithful, the revelation of the
Antichrist). Various different suggestions have been advanced in response to the question what
is meant by this "restrainer". There is no point in discussing all these suggestions here.
In our view, there is only one explanation that can show the identity of the "what" of verse
6 and the "he" of verse 7. The first is the congregation and the second is the Holy Spirit,
who since the day of Pentecost has dwelt in the congregation as in a temple. When the temple is
removed from the earth, the Holy Spirit will no longer dwell in person on the earth either. The
congregation and the Holy Spirit who dwells in the congregation together add up to the only
conceivable force capable of restraining the full unfolding of evil, and which will then ‒
in the literal meaning of the text ‒ be "taken out of the way", will disappear from
the scene.
(W. J. Ouweneel, Das Buch der Offenbarung [The Book of Revelation], CLV)
The second common interpretation, advocated by W. J. Ouweneel in the above passage,
assumes that the "restraining element" is the Christian congregation in the world, and "he who
restrains" is the Holy Spirit in Christian believers. People of this stamp argue that the
congregation, and with it the Holy Spirit, will be raptured before the Great Tribulation, so that
the Antichrist will no longer have any obstacles in his way.
In our earlier analysis, however, we have demonstrated that in actual fact the congregation is only
going to be raptured after the "Tribulation of those days". And as we will go on to show presently, based on
scriptural evidence, the Holy Spirit will not only be on earth during the "Tribulation
of those days" ‒ he will still be on earth for a long time after the Rapture at the Day of the
LORD. So W. J. Ouweneel’s interpretation quoted above, where he sees the congregation as "he who restrains"
and the Holy Spirit as "the restrainer", cannot possibly be correct.
Right away in the following verse, 2The 2,8, Paul does after all say that the Lord himself, on his
Second Coming for the Rapture, will "bring {the Antichrist} to an end through the appearance of
His coming". So at the same time he will bring the "Tribulation of those
days" to an end. It follows that the congregation will only be raptured at the end of the "Tribulation of those
days", being rescued in this way from the dominion of the Antichrist, and so that the congregation cannot exercise any kind of
restraining function, either in this time or thereafter (because they are then already
in heaven).
It is quite the reverse ‒ for when we look at the statements of the Lord about the Great
Tribulation we see that it is above all Christian believers who, under the dominion of the
Antichrist, are subjected to the worst afflictions
.
But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues;
Mt 10,17 "But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the
courts and scourge you in their synagogues; 10,18 and you will even be brought before governors
and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 10,19 "But when they hand
you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what
you are to say. 10,20 "For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father
who speaks in you. 10,21 "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and
children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 10,22 "You will be
hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. Mt
10,17-22;
For the sake of Christ they will be hated, persecuted, handed over to the courts and
scourged in the synagogues; and some of them will even be killed. And it is these Christians in the
Great Tribulation to whom the Lord says, in Mt 10,19-20, that they should not worry about what they
are to say in this situation. It will be the Holy Spirit who will speak through them and answer
their lying accusers. And that, now, is another proof that the Holy Spirit will still be present in
the Great Tribulation, with Christian believers and in their hearts. What kind of a "helper",
after all, would leave the faithful alone in their hour of extreme trial?
If the advocates of the theory focusing on the Roman empire and the Roman emperor base their
interpretation on the word "now" in 2The 2,7, because in the lifetime of Paul the Roman empire
ruled the known world, the same argument of course applies to the Holy Spirit. The Lord tells the
disciples:
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name.
Jn 14,26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to
you. Jn 14,26;
If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
Jn 16,7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that
I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him
to you. Jn 16, 7;
So after Jesus’ Ascension, the Holy Spirit came down to earth. Consequently, too,
he was already on earth in Paul’s lifetime, at the time of this second letter of Paul’s to the
Thessalonians. And if we consider the Holy Spirit, it seems a good deal more realistic that he
should restrain the full revelation of the lawless one, of the Antichrist. But seeing that we are no
longer held up by the false interpretation that would have the congregation raptured before the
Great Tribulation, it really looks as if the second part of the old "standard interpretation"
‒ according to which "he who restrains" in 2The 2,7 is the Holy Spirit ‒ could be
perfectly correct.
But who is the "what" in 2The 2,6, the thing that restrains? If we do not separate these
statements of Paul’s in 2The 2,6-7 in a high-handed way, it seems pretty clear that Paul is not
speaking of two different subjects at all. In both cases, plainly and simply, one and the same
person is meant ‒ that person being the Holy Spirit.
Here the "what" (also neuter in the original Greek! cf. Phil 2,13) means the working of the Holy
Spirit in human beings ‒ this is the thing that restrains: both in believers and in
unbelievers, in the latter case holding back the maturing of the seed of evil and the appearance of
the Antichrist, heralding the Great Tribulation, before the time appointed by God. And on the other
hand "he who restrains" points to the person of the Holy Spirit himself, with his effect as the
restraining element. If we now take another look at Paul’s statement here, this interpretation
seems very much more accurate ‒ also in respect of the logical connections involved.
The mystery of lawlessness will only be revealed if he who now restrains is taken out of the way.
2The 2,5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I
was telling you these things? 2,6 And you know what restrains him now (the work of the Holy Spirit in man/FH), so that in his time he will be revealed. 2,7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work;
only he who now restrains (the Holy Spirit/FH)
will do so until he is taken out of the way. 2,8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay
with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;
2,9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and
false wonders. 2The 2, 5- 9;
The Father will send you the Holy Spirit, who abides with you and will be in you.
Jn 14,15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 14,16
"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you
forever; 14,17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not
see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
Jn 14,15-17;
And seeing that the Holy Spirit is still on earth to the present day and will
continue to be so, as the Lord promises above, we are now in a position to answer the question why
the Antichrist is being restrained right up to the present, and until the start of the Great
Tribulation, without any problem. The Holy Spirit came down to earth at Pentecost, after the
Ascension of the Lord Jesus, and acts in the spirit of every human being ‒ working in the
spirit of the faithful for their sanctification, while in the spirit of the godless he restrains the
maturing of the seed of evil. When the time of the man of lawlessness / the Antichrist that has been
appointed by God arrives, the Holy Spirit, as the restraining element in the spirit of the godless,
will be removed, and lawlessness will be able to take its course without restraint.
A good example in our own times of the working of the Holy Spirit in human hearts was the Cuban
crisis of October 1962, when humanity stood on the brink of an atomic war. Because of the stationing
of Russian mid-range rockets on Cuba, the USA under President Kennedy and the Soviet Union under
Khrushchev found themselves in an exceptionally tense confrontation. Neither of them could be sure
that the other would not be the first to give the order for an atomic attack.
If in the last resort it proved possible to find a way out of this situation without annihilation on
a global scale, this was not to be ascribed to the "restraint and consideration" of the two
parties involved, as some historians claim. Khrushchev was a hothead, who had once been known, in
the course of negotiations, to take off his shoe and bang it on the table when his proposals were
not accepted. And although Khrushchev reserved to himself the right of giving the order to attack,
in those highly critical days a Russian general stationed on Cuba had just brought down an American
reconnaissance aircraft with a rocket.
Of course this was a big headache for Kennedy as well, as his trigger-happy generals kept asking
what more proof he needed that the Russians wanted to provoke a war. And as we know, Kennedy –
unlike Khrushchev – was not a b character, so there was a considerable risk that he might
have given way to the pressures of his general staff. Some of the more realistic of political
commentators have thus described the auspicious outcome of the confrontation as a "pure stroke of
luck".
In the light of the biblical passage we are analyzing here, however, we know that it was neither
restraint nor luck – it was the Holy Spirit working in the principal players who was responsible
for preventing the global annihilation of humanity. In the Last Days, perhaps half of the world’s
population will be annihilated in the catastrophes triggered by human beings themselves (the Great
Tribulation) and as a result of the judgments of God because of humanity’s refusal to repent (the
Day of the LORD). But this will only be at the time appointed by God for these events, and not
before.
As the Lord’s prophecies in Mt 10,17-22, quoted above, demonstrate, the congregation is not going
to be raptured before the Great Tribulation ‒ and still less is it the case that the Holy
Spirit is going to abandon the earth. On the contrary, both the congregation and the Holy Spirit
will be on earth during this time of affliction. Accordingly, the congregation of the Last Days will
only be raptured at the sixth seal, before the day of the wrath of God. The Holy Spirit, however, will continue to be on earth
after this, as we can see from the prophecies of Revelation.
We find in Rev 11,3-12 ‒ in other words, well after the Rapture in Rev 6:12-14 / Mt 24:29-31
‒ the prophecies of the two witnesses of God, who will prophesy for 1260 days in Jerusalem and
will have power to bring various plagues upon the earth and to kill anyone who tries to harm them.
But we would hardly suppose this to be possible without the working of the Holy Spirit in these two
witnesses.
These have the power to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.
Rev 11,3 "And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they
will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth." 11,4 These are the two
olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 11,5 And if anyone
wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to
harm them, he must be killed in this way. 11,6 These have the power to shut up the sky, so
that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to
turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.
11,7 When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war
with them, and overcome them and kill them. 11,8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the
great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 11,9
Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three
and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. 11,10 And those who
dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another,
because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. 11,11 But after the three and
a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great
fear fell upon those who were watching them. 11,12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying
to them, "Come up here." Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies
watched them. Rev 11, 3-12;
Since these two witnesses will be killed, at the end of their testimony, by the
second Antichrist ‒ now the demonic Antichrist raised by Satan (the beast from the sea) ‒ and
will lie for three and a half days on the streets of Jerusalem (Rev 11:3-8), we can draw the
conclusion that it is only with the raising of these two witnesses after three and a half days, and
their ascension to heaven (Rev 11:11-12), that the Holy Spirit too leaves the earth. At all events,
from the start of the immediately following judgments of the bowls (the bowls of the Wrath of God)
there is no further evidence in the Bible of the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit on earth,
whether indwelling in human beings or in any other way.
(See also Discourse 86: "The first and the second
Antichrist.")
Sequence and Duration of events in the Last DaysAn attempt at classification. |
Duration |
|
Sequence of events (References) |
Reference |
Time |
The Great Tribulation (Dan 9:27) The Tribulation of those days (Mt 24:29) The begin of the birth pangs (Mt 24:6-8) First seal: The first, human Antichrist (Rev 6:1-2) |
Dan 9:27
|
}
|
The denial of the Trinity, the false Catholic Trinity and
the true Biblical Trinity - Discourse 107