The Restrainer

What Happens When God Stops Restraining The Evil In Our World?

Dean Dwyer

 In speaking of the day when the man of sin would be revealed, the Apostle Paul was inspired to write this in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8: “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.” 

When will he be revealed?  2 Thessalonians 2:6: “And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.”  Notice that in the Greek, the word used for “time” is “kairos”.  This means that God has appointed a fixed and definite time for the revelation to occur.  But until that time, as the passages in 2 Thessalonians reveal, there is a restrainer that is holding back evil.  From this, two things are evident.  Number one, God (in His sovereignty) determined to have a restrainer who restrains the spirit of lawlessness from rising to its ultimate expression in the Antichrist.  Number two, God will (in His sovereignty) cause that restraint to end at the appointed time by removing the restrainer. 

So, the question is, who or what is this restrainer?

In 2 Thessalonians 2:6, Paul uses a neuter expression for the power doing the restraining but in verse 7, he uses the masculine gender with a masculine article.  What does that mean?  It means that a person, not simply an impersonal force, is directly involved in the restraining.  So, who is this restrainer? 

 Though there is disagreement amongst commentators, it is my contention that Paul is referring to the Holy Spirit.  Dr Ron Rhodes writes: “And while the Holy Spirit presently abides in the church in a special way to restrain sin, this work of the Holy Spirit will be removed at the rapture, and the antichrist will be revealed.”   As David said in Psalm 139:7: “Where can I go from Your Spirit?  Or where can I flee from Your presence?” It simply means His ministry of holding back evil will cease.

For now, we continue to wait for that trumpet sound, knowing that the Antichrist’s time will not come until after the rapture takes place.  As Dr Andy Woods writes: “Because the Holy Spirit permanently indwells all believers, it would be impossible for God to remove the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit from the earth without simultaneously removing the believers whom the Holy Spirit permanently indwells from the earth.”  To us, that day will be glorious.  To the world, that day will begin a period of time in which evil will be unleashed on a scale never before seen.