Who Is the Restrainer in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7?

Who Is the Restrainer?
2 Thessalonians 2:6-7
An informed hypothesis by Dr Galen Currah
New Testament quotations from the English Standard Version (2016)
September 2018

In his second epistle to Christians in Thessalonica, Paul wrote about an evil world leader who was to appear:

“You know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.” 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7

Who and what are they that restrain “the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

In reply to this query, I posit the following presuppositions:

Presuppositions

● The apostle Paul drew insights from Jesus, from the Prophets, and from his own call to evangelize Gentiles.
● The New Testament of the Holy Bible often quotes from the Greek version of the Jewish Scriptures, which is called the Septuagint.
● The Hebrew prophets had predicted that many Gentiles, in the end time, would come to believe in the biblical God Yahweh.
● The early Christians taught that an evil world leader would arise in the end time, whom they called the Antichrist or the Man of Sin.

Let us now look at several lines of evidence.

JESUS

First, Jesus predicted his message would go to Gentile nations. Matthew 24:14

Jesus himself predicted a falling away. Matthew 24:5; 24:10; 24:11; Matthew 24:12; Luke 21:8

Jesus also predicted an evil leader. Matthew 24:15; 24:24

Jesus further predicted his own return. Matthew 24:30

Jesus promised to gather his followers. Matthew 24:30-31; Luke 21:36

THE PROPHETS

The prophets foresaw a mission to Gentile nations.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:1, Paul employed the very word (ἐπισυναγωγή, episunagogé) for our gathering unto the Lord, that Jeremiah had used. 2 Maccabees 2:8 NJB

Paul quoted several verses from the Greek version of Isaiah chapter 66, borrowing 19 Greek words, when writing 2 Thessalonians. (See chart.) Isaiah 66:18-19 (LXX)

PAUL’S MISSIONARY CALL. Acts 22:14-15; Acts 22:17-21

Deductions

● Paul learned from the prophets that there would be a great turning of Gentiles to faith in Israel’s God before the end time.
● Paul knew from the teaching of Jesus that the Good News would have to go to all Gentile nations before the Lord would return.
● Paul often recalled that he himself was an apostle whom the Lord had sent on mission to the Gentiles.
● Paul was aware that the end-time Antichrist could not appear until after the Gentile mission were completed.

Conclusion

● The thing that restrained the appearance of the Antichrist was the incomplete Gentile mission.
● The one who restrains the appearance of the Antichrist is the Lord Jesus himself.

Application

Let us do all that the Lord Jesus will allow us to carry his Good News to every nation and ethnic community.

[lluda]

The laws are restraining the man of sin, who we know as THE LAWLESS ONE. Before he can be revealed, lawlessness must come into being. When laws are amended, the lawlessness abounds.
Lawlessness is what will lead to the revealing of the lawless one.

[yerushalom]

2 Thess. 2:5&6 Jesus is the restrainer.

[gregdanielson]

The "restrainer" is His Church (His faithful that have and do and teach the truth). It's when "the church" (those that believe another gospel) comes to the full then that man of sin is revealed. It's this event Paul calls "a falling away" (a widespread forsaking of the gospel), which has nothing to do with the rapture of the church. This is why Paul said, "Let no man deceive you by any means." We need to understand there is His Church, and then there is "the church."

It's due to the church having come to the full (a mindset) to believe another gospel, which is not another, that man of sin, is revealed, the son of perdition. Therefore, when that man of sin is revealed we know the church has come to the full to believe another gospel. So the question is: has that man of sin been revealed yet? A: Yes, which is identified in the Book of Daniel.

The reason we're living in the end times is because the church has come to the full to believe another gospel. Wake up, and know and understand what the Gospel of Jesus Christ really is, which most of Christendom has forsaken.

God is: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these Three are one.

[donnakeith]

Still don't know who the Restrainer is. 🤔

[SabbatarianSundayer.]

I have "crucifixion" tattoos. I hope to somehow be "crucified" someday.