You Know What is Restraining – Reggie Kelly
2
Thes. 2:6 And you know what is restraining…
My
view is a bit unique on 2 Thes 2:6, and not critical to our position. It
follows Paul’s main point of correction, that the Day of the Lord cannot come
before the prior revelation of the Man of Sin. In my reading, the “what” that
is holding back in verse 6 is this necessarily preceding event.
After
reviewing the order of events, Paul says, “and now you know what withholds.”
What withholds what? I believe Paul is saying that the necessary prior
revelation of the Man of Sin is withholding (holding back) the Day of the Lord.
Paul has just reviewed with the Thessalonians the very order of events of which
he informed them at his earlier visit. “Do you not remember that when I was
with you, I told you these things.” Commentators plead modest ignorance of what
it might have been that Paul told the Thessalonians at his first visit. But
this seems no mystery at all. He told them then what he is telling them now
again, i.e., that the Antichrist must comes first.
Having
gone over this now a second time, he says, “And now you know what withholds or
holds back (the Day of the Lord). Contrary to the hasty conclusion of those who
had forgotten or misconstrued Paul’s earlier teaching, Christ cannot come until
the Man of Sin has first been revealed, and now, with Paul’s clarification,
they know what withholds Christ’s return. That’s how I read it, but as I said,
it’s not crucial to the meaning.
With
mention of the event (revelation of the Antichrist) that hinders Christ’s
return, it seems to me that this moves Paul’s thought naturally on to the
person who is hindering the revelation of the Antichrist. This time it is not a
‘what’ (neuter in the Greek), as in verse 6, but a ‘who’ (personal masculine
pronoun) that is withholding or hindering the revelation of the the mystery of
the iniquity.
Paul
conceives of the future revelation of the Man of Sin as the end of a mystery
that is already presently at work. This moves his thought to mention of a
person that hinders the revelation of the mystery of iniquity. In other words,
consideration of the ‘what’ (a thing or event) that is restraining the Day of
the Lord moves Paul’s thought to the “who” that is hindering the revelation of
the mystery that was presently working at the time of Paul’s writing. [Of
course, it is the mystery that has been at work since the fall.] This is what
must be revealed before Christ can return. The mystery is revealed in the Man
of Sin; but there is one who is now hindering this revelation who will continue
to hinder until he is taken out of the way.
Now
the question comes; what is the mystery of iniquity? We know that it has its
end in the revelation of the Man of Sin, whom Paul distinguishes as the one who
sits in the temple of God in Jerusalem (2Thes 2:4 with Dan 11:31, 36; 12:11; Mt
24:15-16; Rev 11:2). We know what the mystery of godliness is (1Tim 3:16). It
is the incarnation of the seed of the woman, “the anointed Prince,” in Jesus,
as the incarnate Word. What else would the mystery of iniquity be but the
incarnation of the seed of the Serpent? (the “coming prince” of Dan 9:26).
From
here, we work backward to the probable background of Paul’s thought in
Michael’s role in the revelation that came to Daniel with the removal of the
demonic prince of Persia, and forward to the key to interpretation provided in
John’s Apocalypse, particularly chapter 12.
In
Dan chap 10, the revelation that has been hindered (withstood) for 21 days is
able to break through to Daniel when Michael arrives to remove the opposing,
demonic Prince of Persia that was blocking the revelation of what shall befall
the Jewish people in the latter days.This also points to the role of the
believer in the heavenly war, which has great implications for the tribulation
church in Michael’s heavenly victory over Satan.
Now,
in Rev 12, we see that the power of the kingdom comes precisely when Satan is
cast down by Michael (Rev 12:10). This is not the first advent, since it begins
Satan’s “short time” of the last 3 1/2 years (Rev 12:6, 12, 14). That’s what
Paul has been writing about. The coming of the day of the Lord, which is also
the time the kingdom comes with the sounding of the seventh angel (compare Rev
10:7; 11:15). But notice; before the kingdom can come (just as it is in 2Thes
2:3, 7-8 before Jesus can come), there is someone in the way who has to be
removed. In Rev 12, it is clearly Satan, who is “forcibly” removed by the agency
of Michael. This stands in marked analogy to Michael’s role in the removal of
the demonic principality that was opposing (hindering) the vital revelation
from getting through to Daniel.
When
Satan is cast down, his time is short. Now, with Michael’s expulsion of Satan,
the revelation of the mystery of iniquity can be revealed in the full
incarnation of Satan. This sets in motion the 3 1/2 years that ends in the
finishing of the mystery of God (Rev 10:7), but in order for the mystery of God
to be finished, the mystery of iniquity must first be revealed, and we may be
sure, Satan dreads this event, because it will mean that his time is short.
This
concept requires a major shift in our thinking. Our thought has always been
that if the coming of the Antichrist is the greatest evil, then only something
or someone good could possibly be interested to hinder the coming of
Antichrist. Why would Satan be interested to resist the coming of the one in
whom he will be fully incarnate? Isn’t this what Satan has always wanted?
It
is just the opposite, On the contrary, Satan knows that when the mystery of
iniquity is revealed in this final incarnation of the Serpent’s seed, his time
is short. In just 3 1/2 years he will be completely bound, as the mystery of
God is finished. Significantly, it is when Satan is cast down that the
announcement is made, “Now is come salvation, and strength, the kingdom of our
God, and the power of His Messiah.” Why now? It is “because the accuser of our
brethren is cast down” (Rev 12:10).
At
the same time that Satan’s hindrance ends, his “short time” of unequaled
persecution of the woman and the saints has just begun. “Woe to the earth and
the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing
that he has only a short time” (Rev 12:12). That short time is manifestly the
last 3 1/2 years of this age, the last half of Daniel’s seventieth week. It is
NOT a mere symbol of the entire inter-advent period, as held by many
commentators.
Manifestly,
there is a connection between the end of Satan’s tenure in heaven and the
revelation of this mystery on earth. I say it is an “illicit” tenure, because
though the cross and resurrection, the “prince of this world” has already been
cast out, the principalities exposed, carried captive, destroyed, and
dispossessed. This is another example of the already and the not yet of the
kingdom that comes by degree and in stages, as the once and for all victory of
Christ is enforced in heaven and earth by the the enforcement of the Spirit
through the truth of the revelation of the gospel in the people of God. This is
NOT some kind of dominion-ism. On the contrary, this kingdom power comes
through weakness and the destruction of every carnal confidence, the
self-emptying of the cross.
It
appears that the perfect and complete victory of the cross is further enforced
in heaven by Michael and the angels through the revelation, faith, and prayers
of the saints on earth in conjunction with the predetermined time of Daniel’s
last week. Satan is, in one sense, completely and finally defeated in the work
of Christ; that’s true. But this victory must be enforced in the heavens and on
earth by the saints who follow in the way of the cross.
Surely
something of this nature must be inferred, since the context of Rev 12 leaves
no question that Satan still retains access to the heavenly realm until he is
forcibly cast down by Michael to begin the last 3 1/2 years. And we may well
expect that Michael’s victory in heaven will not be unrelated to a new
corporate fullness to which the church has come through the press and
preparation of the signal events leading up to this great transition,
particularly those of the first half of the week. I believe the godly remnant
will be ‘straightened’ to a Daniel like urgency of travail and intercession
that will be answered in Michael’s age ending victory in heaven. The
implications of this great middle of the week transition is vast.
This
is where we can infer the role of an intercessory travail of the church in
analogy to Daniel. I like to say that when the church will ‘travail,’ Michael
will ‘prevail.’ Not incidentally, this is when power is given to the two
witnesses, and I believe also to the ‘maskilim’ (those having understanding, or
persons of insight; see Dan 11:32-33; 12:3, 10).
This
is the time of great anointing for the final witness of the ‘maskilim’ (those
who understand) in the face of an unprecedented world wide persecution of the
church and Israel. We can only imagine what this victory in heaven will mean
for the power and witness of the suffering saints of the last 3 1/2 years. We
know that it results in an evangelism that saves an innumerable host out of
“the tribulation, the great one” (Rev 7:9, 13-14). This is not tribulation in
general; it is specifically the unequaled tribulation of short duration that
ends the age and finished the mystery of God (Rev 10:7). This will be the
greatest evangelism of the lost that the world has ever seen.
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