Michael the Restrainer

[Jedi4Yahweh]

2Th 2:6-8 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. (7) 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

. (8)

And then the lawless one will be revealed

, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

I have heard many ideas of who the restainer is, that is holding back the Beast from being revealed in the Last Days. I have heard some on the dispensationist side say that it is the Church the is holding back the Anti-christ and he will be revealed once the church is raptured. But based on scritpture it is Michael the ArchAngel that is holding back the Anti-Christ from being revealed. Not the Church because the Church is never referred to as an "He".

See the scripture below...

Dan 12:1 And at that time, Michael shall

stand up

, the great ruler who stands for the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of distress, such as has not been from the being of a nation until that time....

The word or words "stand up" in the hebrew also means: "to cease, to leave."

Thought that was pretty interesting

[Guest]

I led a Bible study in chat on this topic once, for any interested, the following is the main substance of that study, with out all of the greetings and enterings and leavings that accompamy chat:

Edit: There is a video version here: 

 

Who is the restrainer?

I realize than many of you may not even know what that question is about. Those of you who are familiar with eschatology, the study of the end times, do know. The restrainer is mentioned in 2nd Thessalonians, chapter 2.

2 Thess 2:1-12

2:1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you may 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. 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, 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. 5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?

6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed.

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. 8 And 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; 9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 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. 11 And for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness .

Hopefully, that passage is somewhat familiar to you, but let's note some key things from it:

V1. Regards the coming of Jesus, and our gathering to Him (the so called rapture, I assume)

V2,V3 Warning not to be mislead or deceived about it.

V3 That day will not come (What day? I am assuming the "that day" refers to the Day of the Lord, but Paul seems to be focusing more on the coming of the Lord to gather us to him, it matters little, for our purposes here) before the apostasy comes, and the man of lawlessness is revealed.

V4 This man will set himself up in God's temple, exhalting himself over all that is worshipped and claims to be God.

To summarize the above in one sentence, Jesus will not return (for whichever purpose is pictured) here until the man of lawlessness is revealed.

V6 You know what restrains him now so that in his time he may be revealed.

Now, who is going to be revealed in verse 6? Who was Paul just talking about? The man of lawlessness, who will be revealed, in his time. Something though, is holding this man back, something is restraining this from happening. This is what I want to look at. Those who are familiar with the debates over the timing or sequence of our Lord's return, are familiar with the restrainer. It is often said, the the restrainer is the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit must be removed from the earth, before this man of lawlessness can be revealed. It is suggested, that when the church is gathered to Jesus in the rapture, that the Holy Spirit will then be absent, in as much as He inhabits each believer. Therefore, it is said, the rapture takes place first, then the man of lawlessness can appear. In as much as Paul does not say the the restrainer is the Holy Spirit, those who assume this to be the case, are just making a guess, and as near as I can determine, the guess is baseless, although it may be correct..

Now, to be fair, Paul is talking about the day of the Lord immediately before talking about the revelation of the man of lawlessness. Yet Paul refers to the gathering to Jesus and the Day of the Lord, in one breath, no implication that there is a separation of significant time between those events. In fact, borrowing a snippet from The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, we read the following:

DAY OF THE LORD

For on that day Christ will raise the dead, especially His own dead, the bodies of those that believed in Him - "that of all that which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day" (John 6:39). In that day He comes to His own (Matt 16:27), and therefore it is called "the day of our Lord Jesus" (2 Cor 1:14),"the day of Jesus Christ" or "of Christ" (Phil 1:6,10), the day when there "shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven" (Matt 24:30).

(from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia)

As you can see, the Day of the Lord is recognized as being directly associated with Christ's return, the resurrection of believers, which, according to Paul, happens before what many call the rapture.

(1 Thess 4:16-17

the dead in Christ shall rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Going forward then, we can see that this man of lawlessness is revealed before the rapture takes place. However, this study is not about the timing of the rapture, or the sequence of related events, but only an examination of the identity of the "restrainer", so let's continue.

As we have noted, many believe that the restrainer is the Holy Spirit. Others have suggested that the restrainer is the Roman state, the emperor of Rome, Paul

Edit 5/28/2016:

This post seems to have gotten truncated, but the whole substance is still intact in the video version:

http://www.worthychristianforums.com/topic/142979-one-possible-identity-of-the-restrainer-of-2nd-thessalonians/?do=findComment&comment=1712759

 

Edited May 28, 2016 by Omegaman 3.0
added video link

[kari21]

Hmmmmm....and I always thought the Holy Spirit was the restrainer...

[Leonard]

Please get your Strong's Concordance out, and see how the Apostle Paul uses the word 'temple.'

It will be most illuminating.

Many believe Paul is talking about a literal 'brick and mortar' building in II Thessalonians when he says 'temple.' But EVERY OTHER TIME Paul says 'Temple' HE IS TALKING ABOUT CHRISTIANS. Either corporately, or individually WE ARE THE TEMPLE!

Who then, is this 'lawless one' sitting in the Temple, vaunting himself upon God's rightful throne of our lives? Have you guessed yet? IT IS WE OURSELVES. Our pride, our ego, our claiming authority over our own lives. I have seen the 'man of lawlessness' and as soon as my own self-protection was taken out of the way, so I could see the dirty scoundrel I was inside--he was revealed, AND THE LORD DESTROYED HIM WITH THE 'EFFULGENCE OF HIS PAROUSIA'!!!

If you get rid of THAT 'man of lawlessness'--if you can admit to the depth of your own sin, evil, wickedness, and lawlessness--if you can bear to have YOURSELF truly 'revealed'--and have the Lord destroy him with the pure light of His coming--then you will need have no fear of any 'anti-Christ' who will come 'out there' somewhere........

Even so, Dear Lord Jesus Christ, come O' Eternal Champion, and slay me that I might live.

[eric]

Thank you Omegaman, that's near enough the way I view the Restrainer. In fact I enjoyed the whole post. Well done.

[Guest]

Hmmmmm....and I always thought the Holy Spirit was the restrainer...

and I am not about to say that you are wrong in that thought kari,

my post is stated as an opinion, not a fact, but it is also my opinion, that there is more evidence presented, to establish that Michael may be, that I have ever seen presented for the Holy Spirit being the restrainer. Opinions vary, understandings vary, that is what the forum is about. If we all had identical thoughts, we might as well do something else.

[Guest]

This examination is only educated speculation, but in my opinion, the evidence is far better for the restrainer being Micheal, than it is for any other individual we might consider. I hope you found this interesting. Thanks for attending.

Wonderful!

And I Thought I Had It All Figured Out!

What Fun!

Thank You Brother

[Guest]

Wonderful!

And I Thought I Had It All Figured Out!

What Fun!

Thank You Brother

Thanks Joe, it is always interesting to hear other views, so I understand your feelings. How refreshing though, that your response, (whether you are persuaded or not) is one of openess and gratitude, great attitude, this doesn't have to be adversarial!

[Guest]

Bye the way friends, I am not sure whether I will revisit this topic or not, but I am impressed at how much reaction there was to my post. I do not shy away from stirring the pot a little, but I have already presented my case, I do not think I can add to it. If there is anythink good there, file it away, if not, throw it away. I am not here to convince anyone of this idea, I just tossed it out there as a possibility. As you can see from the responses, some have already come to similar conclusions, and some, I am guessing, are locked into the H.S. = Restrainer idea, and feel a need to defend that.

You guys can go ahead and debate this until the cows come home, but since there is no uniform opinion on this for the last 2000 years, I doubt you will solve it here, you are welcome to try.

My gratitude to all of you, on all sides, for having the passion to take the time and get involved.

Omegaman

[jesusiskingofkings]

Well angel are asigned citys.

In Danieal 9:21 says Gabreil came to him to show him understandong.

In Daniel 10:13 Gabreil says the prience of Persia withstood him 21 days from coming and the Michael the chief prince came to help him, restaining the prience of Persia.

Daniel himself said Godly angels are restraining evil angels.