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The Identity and Work of the Restrainer and the three woes of spiritsm that comes when He stops restraining

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6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
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 Thess. 2:6-7 NKJ)
One of the most baffling problems in the New Testament and in eschatology is the identity of the “restrainer” in 2 Thessalonians 2:6–7. Verse 6 has the neuter participle τὸ κατέχον (“what restrains”) and verse 7 has the masculine participle ὁ κατέχων (“he who restrains”). More than a dozen views have been proposed.-Powell, C. E. (1997). The Identity of the “Restrainer” in 2 Thessalonians 2:6–7. Bibliotheca Sacra, 154, 320.
The context identifies who the Restrainer is. He is restrains the “mystery of lawlessness” that “is already at work” (2 Thess. 2:6-7). What “secret power of lawlessness” is working in this context affecting the Thessalonians? The “spirit…word….letter as if from us” that upset the Thessalonians the “Day of Christ” had come. The “mystery of lawlessness” is spiritism and only God can restrain that. He is “what restrains” and “He who restrains’ Satan’s power inspiring delusions.

Spiritism had inspired so much false prophecy Thessalonians were beginning to “despise” all prophecy (1 Thess. 5:20). The apostle John saw the same events occur in congregations he pastored. So many “antichrists” rose up it reminded John of the end time “hour” during which the Antichrist arrives:

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. (1 Jn. 2:18-19 NKJ)
The “mystery of lawlessness” is the opposite of the “mystery of godliness” (1 Tim. 3:16), “sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13 NKJ).

Therefore, the “mystery” or “secret power” inspiring heresy and apostasy is spiritism.

God “sends” the deluding “energy of spiritism“(2 Thess. 2:11) when He “takes out of their way the decree” (cp. Col. 2:14) that has prevented Satan and his angels from fully manifesting themselves on the earth.

6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
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 Thess. 2:6-7 NKJ)
“The decree (enforced by the Holy Spirit) is taken out of the way” (2 Thess. 2:6-7 compare Col. 2:14). Revelation 9:1 refers to this event. A “star fallen from heaven”; what “restrained the fall of the Star (Rev. 9:1) was removed and it “free fell” (4098 πίπτω) to the earth. Now spiritual wickedness from heavenly places (Eph. 6:12) and from the Abyss are released onto the earth.

Removing the restraint of spiritism results in three “woes” (Rev. 9:12). The first woe was releasing the spirits of Demons imprisoned in the Abyss (Rev. 9:2-11). The second woe is removing what bound the four destroying angels in the Euphrates (Rev. 9:14-15). The third woe is Satan and his demons appearing on the earth after Michael and his angels cast them out of heaven (Rev. 12:7-12).


 
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