When looking at texts that speak of things that will happen before Christ’s return, it can be tempting to fall into one of two errors. Either to think that it will happen so far in the future that it has no relevance for us now, or to think that it must be relevant for us only today, and has no relevance for anyone in any other time or place.
Paul’s teaching on the Man of Lawlessness, otherwise known as the Antichrist, is exactly the type of teaching where this error can occur. But Paul wrote his letter to emphasise both the future and the present reality. The mystery of lawlessness is that it is present today but restrained, will one day be loosed, but will also be finally and effortlessly brought to heel at Christ’s return. This revelation of what was hidden but now unveiled encourages us to persevere and resist today, and also offers the promise of order restored in the future.
While rebellion against God has existed among humans since the Fall, rebellion will find a final focus immediately before Christ returns in the Man of Lawlessness. This was not written for the Thessalonians (or our) worry, but to forewarn and forearm, and to encourage that we have not missed Christ’s return and there is still better to come.
The difficulty for us, today, is that Paul was reminding the Thessalonians of teachings he had given in person, but has not been written down by Paul elsewhere. As a result, there is plenty of room for interpretation and speculation while we await the playing out of history to fill in the gaps.
This is why Paul in verse five states “do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?” The Thessalonians were there. They had the benefit of the full fleshing out of the teaching, not the summary in Thessalonians. However, if we needed that information to function, we can be sure that God would have revealed it to us in the Bible.
One of those uncertain pieces of information is the identity of the restrainer, who stops Satan from unleashing the Man of Lawlessness. “And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time” (v.6).
Apparently the Thessalonians knew the identity of the person or thing restraining the Man of Lawlessness. We do not. There is plenty of speculation on this identity, and it is a fair question to ask. Unfortunately, the passage does not make it clear.
We do know that verse six refers to the identity of the restrainer as neuter (“what is restraining him”) while verse seven speaks of a person. “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.”
There are seven different theories about the restrainer. Three more plausible ones are that the restrainer is the Holy Spirit, the government (in Paul’s day, the Roman Empire), or the third option being the Gospel. People that hold to the popular modern views about Revelation (found in your local bookstore) favour the first. The government has a certain appeal (cf. Romans 13), although governments are also instruments of rebellion against God. The preaching of the Gospel is attractive since it must be preached to all the nations before Christ returns, so effectively God is the restrainer.
I lean to the last view, but agree with anyone who takes the view of Augustine: “I frankly confess I do not know what he means.”
What is clear is that the restrainer is at work today, restraining lawlessness. Lawlessness is already at work in our world today, even if not fully unleashed.
And most importantly, lawlessness will be brought to heel. “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” (v.8). There is no great struggle, but the casual swipe of Christ as he gloriously appears to restore order and bring to an end the world’s rebellion against their Creator, Lord, and King.
This passage reminds us that there are some parts of God’s salvation plan that are simply not necessary for us to know. We have a culturally inbuilt desire for religious certainty which exceeds the limits of revelation that God has given us (cf. Deut. 29:29). Passages where the meaning is unclear right now reminds us that it is okay to live in faith with questions, trusting that God will answer them in time.
In the meantime, we do know certain facts. Lawlessness against God continues today, even if restrained. As citizens of God’s Kingdom, we should devote ourselves to persevering through the world’s rebellion, and resisting by acts of obedience to God’s Law and mercy to all.
But best of all, we know that Jesus is returning to put an end to all lawlessness. In the midst of lawlessness and rebellion, this is a promise to rest our hopes in.