WHO RESTRAINS EVIL TODAY?

A 2^nd letter from Apostle Paul and his team has arrived at Thessalonica, soon after the first. 

So why the urgency and why is it written?  

Is there any connection with that 1^st letter?                

Paul passionately begs them to stay focussed on the coming (parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering to Him. (2:1) – our hope!                                                      

The persecution and tribulation is ongoing...but it’s now a whole lot worse. In fact, it’s so intense the Thessalonians worry it must be the dreaded ‘Day of Christ’! (The Day of the Lord in prophecy) 

“Whatever happened to that promised Rapture?”

Notice though what  he does NOT speak of: the Rapture (harpazo) – its not mentioned at all!... the detail has already been taught in the 1^st letter and in Paul’s visit.                                                                              

To settle their shaken minds Paul spells out the time-line of events. Before the ‘Day of Christ’ begins there must be... 

• Apostasy (apostasia). Okay some like to call this ‘departure’ of the Church by the Rapture but this will be a split-second snatch and the Rapture is certainly not the focus of this letter anyway.
• The ‘man of sin / son of perdition’ will be revealed.
• There is one hold-up to all that though...

‘He who restrains until He be gone’                                                                                  

Who restrains evil on the Earth today?  Prior to the Great Flood, God said: “My Spirit shall not always plead with Man...” and the Lord Jesus promised before leaving: “The Comforter...will bring demonstration to the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”  

It is the Holy Spirit who forms the Church and restrains evil on Earth today.

Here we have obscure proof that the Church MUST be gone for the Day of Christ to begin – that fearful ‘Day of the Lord’ prophesied to Israel by so many of the Old Testament prophets... WHO DID NOT PROPHECY OF THE CHURCH!

  

The Gay Jerusalem??

Notice the Jewishness: this usurper will sit in the temple (about to be built) as if he was God! ...and notice too there is nothing said about not worshipping ‘the beast’ nor receiving his mark.  

Why not?                                   

The Church is off the scene – 'not appointed to wrath'.