2 Thessalonians 2:6,7
6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
This scripture has always intrigued me. I have never been able to identify this restraining force and the few theories I have read regarding this do make some sense, but appear to have serious weaknesses too. The main contenders appear to be: Satan, The Church, or the The Holy Spirit. The thinking goes something like this.
- Satan is the restraining force and he does this to hide the identity of the Antichrist until the right time, so that he will be revealed at an advantageous time or a time when other necessary things need to take place first.
- The Church is the one that stops the Antichrist from being revealed because one child of God has more power under God than the Devil himself. Therefore once the Church is raptured away, there will be no opposing power left on Earth to stop him from his reign of terror until the return of the saints in the Battle of Armageddon.
- The Holy Spirit is this force because the Spirit is on Earth in God’s people, and once the Church is raptured, the Holy Spirit will be taken away with God’s people because God’s Spirit does not reside in who is left. So, once the only light and truth has left Earth, great evil and darkness will prevail for a time thereafter.
The last 2 points are obviously tied to the belief of a rapture of the Church (or the wise virgins) before the Antichrist is revealed.
Now for some speculation and I repeat, serious speculation regarding another possibility that came to me as to what the restraining force is that stops the Antichrist from being revealed.
The first thing to notice is this Thessalonians verse is talking about the Mystery of Iniquity or the secret power of lawlessness which was already working back when the verse was penned. Could it be talking about the powerful elite who are in control of the world?
Now look at the following picture. It depicts the power hierarchy of the world according to what more and more people today believe is happening. The elites are the bankers followed by corporates, then politicians, and lastly the citizens of the world. This picture clearly explains it.
Certainly in this time I have noticed an ever increasing amount of people who believe that the Central Bank, Reserve Bank, and bankers in general are the power elite of the world and it is these people who run the world financial system. These banks generate money out of nothing as they are but digits punched out in a computer screen. The result is that these bankers make huge profits for lending out units of what is essentially nothing because they are able to keep their cut which is the interest they make from lending the money out of nothing that they generate. As would be expected due to greed and history testifies to this, the Banks lend too much at times because the more they lend the more they make and this leads to recessions or a busts and the people at the poorer end of the scale lose their homes or assets because things become devalued at this point leading to those with cash or who are rich to be able to pick up bargains. Speculators dream of these cycles which enables them to speculate on when to invest and when to divest.
If history is a good teacher, then we know that the super-rich, powerful elites, and royalty that have oppressed people in the past leads to revolutions such as the French Revolution or the even the current Arab Spring. Such revolutions can change the power structure over night, but never really addressed the original problem of abuse and wickedness in high places because when one wicked power is destroyed, often another takes its place.
Now let’s imagine this on a global scale. What would happen if the current movement to bring down the power elites became mainstream and actually succeeded. Well it would certainly be bad news for the very rich and powerful who grew fat from this current system.
James 5:1-6
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
Further, what if this revolution had a leader or a leader arose in the aftermath offering a solution namely a new system for trade that was fair to all and perhaps not based on debt. Would such a person command respect for supposedly freeing people from the tyranny of past financial abuse or at least from creating a viable solution for trade? If so, what would happen if such a person himself become so powerful that he became the new tyrant perhaps even greater than all tyrants before him. Well scripture talks of the Antichrist and the Beast, and many Christians believe that this is a future world leader who will appear to have the answers in a troubled world.
Revelation 13:4
Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?”
And if a new financial system took place could it look like this verse in the Book of Revelation?
Revelation 13:16-18
It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man That number is 666.
Let’s take a closer look at this idea.
2 Thessalonians 2:6,7
6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
The restraining force in this line of inquiry are the power elites that run and have run the financial system of the world even since the time of Christ, (when the mystery of iniquity was already at work). If so, then it could be the powerful elite that are stopping the Antichrist from being revealed today, because they currently have the power that he will gain upon their demise. If this elite group were ever removed from their place, then that would open up a vacuum of power whereby the Antichrist could take full advantage of. A new money system is set up making him so powerful that eventually no one can buy, sell, or save unless they have the mark or the number of his name. He becomes so powerful that people say:
Revelation 13:4
… “Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?”
If such a revolution destroyed the global financial system, and if such a revolution and led to the rise of a man by whom a new financial system was named after, it could look like this:
Revelation 13:16-18
It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
Who knows where this current revolution or a future revolution could lead the world. The most ironic thing is that it could end with men being more enslaved than ever before. As the saying goes, “Out of the pan and into the fire”, or “Better the devil you know”. One thing I note about these times, is that besides a growing number of people that believe in a powerful elite and who want them removed, they also appear to hate the idea of Israel because many believe that certain Jews are the powerful elite and conspire against the world and enslave it with their financial and political system. So these people along with many others believe that the nation of Israel has no right to exist.
In closing, we saw a similar hate of Jews just before the rise of Hitler. If history repeats itself, then will another like him arise and also persecute the Jews?
Please bear in mind that I am not claiming a revelation from God here. Just joining up some dots. It could turn out that a completely different picture emerges from joining these dots in another way.