"Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way" (2 Thess 2.7). Who is the "he" who is referred to in that verse?
This question has caused much discussion over the centuries.
First of all, it is important to note that the word translated "withholdeth" in v.6 is the same as that translated "letteth" in v.7. The word will bear another meaning - "to restrain". Quite a number of suggestions have been made as to who is the restrainer in v.7. Some say it is the Roman Empire, others that it is human government. Some even believe that it is the Church! None of these suggestions seem to fit the setting of 2 Thessalonians 2. The context from v.2 to v.12 describes conditions of apostasy and rampant evil that will follow the rapture of the church, but presently there is a power and a person who is holding back the floodgates of evil. These floodgates will be fully opened when the man of sin rises to worldwide influence. Meanwhile in this day of grace there is a "restrainer" hindering the manifestation of the man of sin, the antichrist.
Who then is this "restrainer"? In v.9 Satan is mentioned. He is a supernatural being with great power. No empire, no human government or system will have the power to hinder his efforts in the tribulation time. Only a supernatural person can counteract and frustrate the supernatural workings of Satan. The supernatural person in v.8 is the Holy Spirit. This to me is a strong point of interpretation that leads me to believe that the one who restrains is none other than the Person of the Spirit of God. Following the rapture of the church in v.1 of our passage we have the removal of the Spirit from the character of His work now to revert to His pre-pentecostal operations. We must not assume that after the rapture the Holy Spirit will be removed to heaven never again to work on earth. This is incorrect. The person of the Holy Spirit will be active on the earth after the church has gone. Indeed, there will be a worldwide outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2). The Spirit will assist the two witnesses of Revelation 11, and will work in Israel to produce their repentance and restoration (Zech 12.10).
John J Stubbs
Please explain what salvation the prophets were diligently seeking after in 1 Peter 1.10, and in what sense did they not already have it?
Peter has already made mention of "salvation" earlier in the opening chapter of his First Epistle; he speaks of you "Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (v.5). If the inheritance is being kept for us, we are kept for the inheritance, "kept by the power of God"; the word used is that for being kept by a military guard. But this "power of God" is appropriated through the exercise of faith. Peter then adds "unto salvation" - this is the end in view, the completion of our salvation which is yet future. The word "ready" implies a state of preparedness – this emphasises its imminence. As to its reality, it is "to be revealed", i.e. unveiled, "in the last time" - this is the "when". Peter points to the revelation of salvation in the day of Christ's appearing.
Peter then speaks of "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls" (1.9) – this is the ultimate goal of faith. Salvation is the object to which our faith is directed. Peter seems to use the word "soul", as is often the case in the Old Testament, to mean the whole person.
The verses that follow (10-12) are in the form of a parenthesis where we learn that the great matter of salvation has been the subject of enquiry by the prophets in a past age. Revelation to their minds did not necessarily include the illumination of their minds. There was a salvation revealed to the prophets that was not immediately related to things physical and temporal, but spiritual and eternal.
The Spirit of Christ, i.e. the Holy Spirit, was in the Old Testament prophets and they were examining their own writings as to what persons and what kind of time would usher in this unique salvation. Verse 12 of the chapter gives the defined subjects of this salvation, not the prophets themselves, "Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us (perhaps better "you", the recipients of this letter themselves) they did minister". The Old Testament prophets themselves lived in a different dispensation.
David E West
