People often ask the question, “Why doesn’t God do something about the evil of the world?” Here’s another puzzling question: “What is stopping the people of earth from giving in to anger, greed, hatred, lust and every sort of unrestrained evil?” What keeps your vices from bubbling over? As evil progresses, God is just about at the point where he is ready to step back and let us open Pandora’s Box and the fury of hell will be unleashed on an unsuspecting world.
People are sinners.
At their worst, People do evil things.
People are not as bad as they could be!
Some People today cannot tell the difference between good and evil.
One of the vital ministries of the Holy Spirit is to Restrain evil.
If it were not for God, mankind would have self destructed long ago.
The Principle of Restraint 5-6
Paul taught new converts about the identity of the Restrainer.
In verse 6 we are talking about WHAT is restraining. τὀ κατέχωv
In verse 7 we are talking about WHO is restraining. ὀ κατέχωv
Restraining evil is both a principle (a what) and a person (a who).
Two purposes of the ministry of restraint:
to keep evil at bay.
to block the Antichrist from being revealed.
The Law of Divine Providence. Acts 17:26-27
Divine providence restrains events from happening before their time.
The Law of Human conscience. Romans 2:15
Conscience keeps most of us from doing terrible things.
Restrain means to hold something down or suppress something.
The Person of Restraint 7-8
The Holy Spirit Himself is the ultimate restrainer of evil.
He is the WHO of restraint.
The Spirit strives with mankind. Genesis 6:3
The Spirit convicts mankind. John 16:7-11
Convict means he wrestles with the unsaved to bring them to Jesus.
Some people ask the question, “Why doesn’t God do anything about the evil in the world.” And the answer is, “He does! Every day! With every person! All the time! You just can’t see it!” This is what is known as the “mystery of lawlessness.” To some the mystery is that God would allow any evil at all! But there is a flip side: The real mystery is this: “Why aren’t people as evil as they could be!” What’s restraining them! Thank God that there is a supernatural restrainer at work, preventing the materialization of evil.
Have you ever heard of a company called “Evil Corp?” Yes there is such a thing! Evil Corp is an international cybercrime network that uses malicious software to steal money from victims’ bank accounts. It turns out that Evil Corp is named after a fictional corporation from the television show Mr. Robot. The people who work for Evil Corp have successfully targeted some of the world’s most well protected corporations. They have stolen their credentials. They have crippled their IT infrastructure. And their evildoing has enabled them to demand multimillion dollar ransoms. In fact, the decade-long cybercrime spree by its leader, Maksim Yakubets, has been responsible for losses amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Can you imagine what these Russian criminals might be like? Are they evil, as their name suggests? Or are they like Robin Hood, stealing from the filthy rich who can afford to lose the extra cash? I don’t think so. I guess belonging to such an organization must have a certain appeal. Evil has always stimulated the human imagination.[i] But these criminals have not only have acted on their evil desires, they proudly advertise it! I guess they are evil people.
What about you and I? What keeps ordinary people from acting on their baser impulses? What is stopping the people of earth from giving in to anger, greed, hatred, lust and every sort of unrestrained evil? What keeps you from allowing your secret vices from bubbling over?
I know this: People are sinners. People do bad things. At their worst, People rape, pillage, steal, kill and destroy. But why? Why do people behave like this? What makes them do such terrible things?
If you think we live in terrible times, let me say that people are not as bad as they could be, but that is changing. People today believe that Good and evil aren’t fixed, stable, absolute qualities. Instead, they believe that they are constantly trading places. What was bad yesterday is tolerated today. What people once loathed, they now celebrate.
What’s seen as an evil act by one person, is considered quite differently by another. For some, suicide bombers are the princes of darkness; to others, they are heroic freedom fighters. What some despise as destructive and evil, others cheer as acts of selfless sacrifice.
As a consequence, the world is becoming a very dangerous and confused place. Evil is abounding because people have lost the ability to maintain high moral ground. People today cannot tell the difference between good and evil, and they can no longer tell you why bad things are bad, and why good things are good. That’s what happens when you reject God.
Today we will be taking a deep dive into evil, to discover why unrestrained evil is about to explode and crush our little white picket fenced, middle class world. Prophetically, God is just about at the point where he is ready to step back and let us open Pandora’s box and the fury of hell will be unleashed on an unsuspecting world. I’m speaking of the coming rise and reign of the Antichrist.
Many will cheer the Antichrist as a long awaited hero, but those of us who know better, find ourselves speaking out like a lone voice in the wilderness, crying, “Prepare for the day of the Lord. Before it’s too late.”
Today’s message is on one of the vital ministries of the Holy Spirit: Restraining evil. And we are going to pinpoint one critical moment in the future when the Holy Spirit will stop restraining evil. That day will be the beginning of the end. It will be a day of terror, darkness and sorrow. That day, Pandora’s Box will be opened allowing Antichrist to come forth to a reign of death and destruction and tribulation.
The world does not know it, and you may not be aware of it, or even sense it; nor do we spend much time pondering the fact that if it were not for God putting on the brakes, mankind would have self destructed long ago. One of the things I have noticed about humankind is that, without God, we seem to have a societal suicide wish. The world’s most notorious leaders are maniacal and genocidal, killing millions without remorse. The world’s philosophies are utterly destructive, leading to hopelessness, drug addiction and murder by abortion. The world’s largest empires do everything in their power to wipe each other out.
Why haven’t we been successful at eliminating Homo sapiens from this planet? One simple reason, God. The invisible, providential, life saving hand of God is at work behind the scenes placing limits on evil so that His plan will unfold as prophesied.
Let’s talk about the ministry of the restraint of evil. And I want to discuss it in two parts. The first has to do with Principle of Restraint, and the second has to do with the Person of Restraint. The first thing you should know is that there is a WHAT, or a principle, or a natural law that is restraining evil. And the second thing you should know is that there is a WHO, or a person, otherwise known as the Holy Spirit who is restraining evil. Let’s look at the first:
The Principle of Restraint 5-6
Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know WHAT is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
The Apostle Paul only spent about three months in the city of Thessalonica (Acts 17) before a mob of rioters set the city in uproar, and he had to be smuggled out in the middle of the night. But during those three months Paul taught the new converts about the end times. And one of the truths he specifically taught them was the identity of the Restrainer. Sounds like something we should know.
And here in verse 5, he asks, “don’t you remember what I taught you? You should. It’s elementary. It’s a simple answer.” And in verse 6 he says, “And now you know what is restraining!” They knew, but do you?
Aw Shucks, don’t you wish you did! Thanks Paul! Since he didn’t tell US the answer here, like he did them, there’s a bit of speculation on this one! Different people have different ideas! Many scholars have speculated, naming the restraining force as 1) the Roman government; 2) gospel preaching; 3) the binding of Satan; 4) the providence of God; 5) the Jewish state; 6) the church; 7) the Holy Spirit; and 8) Michael the archangel. That’s a lot of speculation!
I want you to notice, that in this verse however, we are talking about a WHAT. Now you know WHAT is restraining. The word “what” is τὀ κατέχωv katechon to restrain. If you know something of grammar, you will appreciate it when I tell you that in verse six the restrainer is in the neuter gender. However, here’s the twist! In verse 7, the restrainer is ὀ κατέχωv katechon, and it is in the masculine gender. Verse 6 is a WHAT or an it; and verse 7 is a WHO, and we could say “he restrains.”
This leads me to say that restraining of evil is both a principle (a what) and a person (a who). And the purpose of the restraint is to keep evil at bay, and to block the Antichrist from being prematurely born and revealed to the world.
In verse six, there is some principle that is hindering evil, holding back its progress, and keeping Pandora’s box from being prematurely opened, which would result in the rise and reign of antichrist. What is this thing? What is this principle? It seems to me that God has put some natural, physical and spiritual laws in place that result in the restraining of evil.
It could be a prophetic principle or a principle of divine providence… which will only allow certain events to unfold at certain times. Acts 17:26-27 says:
And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord.
The principle of divine providence, unlocked by unfolding prophecy restrains end times events from happening before their time. Providence is both the restrainer of evil and the restrainer of the antichrist.
It could be the principle of conscience… which every man seems to possess which keeps most of us from doing terrible things. The idea is that perhaps one day God will remove all restraints on our conscience which will plunge mankind into total darkness. Romans 2:15 says that our conscience is like God’s law
written in our hearts, our conscience also bearing witness… both accusing or else excusing our misdeeds.
The human conscience is being held in check by natural and spiritual laws that govern the universe. It is a law just as real as gravity or the law of cause and effect. The idea is that when and if God releases that law, man’s conscience will run wild and the antichrist will rise.
The word restrain means carries the idea of holding something down or suppressing something. In this case the word does not refer to a person but, rather, to an abstract force or power that is holding back or holding down lawlessness in the world. It is clear that this is an evil so horrendous that it must be suppressed lest it be loosed to release a wide range of wicked effects.
Look at verse six again, “And now you know WHAT is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.” The restraining force is keeping a “he,” the antichrist from being revealed. The word translated “time” refers to a “definite, fixed time.”3 It refers to “the specific and decisive point” and strongly emphasizes that God is the one who determined that definite, fixed, and decisive time.
That’s the principle of restraint. Now for the person.
The Person of Restraint 7-8
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. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
The Holy Spirit Himself is the ultimate restrainer of evil. He is the WHO of restraint.
In Genesis 6:3 God said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” By saying this, He signified that the Holy Spirit was in an all out struggle with lawless mankind in the days before Noah’s flood. The Holy Spirit’s restraint of lawlessness has been a significant factor in the administration of God’s rule over the world.
In John 16:7-11 Jesus said, “If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and righteousness, and judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
Maybe you weren’t aware of it, the world sure isn’t, but as sure as there is a Holy Spirit, he is the hound of heaven, pursing mankind, wrestling with their conscious. The word convict is ἐλέγχω elegcho which means he points out their faults; he argues, scolds, and wrestles with the unsaved to bring to light their need for Jesus.
Some people ask the question, “Why doesn’t God do anything about the evil in the world.” And the answer is, “He is! Every day! With every person! All the time! You just can’t see it!” This is what is known as the “mystery of lawlessness.” To some the mystery is that God would allow any evil at all! But there is a flip side: The real mystery is this: “Why aren’t people as evil as they could be! What’s restraining them!
And the answer is a little uncomfortable. You and I are not as bad as we could be because there is a spiritual law in place that presses in on us and keeps most of us from acting on our evil intentions. You and I are not as bad as we could be because the Holy Spirit constantly hounds us, argues with us and chides us when we are evil.
But there is coming a day, very soon, when both the natural law, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit will cease! When that trigger event happens, Pandora’s box will be opened and the Antichrist will rise, and all hell will break loose!
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
Thank God that there is a supernatural restrainer at work, preventing the materialization of evil. This restraining Force is so strong that it is holding back the unveiling of this wicked person. But when the right moment comes, Evil will be unleashed upon the world! And people, under his leadership will begin to do unimaginable evil.
You don’t want to be around when that day comes. The only way to avoid it is to listen to the sweet voice of the holy Spirit and give your life to Jesus!
[i]https://sites.insead.edu/facultyresearch/research/doc.cfm?did=68351#:~:text=There%20are%20also%20situations%20where,the%20result%20of%20idealistic%20fanaticism.