Who is NOT "the restrainer?"
It is not the Holy Spirit.
We know that no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 12:3)
If the Holy Spirit were taken out of the way, no one would be saved from that point on.
We know there will be multitudes of people saved during the Tribulation, so the Holy Spirit is on the earth then.
The Holy Spirit is NOT the restrainer referred to in this passage.
Then who is taken out of the way?
Who is hindering the mystery of iniquity?
Who IS the restrainer?
The one restraining iniquity is the Body of Christ on earth.
The Body of Christ is the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
The Body of Christ is to occupy until Jesus comes.
The Body of Christ is hindering the working of iniquity.
If the Body of Christ weren't here, the whole world would be gay and killing babies, and all wickedness would have free reign without any restraint whatsoever.
It is the Church, the Body of Christ, who is testifying to the lost and inviting them to come to the Lord. And it is the Church who will be taken out of the way.
And THEN that lawless one will be revealed and will take over, when there isn't a single righteous person to restrain him. In fact, those who are left behind will welcome him.
"I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive." John 5:43
The text: 2nd Thessalonians 2:3-8
3. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
4. who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
5. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
6. And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
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.
