What Restrains Him; the Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7)

2 Thess. 2:6. And now you know what restrains him (Antichrist) “from being revealed in his own time.”

“And now”—some read it as: you know that now, at the present time, something prevents Antichrist from appearing; others read it as: now you know what restrains him. The first reading is supported by the fact that in verse 7 a similar statement is made—“he who restrains now,”—and moreover this seems plainer and clearer; the second is supported by the structure of the Greek text, which does not permit any other rendering of this passage than: “now ‘you know.’ Whichever reading one adopts, the principal meaning of the text remains the same, for the force of the passage does not depend on this. Our Slavonic and Russian translations follow the second reading: “now “you know.” Now, that is, having recalled what was said in person and bearing in mind what has been written above, “you know.” There is, as it were, a certain reticence on the part of the holy Apostle here. Having given the Thessalonians time to reflect both on what was just written and on what was explained in person, he draws from this the conclusion: and so now you know what restrains him; and from there the transition to the chief subject of this part of the epistle is easy: what restrains him is the very reason the Lord defers His appearing. By this one statement he already dispelled all their perplexity.

“That which restrains”—“that which hinders, that which impedes” (Oecumenius). “What then is this that restrains his appearance, or impedes it?” (Chrysostom). The question is not superfluous. In this expression lies the Apostle’s central thought (together with the other: the mystery of lawlessness is already at work). Yet taken alone it yields no definite concept and opens a wide field for conjecture. For us it is safest to hold to the patristic opinions. Let us cite them and draw a general conclusion from them. St. Chrysostom writes: “Some hold that by this one must understand ‘the grace of the Holy Spirit,’ and others ‘the Roman Empire.’” Theodoret, Oecumenius, and Theophylact repeat the same, though some of them also put forward other opinions. Thus Theodoret writes: “By ‘that which restrains,’ some understand the Roman Empire, and others the grace of the Spirit—that is, Antichrist will not come as long as the grace of the Spirit remains.” And further: “I hold as true what others affirm. It pleases God that Antichrist should appear at the time of the end of the world. Therefore God’s decree does not permit him to appear now. But I think this passage contains yet another meaning as well. Since the divine Apostle knew what was said by the Lord—that the Gospel must be preached to all nations, and then the end will come (Mt. 24:14)—but also saw that the worship of idols still prevailed; he said, following the teaching of the Lord, that first the power of superstition would be shattered and the saving proclamation would shine forth everywhere, and then the adversary of truth would appear.” Photius in Oecumenius: “He will appear in his own time, that is, when the time appointed for him and permitted or willed by God shall have come.” Severus in the same Oecumenius: “It is the Holy Spirit who restrains and does not allow the lawless one to appear. When He, by reason of the multiplication of evil among people, withdraws and retreats, then the lawless one will be free to reveal himself and come forward—there will be no one to hinder him.”

The conclusion from the opinions cited any reader can easily draw for himself: when the Gospel has passed through all the nations dwelling on earth and has gathered from them all who are capable of receiving it, and by that means of being sanctified and reborn by the grace of the Holy Spirit, then the present order of things will no longer have any reason to continue; the end of the world will come, or the last days, in which the Lord has ordained to come again to execute judgment upon all who dwell on the earth—to lead some into the kingdom of His glory, and to consign others to the bitter lot they have chosen. The coming of the Lord, according to the Apostle, will be preceded by the manifestation of Antichrist, in which God will permit evil to unfold in its full breadth and power, so that those who belong to it may be revealed and expose themselves. Thus, after or simultaneously with the moment when the whole of those who are God’s from the human race has come forth—when there is no longer any reason to wait for more of them—and all who are not God’s stand openly exposed, having cast off their mask; then the harvest will be ready. The Lord will send the reapers, and after that comes the end of everything. As the ripening of a harvest has its appointed time, so also these last events have their own time, appointed by God. Both good and evil are already seeded, are developing, growing. Each will ripen in its own time. Before that appointed hour this cannot be. Now, as to the question why the reapers have not appeared in the field, the plain answer is that the time has not yet come, the harvest is not yet ready; so also to the question: why are those long-expected world events not yet visible? the plain answer is: the time appointed by God for their manifestation has not yet come. But the manifestation of Antichrist also belongs to this. Therefore he too does not appear for the same reason. And this is what restrains him: the decree of God, as blessed Theodoret and blessed Photius after him said—which alone brings events onto the stage of the world or holds them back, not to please anyone, but according to its own governance of the world, incomprehensible to us.

Some of the ends of God’s governance of the world it has pleased God to reveal to us in His Word. Applying them to our subject, we can see in them as well the “that which restrains” Antichrist. The world endures in order that the power of salvation—placed by the Lord into our race as leaven in dough—may accomplish its work. The power of salvation is the Divine Word and grace, received through faith and lived out in a life of selfless zeal for pleasing God. The Word of God goes forth throughout the earth, arouses the sleeping and brings them to the sources of grace—and they, having been reborn, become workers of their own salvation to the glory of the Lord, who has ordered salvation for all. These kinds of manifestations occur everywhere—among unbelievers, among those who have gone astray, and among the right-believing—for not all who are called are chosen, just as not all fish caught in the net are fit for the table. To these who are born from above—“who were born not of blood, nor of the desire of the flesh, nor of the desire of man, but of God… is given the right to become children of God” (Jn. 1:12, 13). From these the Lord builds His spiritual kingdom. They are the material being prepared on earth for heaven by the Word of God and grace, when their free will is surrendered to it. When these powers have gathered from the earth all the suitable material and the kingdom of God is fully built up, then the salvation of the Lord will have accomplished its work, and there will no longer be any reason for the present order of things to continue. The world endures because not all those who are fit for the kingdom of Christ have yet entered it, or not enough of them have entered. “I have other sheep,” said the Lord, “that are not of this fold; them also I must bring… and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (Jn. 10:16). When this is accomplished, then comes the end; and then also the manifestation of Antichrist. From this it follows that what restrains his manifestation is the fact that the power of salvation, placed by the Lord into our race, has not yet fully accomplished its work. Its continuing action restrains him. When it ceases to act, then he too will come forward. Breaking this general principle down into its components, we obtain: what hinders Antichrist from appearing is the fact that the Gospel has not yet been heard by all and received by all, and that the grace of the Holy Spirit still remains and still has work to do in the human race. — Among the holy fathers and teachers of the Church, as we have seen, some pointed to one side, others to another side, of the power working to our salvation, as what restrains the manifestation of Antichrist. But this is the same as if each of them had indicated both sides, for they are inseparable.

Our commentators have, among other things, considered the Roman Empire to be the force restraining Antichrist. In their time, when the Roman Empire still existed, one could point to it, relying on the prophecy of Daniel. In our time some weight can be given to such a thought only in the event that by “the Roman Empire” one understands royal authority in general—and in the following manner: royal authority, having in its hands the means to restrain popular movements, and itself adhering to Christian principles, will not permit the people to deviate from those principles and will hold them in check. Since Antichrist’s chief business will be to draw all men away from Christ, he will not appear as long as royal authority is strong. It will not allow him to deploy his power; it will impede him from acting in his own spirit. This, then, is “that which restrains.” When royal authority falls, and peoples everywhere adopt self-governance (republics, democracies), then Antichrist will have room to act. It will not be difficult for Satan to prepare voices in favor of renouncing Christ, as experience showed during the French Revolution. There will be no one to pronounce a binding veto. A humble profession of faith will not even be heard. And so, when arrangements favorable to the unfolding of Antichrist’s aims are established everywhere, then Antichrist will appear. Until that time he will wait, be restrained. Such are the thoughts prompted by the words of St. Chrysostom, who in his own time represented royal authority under the form of the Roman Empire. “When,” he says, “the existence of the Roman Empire ceases (that is, royal authority), then Antichrist will come. For so long as fear of that empire (of that royal authority) exists, no one will quickly submit to Antichrist; but once it is destroyed (once that authority ceases), anarchy will set in—and he will rush to seize all power, both human and divine.”

One might reasonably object that the people themselves will guard their faith. But, as has already been said earlier, it is difficult to admit that faith would grow ever stronger and more powerful with the passage of time. The bright portrayals of Christianity’s future offered by certain writers are pleasant to encounter, yet have nothing to justify them. The gracious kingdom of Christ does indeed expand, grow, and fill out—but not on earth, visibly, but in heaven, invisibly, being composed of persons prepared for it here and there, in earthly kingdoms, by the saving power of Christ. On earth, however, the dominance of unbelief and evil is foreordained. It is visibly expanding as well; and when it has gained very great sway, things will stand on the verge of a beginning. Let but one influential person give an example, or let a powerful voice be raised, and the apostasy from the faith will begin to take place. This impulse will be given by Antichrist. From this one may conclude that what restrains Antichrist is also the fact that there is not yet the necessary readiness in people to receive him; unbelief and ungodliness have not yet gained the upper hand, and there is still much faith and goodness in the human race.

After all that has been said, the words “from being revealed in his own time” are of themselves understandable. “To be revealed” refers not to the Lord and not to the falling away, but to the man of lawlessness—Antichrist. “His own time”—not the time he himself would wish to choose, but the time appointed for him by Divine Providence. He will appear not against the will of God. In God’s plans for the governance of the world, he too has his place, as does his preparation and its consequences. Not because God desires such evil for people, but because people will bring themselves to it by their own will. God has pushed back that moment to the furthest limit of possibility, waiting to see whether anyone else might yet wish to turn to Him and serve Him. When there is no longer anyone to wait for, the Lord will withdraw His restraining hand, evil will pour forth, and Antichrist will appear. God has given freedom and does not wish to take it away, only surrounds it always with such signs that, heeding them, it may choose the good direction. But He does not compel; He waits for freedom to choose the good of its own accord. If it chooses evil, the fault is its own. This, however, does not frustrate God’s good purposes. The Lord will take all that is His and will suffer no loss on account of the defection of many. And they will receive their due: they loved destruction, and it will come upon them.

2 Thess. 2:7. 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.

Lawlessness, sin, had been at work in the human race since the transgression of Adam; and although it is not entirely intelligible—whether in its origin or especially in its power to deceive people—yet all have experienced it and have come to know what a great evil it is. Therefore it must be supposed that by the words “the mystery of lawlessness” the Apostle means something particular. Satan has his own depths (Rev. 2:24), his own hidden designs and plans, all in the satanic spirit. His ruinous actions are visible, but his ultimate aims are concealed. The Apostle seems to hint: what Satan has striven toward up to now has been visible, has already been revealed. But what he has now devised is not yet visible. The mystery consists in the fact that his designs have not yet come to light. Formerly he acted in one way, now he acts in another—but how? — it is not yet apparent. And he began to act differently because God too acted differently toward the human race in the Lord Jesus Christ. Before the coming of Christ, Satan had already adapted himself in his methods of leading people astray; but now, seeing how the cross of Christ presses upon him from every side, he has only begun his countermeasures. If we take into account the “mystery of godliness” of which the same Apostle speaks elsewhere, then by contrast we can trace wherein the mystery of lawlessness consists. The mystery of godliness lies in the incarnation of God: “God” “was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16)—that Jesus, called Christ, is God the Word who took upon Himself human nature. Faith in this destroys the kingdom of sin of Satan. The mystery of lawlessness, devised by Satan, will be the cunning of Satan to undermine and pervert this faith. To this end, he kept the pagans in their delusions in the face of Christianity, presenting Christ to them from the most abased side—as one crucified on the cross. In the accounts of the martyrs this was always the first objection against the faith, and the reproach leveled at believers by the pagan mind. And in those who, seeing in Christ not a mere man, turned to Him, he strove in every way to obscure and pervert the mystery of the incarnation of God the Word in Him. This he had already begun to bring about among the Judaizing Christians, the Ebionites, the Docetists. And afterward he did not stop, but in every age invented a new stratagem for the seduction of believers and the weakening or perversion of their faith in the incarnation of God. At the present time in the West there is an abyss of those who oppose Christ, and however different they may be in their particular views, they agree on one point—in disbelief in the incarnation of God the Word in Christ Jesus. This evil will grow, and when the Son of Man comes, He will scarcely find faith on earth (Lk. 18:8). Such is the mystery that will then be revealed and come openly to light! The mystery of lawlessness, of course, presupposes moral corruption, and its predominance in the last times is represented in the Apocalypse under the figure of the great harlot woman, on whose forehead is written: “mystery” (Rev. 17:5); but the moral corruption of Christians is outward, while inwardly lies disbelief in the Lord. By moral corruption they are brought to unbelief; and when unbelief has gained mastery over the heart, the flood of immorality knows no bounds. Unbelief is the hidden driving force of lawlessness, the mystery that lurks within it.

This is how the ancient commentators of our Church understand the mystery of lawlessness. Blessed Theodoret writes: “I think that the Apostle signified by this the heresies that have arisen, because through them the devil brings many to apostasy from the truth. He named them ‘the mystery of lawlessness’ because in them the snare of lawlessness is concealed. For this reason the Apostle above called the coming of Antichrist a ‘revelation.’ For what he has always been preparing in secret, he will then proclaim openly and manifestly.” St. John of Damascus says the same: “By the mystery of lawlessness the Apostle means the teachings of heretics and their false dogmas. For they precede him, preparing the way for him and preparing the time of deception. And heresies went out into the world from apostolic times. John the Evangelist says something similar: ‘As you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come’ (1 Jn. 2:18), meaning the heretics.”

“The mystery of lawlessness is already at work”—pointing to the cunning of Satan already in action, antichrists who are forerunners have already appeared. The Apostle wishes by this to suggest: the chief Antichrist too might have appeared, but there is one who restrains him. Who? — God and our Lord Jesus Christ. His incarnation has not yet accomplished its work. The saving power of His incarnation only began to act from the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit. It must be given time to penetrate everywhere and to quicken all who are capable of receiving its life-giving action. When it has accomplished its work, then that son of perdition too will be permitted to come forward. These moments are concealed in the counsels of God’s providence. It may therefore be said that these counsels of God and His decrees are what restrain the manifestation of Antichrist.

Earlier he said “that which restrains;” here he says “he who restrains;” yet he means one and the same thing, only from two sides: there—the decree of God, and here—God Himself and the Lord, who brings His decree to fulfillment. The words “is taken out of the way” do not mean: will be destroyed, will cease to exist, but will withdraw, will step off the stage, will cease His restraining activity. “Now”—not only in the time of the Apostle, but throughout all the time “while it is still called ‘Today’” (Heb. 3:13). By this the Apostle embraces all the time during which the restrainer will restrain. Oecumenius writes: “And so, when the limit of God’s decree arrives—and the decree that now restrains is seen to be fulfilled—then the lawless one will be revealed without any further hindrance.” Theophylact says the same: “When God’s decree, which now restrains the manifestation of Antichrist, is fulfilled and the appointed time for him arrives, then he will be revealed.”