Greetings everyone.
This morning I saw the title of a video on YouTube that caught my attention. It was called, “Ancient Hebrew Sources Reveal the Rapture | Ken Johnson | Rapture in the Rockies Preview.”
Well, of course, that did rouse my curiosity, so I watched most of it. The general gist was that the presenter – Ken Johnson – was saying that the Hebrew sources of these Thessalonians verses under here should be rendered a bit differently from what we know because of the discovery of a Hebrew New Testament quite recently. He was saying that the text was sound, just the translation was a bit different.
Here are the verses that are considered –
2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 “You know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed, 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” (NASB).
Ken Johnson is talking about who or what the restrainer is. He was giving a preview on that YouTube video for this big Conference called “Rapture in the Rockies,” which will be held in Colorado Springs sometime in the future. It will consider the Rapture from Hebrew sources. It is being run by “Prophecy Watchers.”
This speaker talks about a Hebrew New Testament that has recently been discovered. That Hebrew New Testament talks about the Church being the restrainer. He claims that “In the Hebrew, it comes out clearly in translation, and the pronoun can be only he, she, it. The Hebrew comes out clearer. We, the restrainer, will continue to restrain until we are taken out of the midst. So that’s like a pre-trib rapture.”
That was a very brief coverage of what he was saying. Firstly, I have heard nothing of a recently discovered Hebrew New Testament. Secondly, there seems to be a multitude of YouTube channels and Internet sites springing up every week, nearly all of them American. I am not able to keep up with them. They are talking about prophecy, and many are flashy in appearance. I would be cautious about a lot of them.
Thirdly, I have never heard of “Prophecy Watchers” or Ken Johnson until this channel appeared on YouTube today. Prophecy Watchers has a lot of videos. I do not know if it is a cult or a legitimate site. I am not aware of so many of these organizations in the United States; that is not my home, as you would know if you are a regular reader.
I do want to know about these things, and if you are familiar with Prophecy Watchers, could you kindly let me know? I wish to be informed if I am asked questions, which does happen.
[Editor’s Note: Prophecy Watchers is a well-known and respected Christian website.]
Also, have any of you students heard about this Hebrew New Testament?
His suggestion was that the translation is, “Only we who now restrain will do so until we are taken out of the way,” that coming from the Hebrew New Testament he mentioned. He seems to be a supporter of a pre-Tribulation Rapture, and that is one of the proofs he uses.
This was presented as proof of the Rapture, the “we” being the Church.
[Editor’s Note: It’s a Greek manuscript. This just appeared in the news within the past few weeks. These Glasgow researchers claim to have figured out how to see what was originally on the pages that had been reused. Considering how many times words on these pages had been written and then somehow erased, I don’t know how the researchers could know for sure that the word he should be we in a scripture passage.]
NOW I WANT TO SHARE MY THOUGHTS
It would be wrong to claim the Church is the restrainer in this world. The church has become impotent, full of error and deceit. It is the mutant mustard tree harbouring all sorts of evils in its branches. It is the leaven of wickedness that has corrupted itself.
Of course, contained in that profession is the true Church. The true Church has the Holy Spirit, and it is He who is the Restrainer – 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. ONLY HE WHO NOW RESTRAINS WILL DO SO UNTIL HE IS TAKEN OUT OF THE WAY, and then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.”
No individual or organization (The Church included) is capable of holding back evil or Satan’s full revelation, which will happen in the man of lawlessness, EXCEPT the Holy Spirit. We will not be here when this man of lawlessness is revealed, but the full-blown wickedness is straining at the doors of this world today. You and I, as part of the Church, cannot hold back the onslaught of wickedness. The Holy Spirit in the Church can and does, but we, the people, can’t do that.
“It is self-evident that that which restraineth must be a power superior to man and Satan and of a nature totally different from the man of sin. The restraining one is a power and a person. It is the Holy Spirit of God.” – Arno C Gaebelein
Therefore, I believe that the Restrainer can only be the Holy Spirit and nothing/nobody else.
Barnes mentions that the belief among the primitive Christians was that what hindered the rise of the man of sin was the Roman empire, and therefore “they prayed for its peace and welfare, as knowing that when the Roman empire should be dissolved and broken in pieces, the empire of the man of sin would be raised on its ruins.”
Heinsius finds the thought expressed: “what was only begun in the time of Nero, Antichrist will at a later period bring to a conclusion.”
When we try to examine something prophetic, we can only make assumptions based on our own slot in world history. We do that now and relate technology to the possible activity of Antichrist, plus the extraordinary happenings in Israel. We interpret (surmise) according to our own historic period. The same rang true for great men of the past, and I want to quote Matthew Henry, that well-known commentator:
October 18, 1662, to June 22, 1714. He lived in the time of the great upheavals in Christianity and was familiar with the terrors and persecution by the Roman Catholic Church. He also lived in the time of the Counter-Reformation – generally dated from the Council of Trent, which began in 1545, to around 1700 – which was Rome’s cruel response to the Reformation. This is what he wrote on 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8:
“This passage exactly agrees with the system of popery, as it prevails in the Romish church, and under the Romish popes. But though the son of perdition has been revealed, though he has opposed and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; and has spoken and acted as if he were a god upon earth, and has proclaimed his insolent pride, and supported his delusions, by lying miracles and all kinds of frauds; still the Lord has not yet fully destroyed him with the brightness of his coming; that and other prophecies remain to be fulfilled before the end shall come.” — Matthew Henry
These men understood that many antichrists had come and that wickedness opposes the truth, but they understood that THE Antichrist was to come in the future.
Antichrist most certainly will come, a satanically empowered man, probably (I feel) from the political structure of Europe, or the UN, or the WHO, or the WEF.
Vincent’s Word Studies – “The mystery of lawlessness is the mass of lawlessness yet hidden, but which is to reveal itself in the person and power of Antichrist. The position of the word is emphatic, emphasizing the concealed character of the evil power.” [end of quote]
Yes, his identification is concealed, and will not be known until after the Rapture, but along with so many writers and readers of Rapture Ready, I believe this one must be alive today.
The events of the Middle East, and the continual war that Israel is engaged in, cannot be solved by anyone in power today, but will be by a brilliant mastermind who draws up the 7-year covenant of peace with Israel. Everything is ready, and that is why I believe the Rapture is close.
From Dean Alford – (Verse 7). Lün. only until he that now hinders (ὁ κατέχων is placed before ἕως for emphasis, as in ref. Gal., μόνον τῶν πτωχῶν ἵνα μνημονεύωμεν) be removed (the phrase is used of any person or thing which is taken out of the way, whether by death or other removal.
(Verse 8). and then (when he that hinders shall have been removed: the emphasis is on τότε) shall be revealed the lawless one (the same as the αὐτόν of ver. 6: viz. the ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἁμαρτίας), whom (by this relative clause is introduced his ultimate fate at the coming of the Lord. To this the Apostle is carried on by the fervency of his spirit, and has to return again below to describe the working of Antichrist previously) the Lord Jesus will destroy by the breath of His mouth. – Dean Alford
The bold type above is my emphasis. The hindrance (The Church) will be removed, AND ONLY THEN shall be revealed the lawless one. I just cannot understand why the Christian world cannot see that, nor does it show any interest in knowing about it. Sometimes I get mail from readers of Rapture Ready trying to argue with me for a post-Tribulation view. How can people get it so wrong?
I will let my favorite commentator finish this discussion. When in my teens and since then, the writings of Arno C Gaebelein have instructed me more than any other (except the Lord, of course).
ACG – When the apostle was with them he had spoken to them about those things. “The mystery of lawlessness (not iniquity) already worketh,” he informed the Thessalonians. Sin is lawlessness, and that has been at work from the beginning, man having forsaken God and exalted himself in self-will. This works on until it works out into open lawlessness in an out-and-out opposition to God and His Son, culminating in the man of sin, the false Christ, “to give the world its long-sought liberty from divine restraint and bring its vaunted progress to perfection, which under Christianity, it has found impossible to attain.” The mystery of lawlessness will cease to be a mystery when the lawless one, the man of sin, is manifested. But what keeps back the manifestation of this lawless one? Who or what is it that restrains it? Who is to be taken out of the way before the lawless one can be revealed? Many answers have been given to this question which we do not need to investigate.
“The Holy Ghost was here below; the Church, be its condition what it might, was still on earth, and God maintained the barrier. And as the porter had opened the door to Jesus in spite of all obstacles, so He sustains everything, however great the energy and progress of evil. The evil is bridled: God is the source of authority on earth.
There is one who hinders until he be taken out of the way. Now, when the Church (the Church, that is, as composed of the true members of Christ) is gone, and consequently the Holy Ghost as the Comforter is no longer dwelling here below, then the apostasy takes place, the time to remove the hindrance is come, the evil is unbridled, and at length (without saying how much time it will take) the evil assumes a definite shape in him who is its head. The beast comes up from the abyss. Satan – not God – gives him his authority; and in the second beast all the energy of Satan is present. The man of sin is there” (Synopsis of the Bible).
When the Church leaves the earth then this restraining power and person, who dwells in the Church and therefore is here on earth, will be taken out of the way. As the result, in due time, the lawless one will be revealed. The Holy Spirit, who came down from heaven on the day of Pentecost to form the Church, the body of Christ, will be withdrawn when that body is complete and taken to glory to be joined to the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. The light being gone, gross darkness will settle upon the nations, the apostasy will be here, the enemy comes in like a flood and the lawless one appears.
Here we have the best evidence that the true Church cannot be on the earth during the final years with which this age closes. No true believer will be in the final apostasy under the lawless one, nor will the Church pass through the great Tribulation. How this should fill our hearts with holy joy and our lips with praises!
Before he speaks of the lawless one with his lying wonders, he tells us at once of his fate. The Lord Jesus, in His visible manifestation, will consume him with the breath of his mouth and annul him with the brightness of His coming (Isaiah 11:1-5 and Revelation 19:11-21).