APOSTASY or CATCHING AWAY?

"Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is now present" (as that the Lord has returned). 

"Let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away (apostasy) come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God." 

The Lord will not return to the earth until there is an apostasy and the manifestation of the world ruler who sets himself up as God; the one who the Lord will slay 'with the breath of his mouth' (verse 8). 

There has always been apostasy within Christendom, but this is a notable apostasy, a total falling away from the way, the truth and the life.  That cannot happen whilst the true Church is on this earth, and this truth is emphasised when we consider verses 6 and 7 and the one who restrains these things from occurring.

There are those who believe the restrainer is the arch angel Michael, but Michael is a single entity limited to one point at a time. There have been other proposals but the reality is that sin and evil is universal which requires a universal restraint

He who restrains, katecho to hold down (fast) is one who has the power to restrain wickedness. It cannot be a man, for all are subject to the old nature and unless we abide in the Son of God by being filled with the Spirit we can do nothing, let alone restrain evil (cf. John 15:4-5; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 5:9).  It cannot be an angel for such restraint would require omnipresence, and it cannot be God’s Son for he is at present, representing us before the throne of heaven.  It can only be the Spirit of God, the one whom the Son sent to be a comforter for us (John 14:16-17) and the one whose ministry is to convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgement to come (John 16:8). 

The argument that the Spirit being omnipresent cannot be taken out of the way can be offset by such passages as John 7:39 where we see a special dispensation of the Spirit: -

“But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”

And Acts 1:8 where the Holy Spirit is seen as coming upon men: -

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

The restrainer is in both the masculine and neuter gender which strongly suggests it is the Spirit of God (masculine) within the body of the Church (neuter).

The resurrection or ‘rapture’ of the Church must occur simultaneously with the taking of the Spirit out of the way, for God has said that while we live, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”.  Also, the Spirit of truth who dwells with us and is in us, is God’s pledge until the redemption of our bodies (the purchased possession) and is the one by whom we are sealed (Hebrews 13:5-6; John 14:17; 2Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14).

For God to be true to these promises, the indwelling of believers by the Holy Spirit must continue until the redemption of their bodies at their resurrection, at the ‘catching away of the saints’; from which moment on, they will ever be with the Lord.

It should be clear that the Church will be removed prior to the coming of the man of sin; that Wicked one.

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he (the Holy Spirit) who now restrains will restrain, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:”