America's Fall... The Day of the Lord!

My dear friend's, once America's restraint is totally and fully removed in this present world, what is to stop the global lawless march to Doomsday (2 Thess. 2:2-8, Rev. 6-19). My friends, a very sobering NOTHING! That is right, NOTHING! A blind man should see it... and deaf man should hear it... but yet America is sleeping while the Titanic is minutes from going down. It is time for Americans and the world to recognize that The Day of the Lord is closer than it ever was and its horrific shadows linger over our heads as the dark storm clouds of a mighty deadly storm full of power and full of horrific destruction.

My dear friends, Oh how we need Divine REALITY today and not delusional worldly solutions for our EXPONENTIAL global crises. Almighty God cries out to you all day long but will YOU receive Him and His ETERNAL solutions for your life? That is the greatest question ALL must ask themselves in these last days. All these current events and crises of our global community are self-induced by the lawless and godless works of fallen man (Rom. 1:18-32, Gal. 6:7). These products of evil men and their consequences are left in place to bring us to the brink of our delusions so that we may come out of our subjective selves and show us our desperate need for the Savior, His pardon, and His RIGHTEOUSNESS.

My dear friends, WHAT WILL YOU DO? Will you continue to look for worldly solutions and human saviors or will you finally come to the end of yourself and receive the KING of kings and LORD of lords who is the WONDERFUL COUNSELOR and PRINCE of PEACE (Isa. 9:6-7, Rev. 19:11-16).

All ETERNITY is before us and our brief existence in this fallen world is about gone. See the ETERNAL, see the Savior, see the REALITY and you will find the liberation and peace of Almighty God that will calm your hearts in America's last hours.

I appreciate your response and did not intend to be overly harsh in my critique of the post. We live in a day when Bible preachers and teachers sometimes go off on tangents with things like billboard campaigns anouncing the date of the Lord’s return only to be proved wrong and receive the mocking of the world over it.

God has greatly used believers in this nation for the past two centuries to impact the world. And you are correct that we should respond to the present chaos and destruction by looking to Him and the coming kingdom.

The interpretation that the Restrainer is the Holy Spirit has had popular reception, but also is not completely consistent with the passage (i.e. 2 Thessalonians 2).

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers today is something that began at Pentecost. However, the spirit of antichrist began to work at Babel where we see God restraining this work of evil for the first time. (See Genesis 11:6 where nothing would be withheld from them apart from God’s intervention.)

Another difficulty with identifying the Restrainer as the Holy Spirit is that Peter says that what happened at Pentecost is a type of what Joel prophecied would happen immediately prior to the Day of the Lord. (See Acts 2:18.) Yet this passage places the Day of Christ AFTER the falling away and the abomination of desolation.

Some clues as to the identity of the Restrainer are in the passage. First, this entity is described as “what” restrains and also “he” (or “He” as the Greek does not have capital letters to indicate which) who restrains. So the Restrainer is both a what and a he. Although it is popular to describe the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force these days, the Bible consistently describes Him as a Person of the Godhead, not a “what” or “it”. Another clue is the context of the teaching. They knew the identity. Wouldn’t it have been nice if Paul had also let us know rather than leave us guessing? In other places Paul revealed new knowledge about end times events, and said such things as “behold I show you a mystery”, yet here he is not disclosing a mystery. It is something that they knew from his general ministry and teaching. It is something we can know as well.

What was the topic of Paul’s teaching other than the Day of the Lord and the return of Christ? It is clear here he was talking about The Antichrist. That is, he was describing a specific person that will yet apper on the scene in the last days and what the order of events must be in order to fulfill scripture. What scripture?

Christ taught about the Antichrist with similar details (e.g. Matthew 24). Was this all new revelation from Christ or Paul? No. Christ specifically directs the listener (and reader) back to Daniel. Paul not only brought new revelation, but also taught from the pages of the Old Testament. Because Paul does not say this is new and because he does not specify the identity of the restrainer here, it is reasonable to inquire as to whether that identity is found in the Old Testament and particularly in Daniel. Again, it is Daniel who revealed the original prophecy of the abomination of desolation under discussion here and in Christ’s teaching.

So, does a restrainer exist in Daniel? The answer is, yes.

We see a specific pattern in Daniel connecting the abomination of desolation to what is known as the 70th week. We find details about what the Antichrist will do and in what order. That specific event unlocks our understanding of this prophecy in Daniel 9 and then also in 10-12. So it is mentioned in 9:27 but also in more detail in 11:31 and again in 12:11.

What happens at the abomination of desolation?
1. The antichrist’s treaty to protect Israel is broken at the half-way point of the seven-year period. 2. The Antichrist launches a persecution against Jews and possibly Christians (depending on who Christ meant when He said “then they will deliver you up to be killed” in Matthew 24:9) known as the Great Tribulation. 3. According to Paul, this event constitutes the “revealing” of the Antichrist. 4. The event itself is an act of defiling a yet-to-be-built temple in Jerusalem where the Antichrist sets himself up as God to be worshipped.

Now what about the Restrainer?
First, we must understand that these events will unfold in God’s timing. The Antichrist signing a treaty or defiling the temple will not trigger Christ’s return or anything else God is doing. Rather, God is controlling the timing of these events. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul was addressing the timing of Christ’s return. He said this event had not happened (they didn’t miss the rapture and enter into the Day of the Lord period of wrath Paul described in his first letter to them). He explained that certain events had to happen first. But even so, God is in control of those events.

What we see in Daniel 12 and also in Revelation 12 is that there are events in Heaven happening behind the scenes which are tied to these same events on earth. If you read these passages, you will see that something occurs at the exact same time, in the middle of Daniel’s seventieth week, in Heaven. What is that? We see Satan cast out of Heaven by Michael the arch angel. In Daniel we see that Michael is a Prince with a specific job to protect Israel, and that he “stands up” (or possibly “stands aside” based on the context in which he is already standing and then proceeds to stand). Both passages clearly indicate this event is at the middle of the 70th week.

Why is this significant? Because the Devil wants to attack Israel but can only do what God allows. Michael is restraining his efforts to harm Israel. But something happens in Heaven at this specific point in time which allows the abomination of desolation to occur. That event has to do with Michael casting Satan out of Heaven.

Does this fit our clues? Yes. Michael is a “what”, that is an angel, meaning what type or order of being he is. Michael is also a “he”. Angels are generally described in the masculine and as being like men (even though they are neither male nor female). We see other entities like nations described in the feminine. ( I realize you already clarified that you are not claiming America to be the Restrainer, but I bring that up for those who might want to eliminate this from the list of possibilities).

So, the best explanation from scripture as to the identity of the Restrainer is that he is Michael the arch angel.

What is more important to understand here is that this and other scriptures inform us of a distinction between the Great Tribulation (which begins at the abomination of desolation in the middle of Daniel’s 70th week), and the Day of the Lord (which is also described as the Day of Christ and the Day of Wrath). The Church clearly is taken out of the world when the Day of the Lord begins. Our understanding of the distinction between the Day of the Lord and Daniel’s 70th week, and the Great Tribulation help us to have a somewhat better picture of when the rapture will occur in relation to these events.

While I do not realistically expect to settle this debate for everyone, for those who are able to receive it and find it helpful, the order is:

a false peace,
the beginning of sorrows with mass deaths by war, famine, disease, etc.,
the great tribulation beginning with the abomination of desolation,
signs in the heavens culminating with the “rapture” of believers,
the day of the Lord wherein God pours out His wrath on earth,
the establishment of the kingdom, and then
the final judgment.

This specific series of events is described in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Revelation.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.