Beloved, may the peace of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour be with you. I continually give thanks to our Lord for having chosen in these last days to reveal to us fully and without filter the mysteries of His Word — things that seemed hidden or difficult to grasp several decades ago. May all glory return to Him!

Beloved, by the grace of God, I wish to return to a point concerning the Rapture of the Church that we treated at length in the teaching series entitled: The Rapture of the Church and the Great Tribulation. That point is none other than the question: who or what restrains the Antichrist — the son of the devil — so that he appears only at his appointed time?

With the flood of false teachings touching eschatology and the Rapture of the Church that we witness today, the Church of Jesus Christ is confronted with several competing interpretations on this subject. Many preachers — without any biblical foundation, without any verse of Scripture explicitly indicating it — explain that it is the Church or the power of the Holy Spirit that prevents the appearance of the Antichrist. Others stipulate that it is the preaching of the Gospel, the Roman Empire; still others go further yet, claiming that it is the angel Michael, the Jewish state, or the binding of Satan that prevents the appearance of the lawless one.

If the Church of today were still the Church that the Apostle Paul, Titus, and the other brethren of the first century knew, such interpretations would never have gained ground within it; such falsehoods would never have existed among the children of God. Indeed, all of these interpretations — grounded on no biblical text — are nothing other than human suppositions and imagination on this question.

This is the result when the people of God choose to abandon the reading of the Word of God — the Bible — and prefer to read books written by men.

Jeremiah 2:13
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

What, then, does the Bible say about that which — or the one who — restrains the appearance of the Antichrist? Which passage of the Bible speaks clearly to us about the conditions of the appearance of the lawless one?

Beloved, what you should know in the matter of interpreting prophecies and analyzing texts related to the end times is this: the analysis of a single text is not sufficient to confirm a prophetic fact or event. Indeed, the Lord in His greatness has repeated any given prophetic fact or event at least twice in the Bible. I will demonstrate this to you immediately. For this reason, one cannot dwell on or limit oneself to a single text — in our case, 2 Thessalonians 2:5–7 — and draw a conclusion from it alone. That would be nothing but human imagination and supposition.

As you read your Bible, you will observe the following:

• Revelation 6:1–8, speaking of the four horsemen, finds part of its understanding and explanation in Zechariah 6:1–7 and other texts. Zechariah 6:1–7 helps us greatly in analyzing and interpreting the prophetic text on the four horsemen of Revelation.

• The beasts described in Revelation 13:1–2 are evoked for the first time in Daniel 7. These two passages can therefore be correlated without difficulty.

• By analyzing Genesis 37:9–10, one can readily understand that the woman who is pregnant in Revelation 12:1–2, about to give birth, is none other than Israel — from whom Christ came.

• The alliance between politics and religion described in Revelation 17 is also present in Daniel 2:42–43.

• The great feast of God in Revelation 19:17–19 — where He invites the birds to fill themselves with the flesh of kings at the Battle of Armageddon — is first described in Ezekiel 39:17–20.

• The prophecy concerning the two Witnesses who will minister in these end times, stated in Revelation 11, was proclaimed first in Psalm 79:1–3. Zechariah 4:1–3 also speaks of them.

• The desecration of the third Temple of Jerusalem that John sees in Revelation 11:1–2 was prophesied several centuries earlier in Daniel 11:31.

• The Battle of Armageddon announced in Revelation 16:15–16 was prophesied long ago in Zechariah 14:2–4 and Joel 3:2.

• Luke 21:20 was prophesied long ago by several prophets, including Micah 4:11–12.

• The resurrection of the righteous and the wicked evoked in Revelation 20 was announced long ago in Daniel 12:2.

In short, we could continue at length — and you will always see that prophecies are repeated at minimum twice. This is how God has arranged things. God repeated things in the Bible so that the Bible might define itself; so that we would not need to seek answers outside of the Bible. What do you observe when you read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?

Beloved, we can therefore legitimately ask: will 2 Thessalonians 2:5–7 — speaking of that which and the one who restrains the Antichrist — be an exception to this principle? Is there not an ancient prophecy that speaks and explains clearly what and who restrains the Antichrist?

2 Thessalonians 2:5–7
⁵Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? ⁶And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. ⁷For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

Beloved, to believe for even a moment that the Lord would not have provided a text explaining 2 Thessalonians 2:5–7 would make God a Being who takes pleasure in confusion among His children. God is not a God of confusion — God is a God of clarity.

Apart from his lawless nature, the Antichrist will fundamentally be a political leader — the ruler of the future world government. This is what several prophecies in the Bible confirm. It is enough to read the teaching on the Antichrist and the False Prophet, or the teaching on the World Government, for details on this aspect. And it is in this aspect of political ruler that the Bible has provided us with a text explaining the conditions of the Antichrist's appearance — and therefore explaining that which and the one who restrains him.

Without further delay, let us examine this prophecy.

Daniel 8:23 (KJV)
And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

Daniel 8:23 (NIV)
In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a fierce-looking king, a master of intrigue, will arise.

What does this passage teach us? This passage of Daniel 8:23 speaks of the conditions of the appearance of a king — therefore a political ruler. The Bible here sets out two conditions for his appearance. The first condition is the end of the dominion of the existing nations and their rulers. The second condition is that the cup of sin must be full — what the NIV Bible renders as "when rebels have become completely wicked".

Who can this king be — whom the Bible calls fierce and a master of intrigue? The following verses tell us.

Daniel 8:24–25
²⁴And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. ²⁵And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

The Bible speaks here of a king who will rise up against the Prince of princes, meaning our Lord Jesus Christ; a king who will be arrogant in his heart; a king who will be mighty, but not by his own power; a king who will destroy the people of the saints; and a king who will be broken without human effort.

Beloved, we have here in black and white the identifying marks of the Antichrist, the lawless one. In all the prophecies describing the Antichrist, we always find this characteristic of rising up against God — blaspheming against Him, speaking with arrogance.

Daniel 11:36
And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.

Revelation 13:6
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

Daniel 7:11
I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.

The Antichrist will be this king whose power grows — but not by his own strength.

Revelation 13:2
And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

The Antichrist will be this king who is broken without human effort — just like his kingdom.

Daniel 2:34
Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

2 Thessalonians 2:8
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:

In summary, this passage of Daniel 8:23 speaks of the conditions for the appearance of the Antichrist:

1. Sin must reach its peak — what Paul calls the mystery of iniquity. This is THAT WHICH restrains him.

2. The loss of dominion or sovereignty of the current world power and its head of state — for the Antichrist must be the sole ruler in what will become the world government. This is THE ONE WHO restrains him.

Note also that the cup of sin is already full. It is not without reason that you see the proliferation of LGBTQ ideology; men sleeping with robots or life-size dolls; persons born male wishing to become female, or vice versa. All of this is happening to prepare the coming of the son of the devil.

Why Do People Insist It Is the Church?

If today many so-called teachers of the Word insist on saying that it is the Church that restrains the appearance of the Antichrist, it is simply to reinforce the false doctrine of the Rapture before the Great Tribulation — a Great Tribulation that has nothing to do with the Wrath of God. Many teachings today confuse the concepts of the Great Tribulation and the Wrath of God.

These concepts are summarized in the teachings entitled: Seven (7) Truths to Know About the Great Tribulation and Seven (7) Truths to Know About the Wrath of God.

In light of all of this, you will agree with me that one of the major challenges for Christians awaiting the return of the Lord is to come out of ignorance and to fight against it. It is only from that foundation that we can begin to speak of Revival. The objective of ReveilFinal.org is also to contribute to the fight against the ignorance that tends to weaken the Church of the Lord.