Solving the Mystery of the Restrainer

There’s a passage that was uttered by Paul in Thessalonians that has puzzled Christians for centuries: 2 Thessalonians 2-5-7.

Something or someone was restraining the full appearance of the lawless one until God's appointed time. Paul assumes his readers knew the identity of this restraining force from previous teaching.

There are many theories and that’s all that you can call them. And that’s how we left it in our prior podcast. But then I decided to dig deeper on the premise that no, we don’t have Paul’s specific teaching on the subject, though he clearly had told the Thessalonians who the restrainer was. In fact, he seems pretty definitive about the idea that they would already know when he brought it up in his second letter. We don't have to guess! Paul studies scripture. He wasn’t just making it up. Can we dig deep into scripture and discover clues to understand what Paul was alluding to? The answer is yes. But there is one other piece of the puzzle we had not considered. And we decided for the sake of this topic, it would be a useful resource. The first century Christians did not hold fast to the biblical Canon the way we have it today. There was a book that our Canon even quotes but the book it quotes is not in the Canon. We decided to consult 1 Enoch and we think we have solid footing to do so.

Doing so provides solid clues to what Paul is referring to. We’re not stating it as doctrine. So far, nobody as labeled the restrainer in any theory put forth as doctrine and we won’t either. But what we did find is fascinating.

Notes for Solving the Mystery of the Restrainer

Episode Link:

https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/solving-the-mystery-of-the-restrainer/