That day when Christ returns to defeat the antichrist and rule the earth is often called the “Day of the Lord”. In II Thessalonians 2, the Apostle Paul instructed the believers that the antichrist has to be revealed before the Day of the Lord can occur. As he spoke of the rule of the antichrist, he said that something is holding the antichrist back until God’s appointed time.

II Th 2:6-8
6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
7 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.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. (NKJ)

The devil resists any authority other than his own, and it would appear that Paul was saying it is the power of civil laws that restrain the lawlessness of the devil. The terrorism, pestilence and disease of the early years of the tribulation period will make people more than willing to give up the liberties that are guaranteed by law in exchange for the security that is offered by a leader who promises to eliminate their suffering.

Some have suggested that the restraining force of verse 7 is the Church which is the Body of Christ. However, this epistle was written about 52 A.D., and Paul did not reveal the institution of the Church which is the Body of Christ until about 62 A.D. The first hint of the Body of Christ was in I Corinthians 12 which was written about 57 A.D. With this point in mind, Paul said in verse 6 of II Thess 2 that whatever was restraining the devil was something they already knew about. Therefore, Paul could not have been talking about the Church.

Is it possible that Paul was referring to the catching up of the believers of the tribulation period? That is not likely because that rapture will occur at the sound of the last trumpet which is described in Revelation 11 and will occur at the end of the antichrist’s reign of terror. The believers of the tribulation period can not be taken out of the way before the antichrist is revealed because they will be the primary target of his wrath. However, they will be protected from his wrath because God has not appointed them unto wrath (I Thessalonians 5: 9).

It has also been suggested that the force to be removed is the Holy Spirit. However, we know that the Holy Spirit will be very active in the lives of the believers of the tribulation period, especially during the intense persecution they will experience at the hands of the antichrist.

Therefore, it seems most reasonable that Paul was saying that it is the power of civil law that will be taken out of the way before the antichrist is revealed. Other noted scholars agree. In their Bible commentary, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown quote Olshausen who said:

. . . the power that has restrained the man of sin from his full and final
development, is the moral and conservative influence of political states.

They also quote Alford who said:

. . . He who (now restrains) refers to those who rule those (political states) by which
the great upbursting of godlessness is kept down.

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