Why should we believe that the Thessalonian believers should have known better than to become confused over the Day of the Lord? Why might some of them have even trusted that one of the false Messiahs who had arisen in Judea was, in reality, Jesus who had returned to throw off the Roman yoke? In reality, the believers at Thessalonica became troubled and confused over the coming of Christ, not because they were ignorant (2Thessalonians 2:5), but because they simply didn’t give credence to Paul’s warning about the status of folks once they embrace Christ as their Savior. Paul warned them of both the coming of persecution and the coming of false prophets, both of which tend to draw the believer away from Christ.
If a rebellion never occurs, then the name of an incompetent rebel would probably never become widely known. Only successful rebels become world renown or at least nationally known figures. Who ever heard of Osama Bin Laden before his successful attack upon the World Trade Center in America? Similarly, how would the man of sin ever become a widely known figure, if the ‘apostasy’ or the ‘great falling away’ had never occurred (2Thessalonians 2:3, 6)? First, a ‘great leader’ must obtain a great following, before he could ever become known as a great leader. Therefore, the efforts of the man of sin to thwart the Gospel through persecution and drawing believers away from Christ (cp. Matthew 24:9-13) must have had some success before his identity as the Man of Sin could ever become widely recognized. So, until the great falling away occurred (2Thessalonians 2:3), there is little reason to believe the Man of Sin would be known by the believing community as a whole. Therefore, something or someone in the first century AD had to have kept the Man of Sin, or more specifically, the mystery of iniquity (the conspiracy of error) in check through preaching the truth of the Gospel.
Figuring things out in history can be great fun. What significance did this or that event have in the great scheme of an historical era? Who wouldn’t want to understand the truth of such matters? It is no different when considering the truth as recorded in the Bible. What or who was responsible for holding back error? Well, we could say God or the Holy Spirit, but no one has the power to remove God from the occurrence of an event. Therefore, we must assume the Lord had given mankind the freedom to accept or reject the Gospel. With freedom comes the possibility not only of error (a mistake) but also a conspiracy worked out against the desired outcome of the just. The Man of Sin is the leader of a conspiracy, which the New Covenant writers call: the mystery of iniquity (2Thessalonians 2:7) or the spirit of antichrist (1John 4:3). Error, which is the desired outcome of the conspiracy, was held in check by the Apostles, especially those who wrote the New Covenant Scriptures. Once they were taken out of the way,[1] i.e. killed,[2] the Man of Sin would have free reign.
So, Paul told his readers that the mystery of iniquity was already at work (2Thessalonians 2:7). Neither Paul nor any other Apostle was able to stop the conspiracy from occurring. They were only able to keep it in check. This is probably what Paul’s epistles and the epistles of the other New Covenant writers were intended to do. They weren’t simply letters written on specific occasions or at regular intervals, like our periodicals are done today. The whole New Covenant was written for the purpose of establishing and maintaining the integrity of the truth.
Jesus said that he intended to send his disciples, men of truth, to his enemies, who would persecute them from city to city, even killing some (Matthew 23:34). He further predicted that that persecution would have his enemies’ desired effect upon Jesus’ disciples, in that the many (perhaps meaning the majority) would become offended and fall away (Matthew 24:9-13), so intense would be that persecution. Yet, we need to consider those who abdicated and how that was possible. Even though the tendency of believers is to consider and perhaps embrace the lie (cp. 2Thessalonians 2:5), Paul also claimed that both he and the other Apostles were able (through the power of God resting upon them) to restrain the effect of the mystery of iniquity (i.e. the spirit of antichrist). If this is true, then the apostasy could only have occurred, if Paul and the other Apostles were dead. Their “taken out of the way” means they were slain by the Man of Sin and those who support him. Good doctrine is kept in place only by good teachers. Once the ‘good teachers’ are “taken out of the way” there remains nothing to stop error—the mystery of iniquity.
__________________________________________________
[1] In the context of the Thessalonians believers, ‘he who holds him back’ was Paul. In Judea it may have been James, the Lord’s brother, and for the Asian churches it might have been a combination of Paul and the other Apostles (Peter, James, John and Jude).
[2] See my earlier study: Who Are the Two Witnesses.
Smoodock's Blog 
2 responses to “The Success of the Mystery of Iniquity”
I appreciate this interpretation. Some verses feel to me like the original readers of Paul had inside info that I am not a party to, which frustrates me. The Thessalonians seem to know who or “what is restraining” the mystery of lawlessness in v.6 -7. For my Bible uses the upper case H for He in verse 7 to imply that Jesus is restraining until “He is taken out of the way”, which doesn’t make any sense. Only once could anyone claim to think they had taken Jesus “out of the way”, and when He rose from the dead, that claim was defeated. So when other time would JESUS be taken out of the way? So I prefer your interpretation and the further clarification in note 1. This makes sense in the context of the chapter and in the context of history. Thanks!
Thank you, I appreciate your kind words of encouragement. Lord bless you.