And now you intuitively know what is restraining so that he is revealed in his time. For the mystery of the lawlessness is already at work, only the One Who restrains until now, He will up to the point He is out of the way, and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay by the breath of His mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of His coming—2 Thessalonians 2:6-8.
Daniel is given a prophecy concerning seventy weeks that are decreed for Israel and the holy city, to bring an end to transgression. In the sixty-ninth week, the Messiah will be cut off, but not for Himself (Daniel 9:25–26). The weeks in Daniel’s prophecy represent years. Isaiah also prophesied concerning Christ’s death for sin and His resurrection in Isaiah 53, which explains why He was cut off. We are now living in the period between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks—a time that was kept a mystery until it was revealed through Paul.
The next prophetic event concerning Israel is the signing of a seven-year (one week) peace treaty with the man of lawlessness, also known as the beast. When Israel enters this agreement, the tribulation period begins (Daniel 9:27). For this to occur, the Holy Spirit—who is restraining the appearance of the man of lawlessness—must move out of the way. Since the Holy Spirit is given to each member of the Church as a guarantee of full redemption (Ephesians 1:14), the man of lawlessness cannot rise until the Church receives her resurrection. As long as the Holy Spirit remains on the earth with the Church, He will continue to restrain the appearance of the beast.
It is important to distinguish between the man of lawlessness and the Antichrist. The Antichrist is already present in the world and is identified as the one who denies that Jesus has come in the flesh (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7). The man of lawlessness, by contrast, is a future figure whose revelation is being divinely restrained until the appointed time.
Therefore, let us not be alarmed by those who claim that the tribulation has begun or that the man of lawlessness has risen. According to Scripture, we who belong to the Church will not know the identity of the man of lawlessness—the beast of Revelation—while we remain on this earth.