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restrainer continues to restrain “until he comes into existence out from
the midst” (2:7). The verb, ginomai, has the basic sense of meaning
of “to become” with respect to origin (to come into existence, to begin
to be, to receive being, be made).153
In the NT when ginomai is
used with reference to God, God is always the source of the action. For
example in Jn. 1:3, “all things came into being (ginomai) through
Him.” God is never the receiver of the action in connection with ginomai.
In 2 Thess. 2:7 the restrainer is the receiver of the action associated with
ginomai and the restrainer begins to have a new existence distinct
and separate from his previous existence in which he functioned as a
restraining force. “The restrainer’s” identity becomes increasingly
clear from both the linguistic evidence and the historical record when it is
recognized that pagan Rome, the impersonal system (to katechon), and
the emperor of Rome, a personal being (ho katechon), restrained the
rise of the man of sin until the emperor of Rome voluntarily moved his
capitol from Rome to Constantinople in AD 330 thereby relinquishing his
restraining function. No longer the restrainer, the emperor received (began
to have) a new existence out from the city of Rome (the midst of 2:7). The
papacy was free to take on the full manifestation of the mystery of
lawlessness and function in a religio-political manner in the Roman’s
emperor’s former capitol.
From the evidence of linkage by
concurrent time with “the mystery of iniquity” and the receipt of a new
existence outside of Rome, “the restrainer” may be identified as the
impersonal system of pagan Rome (to katechon) and its personal
emperor (ho katechon). “The restrainer” is equivalent to the horn
from littleness in its pagan phase (masculine) in Daniel 8:9 & 11.
3.3
The Mystery of Lawlessness and “The Daily” |