The Restrainer
Hier ein kurzer Auszug von einer eMail, die Reggie Kelly verfasst hat. Es geht um 2. Thess. 2:7 und die Trübsalszeit und die verschiedenen Theorien / Irrlehren die in den letzten hundert Jahren rund um dieses Thema entstanden sind. Diese Irrlehren haben zum Beispiel auch durch die Finale-Bücher eine starke Verbreitung gefunden. Ich denke, dass es einigen Licht bringen kann, da Reggie es immer sehr gut mit vielen Bibelstellen begründet:
It is one thing to conceive of the Spirit as a restrainer against the greater spread of evil in the sense of a kind of ‘common grace’ that may be more or less lifted during a time of divine judgement. That is one thing; but that is not all that dispensationalists want to say concerning this passage, i.e., 2Thes 2:7.
It is their view that the one that restrains is not simply the counteracting check of the Spirit against the domination of evil. No, they mean something much more than this.
In support of their theory of a pre-trib rapture, they must teach that it is not simply the Holy Spirit as restrainer of evil, but particularly His presence in the church as ‘indweller’ that is holding back the advent of the ‘Man of Sin’. [It happens that 2Thes 2:7 is the very the passage that Darby was meditating on when he received his revelation.]
Due to their view that the Holy Spirit only began to indwell believers for the first time at Pentecost, it is believed that with the removal of the church the Holy Spirit’s relationship to the believer in the tribulation will return to the same kind of relationship that He had to believers in the OT. This amounts to a kind of ‘reversal of Pentecost’ (their words). This means that after the rapture, the Spirit will revert to His former relationship of only dwelling ‘WITH’ tribulation believers, in contrast to His current work of dwelling ‘IN’ the body of Christ (based on a misinterpretation of Jn 14:17). According to Dispensationalism’s peculiar definition of the church, the Holy Spirit’s indwelling is restricted only to believers of this dispensation (the so-called ‘church age’). Their view forbids identifying tribulation believers with the church in any sense of the term. They are careful to distinguish between the church and so-called ‘tribulation saints’.
The saints that appear in the prophetic depictions of Daniel and Revelation are denied any identification as the church. Really! That’s their official position (hence the two peoples of God theory). This is why the OT saints remain in the graves for an additional seven years. This, since a number of writers have pointed out to the chagrin of ‘ever evolving’ dispensationalism that the resurrection of OT believers takes place at the end of the tribulation (Job 19:25-27; Isa 25:7; 26:19; Dn 12:1-2 etc.).
While I disagree that the HS did not ‘indwell’ the OT believer (impossible to the very nature of regeneration and many plain scriptures; e.g., 1Pet 1:11 “the Spirit of Christ which was ‘IN’ them”); it is also impossible to read John 7:39 without also recognizing that the Spirit was certainly ‘given’ in some new sense AFTER Christ was glorified. “But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; BECAUSE Jesus was not yet glorified.” This manifestly speaks of the power and revelation that came at Pentecost. Certainly the mystery of Messiah’s indwelling belongs to the greater mystery of the gospel that came to greater revelation in the days following the Lord’s post-resurrection glorification. How then, in view of Christ’s once and for all glorification, can we conceive that the Spirit once given (in this new capacity) can ever be retracted or reversed? This is exactly the case if ‘tribulation saints’ are no longer ‘indwelt’. Pre-tribulational Dispensationalism actually teaches, and must teach, that those that get saved after the rapture regress to a pre-Pentecostal relationship to the Holy Spirit. How is that possible now that Christ is once and for all glorified, the very basis by which the Spirit would be given? How can such a transitional epochal event be undone?
Now why do I labor this point? This is not just academic intellectualizing among scholarly specialists. Far from it; it is spiritual warfare. It’s not just going to all “pan” out! All lies are costly to one degree or another, and this is no exception. Why has this view (I think heresy) appeared only comparatively lately (since Darby’s time) on the radar of the modern church? Is it friend or foe? It is a disarming error that has further contributed to the sleep of the virgins! Though scripture shows that the elect remnant will rally and escape the fatal deception (Dn 11:32-33; 1Thes 5:4), the church’s current disunity and disarray over such issues has certainly helped to make sure that the day will come on an unsuspecting world as a thief (Dn 12:10; 1Thes 5:3-4; Rev 16:15)
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