Maranatha or a

Protestant Purgatory?
by Jeremy James

Pentecost, Cluny Lectionary, c.1000

Believers are familiar with the term “the restrainer” which appears in chapter 2 of
Second Thessalonians. The relevant Greek word is katechō (Strong’s G2722) which, in
this context, means to hold back, hinder or restrain. The KJV translates it as
“withholder” or “he who now letteth”, where “let” is an archaic English word for
restrain:
“And now ye know what withholdeth [katechō] that he [i.e. the
Antichrist] might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity
doth already work: only he who now letteth [katechō] will let, until
he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed,
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming:” (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8)

Even though numerous respected commentators have identified this Person as the
Holy Spirit, there are still many believers who like to explore other possibilities. Since
the identity of this Person is important in the context of End Time prophecy, especially
in relation to the Rapture of the Church, we would like, if possible, to remove all doubt.

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The passage just quoted actually points to the answer, though this fact is often
overlooked. The Apostle Paul begins by saying that the Thessalonians already knew
the identity of the Restrainer – “And now ye know what withholdeth [katechō] that
he might be revealed in his time.”

The Holy Spirit was poorly understood by the Jews

To appreciate the significance of this observation, we need to recall that the Holy Spirit
was poorly understood by the Jews. They knew the “spirit” came from God, the Father,
but they didn’t understand, as they should have, that He was a divine Person in His
own right. They also failed to see that their Messiah, whose arrival they long
anticipated, was also a divine Person, the actual Son of God, and not a supernatural
being whose power and authority exceeded that of the angels. (The Talmudic-
Kabbalistic name for such a being was ‘Metatron’.)

John the Baptist, illuminated manuscript, 15th century

We see this clearly in the episode recorded at the start of Acts chapter 19, where Paul
came across “certain disciples” who had been baptized by John the Baptist. This fact
would suggest that they were Jews, and yet they had never heard of the Holy Ghost (or
Holy Spirit):
“...Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus:
and finding certain disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received
the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have
not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said
unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto
John's baptism.” (Acts 19:1-3)

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When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he was speaking mainly to Gentiles rather than
Jews – “...of the devout Greeks a great multitude” (Acts 17:4). Jews in general had
a strong antipathy to the doctrine of the Personhood of the Holy Spirit, but Gentiles
did not. When he had been with them in person Paul had explained to them the role
of the Holy Spirit as the Restrainer, so it was natural for him to refer to “he who now
letteth” [the Restrainer] without stating explicitly that this was the Holy Spirit. Unlike
Jewish believers, they would not think he was speaking about a powerful supernatural
being, such as a high-ranking angel. (Some modern interpreters of the Bible are still
drawn to this Metatron teaching and suggest that the Restrainer is the Archangel
Michael.)
In volume IV of his Systematic Theology, L S Chafer states:

With due recognition of various opinions abroad, the Restrainer is

the Holy Spirit. To achieve all that is to be accomplished, the
Restrainer must be one of the Godhead [the Trinity]. Even a casual
contemplation of the power required will convince the open mind
of this necessity; and, since the Holy Spirit is the active Executor
of the Godhead in the world during this age, it is reasonable to
conclude that He it is who restrains. Doubtless His restraint
operates both directly and through the Church in which He dwells.
When His work of gathering out the Church is completed – that
for which He came into the world – He, the Spirit, the Restrainer,
will be removed from the world as resident here and reassume His
position as omnipresent only...
The right understanding of this important [passage of] Scripture
depends on recognition of the distinction to be observed between
the Spirit’s relation to the world as resident therein or
omnipresent. He who was always omnipresent became resident
on the Day of Pentecost; He who is now resident will become
merely omnipresent on the completion of that which He came on
the Day of Pentecost to achieve.
It is as clearly asserted that the believer can never be separated
from the Holy Spirit. Christ’s prayer, that cannot go unanswered,
was that the Spirit should abide with believers forever (John
14:16); therefore, when the Spirit, the Restrainer, is “taken out of
the way,” the Church will of necessity be removed with Him. It
cannot be otherwise... [p.372]

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Many have argued that there is no reason why the Church should not be required to
go through part of the 7-year Tribulation. In doing so they are calling into question the
very basis of our salvation, namely the “measureless grace of God in Christ.”
Dr Chafer cut to the heart of this objection when he said:

“Back of the theories that the Church will enter or pass

through the [7-year] tribulation is the Arminian heresy that
the believer contributes something to his own acceptance
before God, and, having failed to some extent in this
responsibility, he will be purged and purified by the suffering
which the tribulation affords... This constitutes a Protestant
purgatory... Thus the contention that the Church will enter
or pass through the tribulation becomes an insult to, and
unbelief towards, the measureless grace of God in Christ.”
[p.365]

For disbelieving ‘believers’ who still cling to a Protestant purgatory, it will help if we
expand on the role of the Holy Spirit in this age, the Age of Grace.

Previous papers in this series:

81, 91, 199, 265, and 306.

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The Holy Spirit in the Age of Grace
As Dr Chafer stated, “the Holy Spirit is the active Executor of the Godhead in the world
during this age.” We need to understand the mission of the Comforter. Perhaps the
most descriptive account of this is given by Jesus himself in John 16:7-11:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away:
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I
depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin,
because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my
Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of
this world is judged.” (John 16:7-11)

It is the task of the Holy Spirit to “reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment”. The word translated “reprove” is elegchō (Strong’s G1651), which
can mean to convict, refute, correct, expose, reprove or admonish. His mission is to
convince or impress upon mankind the overarching spiritual reality of three great facts
– sin, righteousness, and judgment. The word for judgment in the Greek is krisis
(Strong’s G2920), which is generally understood to mean a determination as to
whether something is right or wrong and, if the latter, the necessary punishment.
Remarkably, Jesus goes on to explain what he means by each part of this tripartite
mission. It’s as though he wants to make absolutely sure that humanity fully
understands the role of the Holy Spirit on earth in the coming age.

An astrologer looks at the night sky while summoning a

demon inside a magic circle. England, 14th century.

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The Holy Spirit convicts mankind of three spiritual facts
The Holy Spirit has come to convict mankind of these three facts, to break down the
obstinate refusal by our fallen nature to acknowledge their existence. We are saved
only by accepting that we are lost sinners, that we are unable of ourselves to attain the
standard of righteousness ordained by God, and that we will be held to account for our
actions on the Day of Judgment. These are the same three facts which the Children of
Wickedness angrily reject. They refuse to acknowledge the existence of sin; they refuse
to accept that they are bound by any standard of righteousness; and they despise the
notion that God has any right to judge them.
Let’s look at each in turn.
The Holy Spirit is not convicting us of our individual sins, but of sin itself, and the
ultimate sin is the rejection of Christ, the Son of God. This is the sin which condemns
to damnation all who persist in it. As Jesus said, “Of sin, because they believe not on
me.”

The Holy Spirit is also pointing all souls continually to Christ, convicting them of the
righteousness which is found only in the risen Christ, seated at the right hand of the
Father: “Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more.”
None of the ‘righteousness’ that we possess of ourselves is of any value, and in our
fallen state it is vital that we see this. The Holy Spirit does this convicting on behalf of
Christ, who is no longer residing on the earth.
Now we come to the fact which has the most direct bearing on our theme, namely the
Holy Spirit as the Restrainer. This is the judgement of the prince of this world, Satan
himself. We tend to think of Calvary as an event with eternal implications for all
mankind, the saved and the lost, but we forget that Satan was also judged on Calvary.
He committed an appalling crime against the Father and the Son of God. In doing so
he left himself open to divine judgement. When Jesus rose from the dead, Satan’s fate
was sealed: “Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”

Detail from Judgment Day by Fra Angelico, c.1431

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Once the prince of this world came under divine judgement, he was thereafter bound
by whatever conditions were imposed by the court of heaven until his sentence is
carried out, to wit his consignment in due course to the Lake of Fire. Despite
appearances, he cannot do all that he wants to do here on earth. If he could, the entire
earth would be in upheaval and chaos. The Comforter, in His role as Executor, ensures
that limits or restraints are placed on his insane ambitions. Thus, we can see from this
passage that Scripture explicitly identifies the Holy Spirit as the Restrainer.
Once the Restrainer is removed from the earth, Satan has seven years to do as he
pleases. The only divinely appointed impediment that he has to deal with is the
opposition of the Two Witnesses who, for three and a half years, frustrate his attempts
to take complete control of Jerusalem and the newly constructed Temple. He will also
be greatly angered by the evangelical work of the 144,000 Jewish converts who, having
been sealed by the Holy Spirit, are immune to assassination.

The principle of Imminence

Before we conclude this paper it will help to address a few related issues. One of these
is the principle of Imminence. Many in Christ today are unfamiliar with this term,
which is unfortunate because it encapsulates the “blessed hope” of Titus 2:13. The
principle states that Jesus can return for his Church at any time. With one exception
(the death of the Apostle Peter), the Word of God never specifies a prophesied event
or future condition which must be satisfied before he returns. On no fewer than four
occasions in the Book of Revelation Jesus himself said, “Behold [or surely] I come
quickly.” Three of these are found in the final chapter.

An aerial view of the island of Patmos

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The Greek word for “quickly” in these four verses is tachy (Strong G5035) which can
mean quickly or suddenly. In his message to John our Lord would seem to want to
ensure that all of his flock would know beyond doubt that his next appearance would
be “sudden” or unannounced. It will not be preceded by a sign or an event which tells
believers that he is about to appear.
All Christians in the early church, up to the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, believed
without question in the principle of Imminence. As the institutional church increased
in power, the principle was gradually pushed aside. Christians were encouraged to
look, not to the return of Christ, but to the triumphal evangelization of the entire earth.
The Pope, in turn, was increasingly seen as the vicar or representative of Christ on
earth, thereby leading believers away from the expectation of our Lord’s imminent
return.

The word ‘Maranatha’ in a medieval manuscript.

These early believers made frequent use of the word Maranatha to express the joy they
found in the imminent return of Christ. Various documents from that era show how
often this word was used in prayer and worship and, seemingly, in greetings between
believers. It is a little surprising that an Aramaic word should be so widely accepted in
the Greek-speaking world, especially as it appears only once in the Bible: “If any man
love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.” (1 Corinthians
16:22).

Some scholars believe the early Christians, during times of persecution, used to
identify one another by whispering, “Maranatha.” No-one else in the Greek-speaking
world would have known what it meant, while a Christian would have recognized it
immediately.
The word Maranatha would appear to consist of three Aramaic words: mar, meaning
‘Lord’, ana meaning ‘our’, and tha meaning ‘come’. Thus, taken together, they mean,
“Our Lord, come!” This exactly captures the sense of the Greek text in Revelation
22:20: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even
so, come, Lord Jesus.”

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What a remarkable verse! Jesus is saying that he will come suddenly, without warning,
and adds the word, Amen – “Verily, it is so!” – while John adds to this his Maranatha
request, Come, Lord Jesus! The inclusion by Jesus of the word Amen is also significant
since he had earlier used this word, in Revelation 3:14, to refer to himself: “These
things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God...”

Amen
The Blue Letter Bible website states:

The word "amen" is a most remarkable word. It was

transliterated directly from the Hebrew into the Greek of the
New Testament, then into Latin and into English and many
other languages, so that it is practically a universal word. It
has been called the best known word in human speech. The
word is directly related — in fact, almost identical — to the
Hebrew word for "believe" (aman), or faithful. Thus, it came
to mean "sure" or "truly", an expression of absolute trust and
confidence.

To this we add a most important detail, namely that Jesus used this word as a reference
to himself, as one of his personal names. All ‘Amens’ point to ‘The Amen.’
So, from all of this we can see that the early church – which surely understood the
Word of God better than any succeeding church – was thoroughly immersed in the
profound spiritual truth that Jesus could return at any moment.
What is more, they knew the Church was not destined for wrath but had been delivered
from condemnation by the blood of Christ.
For them, the “blessed hope” did not carry any taint of uncertainty. It could just as
easily have been called the “blessed promise” since all of the promises of God are
certain.

Our helmet, the hope of salvation

It is important today that believers protect their minds from any uncertainty in this
matter. The Enemy wants to shake our faith in the perfection and sufficiency of the
work of grace which Christ performed on Calvary. He wants, by various clever devices,
to induce men to think that there is still some small thing they must do to secure their
salvation, some pain or suffering they must endure to finally satisfy God’s
uncompromising righteousness. But this is a great lie! There is NOTHING we can do.
Jesus paid it all. And all means all.

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We protect our minds, as the Apostle Paul told us, by putting on the “helmet of
salvation” (Isaiah 59:17 and Ephesians 6:17). However, speaking of the Parousia
(the Greek word for the Second Coming) in his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul
used a slightly different wording: “a helmet, the hope of salvation.” (1
Thessalonians 5:8). Just as a helmet protects our head, the hope of salvation, with its
perfect certainty, protects our mind.
Just like the believers in the early church, we must rest securely in this certainty and
encourage one another as the hour draws nigh.

CONCLUSION
We will close with a definitive proof that the Church will be in heaven before the 7-year
Tribulation commences.
The following verses from chapters 4, 5 and 6 of the Book of Revelation depict the
scene around the heavenly throne leading up to the moment where the Lamb takes the
scroll or title deed [“the book”] from the right hand of his Father and breaks the first
seal:
4:2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was
set in heaven, and one sat on the throne...

4:4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and
upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white
raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold...

4:10-11 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on
the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast
their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to
receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things,
and for thy pleasure they are and were created...

5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is
worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? ...

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 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion
of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the
book, and to loose the seven seals thereof...

5:8-10 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and
twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them
harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of
saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the
book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and
priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

6:1-2 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard,
as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come
and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him
had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth
conquering, and to conquer.

We’ll now itemise the salient details in these wonderful verses:

1. At the point where the elders cast their crowns before the throne, the 7-
year Tribulation has not yet begun. We know this is the case because the
Lamb does not open any of the seals until verse 6:1. The 7-year
Tribulation cannot begin until the first seal is opened.
2. The “elders” seated around the throne are clothed in white and wear
crowns of gold. They have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb “out
of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation”. Christ died
to redeem humans, not angels. These are clearly redeemed human
beings. As such they are saints in heaven, in very large numbers. Since
each is wearing a crown of gold on his head, he has been judged by the
Lamb and received his reward.
3. No saint is judged or receives a “crown of gold” until the Last Day:
“...the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last
day.” (John 12:48).

4. If we put fact #1 together with facts #2 and #3, we can see that the
Resurrection/Rapture has already taken place, but the 7-year
Tribulation has not yet begun.
What can we say to professing Christians who refuse to accept this and continue to
believe in a ‘Protestant purgatory’? -
“He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him
be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he
that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my
reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
(Revelation 22:11-12)

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The Holy Spirit is restraining the powers of darkness and the forces of chaos on this
earth and will continue to do so until such time as He is called back to heaven by our
Father, taking the Church, the Bride of Christ, with Him.
Great is His Mercy!

__________________
Jeremy James
Ireland
January 21, 2023

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