2:6 ye know what withholdeth. The Thessalonians should have known what was restraining the manifestation of the man of sin. This dread event must await the rapture. The influence of true Christians in the world, both in winning others to Christ and in serving as the “salt of the earth” and “light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-14), is preventing the inevitable, quick decay of the world into the darkness and corruption of global evolutionary humanism. Since these Christians actually are indwelt and guided by God’s Holy Spirit, it is the presence of the Holy Spirit Himself in the world that is really preventing the triumphant revelation of the man of sin.