The Restrainer (Holy Spirit) will be removed: (2:6-7):
Satan’s is already working in the world, and we can see its godless activities increasing rapidly. But God has put restraint through the Holy Spirit from increase of Satan’s evil program. God has set times and seasons and even Satan cannot get God off schedule. The One (Holy Spirit) who hinders will continue to hinder Satan’s activities until He is taken away soon after the church is Raptured. Of course, the Spirit will still work on earth, since some people will believe and be saved after the rapture, but His hindering ministry through the body of Christ will end. This will give Satan free hand to fill the cup of iniquity to the full.
Satan will work through the Antichrist in miraculous powers (2:9-10), just as the magicians in Egypt imitated Moses’ miracles. He will imitate Christ’s powers (see Acts 2:22) and get the world to accept and worship him. Men would rather believe a lie than the truth! Of course, true believers who are saved after the rapture will not be deceived; it is the lost who will be deluded and ultimately end up in hell. They will believe the lie, which is worshiping and serving the creature instead of the Creator (Rom.1:25).
God will judge Anti-Christ: (2:8-9):
When Satan has free hand, nobody on earth will be able to overcome the Antichrist and his forces. “Who is Like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” (Rev. 13:4) Satan will enable his false messiah to perform “power and signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess.2:9). This, of course, is in imitation of Jesus Christ who performed “miracles and wonders and signs” (Acts 2:22).
Satan has always been an imitator. There are false Christians in the world who are really children of the devil (Matt.13:38; 2 Cor.11:26). There is even a “synagogue of Satan” (Rev.2:9), which means a gathering of people who think they are worshiping God but who are really worshiping the devil (1 Cor.10:19-21). These false Christians have a counterfeit righteousness that is not the saving righteousness of Christ (Rom. 10:1-3; Phil 3:4-10). They have a false assurance of salvation that will prove useless when they face judgment. In the final judgment also, some people who performed miracles in the name of Jesus will be rejected by the Lord because they were never saved (Matt 7:21-23).
The purpose of God’s miracles were to lead people to the truth but the purpose of Antichrist’s miracles will be to lead people to believe his lies. Even though some miracles may be real, yet if they lead the people to believe lies, they are the followers of Satan and Antichrist.
When Jesus Christ returns, He will judge Antichrist by “the spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming” (2 Thess.2:8). In other words, they will be thrown into the lake of fire and tormented there forever. For God it is so easy, that just by His breath he can bring to the completion of overthrowing Anti-Christ and his associates into the Lake of Fire.
As the coming of the Lord for His church (Rapture) draws near, Satan’s operations in His world will intensify (2 Tim. 3:1). Since Satan is a liar, we must resist him through the truth of God’s Word (Eph. 6:17). It was this sword that our Lord used when He defeated Satan in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). Satan is a liar and a murderer (Jn. 8:44). God gives life through His truth; Satan slays with his lies. We are encouraged to know that one day Jesus Christ will completely overthrow Satan and his system.