I would like to respectfully disagree with John Clark about who it is that does the hindering of lawlessness.
 
Not by might (physical strength) nor by power (political strength) but by My Spirit says the Lord...
 
I don't think that the Holy Spirit Himself will necessarily be removed but those through whom He has the greatest influence will be removed. I think you underestimate the enormous power and influence that a Godly person or persons (where two or three are gathered in My name...) has against Satan's devises. You say << When Jesus went before the lawless Sanhedrin and the Roman government, he didn't even "hinder lawlessness." The Church was of little or no effect hindering the lawlessness of Nero or Hitler. And it appears to me, far more impotent today.>>
 
Do you really think it was bombs and guns that defeated Hitler? If God had not been in the equation Hitler should have made quick work of the allies. Pearl Harbor was a devastating blow. How about the six day war? There's no way Israel should have won that. How about Gideon with his 300 against so many multitudes? Or David vs. Goliath? Or the angel that wiped out 186,000 in one night?  Jesus told Pilot you could have NO power or authority over Me unless God gave it to you... All authority in heaven and on earth is given to Me go ye therefore...
 
Why do the wicked men who run this world do so from their network of secret societies? What are they so afraid of that they wont come out in the open with their plans? (Actually they will do that once we are gone.) Are they keeping their secrets from the Holy Spirit? Don't be ridiculous, God knows everything they are doing. Are they keeping their secrets from Satan? Get real, it is Satan that heads their meetings. Are they worried about the common man on the street finding out what they are up to? How so when they refer to him as cattle no smarter than the dumb animals in "Animal Farm?" No, I would submit that they are very much afraid of what happens when even a few of us CHRISTians (called by His name) begin to humble ourselves and pray and seek God's face and turn from our sin and ask for God's intervention against their wickedness. Because then God hears from heaven and forgives our sin and heals our land. (They lose their influence.) I believ! e that the peace and prosperity that our nation has known for so long has been because Godly men and women have for so long been here keeping a healthy relationship going between heaven and earth. "Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven..." We are the salt that preserves not the law.
 
Okay, I feel that God wants me to share this story with you that you probably wont want to believe but some of you may and it illustrates what I'm trying to show about how much influence even one person can have with God against evil in our land. (Remember Lot, for just a few righteous God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah but there was only Lot, so instead the angels could do nothing until Lot was removed.)
 
Several years ago hmmm probably around 1985-6 I had a friend who had come out of a generational witchcraft background and was now a strong Christian. Heavy metal music was very popular back then and an artist called Ronnie James Dio had just been in town here in San Diego. My friend heard from someone who attended the concert and who knew that my friend was a Christian, that Dio was actually holding a sort of alter call to Satan in his show. He said that a cross came down over the darkened stage with a spotlight on it and it began spinning around faster and faster until you could hardly see it as Dio announced that this symbol was weak and false no matter what you've been told by your parents and pastors etc. And that if you wanted to know where the true power was it was in this... And then the cross slowed down to reveal that it was now upside down. The audience was cheering on Satan and believing this deceived individual. When my friend hea! rd about this he became very angry. And resolved to not eat again until he had prayed that God do something about this man. He fasted all that day and prayed all that night. (He did this kind of thing once in a while he called it a night watch.) All he asked God to do was to intervene and somehow put a stop to this Ronnie James Dio person and pull down this stronghold of Satan in heavy metal music. He took it as a personal offense that this fool thought he could come into our town with that message and get away with it. So he prayed and stayed up all night long pacing through all the rooms in the house as he prayed until it began to get light outside. At that point he felt something give way and he knew that he had gotten the victory because God told him that his prayer was heard and answered and that he could lay down and rest now. He barely had laid down on his bed and began to drift off to sleep when something came violently into his room through the window and delivered a karate! chop type blow to his throat but his head was turned to the side so while it still hurt, it did not do the damage it would have had he been looking straight ahead. As soon as this thing came in to his room and did that it screamed in alarm an expletive and flew right back out the way it came in because angels were on it's tail. My friend did not know what it was but felt very satisfied because he knew God had things under control so he went to sleep and in the morning or whenever he woke up (this was on a weekend) he asked God what it was. God told him that it was Ronnie James Dio himself who had astral projected to the source of the prayer being deceived into thinking that he could win in a confrontation with him. He did not know that there would be mighty angels waiting to grab him and he fled in terror.
 
My friend told me this story that same day that it had just happened and my hair stood on end as you can imagine. But that's just the first part. As though God wanted to show me this directly, I just happened to tune to two different unrelated sources that very week to hear something astounding. One was national and the other was local. First was MTV. I happened to be watching when the head guy at MTV came on the air and announced to the world that as of right then MTV would be pulling all hard devil type heavy metal music videos from their rotation and no longer play that kind of music at all! They felt that it was not in their audiences best interest to play that kind of dark subject matter and instead would only play the more soft variety of metal such as Bon Jovi, but no more Ronnie James Dio and that kind... My jaw was on the floor! As soon as MTV announced that, stations all over the country began to follow suit. Including my local rock station K! GB FM in San Diego, which I just happened to tune into at the right time to hear the station manager come on the air and announce the very same kind of thing that the MTV guy had said.
 
Some of you may remember when this all happened because Ronnie James Dio himself and a host of other similar artists became very upset and held a press conference to say that it was unfair that since MTV did this now radio stations all across the country were doing it too and there is no way for them to reach their audience. As a result virtually over night these kinds of artists went from selling out arenas everywhere they played to barely being able to sell an album or ticket to anyone.
 
Yes the influence we have in this world is indeed great and once we are gone the difference felt by those remaining will be huge!
Barry