THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Why, you will say, will God permit all this? What is His intention? What benefit is there from the coming of Antichrist if it will be for our destruction? Do not fear, beloved, but listen to what the Apostle says. Antichrist will prevail only over those who are perishing, who would not have believed even if he had not come. What benefit will come from this, you ask? The mouths of those condemned to perdition will be stopped. How so? They would not have believed in Christ even if Antichrist had not come. But he will come in order to expose them. Then they will not be able to say, “Since Christ called Himself God, though He Himself nowhere said this clearly, and only those after Him preached it, we did not believe in Him for this reason.
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We heard that there is one God, from whom are all things, and therefore we did not believe.” Antichrist will take this excuse from them. When he comes and commands nothing righteous, but only lawlessness, they will believe in him solely because of his false miracles. Then their mouths will be stopped. Indeed, if you do not believe Christ, you should believe Antichrist still less. The former said that He was sent by the Father, while the latter will say something entirely different. Therefore Christ said, “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, him you will receive” (Jn 5:43). But they will say, “We saw signs.” Yet many great miracles were also done by Christ. Therefore they ought far more to have believed in Him. Moreover, much was foretold about Antichrist: that he is lawless, that he is the son of perdition, and that his coming is according to the working of Satan. By contrast, it was foretold about Christ that He is the Savior and will bring countless blessings. Who then will be condemned? The Apostle himself explained this, saying, “Those who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness.” By “the love of the truth” he means Christ: “because,” he says, “they did not receive the love of the truth.” Christ was both, and came for both: out of love for mankind and to reveal the true meaning of all things.
One may rightly ask first what the restraining thing (τό κατέχον) is. Then one may wish to know why Paul speaks of it so obscurely. What is it that “does not allow him to be revealed,” that is, “what restrains”? Some say this is the grace of the Holy Spirit. Others say it is the Roman state. I agree more with the latter. Why? Because if the Apostle had wished to speak of the Spirit, he would not have expressed this obscurely. He would have said plainly that the grace of the Holy Spirit, that is, the extraordinary gifts, now prevents him from appearing. Besides, he ought already to have come if he must come when the extraordinary gifts fail, for they failed long ago. But since the Apostle is speaking of the Roman state, it is clear why he only hints at this and speaks covertly for a time.
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He did not wish to draw excessive hostility and useless danger upon himself. Indeed, if he had said that the Roman state would soon be destroyed, they would immediately have wiped him from the face of the earth as a rebel. They would have done the same to all believers, as though they lived and struggled for this purpose. This is why he did not use such an expression. Nor did he say that this would soon follow, although he always says it covertly. What then does he say? “He does not allow him to be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.” Here he points to Nero as a type of Antichrist, because he too wished to be regarded as a god. He rightly said “mystery,” because Nero did not present himself as god so openly and shamelessly as Antichrist will. Therefore, he says, if even before that time there was a man only slightly inferior to Antichrist in malice, why is it strange if the true Antichrist appears in time? He spoke in this hidden way and did not wish to point directly to Nero, not out of fear, but to teach us something. We must not draw excessive hostility upon ourselves when nothing compels us to do so. In exactly the same way he says here, “only until the one who now restrains (ὁ κατέχων) is taken out of the way.” That is, when the Roman state ceases to exist, then Antichrist will come. And rightly so. As long as people fear this state, no one will quickly submit to Antichrist. But after it is destroyed, anarchy will be established. Then he will strive to seize all authority, both human and divine. Earlier kingdoms were destroyed in this way. The Median was destroyed by the Babylonians, the Babylonian by the Persians, the Persian by the Macedonians, and the Macedonian by the Romans. So this last one will be destroyed by Antichrist. He himself will be overcome by Christ and will no longer rule. Daniel conveys all this to us with great clarity. The exact translation is “that which restrains.”