2 Thessalonians 2:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

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.”

That is, when the Roman state is taken out of the midst, then he will come. For as long as this state is feared, no one will quickly submit to the antichrist. But when it is destroyed, anarchy will be established, and he will strive to seize human and divine authority. Just as before this state other kingdoms were destroyed, namely the Median 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 the antichrist. Daniel transmits this to us with greater clarity (Dan 2:37 and following). By the expression the one who restrains, κατέχων, some understood idolatry. When, they say, the restraining error ceases and idolatry is destroyed, then the antichrist will appear. As the Lord once said: This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come (Mt 24:14). Others call God's decree the restrainer. When, they say, God's decree that now restrains the coming of the antichrist is fulfilled, and the time appointed for him comes, then he will be revealed. Some, as already said, maintained that the Holy Spirit restrains the antichrist. When He is taken out of the midst and withdraws because of human lawlessness, then the lawless one will have free space to manifest himself. The Apostle says that he has received the mystery of lawlessness into his own power. For the founders of heresies, Simon and Nicholas, also did the works of the antichrist, as did all their followers. These include Marcion and Montanus, who even called himself the Comforter, and Manes and others. But you should follow Saint John's interpretation as the truer one.

While he is considered dead, he supposedly hides, preserving his age, and will remain hidden until he is revealed in his own time and restored to the kingdom. Such conjectures seem to me exceedingly strange. As for the Apostle's words, Only until the one who now restrains is taken out of the midst, they are not unreasonably understood as referring to the Roman power itself. It is as though he had said: Only let the one now commanding command until the one who now restrains is taken out of the midst, that is, until he departs from the midst. [...] Others think that the Apostle's words, The mystery of lawlessness is already at work, refer only to the wicked and hypocritical who are in the Church. They remain until they increase to such a number that they form a great people for the antichrist. This, they say, is the mystery of lawlessness, because it appears hidden. According to them, the Apostle exhorts the faithful to remain firm in the faith they hold when he says: It will not be accomplished until the one who now restrains is taken out of the midst. That is, until the mystery of lawlessness that is now hidden goes out from the midst of the Church. They think that this same mystery is meant by what the Evangelist John says in his epistle: Children, it is the last hour. As you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared, and from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out, so that it might be revealed that not all are of us (1 Jn 2:18-19). Thus, they say, before the end, in that hour which John calls the last, many heretics went out from the midst of the Church, whom he calls many antichrists. So then all who will belong not to Christ but to that final antichrist will go out from there, and then he himself will appear.

Thus, if the temple stood in the full adornment of its services, the Church had not yet begun, as it were, though it had been founded. For when that house is abolished and its sacrifices come to an end, then the preaching of the Gospel will begin. Therefore, if the Gospel has not yet come, since the old ministry still remains, how will He be revealed for recompense before the new ministry is preached and the old has ceased? How will He come to repay those who have not obeyed the Gospel, when it has not yet been preached to them? And what then will these words mean: “Go to all nations and teach” (Mt 28:19-20)? Or again: “First it will be preached,” that is, before the revelation of Antichrist this Gospel will be proclaimed “throughout the whole world” (Mk 13:10; Mt 24:14). Therefore, until the ancient worship, which now restrains, is abolished through the already prepared destruction of Jerusalem, and until the apostolate which now preaches is also held back, and after it the teaching spreads, the day of the Lord will not come. This is the day of which those false deceivers preach to you that it is already at hand. But as there was a time of the Old Covenant, and prophecy, fire, sacrifice, and the horn of anointing did not pass away until Christ came, so nothing can halt the time of the preaching of the New Covenant. First the apostolate must complete the calling given to it: “Go to all nations” (Mt 28:19). The teaching of Christ must spread. Its time also must be completed. Men must be perfected through the preaching of the Apostles and the teaching of priests. Only then, at last, will the Apostate be permitted to come, for the testing of men’s worthiness.

Emperor Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletian, who reigned from 284 to 305, issued four edicts against Christians in 303 and 304. He entered Christian history as the cruelest persecutor of the Church. Emperor Flavius Claudius Julian, who reigned from 361 to 363, attempted to restore the traditional Hellenic or pagan religion in the empire and to limit the influence of Christianity. For this he received from Christian historians the epithet the Apostate. The phrase is rather confused. Its meaning may be this: to defend idolatry, the servants of Satan, that is, the emperors, will even go so far as to proclaim, instead of many pagan gods, one supposedly true God. Ambrosiaster may have in mind here the cult of the Roman emperors, seeing it as a type of the cult of the Antichrist. It is also possible that he means the attempts of certain emperors, for example Elagabalus, 218 to 222, to establish an official monotheism.

At first he acted through various heretics who troubled the Orthodox Church, especially through the evil Arians, educated men and courtiers. Later he acted cunningly through educated Freemasons. Finally, now he has begun to act shamelessly and crudely through educated nihilists, beyond measure. But their sickness will return upon their own head, according to what is said in Scripture. Is it not utter madness to labor with all one's strength, not sparing one's life, so as to be hanged on a gallows on earth and in the life to come to fall to the bottom of Hades, into Tartarus, for eternal torment? But desperate pride does not wish to look at anything, and desires only to show everyone its senseless daring. You fear living until the times of the antichrist. The Lord is merciful. You and I will hardly live until then. We will only be somewhat frightened by the forerunners of the antichrist, who rise up against ecclesiastical and governing authority. For the antichrist must come in a time of complete anarchy, which the forerunners of the antichrist are trying to bring about.

At first they spoke of him indefinitely and in passing. They spoke as of a person whose appearance and character of activity alone were known, while the more particular features of his image were hidden in the unknown future.

Only now does the Apostle Paul give a more definite depiction of this person. But concerning his actual appearance, he says that it would have taken place long ago, except that something restrains him, to katechon.

According to the Apostle's remark, the Thessalonians knew about this restraining thing, certainly from the oral instruction of the Apostle Paul. But what it is has not been revealed to us, either from other passages of the apostolic epistles or from the tradition of the Thessalonian or Apostolic Church.

Therefore, in defining this restraining object or person, 7, ho katechon, the interpreters differ. According to the explanation of Saint John Chrysostom, Theodoret, and others, one cannot understand here either extraordinary gifts or, in general, the grace of the Holy Spirit.

The extraordinary gifts long ago became scarce in the Church, while the antichrist still had not appeared. The grace of the Holy Spirit, however, will never be exhausted. Therefore the antichrist could never appear.

Nor can one consider this restraining thing to be the fact that the preaching of the Gospel has not yet spread among all nations, according to the words of the Savior (Mt 24:14).

Nor can one consider it to be the blindness of Israel, which, according to the same Apostle Paul (Rom 11:25-26), must cease before the end of the world.

The reason is that neither the failure of the Gentiles to receive the preaching nor the hardening of Israel is something actually existing within the Church, possessing the power to restrain the appearance of the antichrist.

The conversion of the Gentiles and the Jews must only precede the end of the world. It does not stand in causal connection with this event.

In other words, the world must end, or, closer to our question, the antichrist must appear, after all nations have accepted Christianity.

But this does not mean that the appearance of the antichrist and the end of the world depend on the acceptance or non-acceptance of Christianity.

According to the word of the Apostle, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. That is, the coming of this lawless one is being prepared.

But no one will say that this takes place through the greater and greater spread of Christianity. Turning to the interpretation of the Fathers, we find that by the restraining object, to katechon, they understand the Roman state.

By the restraining person, ho katechon, they understand the Roman emperor. In confirmation of this, it is noted that the restraining thing was contemporary with the Apostle.

For he says, "and now you know the restraining thing," kai nyn to katechon oidate, where the word nyn refers not to oidate but to katechon. This is clear from comparison with ho katechon arti.

If the Apostle did not name the restrainer directly, then, as Chrysostom observes, it was from fear that, by pointing to the fall of the Roman Empire, he might bring excessive hostility and useless danger upon Christians.

But it is self-evident that the correctness of such an opinion is closely connected with the historical existence of the Roman Empire.

With its fall in 476, and with the abolition in 1806 by Napoleon Bonaparte of the German Empire founded in 800 on its ruins, which bore the name of the Roman Empire, it became clear that the restraining thing is not this empire.

Nor is it the secular power of the Roman pontiffs, both because it did not yet exist at the time of the Apostles, and because at the present time it has fallen completely.

Nevertheless, one cannot fail to acknowledge that in this almost unanimous opinion of the ancient interpreters there is a share of truth. Namely, the restraining thing is the existence of state authority in general, the existence of the state.

It is not the Roman state or any other particular state, but the state in general. However a state may be organized, and by whomever it may be governed, the antichrist cannot appear while religion, morality, law, public welfare and peace, and respect for the person are regarded as the root foundations of the state's existence.

In this way, the existence of the Church and the world is outwardly safeguarded. Of course, the highest form of government, under which all these goods can be observed to the greatest extent, allowing man to develop toward moral perfection, is the autocrat established by God and acknowledged by the people.

He must be blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of his people: "You shall surely choose as king the one whom the Lord will choose. Let one of your own be king over you. Do not set a foreigner as king over yourselves" (Deut 17:15).

"And then the king will not consider himself better than his people. He will not turn aside from the Law, but will follow it exactly, and that king and his descendants will rule long..." (Deut 17:20).

But as soon as state authority is undermined and government is destroyed, both state and Church find themselves in the greatest danger.

The history of revolutions has shown us examples of how, for a time, the restrainer is taken from the midst of the world, and types and forerunners of the antichrist appear.

Although the existence of a firm state order restrains the appearance of the antichrist, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Already in secret those principles hostile to Christianity are spreading and strengthening.

That spirit and direction strive to overthrow everything lawful, holy, and divine. They will be expressed most clearly in the person of the antichrist.

Already in the times of the Apostles, heresies and schisms were secretly gaining strength in the very bosom of the Church, and "many antichrists have come" (1 Jn 2:18).

Simon the Magician presented himself in Samaria as someone great, as the power of God (Acts 8:9-10), and in Rome called himself a god. Arius denied the Godhead of Jesus Christ.

Atheists, who do not acknowledge the existence of God at all, and all heretics of every age and school, are only manifestations of the spirit of antichrist and his forerunners.

In the civic life of peoples, too, not a few antichrists have appeared. Not only Nero and Diocletian, persecutors of Christianity, could be called forerunners of the antichrist.

Many others deserved this name, even among Christians, either for their apostasy from Christ or for other anti-Christian actions.

Julian the Apostate, Constantine Copronymus, and revolutionaries of every color, communists, democrats, socialists, and anarchists, will not yield to Nero either in cruelty or in malice against Christianity.

When "he who now restrains" is ek mesou genetai, that is, is taken, as in the Russian text, or removed, then the lawless one will appear.

He is precisely that man of sin and son of perdition who will be the adversary of Christ, the antichrist.

One cannot see in him only the spirit of the age, or that anti-Christian and anti-religious tendency in the teaching and life of men which will deny the Godhead of Jesus Christ and His redemptive merits for mankind.

Nor is he merely that tendency which will revere as god, not a personal and all-perfect Being, but itself, that is, the same human spirit insofar as it appears in the history of mankind and in the great works of the world.

No, he will be an actual historical person, like all men. He will be a man whose coming is "according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with every deceit of unrighteousness."

It is difficult to imagine who exactly this antichrist will be. All ancient interpreters, and most modern ones, agree that he will be a known and definite person.

But they think differently about his relation to Satan. Some consider him the incarnate devil. They say that the devil, wishing in everything to resemble the Son of God, will be incarnate at the end of time in the form of a man.

Or at least he will unite himself with some man, in order to act against Christ and Christianity (Theodoret, Brief Exposition of the Dogmas, 23).

Others, Lactantius and Hesychius, suppose that he will be born of the devil and some harlot or virgin. This directly contradicts the spiritual nature of the devil.

More rightly, with Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others, they consider the antichrist to be a true man. He will not be simply an instrument of the devil and executor of his evil actions and intentions against Christians.

Rather, he will be an instrument that is not unconscious, but free, with the full preservation of his faculties.

As for the antichrist's origin from the Jewish people, and specifically from the tribe of Dan, almost all ancient teachers of the Church, beginning with Irenaeus, agree in this opinion among themselves.

They likewise agree concerning the kingly authority of the antichrist, his name, and the country of his appearance.

The antichrist will act according to the power of Satan and will perform false miracles. The Lord will permit such miracles to be performed for the deception of those who have not acknowledged the true teaching and have neglected their salvation.

The miracles of the antichrist will work deceptively on such people. Together with his false teaching, they will stir in them admiration for him and worship equal to divine worship.

We know nothing about how these miracles will be performed. But their very name as false already shows that they will consist in the deception of the senses by knowledge of hidden powers of nature, by cunning, dexterity, and the like.

Yet however strong and dangerous the action of the antichrist will be, it will not last long. The Lord Jesus will slay him with the Spirit of His mouth and abolish him by the appearing of His coming.

As dust is scattered by the blowing of the wind, and as darkness disappears at the appearance of the luminary, the sun, so the antichrist will vanish from the face of God, from the breath of His mouth, from the mere appearing of Jesus Christ.

With him all who follow him and oppose the truth will also disappear.

The mystery lies in the fact that his designs have not yet been disclosed. Formerly he acted in one way, now in another. But how, is not yet visible.

He began to act otherwise because God also acted otherwise toward the human race in the Lord Jesus Christ. Before Christ's coming, he had already adapted himself to leading men astray. Now, seeing how the Cross of Christ presses him from every side, he has only begun his counter-devices.

If we take into account the mystery of piety, of which the same Apostle speaks elsewhere, then by contrast we may also infer what the mystery of lawlessness is. The mystery of piety is in the Incarnation of God: "God was manifested in the flesh" (1 Tim 3:16).

It is this: Jesus, called Christ, is God the Word, who took human nature upon Himself. Faith in this destroys Satan's kingdom of sin. The mystery of lawlessness devised by Satan will be Satan's stratagem for undermining and perverting this faith.

For this purpose he kept the pagans in their delusions in the face of Christianity, presenting Christ to them from the most humiliated side, as one crucified on the Cross. In the accounts of the martyrs this was always pagan reason's first objection against the faith and accusation against believers.

But in those who, seeing in Christ not a mere man, turned to Him, Satan strove in every way to darken and pervert the mystery of the Incarnation of God the Word in Him.

He had already begun to do this among Judaizing Christians, among the Ebionites and Docetists. Nor did he stop afterward. In every age he devised a new snare to deceive believers and weaken or pervert their faith in the Incarnation of God.

At the present time in the West there is an abyss of fighters against Christ. However different they may be in particular opinions, they agree in one thing: unbelief in the Incarnation of God the Word in Christ Jesus.

This evil will grow, and when the Son of Man comes, will He perhaps find faith on the earth? (Lk 18:8). This is the mystery that will then be revealed and come into the open.

The mystery of lawlessness, of course, presupposes moral corruption. Its predominance in the last time is presented in the Apocalypse under the form of the great harlot, who has written on her forehead: "Mystery" (Rev 17:5).

But moral corruption among Christians is the outward part. Within is unbelief in the Lord. Through moral corruption they are brought to unbelief. When unbelief gains mastery over the heart, then the flood of immorality has no limits.

Unbelief is the hidden moving force of lawlessness, the mystery concealed in it. Thus our ancient Church interpreters understand the mystery of lawlessness.

Blessed Theodoret writes: "I think the Apostle indicated by this the heresies that had arisen, because through them the devil brings many to apostasy from the truth. He called them the mystery of lawlessness because the net of lawlessness is hidden in them.

"For this reason the Apostle above called the coming of the antichrist a revelation. For what he has always been preparing in secret, he will then proclaim openly and plainly."

Saint John of Damascus says the same: "By the mystery of lawlessness the Apostle means the teachings of the heretics and their false dogmas. For they precede him, preparing his way and making ready the time of deception.

"Heresies have gone out into the world from the times of the Apostles. John the Evangelist says something similar: 'As you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen' (1 Jn 2:18), meaning the heretics."

"The mystery of lawlessness is already at work." This indicates Satan's snare already in action. The forerunners of antichrist have already appeared. By this the Apostle wishes to suggest that the chief antichrist could also have appeared, but there is one who restrains him.

Who is this? God and our Lord Jesus Christ. His Incarnation has not yet accomplished its work. His saving power only began to act from the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit.

Time must be given to it to penetrate everywhere and give life to all who are able to receive its life-giving action. When it has accomplished its work, then that son of perdition will be permitted to come forth.

These moments are hidden in the counsels of God's providence. Therefore one may say that these very counsels and determinations of God restrain the appearance of the antichrist.

Earlier he said "what restrains." Here he says "the one who restrains." He means one and the same thing, but from two sides. There he means God's determination. Here he means God and the Lord Himself, who brings His determination into effect.

The words "will be out of the midst" do not mean that he will be destroyed or cease to exist. They mean that he will be removed, depart from the scene, and cease his restraining activity.

"Now" does not mean only in the Apostle's time, but throughout all the time "while it is called today" (Heb 3:13). By this the Apostle embraces the whole time during which the one who restrains will restrain.

Oecumenius writes: "Therefore, when the limit of God's determination comes, and the determination now restraining appears fulfilled, then without any delay the lawless one will be revealed."

Theophylact says the same: "When God's determination, which now restrains the appearance of the antichrist, is fulfilled, and the time appointed for him arrives, then he will be revealed."