Katechon or Satan? The Russian Deception

Who or what is a katechon? According to Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, he is an unidentified restrainer who delays the antichrist’s worldly supremacy until the end of history, when Christ will defeat him: “(…) the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who restrains is to do so only for the present until he is removed from the scene. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth and render powerless by the manifestation of his coming.” (2 Thess 7-8) Many early church fathers believed that the Roman Empire was the katechon, and some also believed that the katechon was the Church itself. However, interest in this spiritual concept fell into abeyance in the West over time, only to survive in two completely different contexts: in Russian Orthodoxy and the European “conservative revolution” between the world wars. The idea according to which Russia is that katechon, although obscure in the West, has long pervaded certain parts of the Russian intelligentsia.