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Katechon ("Restrainer")

Katechon is a Greek term that appears in the Bible in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7. It is often translated as "restrainer" or "withholder". This term has been the subject of various interpretations throughout the history of Christian thought, especially in eschatological (end-times) discussions. In the passage, the Apostle Paul uses the term to refer to a mysterious force or entity that is restraining the appearance of the "man of lawlessness," a figure associated with evil and deception in the end times. The identity of the katechon is not specified, leading to a wide range of interpretations.

The katechon (from Greek: "that which withholds", or "the one who withholds") is a biblical concept which has subsequently developed into a notion of political philosophy. The term is found in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 in an eschatological context: Christians must not behave as if the Day of the Lord would happen tomorrow, since the Son of Perdition (the Antichrist of 1 and 2 John) must be revealed before. St. Paul then adds that the revelation of the Antichrist is conditional upon the removal of "something/someone that restrains him" and prevents him being fully manifested. Verse 6 uses the neuter gender, and verse 7 the masculine. Since St. Paul does not explicitly mention the katechon's identity, the passage's interpretation has been subject to dialogue and debate amongst Christian scholars.

Some have suggested the katechon refers to the Roman Empire, which in Paul's time was viewed as a force that maintained order and restrained chaos. Others have seen it as a reference to the Holy Spirit, or to the Christian church as a whole. In modern times, the concept of the katechon has also been used in political and philosophical discussions. For example, the philosopher Carl Schmitt used the term to refer to any force that restrains the decline of the world, and the political theorist Giorgio Agamben also discusses the concept in his work. The interpretation and meaning of "katechon" can depend largely on the theological, philosophical, or political perspective of the interpreter.

Archbishop Carlo Vigano, Vatican Apostolic Nuncio to the United States [2011-2016], called Russia the Third Rome, which opposes the new world order based on the dominance of the non-religious West. "Perhaps Providence predetermined Moscow, as the Third Rome, to assume the role of a katechon, an eschatological barrier on the path of the Antichrist," said the archbishop. He blamed a "global coup d’état being carried out by supranational powers that intend, not peace between nations, but rather the establishment of the tyranny of the New World Order.... Ukrainian billionaires wearing kippahs are those who are selling out Ukraine to the corrupted and corrupting West, trading their own well-being for the enslavement of their compatriots to the usurers who are taking over the world... the pandemic farce was unraveling and bringing to light crimes against humanity committed by BigPharma..."

"The Ukrainian people, regardless of what ethnic group they may belong to, are merely the latest unwitting hostages of the supranational totalitarian regime that brought the national economies of the entire world to their knees through the Covid deception, after publicly theorizing about the need to decimate the world population and transform the survivors into chronically ill patients who have irreparably compromised their immune systems....

"The United States and European countries should not marginalize Russia, they should make an alliance with it not only to restore trade for the sake of universal prosperity, but also for the sake of restoring Christian civilization - the only one capable of saving the world from the globalist techno-medical transhumanist monster..."

"If the errors of communism were spread by the Soviet Union, even to the point of imposing themselves within the Church, Russia and Ukraine can today have an epochal role in the restoration of Christian Civilization, contributing to bringing the world a period of peace from which the Church too will rise again purified and renewed in her Ministers."

According to the ideology of the "Third Rome". Rus remained the only full-fledged Orthodox kingdom in the world, where the corresponding value approaches are recognized as true. This meant that it is she who is the biblical "Katehon" ("Retaining"), the very fact of her existence on Earth preventing the coming of the "world kingdom of Antichrist", and, as a result, the end of the world.

Maxim Trudolyubov noted that "Putin's quasi-ideology represents a return to "traditional values. ... The past was bright and the future dark. The world, created by God immediately in a perfect and finished form, only got worse over time. ... The role of the "bright past" in their rhetoric is played either by the Russian Empire or by the Soviet Union, depending on the audience. And the "dark future" is the threat of a crisis, the collapse of the country or its capture by enemies.... The most ardent loyalists and uncompromising oppositionists, in fact, agree on one thing: the onset of the future can, at best (or at worst), be delayed for a long time, but it will still not have either Putin or the system of power he created. The difference is that the loyalists are against such a future, while the opposition is for it. "

Dina Kkhapaeva noted in 2019 "In the last year, Putin has spoken about a “nuclear apocalypse” more than any Western leader has over the last decade... October [2018 ed] Valdai Discussion Club, Putin’s rhetoric became even more dramatic. “Russia would be the victim,” and “the aggressor should know that revenge is inevitable.” While nuclear war would be a “world catastrophe,” he said, at least Russians would “go to heaven,” as “martyrs,” whereas, lacking any “time to repent,” the aggressors “would just croak.”... In his 2007 novel The Apocalypse of Vladimir, television journalist Vladimir Solovyov calls Putin “the czar and the prophet,” whose mission is to prepare Russia for the Last Judgment.... Alexander Dugin, the leader of the Eurasia movement and arguably the Kremlin’s chief ideologist, calls Putin “katechon,” an Orthodox leader who prevents the “kingdom of the Antichrist,” which he defines as a combination of Western “globalization, post-liberalism, and post-industrial society.” "

Piotr H. Kosicki observed that "Putin is both a realist and a self-styled bringer of apocalypse. For Putin, the European security architecture long and proudly touted by the West itself marked Russia’s apocalyptic defeat. Putin glorifies the Soviet Union’s World War II victories and remains ashamed of the USSR’s quiet implosion. Since coming to power, he has pursued a fairly consistent strategy of reasserting and rebuilding Russian strength in Chechnya and Georgia, and, via allied strongmen, in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and elsewhere across the post-Soviet space.... Putin has found support for the affirmative pursuit of apocalypse in the Russian Orthodox Church, whose patriarch Kirill immediately came out in support of the invasion... Getting the world out of this crisis before that unity falters starts with the need to take Putin’s apocalypticism seriously, and to understand that it does not preclude serious calculations about power and strategy."

Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine had one more mission - de-Satanization. This, in particular, was stated by Assistant Secretary of the Security Council Oleksiy Pavlov: “I believe that with the continuation of the special military operation, it becomes more and more urgent to carry out the de-Satanization of Ukraine.” The extremely conservative publicist Alexander Dugin developed the theme on his page on the social network: “The SVO is a direct deadly clash with the atheistic globalist liberal West and its liberal-Nazi tentacles in the person of the obsessed Little Russians. And this time the satanic character of the main enemy of Holy Rus' is no longer metaphorical. It is simply and directly the hordes of the Antichrist. This is Antikeymenos, the main antipode of Katekhon, and Rus' is Katekhon.

Finally, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow , the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and an ally of Putin, speaking at the 24th World Russian People's Council “Orthodoxy and the World in the 21st Century”, he declared: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the world rulers of the darkness of the whole age, the spirits of wickedness in high places, as the apostle said (see Ephesians 6: 12). Today, these words are becoming visible, and everyone can understand what is being said, and with understanding, the possibility of resistance opens up.”

Patriarch Kirill said that the laws adopted in a number of Western countries on the permissibility of same-sex marriages, like the laws of Nazi Germany, completely contradict the moral nature of man.“Unfortunately, in some countries, in the West, for the first time, perhaps, in all time, laws have begun to be adopted that break with the moral nature of man, with conscience. These are laws about so-called homosexual marriages. And when legislation breaks its connection with morality, it ceases to be legislation acceptable to people, it causes protests,” he said. According to the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, it is for this reason that people rebelled against these laws.

Kirill repeated a long-held contention that the West wants to enforce the practice of holding gay pride parades as a test of loyalty to its values, which include the acceptance of homosexuality. The Ukraine war, he said, resulted from the eastern regions’ refusal to acquiesce. "Pride parades are designed to demonstrate that sin is one variation of human behaviour. That's why in order to join the club of those countries, you have to have a gay pride parade," said Kirill. “If humanity accepts that sin is not a violation of God’s law, if humanity accepts that sin is a variation of human behavior, then human civilization will end there,” Kirill said on the pre-Lenten celebration known as Forgiveness Sunday on 09 March 2023.

Putin said that the dictatorship of the West is aimed at the complete denial of faith and is acquiring the features of Satanism at the ceremony 30 September 2022 of signing treaties on the accession of new Donbas territories. He also stated that the dictatorship of the Western elites is directed against all societies, including the peoples of the Western countries themselves. “This is a challenge to everyone, such a complete denial of man, the overthrow of faith and traditional values, the suppression of freedom is acquiring the features of religion, on the contrary, outright Satanism,” Putin said.

Putin said at the ceremony 30 September 2022 of signing treaties on the accession of new Donbas territories “Do we really want us here, in our country, in Russia, instead of mom and dad, to have parent number one, number two, number three? Are you completely crazy already? Do we really want perversions that lead to degradation and extinction to be imposed in our schools from the primary grades? asked Vladimir Putin.