They missed three spectacular events. Two leading up to the Son of Perdition, and the third after his rise to power. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 speaks about the first event many evangelicals believe is occurring now, the great apostasy or rebellion towards the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. The other pre-false Christ event is addressed in verse one, the gathering of God's people otherwise known as The Rapture. Then the Man of Sin takes his place on the world's stage, it (3rd event) begins: the Great Tribulation. For 3 1/2 years peace will reign across the globe, but Matthew 24:15 speaks the "abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place". The Anti-Christ will defile the new Jewish Temple, perhaps in the same manner as Antiochus IV Epiphanes. In 168 BC, the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes invaded Jerusalem and captured the city. He marched into the Jewish temple, erected a statue of the Greek god Zeus, and sacrificed a pig on the altar of incense. The second half of the Tribulation will be unlike anything the world has seen "such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time" Vs. 21. The Anti-Christ shall exalt himself above the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He will demand all people of Earth to worship him, and take the mark spoken about in Rev 13:17 "so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast's name or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculatefn the number of the beast, because it is the number of a person. Its number is 666" CSB
