What must happen before the Antichrist can be revealed according to 2 Thessalonians 2?
According to 2 Thessalonians 2, before the man of sin, the Antichrist, can be revealed, the departure of the body of Christ must take place. The church must be called out first, removed from the scene, so that the Antichrist is revealed afterward.
Les teaches that 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 makes clear that before the man of sin, the Antichrist, comes on the scene, there has to be the departure. He identifies this departure as the departure of the body of Christ. He connects it to the church hearing a trumpet call, with the archangel giving a shout, and believers suddenly gone. He notes that although the word Rapture is not in the New Testament, the German translation uses Rapture, a calling out, and this is the blessed hope Paul talks about in Titus chapter 2. The departure precedes the revealing of the Antichrist, and afterward the church age has ended.