he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.
"This worldwide anti-God movement will be so universal as to earn for itself a special designation: ’the apostasy’-i.e., the climax of the increasing apostate tendencies evident before the rapture of the church." [Note: Thomas, "2 Thessalonians," p. 322.] 