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.
"Nowhere else does the Scripture speak of the rapture as ’the departure.’ A departure denotes an act on the part of the individual or company departing. But the rapture is not an act of departure on the part of the saints. In the rapture the church is passive, not active. At the rapture the church is ’caught up’ or ’snatched away,’ an event wherein the Lord acts to transport believers from earth into His presence (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Everything that takes place with the believers at the rapture is initiated by the Lord and done by Him. Paul has just referred to the rapture as ’our gathering together unto him’ (2 Thessalonians 2:1); why then should he now use this unlikely term to mean the same thing?" [Note: Hiebert, p. 306.] 